M&S Sour Cream & Red Onion Hand Cooked

Yes, I know. I just can't stop trying Marks and Spencer crisps.

This is partly because there is a great big branch just up the road from where I work. And partly because they make some really good crisps. I mean, the Sea Salt & Lemon Vinaigrette is a sensational flavour and the Spicy Tomato is top quality too: both are also from the Hand Cooked range.

So here we are again, this time trying the Sour Cream and Red Onion. Some people out there sneer at "own brand" crisps calling them knocks offs or copies. Who cares? I tried these because I thought they'd be tasty. And they are.

I never like it when you buy a burger and it comes with a totally unnecessary salad made up of three lettuce leaves, a quarter of a tasteless tomato and two slices of red onion. That red onion is much too strong to eat. But here we have a recognisable red onion taste in a crisp. But it's not so strong as the real thing. Luckily. I'm guessing that the onion taste is toned down by the sour cream but I can't detect any sour cream taste at all.

What I do get is a sort of breath of sour cream at the back of my palate. A gentle reminder that there's sour cream in there somewhere. And it works very well. This is another great crisp from the M&S crisp development department (I wonder how many people work there?); great crunch, good to see the skin from the Hermes potatoes left on, and a good lot of flavour which tastes good but doesn't shout at you.

And I like the packaging. Another top design from the M&S packaging department.

Top marks all round. Unless you really don't like onion.