KP Frosted Maple Syrup Roast Peanuts & Cashews with Plain Chocolate Chunks

I guess you might suppose that this here packet of frosted nuts is a companion to the ultra fabulous KP Frosted Honey Roast Peanuts & Cashews mixed with pieces of Belgian Milk Chocolate Honeycomb nuts. And yes, it seems to be. There are Christmas trees on the packet and it all looks very similar.

But is this nut selection as fabulous? Sadly, for us at any rate, the answer is no.

Perhaps if we had tried this version first this would have been the fabulous one. But I suspect not. The maple syrup flavour doesn't seem to work as well as the honey roast, which I have always loved, and the chunks of plain chocolate simply cannot compete with the milk chocolate coated honeycomb chunks. Why no plain chocolate coated honeycomb? That could have been great.

Don't leave a packet on the supermarket shelf just because the Chef & I didn't enjoy this as much as the Frosted Honey Roast version. You might love this fancy nut selection.

M&S Hand Cooked Turkey & Maple Syrup Crisps

This is the second packet of Marks & Spencer Christmas crisps we have tried this year. Turkey & Maple Syrup flavour eh?

Well, at least it sounds a bit more normal than the totally bonkers Prosecco flavour we tried the other day.

The list of ingredients includes turkey, sage, thyme and lemon. Despite trying really hard I'm not sure I can detect any of them. Which is a shame. And the flavour seems to be all about the maple syrup.

Very nice hand cooked crisps with the skins left on. Good crunch. Not nearly so much flavour dust as the Prosecco crisp but plenty of taste. Strong aroma of maple syrup.

But still pretty weird. The reluctant taste testers are fairly united in believing that potato crisps should be savoury not sweet. And I think the Chef and I agree with them.

Do we get the impression that the M&S crisp development department is trying a little too hard? Next stop Christmas tree flavour crisps! Frankincense and Myrrh perhaps? And why not Reindeer? Reindeer & Lingonberry. Now that sounds tasty....

M&S Maple Bacon Hand Cooked Crisps

Another new crisp variety from the wonderful world of the crisp development department at Marks & Spencer. Maple Bacon flavour.

OK, now. This allegedly bacon flavour crisp is advertised as suitable for vegetarians. The family vegetarian happened to be staying so I asked how she felt about what I consider to be a pretty odd idea. I mean, if you don't want to eat meat why would you want to eat a meat flavoured crispy snack?

And the family vegetarian agreed that's how she feels. Because one of the reasons she doesn't eat meat is that she doesn't like the taste. However, she does admit to knowing vegetarians who fancy the meat taste but won't eat animals. So they will eat meat flavour crisps. So. I guess you pays your money and you takes your choice.

Well, I am not a vegetarian so I tucked into these crisps regardless. And so did the reluctant taste testers.

Lovely crisps as always from M&S. Good crunch, lots of lovely flavour dust, nice smell too (even a week later as I write this the bag smells rather good). But the flavour isn't quite as flavoursome as I had hoped. Very nice crisps but I think they could have been rather wonderful had the taste been stronger.

Nonetheless the bowlful at work was snacked up quite quickly.

This is one of the Tastes of the British Isles range which has appeared in the summer of 2015. As there is no bacon in the recipe I can't ask which part of the UK that comes from, and maple syrup? Famous for coming from Canada isn't it? I'm not aware of any maple syrup farms in Britain.

I hope The Furry Gnome at Seasons in the Valley will forgive me for adding a link to his fascinating posts about maple syrup farms in Canada. Do take a look if you are at all interested. He followed this post with 2 more.