M&S Mature Cheddar & Red Onion Hand Cooked Crisps

Now I am confused. Early in May I reviewed a packet of crisps from M&S called Hand Cooked Mature Cheddar Cheese & Red Onion British Potato Crisps.

And now I have a packet of crisps (in a very different packet) also bought in May and called Mature Cheddar & Red Onion Hand Cooked Crisps. Which is part of the Tastes of the British Isles range. Which the first packet wasn't.

As the packets seem to be sold simultaneously, and none of the other Tastes of the British Isles flavours appear in different packaging (at least I don't think they do) I will choose to treat them differently.

This is a lovely packet of crisps. Lots of flavour dust, nice gentle and genuinely cheesy flavour (as opposed to the completely pretend cheesy yumminess you get with puffed maize snacks), and a very mild onion taste. Really very good.

The only complaint I have is that the smart mature cheddar of the packet looks uncommonly like cauliflower cheese if you glance at it rather than look properly. And the handsome red onions might be taken for beetroot. Or even dark red apples. Cauliflower cheese and beetroot crisps anyone?

Are they the same or not? With almost the same name but back to front? This is a conundrum sent to confuse crisp fans.

Could be the same recipe. Might not be. Who knows except for the crisp technology team at M&S? Either way this is a top quality tasty crisp and we'll leave it at that. The Chef liked them too.

Pret a Manger Mature Cheddar & Red Onion

I know there are branches of Pret a Manger all over the place but pretty much the only one I ever patronise is at Luton Airport. Yes, this is another crisp from Luton.

I must tell you that I set out on my journey with almost nothing in my handbag: a book, my passport, my purse, and the house keys. By the time I got on the plane to Geneva I had added a magazine, a sandwich and bottle of water for lunch, a bottle of perfume from Duty Free, a fancy new hub accessory thingy for the Chef's iMac Air, and 6 packets of crisps.

And when I arrived here the Chef said "Oh yes, I tried those the other day. I thought they were very good". He even saved the packet for me, which was thoughtful. Although not a great help as you can't taste test an empty packet although I must say the aroma even from the empty bag is very pleasant.

So. This is a very nice crisp. Just the right thickness, a little bit of skin left on, good crunch, and a lovely dark golden colour. They have a great cheesy taste and I'm really impressed that the red onion doesn't leap to the fore as it so often does; nice and subtle. Red onion can be a real thug if you aren't careful. Not here.

Pretty good. And the charming cheesy mouse on the packaging is pretty good too.

Yes. We liked these crisps.

Kettle Chips Mature Cheddar & Red Onion

What giant crisps! Unfortunately I failed to photograph the huge crisps at the top of the packet, but take it from me they were very large. Really quite hard to force into my mouth, and a lot of them folded around each other to make great big parcels of crisp. They get smaller (but not extremely small) as you work your way down the packet.

And tasty too. Lots and lots of very cheesy cheesiness and not too much red onion. A pretty good combination. A great deal of tasty flavour dust, a lovely mature cheddar colour, and a great crunch.

It's really quite hard to know what else to say but we liked these a lot and I accidentally ate rather too many. Luckily I have been walking to work recently so let's hope the walking has cancelled out the effect of too many cheesy crisps.

This is what the packet usually looks like, although this advertisement features a piece of hand carved woodwork (lovingly crafted by Andrew Pearson) instead of an actual bag of crisps. You can read about Andrew Pearson and see some of his other work here. I really like the image of Erasmus trying out a laptop!

The bag I actually bought from Waitrose features a competition to win a handmade kitchen worth £35,000 (or £25,000 in cash). I'm not sure which I'd rather go for. Our kitchen isn't very old but we certainly didn't spend that much on it. And then again, £25,000 would be a nice little nest egg or several very grand holidays. Well, I have entered the prize draw but the results will not be available until June 2015, and I didn't win an instant prize from the pantry.

I think it said on the website that I need to keep the packet to confirm my unique code in order to win. But I can't help feeling that it might have gone a little rancid by next June. So I have scanned the whole bag instead. 

Slight update in the packaging in 2016. And another competition.