M&S The Collection Bucks Fizz Hand Cooked Potato Crisps

What was the Senior taste tester thinking? He sprang this crisp upon the reluctant taste testers and me without any warning so we had no idea what we were crunching into. And I have to tell you that it was a bit of a shock.

Have a crisp said he. So I did. Aargh! And oh dear.

If you don't know what Bucks Fizz is, let me enlighten you. It's a cocktail made from two parts Champagne to one part orange juice. Slightly different from the more prettily named Mimosa which is half and half Champagne and orange juice (or other citrus fruit juice). So obviously it's fizzy. And these crisps are fizzy too.

I really cannot reconcile myself to the idea of fizzy crisps. Somehow fizz and potato crisps don't seem to be made for each other. Naturally I don't want to prejudice you in any way against these crisps but I didn't like them at all. Orange doesn't seem to be a good flavour for a crisp and fizzy crisps are just wrong. The reluctant taste testers weren't mad about them either.

The crisps themselves are rather nice. A good crunch and the skin left on. But they have these little gold bits scattered across them (edible gold of course) and then there's the weirdly fizzy flavour dust.

I have to confess I had already bought a packet of this new flavour from Marks & Spencer. I'll keep them now for Christmas to surprise and stun the family.

We tried two different Prosecco flavoured fizzy crisps last year, and I'm sorry to say that both of them made it onto the Crispy Crunchy Snacks We Really Didn't Like list (see the sidebar).