Co-op making chardonnay vinegar crisps feels like your local corner shop suddenly stocking natural wine. Unexpected, slightly incongruous, and more successful than you’d imagine.
The Irresistible range is Co-op’s attempt at premium, and with Sea Salt & Chardonnay Wine Vinegar, they’re taking direct aim at Kettle and Tyrrell’s. The audacity is admirable. The execution is surprisingly competent.
The chardonnay vinegar provides a different sourness than malt. Rounder, fruitier, with grape-derived complexity that chip shop vinegar can’t match. It’s still definitely salt and vinegar crisps, but salt and vinegar wearing nicer clothes.
The hand-cooked base is genuinely good. Thick-cut, irregular, with the bubbled surfaces and substantial crunch that premium positioning requires. Co-op hasn’t just slapped a fancy name on standard crisps. They’ve actually made premium crisps.
The convenience store premium
Most Co-op shopping is convenience-driven. You’re there because it’s close, not because you planned the trip. Finding genuinely good crisps in that context is a pleasant surprise.
These reward the discovery. Worth buying on impulse, worth seeking out deliberately.
