Tesco Finest Strawberry & Dark Chocolate Popcorn with a Kick of Black Pepper

Good Heavens! I nearly forgot to write up this strawberry and dark chocolate popcorn. And now all I have left is the empty packet. However, before the packet was empty you could see the popcorn through  a clear circle in the front of the packet.

What did I think? Not bad. Not totally to my taste; I like the chocolate and the pepper but I wasn't so sure about the strawberry; but the popcorn is good. Not spoiled with loads of sharp corn skin. You know? When the popcorn hasn't popped properly and hasn't all gone wonderfully fluffy and light. You'd be surprised how much popcorn the reluctant taste testers and I have tried that had far too many nasty sharp bits.

I think some of the reluctant taste testers were quite taken with this popcorn, and the Chef seems to have been keen too. I always try to bring some of the crispy snack home for him to try. Sometimes the remains get eaten, sometimes not, and in this case all I have left is an empty packet. I asked what he thought? "It was good, tasty", he tells me. "Some bits had too much chocolate on. But that's just a moan."

So a minor moan there, but no popcorn left. And seriously though: too much chocolate? I never heard the Chef complain about that before. I think a very picky Chef managed to finish this popcorn with hand-drizzled Belgian dark chocolate despite his niggly complaint.

Kolak Hot & Spicy Crisps Black Pepper Flavour

This was a gift from the crisp fairy (probably Tall Elegant taste tester) and thank you, thank you, because I liked this little packet of crisps a lot. Only 25g but a whole lot of flavour.

Tall taste tester was very quick to judge; he said this crisp didn't taste of much. I said wait for the after taste. He said it's just salty. I said wait for the after taste. He said he wasn't that impressed. I said wait for the after taste. Tall taste tester suddenly said oh yes; there was an impressive after taste of pepper. I think he was impressed.

If you try this crisp give it a chance. The first crisp isn't very tasty, but the more you have the more you taste. And the taste is simple but great. Very nice indeed.

And... yes, two in one week, another little guy throwing away his rubbish responsibly! Rather a charming design I thought.

Pipers Crisp Co. Karnataka Black Pepper & Sea Salt

Yet another wonderful crisp from Pipers Crisp Co. from North Lincolnshire.

Black Pepper & Sea Salt is a classic flavour and the Tellicherry peppercorns used here are supplied by the Faiz family from their spice plantations in the tranquil Karnataka region on the edge of the Western Ghats of Southern India. The full bodied taste and robust aroma of Tellicherry peppercorns are preferred by chefs worldwide. Says the packaging.

These fabulous crisps have a great pepper and salt flavour, but importantly you can also taste the actual crisp. And you cannot ask much more than that.

Very tasty crisps. Nothing too fancy but a great taste. Perhaps Pipers have used this grey packaging to indicate how simple this flavour is. Or perhaps that's just me imagining things.

Mackie's of Scotland Haggis & Cracked Black Pepper

Last year the Chef and I tried the Mackie's of Scotland Sea Salt, and Mature Cheddar Cheese & Onion flavours which we found for sale in the Aperto shop at Sion station in Switzerland. They had other flavours too, but not the Haggis. Perhaps Mackie's (or Aperto) thought the Swiss would baulk at haggis as a crisp flavour. I wouldn't be a bit surprised; I suspect the English might baulk too.

Which is why I asked my brother, who lives in Scotland, to send me this packet of crisps because I'd never seen any to buy in London (or Switzerland). I had read a lot online about haggis flavour crisps so I wanted to try them. And now I have. So thanks very much to my ex-sister-in-law who I suspect finally took charge of the actual posting.

Well... I'm not really sure about these. There is certainly a vast amount of cracked black pepperiness going on. And then there's something else which despite tasting and much sniffing I cannot put my finger on. Honestly, I can't work out what these crisps taste of.  I rather enjoy haggis but I haven't had any for some time and I don't really remember if it tastes like these crisps do.

Let's just say the taste is a bit odd. Quite tasty. Just... a bit odd. The packaging got high marks though, especially from the tall taste tester.

The reluctant taste testers quite liked these crisps, with the emphasis on quite, but like me I think they were a little bit baffled at the flavour. All of them noticed the great taste of cracked black pepper, and all of them wondered quite what the rest of the flavour was. It seems to have been created from yeast, wheat, onion powder, barley malt, and oatmeal. Interesting.

You might think haggis crisps would be made with heart, liver and lungs (creepily known as sheep's pluck) but no, are in fact they are suitable for vegetarians and even vegans. Amazing eh?

I was back in Sion in March and Aperto has stopped stocking Mackie's crisps, at least for the time being. So we had no chance to attempt other flavours when we took the train to Bern.

Kettle Chips Lime & Black Pepper

This seasonal flavour was presumably released in summer 2014 but I never saw them until November. It's strange that I never seem to discover the summer flavours until the end of the year. Christmas flavours, on the other hand, don't seem to hang around for so long.

I have tried a number of citrus flavoured crisps so I thought these might be rather good. But I'm not sure.

The crisps themselves have a hearty crunch and lots of really good black pepper taste. But the lime? I'm not so sure about the lime.

To me it tastes blue. I have slight synesthesia and some tastes like bitter lemon and these crisps are definitely blue. And I'm not mad on blue tasting anything.

When I was a child I used to describe pain by colour too. I had a particular orange pain which bothered me a lot. It bothered my doctor too. He was an old fashioned doctor who sat behind a great big desk with his back to a conservatory housing a handsome grape vine. He preferred pain to be sharp or stabbing or.... well, he didn't care for orange pains and did his best to stamp out such descriptions. I never got a proper diagnosis. He didn't like me much; I suffered from too many mystery ailments. And when I got chicken pox for the second time he was really cross.

Anyway, these crisps taste blue to me. The lime seems to be not a real lime but more of a lime flavour. Such as you might find in a boiled sweet or jelly. One of the reluctant taste testers thought of washing up liquid.

So, these crisps are OK but could do better. Not nasty or anything - no, no. But could do better. The bright green packaging is exciting though.

I have a friend who has much more interesting synesthesia than me. She sees each number in a different colour. Now that sounds a lot more fun than orange pains and blue tastes. I think I'd like that.

Walkers Sunbites Sour Cream (and cracked black pepper) Flavour

Walkers Sunbites are obviously Walkers' healthy option crispy snacks. In fact, they are multigrain crispy snacks and you can't go wrong with multigrain. Especially not 67% wholegrain (unless you are allergic to corn, wheat or oats) which makes them irresistibly crispy. Or so says the packet.

I have to admit they are very tasty. Somehow, and I'm not sure how, Sunbites taste much healthier than most crispy snacks, but there's no denying they are very good. In fact, I was pushed not to finish this 28g packet all at once.

Somehow these are quite different from other crispy snacks. You can see on the packet that they are wavy (not at all like a crinkle crisp) and all speckled with (presumably) the multigrains. I expect the pretty little grasses on the packet are the much-vaunted multigrains but I do hope that the ingredients do not include butterflies or small singing birds Probably not.

• Tiny moments of extraordinary pleasure. 
• Natural flavours that charm your taste buds.
• We insist that Sunbites are made using no artificial colours. flavours or preservative. Insisting on this seems odd - it's as though Walkers are having trouble with argumentative factory workers who want to make Sunbites with artificial ingredients. However, they still manage to make these crisps suitable for vegetarians and with 30% less fat. Although, I can't help wondering 30% less than what exactly?

And once again the mysterious Walkers department for throwing rubbish away in a responsible fashion has come up with a healthy little person throwing their packet away. I suppose it's a healthy person because he/she has a sort of coronel or tiara thingy like the rays of Sunbite sunshine.

As with other sour cream flavour crispy snacks I found the sour cream difficult to identify. But they are very moreish and I would try them again... if I ever get to the bottom of my giant bag of crisps waiting to be tasted that is.

Thanks very much to The Family Vegetarian and the Graffiti Artist for sending a packet of Sour Cream Sunbites as part of my birthday present.

M&S Hand Cooked Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper

And another great crisp from the M&S Hand Cooked range.

Sometimes you don't need a fancy flavour to make a great crisp. Sometimes you just need a great crisp. And this is another great crisp from M&S. What is it with their crisp development department? They make so many great crisps.

Just your basic sea salt and black pepper flavour crisps but beautifully executed. Lovely crisps, good crunch, not too oily, good lot of flavour dust. Seriously, and it's kind of dull to say this, but what more can one say?

Good tasty crisps and highly recommended.

About five minutes ago - or more likely 10 or so years ago - when salt and pepper crisps leapt on to the market it seemed that every niche brand, every up-market crisp manufacturer had to have their own version. And they were good. Almost all the salt and pepper crisps I've tasted are good. And of course, being posh crisps (none of your rubbishy mass market nonsense here) they are sea salt (sometimes name brand salt) and black pepper (sometimes cracked sometimes not) crisps.

And it seemed perhaps that simple salted crisps were on the way out, had been superseded and might disappear altogether because they were too old fashioned.

But not so. Because simple salted crisps are here to stay, but sea salt and black pepper in all its various permutations is a whole nother flavour and also, it seems, here to stay.