Portlebay Popcorn Crispy Bacon & Maple Syrup

Wow! this popcorn is truly astonishingly tasty!!

Portlebay Popcorn; the original since 2012.  Hand popped in Devon. With a picture of a seagull eating popcorn on the packet. Nice orange and lemon stripes on the packet, and a handsome blue and white nautical trim. Is this the best popcorn ever?

Well, I was in the house on my own the other weekend and accidentally ate a whole bowlful all by myself. Although I did feel guilty I did feel well-fed and the popcorn really was good.

I took the remains in to work for the reluctant taste testers to try and it was a great success. Everybody loved this popcorn; even the most reluctant tester who is oh so suspicious of new flavours.  She admitted to liking it but then when she asked the flavour there was a stunned silence and I could feel the waves of disapproval. Oh dear!

But don't let that put you off. None of us could really put our finger on what the flavour is; we couldn't really be sure we could taste the bacon or be certain that the sweetness came from maple syrup - but who cares? Lots and lots of sweet and salty tastiness. We loved the flavour.

Great popcorn, great taste. We were all as happy as a pig in syrup.

No gluten, but not suitable for vegetarians (made with real dried bacon: hurrah). Well done Budgens in East Finchley for stocking this great product. I think they may have other flavours.... do you suppose I'll be going back?

Tesco Finest Hand Cooked Mature Devonshire Cheddar & Festive Beetroot Chutney

Here's another exotic crisp from the Tesco finest Christmas range. Another crisp which sounds as though it comes from a Michelin starred restaurant rather than from a supermarket.

The packaging tells me I have a bag of Mature Devonshire Cheddar & Festive Beetroot Chutney Crisps, and then the subtitle (as it were) says tangy cheese and earthy chutney with a hint of chilli and Brazilian orange.

Well! And as you can see from the photograph the crisps are an interesting mottled red. Most of the red seems to be flavour dust. You can lick it off. But there are orange bits as well which seem to be actually part of the crisp. I think there's more of a hint of orange. And I wonder why it is Brazilian orange rather than any other?

I'm not sure I can detect any beetroot in the flavour but the orange is very definite. Of course beetroot and orange go well together. I used to have a very good recipe for baked beetroot with orange juice and cheese. Delicious.

I notice that sugar is first on the list of seasoning ingredients which is no surprise; these are rather sweet crisps. In fact, the flavour reminds me of - well I'm not quite sure  - maybe a cheesecake mix or perhaps the beginnings of a cake with the sugar creamed into the butter and orange zest folded in.

And here's an odd ingredient: mushroom powder. What do you suppose that contributes to the mix? Oh and the chillis are grown at the South Devon Chilli Farm.

Once again we know that the potato variety is Lady Rosetta and the field they were grown in is River Peace. In Devon. I think another of the Tesco crisps were grown in that field. These crisps are suitable for vegetarians and contain no artificial flavours, colours or MSG. And many of the ingredients come from... Devon.

A very unusual crisp in flavour and colour. The crunch is perhaps a little more crunchy than the other Tesco Finest I have tried but still very good. The cheesiness is far more in the background than I was expecting but none the worse for that. They're really different.

And once again, although I find I quite like these crisps I don't want to eat an entire packet. I think perhaps it's because the flavour is too busy. Returning to the Michelin star restaurant analogy, I've never really wanted to eat in one because when I've looked at the menus the food all looks much too complicated. These crisps are too complicated for me!

Very handsome packaging though. A lovely soft beetroot red fading into brown at top and bottom.