Merry Crispmas from the Taste Test Panel at the FT Magazine

Every so often Peter Bazalgette calls in the Taste Test panel to taste test who knows what on the food and drink front for the Financial Times Saturday Magazine. It may be no-added sugar squashes or guacamole or olive oil. This weekend it was seasonal crisps. You need to sign in or answer a short survey (3 questions or fewer) to access the article, and it is of course copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2016.

What the FT taste testers had to say about the 8 different seasonal crisps they tried was that the flavours were "ambitious". I can understand that. And regular readers will know that the reluctant taste testers and I find over and over again that the crisps we prefer are the simply flavoured crisps. Not usually the entire-meal-in-a-bag, or 5-star-restaurant-menu-item flavours.

The FT taste testers tried the new M&S Buck's Fizz crisps. Yes, we tried those. Remember? They also tried  M&S Winter Berries & Prosecco. Yup, we tried them last year. Maybe you remember that too? And no, we wouldn't have voted them top of the pile either. Fizzy crisps? Just say no.

They tried flavours based on blue cheese, and figs (pretty sure the reluctant taste testers have tried those crisps), maple syrup, roast pork, duck and chicken and ham. And the crisps they awarded second prize to are Tyrrell's Three Bird Roast.  Wow! That sounds like a crisp to look out for. Apparently the ingredients include extracts of chicken duck and turkey.

And I can see that I really need to get myself down to a branch of Lidl. The Taste Test panel tried Negroni crisps, Pigs in Blankets crisps (pigs in blankets seem to be having a bit of a moment this seasonal crisp season), and the winner of this particular test; Lidl Deluxe with Love Hand Cooked Roast Turkey and Sage & Onion Stuffing crisps.