M&S Eat Well Pea Snaps Piri Piri

Once again, ever hopeful, the reluctant taste testers and I tried a Pea Snap flavour from the Marks & Spencer Eat Well crispy snack range. A third flavour: Piri Piri.

Ever since I first heard of Piri Piri sauce I thought it might not really be for me. And I still think I was right. But I must confess that Piri Piri works better with the Pea Snaps than either of the other two flavours we have tried.

None of the taste testers made a comment except History Graduate who admitted to quite liking these Pea Snaps. But I don't think he can have eaten the whole (very small - only 21g) packet himself. So someone else, possibly several someones, was eating them, and it wasn't me.

Oh, Extremely Sceptical taste tester did comment. She asked if this was another grasshopper crispy snack. Well, yes, it is the same range as those she took for grasshoppers. But no. This crispy snack is made from marrow fat peas and not insect protein.

And she also pointed out that the very soft bite is similar to the crunch and texture of crispy snacks made for very small children. There are extremely sceptical nieces and nephews so our taste tester knows what she is talking about.

The Piri Piri flavour dust gives these Pea Snaps a handsome orangey brown colour, so really they do look a lot less grasshoppery than the Green Chilli Lime & Coriander flavour Snaps.

This product is supposed to be healthier for you than the average crispy snack. So I'm pleased to be able to report that this flavour is a lot more palatable than the first two we tried.

Always remember that I am extremely picky when it comes to food. So even if I don't like something; you might.

M&S Eat Well Smoked Salt & Mixed Pepper Pea Snaps

Ever hopeful I thought we might try this flavour of Pea Snaps.

The Green Chilli Lime & Coriander flavour the reluctant taste testers and I tried the other day was not nice. But M&S have brought out two other flavours so they must believe someone will like these allegedly healthy Pea Snap crispy snacks.

I am not convinced. The reluctant taste testers are not convinced. The Chef is not convinced. Oh dear. Will anyone be convinced?

I read salt and pepper on the packet as I queued at the checkout the other day. But salt and pepper is not what I got.

I mean, we have cayenne pepper, white pepper, black pepper, pink peppercorns and capsicum extract. That's a lot of pepper. On top of that there's ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fennel and star anise. That's a whole lot of flavour. And then we have the smoked salt.

And yet you can still taste the peas.

The initial crunch seems light but not bad, only the crispy snack immediately becomes a mushy snack and melds itself to your teeth. And the flavour is downright weird. And the aftertaste is sort of fatty. Greasy. I don't know what.

Are marrowfat peas super healthy? If so I think we are all going to need a lot of educating to get us to like them.

M&S Eat Well Green Chilli Lime & Coriander Pea Snaps

The Extremely Skeptical taste tester looked into the little green packet (only 21g) and asked "Are these made of grasshoppers?".

Well, no. However avant garde you may consider the recent adventures of the M&S crisp development department, I don't think they would go so far as to try to tempt the residents of North London with insecty snacks. Or not without some massive advertising campaign to tell us all we will be missing out on the latest trend if we don't get our act together.

So, not made of grasshoppers. But made of marrowfat peas. Which is a different sort of pea from your petit pois or garden pea. Marrowfat peas are not picked young like garden peas but left (I gather) to mature and dry on the plant. And then traditionally they are cooked for ages to make mushy peas to eat with fish & chips or with pies. I come from the wrong part of the UK to appreciate mushy peas so I've not tried them. And probably won't.

In any case, these marrowfat peas have suffered some sinister change in the manufacturing process and here they are  mysteriously extruded into pea pod shapes. Green pea pods. And actually the crunch is pretty good. Light, but good.

But the taste! Oh dear.

Seriously, what were they thinking? I mean, I would have been prepared to give these a go if they tasted of salt & vinegar or something, but I guess that wouldn't be healthy enough. Instead we have green chilli, lime and coriander. And I'm not sure that's the taste combination for me.

When you open the packet the aroma of lime and coriander is overpowering. I've always found coriander a little tough to appreciate, and these crispy Pea Snaps aren't helping the cause. Really, it's a very odd taste.

I'm left wondering what it is about these snaps that qualifies them for the Eat Well range? Is it the peas? Because if so, can we have them with a better flavour please. Is it the flavour? Because if so, why can't we just have a potato snap? Is it that they taste so weird we don't eat so many? Because if that's the case I'm afraid we'll just go out and eat something unhealthy instead.

Honestly, I'd be delighted to give a good review to a healthy crispy snack. But somehow almost all of them are a bit too weird.

These little Pea Snaps are a bit greener than the photograph shows. It's been so very dark here recently that unless I rush into photographer mode as soon as the sun comes out (not always possible) I have to make do with artificial light. I don't think the sun came out at all today, in fact it was nearly dark by tea time. And we aren't even into December!