San Carlo Piu Gusto Fresco Piccante Gusto Menta e Peperoncino

Well, now. Here's a crisp we found at our favourite supermarcato in Florence, just near the Oltrano side of the Ponte Vecchio. It's always useful to find a good supermarket wherever you visit; you never know when you might need a bottle of wine, some fruit or a packet of disposable plastic bowls.

It looks as though Italian crisp giant San Carlo has fallen victim to the "create your own crisp flavour" competition so beloved of Lay's and Walkers. Crea il tuo Gusto it says on the packet. And Eccolo il vincitore del corncorso! here is our winner. And yes, you've guessed, it's mint and chilli flavour.

The winning entrant is Rita Francesca Tenuta (27) and I think her entry received 160,000 votes. Of course I do not know if this was the first such competition of its kind in Italy, or how many other votes the other entries received. Or what they were. Well, you can't have everything.

This is a typically gently flavoured San Carlo crisp. Nice crunch, plenty of natural colour. Not a bad crisp at all. but I'm not sure about the really breathy effect you get from the mint here. You really catch the mintyness on the back of your throat. Which somehow doesn't appeal to me much. But the Chef ate a lot more than I did. At least, I think he did.

To prove we bought this crisp in Florence I am adding a photo of the Ponte Vecchio, and two images of the amazingly minty coloured (it seems appropriate) building at the top of the Boboli Gardens. In fact, you can see the building in all three shots.