Kettle Bites - Maple Barbecue Wholegrain Waves Review

Despite my love of snacks, I don’t tend to buy crisps that much. It’s not like I don’t enjoy them, I just don’t find them as interesting or exciting as a lot of the new innovations that come out. And for all their demonization, crisps can be relatively healthy as in the case of these Kettle Bites. Kettle Bites are a new range from Kettle, the premium handcooked crisps company. This new range is about lighter snacking made from lentil or wholegrains. There are two types available – lentil waves (in Mozarella and Pesto and sweet chilli) and whoegrain waves (in maple barbecue and the intriguing sounding coconut, lime and chilli).

My first try of this new range is the maple barbecue wholegrain waves. I’ve had similar types of snacks before M&S and have enjoyed them so figured I would like them. Each bag is 95 calories, they contain 50% less fat than standard crisps and are baked not fried so a pretty reasonably little treat for everyday.

The 22g bag did feel quite light and when I poured out the contents, it did looks a little skimpy. However, it’s nice to see all the waves were intact and they looked visually appealing. And as a lighter option you would expect there to be less in a pack. They certainly smelt really good, rich and smokey with a deep barbecue scent.

Each waves was very well coated in the seasoning and had a lot of flavour. Lighter bites like popcorn often are quite dry with pieces unevenly coated but these were pretty delicious. The barbecue was salty, tangy and accentuated by a real hit of sweetness from the maple for a nice well rounded flavour that ended on a sweet note.

My only criticism is sugar and salt are a little high. 12% of the ingredients is sugar and there’s 2.1g salt per 100g. Whilst the small 22g bag tones this down, it would be nice if these could be reduced although I do appreciate that maple flavoured snacks will have an element of sweet.

I’d buy these again and it’s nice to have an interesting , more modern alternative to crisps.

Price: £1.89 for 5x22g multipack

Bought at: Ocado

Nutrition per 22g bag: 95 calories, 2.9g fat, 0.4g sat fat, 2.6g sugars, 0.5 salt

Score: 7.5/10