Starbucks Kettle Chips Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream

Starbucks Kettle Chips Sweet Chilli and Sour Cream cost £1.55 and carry 198 calories a bag with 2.5g of fibre. Kettle cooked crisps with a sweet chilli and sour cream seasoning.

At 198 calories it is the lightest of the four bags and the only one under 200, though the whole range spans just twelve calories so the difference is marginal in practice. Total fat at 11g is also the lowest by a gram.

1.7g of sugar is the highest of the four and more than three times any other bag. Sweet chilli seasoning is built on sugar as much as on chilli, since the sweetness is what makes the heat palatable, and that shows up directly in the figure.

Milk in the allergen list comes from the sour cream, which makes this vegetarian rather than vegan, in the same position as the Cheddar and red onion bag.

Fibre at 2.5g is second best of the four bags, behind only the lightly salted at 2.6g, which is a small point in its favour given it is also the lightest on calories.

Sour cream against chilli is a pairing with a physical basis rather than a stylistic one. Capsaicin, the compound behind chilli heat, dissolves in fat rather than water, so dairy genuinely reduces the burn where a drink of water does not. The seasoning is doing the same thing on a small scale.

Heat level on a bag like this is deliberately low, and that is a commercial decision rather than a culinary one. A crisp sold on a general counter has to suit everyone who reaches for it, so the chilli is there for interest rather than for burn, and anyone expecting real heat will find it mild.

Salt at 0.44g is mid range and saturated fat at 1.4g is standard for the range. It carries a vegetarian label. Prices reach £2.20 on delivery.