Cool Hog Review: Proper Black Country Pork Scratchings Meet Alcohol-Free Beer
Published July 2026 · 6-minute read · by Rich, founder of Unhopped
Some pairings are engineered; this one is inherited. Pork scratchings and beer have been sharing tables in the Black Country for generations, and when the beer went alcohol-free, nobody told the scratchings — the pairing works exactly as it always did. So when Cool Hog, a Walsall snack brand with genuine swagger, joined our partner roster, a full review was inevitable.
Heads up: this review contains affiliate links to Cool Hog. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As always, everything factual here comes from the brand’s own product information. Full disclosure.
Born in the Black Country, built to break the rules
Cool Hog was founded by Luke Moriarty with a simple mission: take the humble pork scratching and give it attitude. The tagline — ‘Born in the Black Country. Built to Break the Rules’ — isn’t marketing reach: the brand makes its scratchings in Walsall, in the region that invented the things, and everything is made and sourced in the UK. It has grown into one of the country’s fastest-growing snack brands, with over 1,200 Trustpilot reviews behind it and a range that now runs from crunch-loaded scratchings to sweets, fudge and cookies.
The house style is bold and slightly cheeky — their own storage label warns, in capital letters, that the product is not suitable for weak teeth. In an era of beige snack branding, a company that leads with dental honesty has our respect.
Traditional or crunch? Know your scratching
Cool Hog sells two distinct styles, and the difference matters. Traditional scratchings are the dense, hard, gloriously rich ones — pork rind fried with the fat attached. Pork crunch is the lighter, puffier cousin, made from the skin alone: airier, easier on the teeth, closer in spirit to a chicharrón. If you love the pub classic, go traditional; if you’re coming from crisps, start with crunch. Most jars offer both.
The numbers are striking either way: the Original lists roughly 604 kcal, 40g of protein and under 1g of carbs per 100g — which is why the keto crowd have quietly colonised the brand. One note of care: Cool Hog says most flavours are gluten-free, but some seasonings include wheat rusk, so check the label on your specific flavour if gluten matters to you. And these are unapologetically salty, indulgent snacks — that’s the point of a pork scratching — so treat the 1kg jar as a party, not a Tuesday.
The range, and where to start
The Original jar is the flagship: from a 160g starter up to the magnificent 1kg jar — roughly twelve pub bags’ worth — with refill bags available so the jar keeps working. This is the benchmark scratching, and the one to pair with a dark, malty beer.
Shop the Original jar at Cool Hog →The 10-flavour Taster Package is the smart first order: ten 40g tubs covering Original, Habanero Chilli, Salt & Vinegar, Maple, Bacon, Honey & Mustard, Salt & Cracked Black Pepper, Garlic, BBQ and Sweet Chilli — cheaper than buying individually, and effectively a flavour map of the whole brand.
Try the 10-flavour Taster Package →The Mystery Box is for the committed: £55+ worth of products for substantially less, contents a surprise. And if you want the dessert course, their sweet side includes a pick-your-own cookie box — a stout and a cookie is a better pairing than it has any right to be.
Roll the dice on the Mystery Box →Pairing Cool Hog with alcohol-free beer
Scratchings are intense — salty, rich, deeply savoury — so the beer’s job is refreshment and contrast. Three combinations we’d put money on: Original + dark mild or amber ale, the heritage pairing (the Black Country is mild country; a 0.0 dark ale is the modern stand-in); Habanero or BBQ + ice-cold 0.0 lager, where the beer plays fire brigade — our lightest lagers do this beautifully; and Salt & Vinegar + crisp pilsner, sharpness answering sharpness. The full theory is in our snacks comparison guide, and the deep history in our pork scratchings & alcohol-free beer post.
What customers actually say
We always sanity-check a new partner against independent reviews, and Cool Hog’s Trustpilot profile (1,200+ reviews at the time of writing) tells a consistent story. The overwhelming theme is product quality — reviewers repeatedly rank these among the best pork scratchings they’ve had, with one typical verdict: “completely addicted to these incredible scratchings”. Ordering is generally described as easy and quick.
In the interests of honesty, the grumbles: delivery experiences are mixed (most praise the speed, a minority report slower arrivals), and a few reviewers found customer-service response times wanting. Worth noting in the brand’s favour: they visibly reply to reviews — including the critical ones — which is usually the mark of a company that cares. Net: buy for the product, allow standard small-brand delivery windows.
The honest scorecard
The good: genuine Black Country provenance from the style’s heartland; both traditional and crunch styles; huge flavour range; serious protein-to-carb numbers; jars with refills rather than endless single-use bags; UK-made throughout; and a brand personality that’s actually fun. The caveats: these are high-salt, high-fat indulgence snacks — gloriously so, but portion accordingly; traditional scratchings are genuinely hard (their warning, not just ours); gluten-avoiders should check individual labels; and vegetarians should obviously look to the rest of our snack shelf instead.