Torres Sea Salt Potato Chips: Worth the Hype?

We bought six bags of Torres Selecta Sea Salt at full retail over five weeks. No samples, no contact with the company.

The short version

They are very good and they are expensive. Whether that is worth it depends on whether you want a crisp or an ingredient.

What is in the bag

Potatoes, olive oil, sea salt. That is the whole list. Most supermarket crisps run to eight or nine items, usually including sunflower oil, dextrose and a flavour enhancer. Torres does not, and you can taste the absence.

The olive oil is the variable people underestimate. It gives a green, slightly peppery note that sits behind the potato. Fry the same potato in sunflower oil and you get a cleaner but flatter chip.

Texture

This is where they earn the price. The slice is thicker than a standard crisp and cooked at a lower temperature for longer, which gives a chip that snaps rather than shatters. It holds up to a dip without folding, which almost nothing at this thinness does.

Across six bags we found two that were noticeably paler and softer than the rest, both from the same batch code. Consistency is good but not perfect.

Salt

Lower than you would guess from the name. Torres salts to about the level of a supermarket own-brand ready salted, not to the level of a kettle chip. The sea salt is stated on the front because it is the only seasoning, not because there is a lot of it.

If you like a crisp that makes you reach for a drink, these will disappoint you. If you want to taste potato, they will not.

The price

In the UK they land around four to five times the price of a standard bag, per gram. That is a real number and we are not going to talk around it. You are paying for olive oil, a slower fry, and a small bag.

Who should buy these

• People who eat crisps occasionally and want the occasion to be good
• Anyone putting a snack board together, where a chip has to hold cheese or a thick dip
• Anyone who has been disappointed by "premium" crisps that turn out to be a standard chip in a nicer bag

Who should not

• Anyone buying by volume for a party. Six bags of these costs what a party-size bag of anything else does, and disappears faster.
• Anyone who wants a strong salt hit. Look at kettle-cooked chips instead.

Verdict

Worth it, with a caveat. Torres is not a better version of a normal crisp, it is a different product that happens to be crisp-shaped. Bought as a snack it is hard to justify. Bought as something you serve with a drink and expect people to comment on, it is the easiest four pounds you will spend.

We paid for all six bags. Some links on this page earn a commission, which does not change the verdict above.