Levi Roots Levi's Caribbean Chilli Beef Groove Cut Crisps

Sometimes you try a crisp and you aren't sure, so you try another. Sometimes you try another and you still aren't sure. Yes, the reluctant taste testers and I weren't sure.

We weren't sure why this crinkle cut - sorry - groove cut crisp doesn't seem to taste of much except sort of spicy heat. The beef flavour doesn't feature much. Which is a shame.

These groove cut crisps are quite nice. But not very special. I think I rather prefer the Reggae Reggae crisps the Chef and I tried last year.

I wonder, should Levi Roots have stuck with that?

Levi Roots Reggae Reggae Groove Cut Crisps

Wow these crisps have a very exciting flavour. The ingredients include Reggae Reggae Sauce which is made with scotch bonnet chillis, garlic, spring onions, tomato puree, vinegar, herbs and spices. And then they added more tomato, pepper, pimento, lemon juice, nutmeg, parsley and cinnamon. Plus the ever popular "natural flavouring".

And they are described as medium hot (only two out of three peppers). Well, they are super tasty. I can certainly vouch for that.

Made by Burts Potato Chips in Devon under licence from Reggae Reggae foods. Suitable for vegetarians and gluten free.

This is a sensible 40g bag. Which is great because I'm not sure I would have ventured to buy a larger one; this sort of flavour is a little bit exciting for my taste.

I always prefer to try a new flavour in a small packet otherwise you can end up throwing perfectly good food away simply because you don't like it. Which is a terribly guilty thing to do. It's even worse than stopping reading a book because you aren't enjoying it although I'm a lot happier to abandon an unhappy choice than I used to be. Luckily I have the reluctant taste testers at work but even so some bags of crisps go into the bin. Thus the fate of Lay's Cappuccino crisps which we tried recently. But not these.

Now for something a bit different [it says on the vibrant yellow back of the packaging] I wanted to lively up crisps so I've created something a bit funky with a true Jamaican kick! With a dash of of herbs and spice my Reggae Reggae crisps are great to enjoy.

Quite dark; it must be all that seasoning, quite crunchy, quite ridgy, extremely tasty. Dangerously hot.

I'm afraid I had never heard of Levi Roots but he obviously gets about quite a bit what with all his music and the cooking and the food empire. Here's a handy wikipedia page to get you up to speed if you are as ignorant as I am, and here's his own webpage - if you check this out do not omit to choose a song; brilliant!

Put some music in your food!

Burt's Thick Cut Guinness

Burt's Thick Cut Potato Chips Hand Cooked with Care in Guinness flavour (Guinness ESTD 1759). What a long name for a packet of crisps.

And these are quite large crisps with quite a large crunch. The photograph doesn't really show how much darker they are than your average crisp (Guinness is dark of course), and the photo on the package is so moodily lit you don't get the dark colour of the crisps from that either.

Quite large, quite crunchy, quite a lot of flavour dust... but the flavour? Guinness? Really?

I'm not a beer drinker. I learned to drink VB (Victoria Bitter) in a Sydney heatwave  - there was a building site and it was hot - but the VB website wants me to enter my DOB before I can see any more than the front page so I'm not going to bother with that.... And I've not tried Guinness at all because for all its fabulous advertising it looks as though it isn't for me.

However, why not try a Guinness flavour crisp?

Well, I took them to work and set out a bowlful in the kitchen for the reluctant taste testers to try.

No-one guessed what they were eating. Suggestions included brioche, dirty potatoes, meaty... kangaroo or antelope?, and (somewhat facetiously I thought) cauliflower and bamboo shoot with a hint of beef.

I thought these crisps tasted of rather yeasty bread. Having interrogated friends who do drink/have drunk Guinness I'm not convinced these crisps taste anything like Guinness.  But it was worth a try. And you may well think I'm wrong.

Grown in a field called Roundwood; cooked by Roddy; all natural flavours, gluten free, no artificial colours, no MSG, no hydrogenated fats; a Facebook page and (apparently) a Twitter account (I haven't looked), these crisps have much to recommend them. Plus we get the LEAF Marque -Burt's potatoes are grown by farmers committed to improving the environment, and there's www.lovetheflavour to visit too. Which is all good.

But as I said, I'm not a sure a taste of Guinness is included.