John & John Suffolk Cheddar & Chives

What a strongly flavoured crisp. This faux British crisp seems to have been created for the German market so I am sort of surprised the cheese and onion is so... so strongly flavoured. But maybe that's what the great German public expects.

Maybe they say to themselves "so British" in a strong German accent the way the French and French speaking Swiss do (in a strong French accent obviously). Only a true German speaker can advise me on this.

Anyway, quite a nice thickish cut crisp, quite a hard crunch, very strong flavour: not bad really. The reluctant taste testers hoovered up this small bag pretty quickly but I found the flavour a bit strong for my taste.

I bet someone laboured long and hard on this deceptively simple packet design. It really is very nice indeed. Well done that someone.

Bret's Saveur Chocolat Piment

Honestly, how could you resist? Chocolate and chilli flavour potato crisps. Gotta try these yes?

Well obviously. But what you get is not a potato crisp that someone has carefully grated chocolate on to create a gorgeous effect. You get a crisp with such a dark brown flavour dust that Dutch taste tester was afraid she was being asked to try Marmite crisps (she hates Marmite), and others thought it was beef or ... I don't know quite what. But no-one looked and thought aha! it's a chocolate crisp.

The crisps do smell of chocolate. Potato and chocolate. Weird eh? And they kind of taste of chocolate but only if you expect them to. With a little bit of chilli heat to follow. I have to say the reluctant taste testers were not that impressed, and nor was the Chef. But I think they would all have been disappointed if I had left these crisps on the supermarket shelf in Reims.

The Doormen Salted Peanut

These are the peanuts you get in the Club Class lounge on P&O cross channel ferries (Dover to Calais and back again). Pretty good perfectly plain salted peanuts. With your Club Class ticket you get a free cup of coffee or a free glass of champagne. I think the champagne works pretty well with a packet of peanuts; the Chef eats his peanuts with a cup of coffee.

Sometimes the channel is flat and blue and sparking in the sunshine. Obviously other times it's brown and grim and choppy and I get seasick. But everyone knows that champagne and peanuts help with seasickness!

Soffle's Rosemary & Thyme Pitta Chips

I confess I am not mad about pitta chips but I saw this little packet in the wine shop at Waddesdon Manor and felt sure that the reluctant taste testers and I should try it out. I mean, how can one resist this fascinating design? What are the birdies clutching in their beaks? Rosemary, obviously, and er... watches. Presumably because a naive drawing of thyme looks far too like rosemary.

Not very many in this 60g packet (but pitta chips are a lot heavier than potato crisps), a little bit hard in the bite department, but lots and lots of herby flavour. The reluctant taste testers weren't quite sure about this crispy snack but Senior taste tester told me he felt they were growing on him. Anyhow, they all got eaten.

This is Waddesdon Manor. Amazing eh? Not in darkest France but an hour from London and a fascinating place to visit.

Tsakiris Chips Oregano

Monday taste tester went to Crete and extremely kindly brought us back a packet of oregano flavoured crisps to try.

Actually, she isn't really a taste tester. She's almost always on a 5:2 diet and one of the diet days is aways a Monday so she doesn't get to try any of the exciting and exotic crispy snacks we might be attempting. Not even one. Very self-controlled.

I gather that this packet of crisps burst in her luggage on the flight home. I expect it swelled up like a balloon as some packets do and then had nowhere to go. But I don't think that affected either the texture/crunchiness (Monday taste tester clipped the packet shut fairly sharpish) or the flavour of these tasty Greek crisps.

Rather small crisps and much finer cut than some. And an interestingly simple flavour. You know how some UK crisp manufacturers seem determined to produce a five star restaurant menu type flavour of crisp? Here we have a simple herb. And while the crisps themselves may have been made on mainland Greece, I'm sure you could pick oregano fresh in Crete if you wanted.

100% Φυσικη Πατατα says the packet ριγανη. Which means something about potatoes and then oregano. Yes, if you want to learn a foreign language you need to read more food packaging. Although you may miss out on the finer points!

I haven't been to Greece for ages; 1981 I think. I was in Athens and Delos and Olympia and Delphi... all over. I'm fairly certain we never tried any crisps (I only remember buying postcards and flip-flops and a tiny icon) so I don't know if the Greeks prefer finely cut crisps. In gigantic 200g packets too. But why not?

M&S Fizzy Fangstastic Popcorn Orange Flavoured

OK so Tall Elegant taste tester discovered a truly weird Hallowe'en product at Marks & Spencer. Fizzy orange popcorn. Really? Apparently yes.

No tricks just treats says the packet.

Only this popcorn isn't very fizzy and it isn't very orangey. So it is a bit of a trick. At least, the flavour seems to be a bit changeable: some bits of popcorn have a lot more taste or fizz than others. This is something you might expect because it does happen quite a lot. Trouble is, the popcorn isn't really top notch so I thought it was a little disappointing. Not nearly enough lovely light puffy kernel and rather too much of the kernel skin.

I didn't say much to the reluctant taste testers but as always they made up their own minds. Not much of this popcorn got eaten so I draw my own conclusions. This weird flavour was never going to be a favourite for the taste testers. And the popcorn isn't very fangtastic (quite apart from anything else: no fangs). It doesn't even smell very orangey.

Hey ho. You can't have everything.

Purina Bakers Whirlers with Tasty Bacon & Cheese Flavour

This is not so reluctant taste tester Frieda. She was testing bacon & cheese flavour Whirlers today.

The pack claims these chewy twists of bacon and cheese flavour yumminess are irresistible. And that does in fact seem to be the case. Frieda was pretty impressed and the tasty morsel lasted not so long as a chocolate éclair. 

Frieda was rather taken with Whirlers. She spent a long time pointing at the bag which was sitting on Noble Friend's desk. Not so reluctant taste tester Honey likes them a lot too.

M&S Spirit of Summer BBQ Jerk Jumbo Coated Peanuts

Another packet of peanuts? Well, apparently yes.

Tall Elegant taste tester provided them as a Friday afternoon snack. As I said the other day M&S are getting rid of their Spirit of Summer stock and I expect she found these with the weird nuts & coconut combo that seems to have been vastly reduced.

I found the BBQ Jerk coating on these nuts seriously hot, and not particularly BBQ. But possibly (I've never had it) they lean toward the Jerk part of their flavouring.

Dutch taste tester took the remains of the pack home with her enthusiastically but history does not relate what the Vinyl Collector thought. Maybe she ate them all before she got home?

Perhaps not the flavour for me, and probably no longer available, but this style of coated nut may be just the thing if you like nuts and lots of hot spices.

Sarl la Ducal Chips Artisanales Aux Herbes de Provence

Hand made in a village in the Ardeche this a is a fabulous packet of hand cooked crisps with one major flaw: they don't taste of much.

Yes this is a fabulous crisp with great texture, wonderfully cooked and very nice to eat. Yes, we loved the crunch. But oh dear.... the Herbes de Provence are seriously lacking. These crisps should taste of rosemary, thyme, marjoram and savoury. And they don't really. Not very salty either.

The reluctant taste testers tried these and liked the crisp very much. Not so impressed with the lack of taste. The Chef and I tried them at the weekend with a dip. Very nice.

But you shouldn't need a dip; that should be an optional extra.

You might say that the reluctant taste testers and I have tried so many highly flavoured crisps over the last 3 years that we can no longer appreciate something more subtle. That's not the case. We frequently prefer the subtler and plainer flavours of crisp. Here we simply have a crisp with too little taste. It's a pity, because as I said, the texture is wonderful.

Cheeky Monkey Peanut Butter Puffs

Cheeky Monkey Peanut Butter Puffs from the USA are organic, gluten free, kosher, dairy & casein free, soy free, cholesterol free, trans fat free, sugar free, vegan , not fried, and full of protein. Plus... amazingly they are delicious.

With that list of things they don't contain you might suppose that they would be taste free too. But not a bit of it. Lightly salted and full of peanutty goodness the reluctant taste testers rather liked these soft and velvety puffs.

And the Chef liked them too. A surprising find from the local health food shop.