M&S Venison Red Wine & Juniper Hand Cooked Crisps

I was feeling a bit low the other day, coming down with a cold, and suddenly thought that probably the reluctant taste testers must be a bit fed up with the constant stream of crisps we've tried recently. So I didn't take any crispy snacks in to work.

Imagine my surprise when noble friend asked eagerly what today's crisp was and acted all aghast when I told her there wasn't going to be one.

So by chance I happened into the crisp aisle in Marks & Spencer at lunchtime and stumbled across this packet.

What? Venison crisps? Containing actual venison? Whatever next we ask (and not for the first time)?

As always with M&S these crisps are a good size with a great crunch and a good lot of flavour dust. And I think we all liked them a lot. The Chef certainly liked them; he wolfed down the half packet I took home.

We liked the taste, we really did. We just weren't sure that we could taste venison. Or juniper. What we could taste was a rich herby/spicy red wine yumminess. Lots of umami.

Pretty good.

Interestingly, when I read venison I automatically think red deer. But on reading the ingredients list in French I see the venison in these crisps is in fact chevreuil which is roe deer. Which I have eaten in Switzerland and find less rich than red deer. And I still think you can't taste the venison in these crisps.

Also interesting; Wikipedia tells me that originally Bambi was a roe deer but Disney changed him to a white tailed deer because that species would be more familiar to an American audience.