International Crisp Festival brings 70 flavours to Huddersfield

A pub has launched an international crisp festival offering almost 70 flavours and specialist pairing events.

Landlord John Fletcher said interest in the inaugural Huddersfield International Crisp Festival had been “huge”.

Behind the bar of The Sportsman Inn, Mr Fletcher has flavours on offer from caviar to salted egg yolk.

He said it “started as a silly idea and grew from there”.

“The idea was, a bit like a beer festival where you get loads of different beers from different places, let’s do the same with crisps.”

The festival began on 11 October and runs until Sunday.

He said: “In the first weekend we sold what we’d normally do in a month in crisps.

“The first group in came from Nottingham especially for the festival. Between them that afternoon they probably did 20 bags of crisps and then took a carrier bag each home with them.”

The event’s popularity has meant the pub has had to expand from the original 56 lines to almost 70.

“The first one to sell out was the salted egg yolk flavour from China,” he said.

The spicy varieties have also been popular, as have fried egg and caviar.

The Sportsman Inn stopped serving food after the Covid lockdowns because it was “difficult to make any margin on”.

But Mr Fletcher said the event proved there was still a place for beer-led venues.

“There’s still a good market for fun events and having a nice time in the pub with a couple of pints and a bag of crisps.”

Mr Fletcher said, although he hadn’t tried them all – “but I’ve eaten more crisps than I would like to admit over the last week” – his favourite was the Golden Wonder chip shop curry flavour.

“The secret to a really good crisp is that the base crisp has got to be good, it’s got to be a nice crispy crisp, not too greasy, and then the flavours have to be pronounced.”

“We’ve got some kimchi flavours that are really interesting.

“But of the British flavours, the Kent crisps – the oyster and vinegar flavour – they were probably the most unusual.”

While he’s scoured the internet for some of the odder flavours, neighbouring businesses have also been getting in on the festivities.

“Huddersfield is a small town but it’s a nice place to have a business because people are close,” said Mr Fletcher.

“There’s a middle eastern supermarket over the road and they were really helpful with the Iranian crisps and the local Polish supermarket were able to source us some really interesting crisps.”

In the future the crisp festival may expand beyond potato-based snacks, but for now Mr Fletcher said he was sticking with the classics.

“In a pub, there’s certainly a place for an occasional treat and we should embrace that it’s a few pints and a bag of crisps.

“We’re not saying that this is a healthy everyday meal.

“It’s the kind of thing that you can have a little treat and let your hair down.”

The pub has held two pairing events, so what does Mr Fletcher recommend?

“I’ll pair a classic Seabrooks cheese and onion with Timothy Taylor’s Boltmaker – it’s all about terroir, local products working together.

“There’s a delicious tomato flavoured crisp from China and I’m pairing that with a Gueuze, which is like a Belgian beer that’s got a kind of little bit of tartness and effervescence.

“And then something spicy with a nice crisp lager that will cut through the spice.”

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.