Ten Acre When the Chilli Got Sweet

It seems that every second bag of crisps I look at these days is Sweet Chilli flavour. OK, I'm sure I exaggerate but there do seem to be a lot of them about.

Ten Acre make nice little crisps, all kind of folded over (something to do with the hand cooking process perhaps?), a nice golden colour and with a satisfying crunch.

Some Sweet Chilli flavour crisps are much too sweet. You know, there will be a little bit of chilli heat but mostly quite a lot of sweet.

Not these crisps. Nothing spectacular, nothing fancy, these crisps have a nice hit of chilli which is slightly tempered by the sweetness; but not too much. A nice little 40g bag too. We quite liked these crisps.

Halal Food Authority Approved, Parev (certified by the Machzikei Hadass Synagogue in Salford (Manchester), and also suitable for Vegans; these crisps are ready for anyone. Unless of course you are religiously opposed to eating potatoes. Or allergic to them. How awful that would be.

Hand cooked with love, packed with crunch.

This scan isn't quite the right colour for some reason. The packet is really a lovely deep purplish pink with a lot of blue in it. I held the packet up against a Pantone colour chart on my computer screen, I took a photograph to see if the colour would be better and I scanned it more than once. How odd. What a shame because the packet is such a pretty colour.

And here's another blossom photo.

M&S Guilt Free Snacking Sweet & Salty Popcorn

I don't know how they do it but M&S keep coming up with the goods when it comes to guilt free snacking. This Sweet & Salty Popcorn is a case in point.

Not too sweet, not too salty, but just tasty enough; this popcorn works very well for a crunch at lunch if you are trying to eat a healthy diet.

This 28g packet contains 137 calories.  The packet describes it as crunchy and moreish (marketing-speak for addictive) which is about right. The packet also says delicious treats, portion controlled, designed to help you count your calories.

Yes. But I sort of get the impression that if I don't eat the entire packet my portions won't be properly controlled. Oh no! We can't have that.

I can't eat too much popcorn (all that roughage is so unhealthy) but I do love it. There's something about those fluffed up clouds of exploded yumminess. Especially wonderful is microwave popcorn so you can enjoy the hot salty butteriness (or alternately hot buttery saltiness) in the privacy of your own home with the movie of your choice. But I suppose one must admit that this is a healthier option.

And more blossom because there is so much this year and it seems a shame not to take advantage of it. This is Prunus 'Kanzan'. Rather a dull tree 50 weeks of the year but stunning in full flower.

M&S Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar Hand Cooked

Look at that. I've just noticed that M&S have added a bit of information to their crisp packets: est. 1884. When did they do that? Obviously I've not been paying attention.

Anyway, here we have a little packet of crisps from the new Spring/Summer range for 2015. Newly designed bag. New little blue logo saying Tastes of the British Isles.

The potatoes are a variety I don't think I have come across before; Markies. The fabulous Potato Council Variety Database tells me it was bred by Agrico UK Ltd, and the parent breeds were Agria and Fianna. I love the Potato Council database. Surely almost as good as the FBI databases Abby's always looking at on NCIS.

Mnnn not a bad entry in the salt and vinegar stakes. A nice mix of sea salt and sweetness from the balsamic, and then a big hit of vinegar. Some of the crisps in this packet were huge and all had a good hearty crunch. This is another good crisp from M&S. Plus they worked very well with leftover sour cream and chive dip. You can't say better than that.

And here's some more cherry blossom I spotted on my walk to work the other day. This looks like a wild cherry tree so with any luck it will produce fruits to delight the local birds.

Pan Chips al Naturale

This Italian crispy snack was found in Switzerland, and I chose it simply because it looked so unlike most other crispy snacks we've tried.

Cotte al Forno (baked) says the packet, Golose sfogliatine croccanti (delicious crispy puffs). Baked perhaps, but not puffs. These little squares are in fact spectacularly flat. But then sometimes it seems to me that flat is very popular in Italy.

I provided myself with dip in advance because I thought these might need a little help in the taste department. It's a bit like eating a water biscuit  flavoured with olive oil (extra virgin of course) and scattered with salt. Quite nice in a slightly dull fashion.

I got sour cream and chive dip (my favourite) but in fact I might have been better to try hummus because these little squares or slightly-diamond-shapes remind me a little of the flat breads they serve at the local Turkish restaurant with the meze.

You know, the taste is sort of dull but I find myself rather liking it with or without the dip. Pretty good in fact. I'd really like to try one of the other flavours. Rosemary perhaps. Not so sure about the Bacon flavour... but I've been wrong before and probably will be again.

It's a shame these little squares are so fragile. An awful lot of them are broken and I don't think that has anything to do with their long journey to the UK. I notice that the tiny type on the front of the packet tells us that the product image is for illustration purposes only. So perhaps all this breakage is quite normal.

The back of the packet gives two websites for further information: www.onebreadfactory.it (which seems an odd name for an Italian company), and www.panchips.it. The first address defaults to the second, which truth be told does not give up much information except that there are six different Pan Chips flavours.

And because it is spring here's a photograph I took this week of some blossom. I don't know which of the many flowering cherries this is. It was planted by the side of the brook years ago and seems quite happy, but it's far too close to the great big weeping willow you can see in the background.