Tesco Finest Hand Cooked Norfolk Bronze Roast Turkey with Sage & Onion Stuffing

You know, I've been putting off trying these crisps because I don't like turkey. But I was quite wrong because these are great crisps.

This is a Tesco Christmas special crisp. And, in fact, as I try them today they are well past their sell-by date. But hey! It's a crisp. It's not going to kill me is it? (Certainly hope not.) It's a shame though that I didn't get around to recommending them before because I don't suppose they are still available. But if you are reading this, Mr Tesco; please make these again next Christmas because seriously, this is a great crisp.

You may have read my reviews of other Christmas specials from Tesco and some of them were distinctly... unusual. But this flavour? Oh yes. I approve.

These are truly yummy potato crisps. Really quite big. Great crunch, not too soft, not too hard. A little bit of dark flavour dust with a few little herby bits. And a great flavour. What more could you want? They smell good too. Yum. Oh yes, yum. Lipsmackingly yum. You know what? I could probably eat a whole packet.

This is another crisp flavour that suffers from five star restaurant menu-itis. There's a bit too much going on in the flavour description I think. But it is still a very good flavour. I don't know if it makes any difference that the turkey comes from free range Norfolk Bronze turkeys but.... maybe.

However, the sage and onion flavour is concocted from a thing described as "stuffing and onion gravy flavour seasoning" which seems a bit odd. Where does the gravy bit come from you ask? Well, on the back of the packet the crisps are described as "roast Norfolk turkey, stuffing and onion gravy flavour" which is a bit different from the front page. Why? I don't know.

Not suitable for vegetarians because there is real turkey in these crisps. Which is a good thing. The potato variety is Hermes and they were grown in Devon in a field named Roundwood.

I'm sorry to see there is celery included in the seasoning; I am intolerant to celery and in larger doses it makes me feel quite unwell. The only thing I can say is that as a flavouring in a crisp it doesn't affect me in the same way it would if it was included in a stew or a soup. But I see it regularly included as an allergen these days so there must be people out there seriously allergic to it. In which case, why is it so routinely added to so many things? Not good.

This is a Christmas crisp from 2013. I don't know why so few of you out there read about this crisp so I'm going to post it again. Just for fun. You can see I thought it was a pretty good crisp.

And I was just reading one of the many "present giving" articles which appear in newspapers and magazines at this time of year. In this case several famous people (although I had only heard of one of them) gave their ideas on what to give at Christmas. One (designer Molly Goddard) had such a sensible idea, and you will see why it appealed to me; if you have a hard-to-buy-for friend why not give them a little hamper? A nice bottle of wine, she suggests, some good cheese and a packet of interesting crisps. Why not? I see our local branch of Marks & Spencer has a pile of baskets on sale to make your own DIY hamper but you could just as well use a pretty paper bag.

Tesco Finest Baked British Gammon with Winter Berries

Well! Crisp flavours just get weirder and weirder don't they?

These interestingly flavoured crisps come in a fine purple packet with golden writing and a golden piggy. Handsome indeed.

But I was rather dubious about trying them. I've tried ham flavoured crisps in the past that were frankly horrible so I have rather avoided trying any ham flavours since then. It was some years ago but some things are so nasty that they really put you off. And then, I really didn't like these.

Obviously I have made it my mission to try as many different types of crisp as possible (and that without eating too many and getting grossly fat!) so maybe I need to be braver in the ham/gammon department because this hand cooked crisp flavour isn't bad.

These are rather rich coloured crisps with a great deal of flavour dust, and they have a wonderful crunch I really liked. The smell is a bit fruity; perhaps that's because the ingredients include dried cranberry and blueberries. That'll be the winter berries then. And obviously there's quite a lot of paprika to enhance the colour.

The gammon flavour is very well realised. Apparently it is slow baked free range pork (which sounds awfully good) that goes into the "British Gammon extract" on the list of ingredients.

As with other Tesco Finest crisps we are told the potato variety; Lady Rosetta. The British Potato Variety Database tells me that this is a red skinned early maincrop variety with light yellow flesh. We know the field name; Riverpeace. And the crisps are made somewhere in Devon.

Once again this is a really interesting flavour, which I surprised myself by quite liking, but I didn't want to eat too many. I took them to the office to see what everyone thought and one or two were not impressed, but even though the others liked the taste, like me they didn't want to try more than a couple.

I think the mark of a great crisp is one where you accidentally eat an entire packet without noticing. Think of the fabulous Provençal flavour crisp by Swiss company Zweifel which you can read about here. Sadly this Tesco Finest flavour does not (ghastly expression) tick the boxes for me.

This was a special flavour for Christmas 2013 so I don't know if it is still available.

Tesco Finest Spiced Bramley Apple Crumble Crisps

Who in the world thought of this weird idea? Presumably Mr Tesco.

So I tried these crisps in a blind taste test both at work and at home with Christmas guests. And got the following responses:

• Weird but quite nice (this tester took some home for a road trip)
• Strange... I'm not sure... 
• Quite the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted - I don't think I can eat anything ever again
• Mmmm seems familiar... what is this flavour?...erm... sort of appley?
• Oo... I know this... is it oriental?
• (sniff sniff) cinnamon? Are these made of apple?
• I'll have a larger one this time, thanks
• From Tesco? We should look out for these.

So a divided response then. I think most people agreed that you get an apple crumble taste. It's the extra crunchy burnt brown bit at the edge of the crumble where apple juice has bubbled up. Whether this is a good flavour (and I admit it is tasty) for a potato crisp is another matter.

The crisps themselves are perfectly normal crisps with a good crunch, a little dark in colour but that's all the spicy flavour dust. The smell is very strongly cinnamon. At least, I think it is cinnamon; the packet somewhat unhelpfully lists "spices" and "flavourings" rather than naming individual elements so these could include clove, mace or nutmeg or even allspice. Who knows? And there's obviously quite a lot of sugar involved.

I can say that the apple element is Bramley, and the potato a variety called Hermes (grown in a field called Porter and picked/dug up on 23 october 2013). Hand cooked in small batches and "tumbled carefully in seasoning" - how exotic that sounds. Suitable for vegetarians.

Quite tasty but I'm not convinced this is a good flavour for a potato crisp. Not convinced this is the "perfect taste of Christmas".