Marks & Spencer Hand Cooked Sea Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Crisps Review

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Nutrition

Bag
Calories
Fat
Saturated
Salt
Sugars
40g
205
11.8g
1.2g
0.60g
0.2g
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Verdict

Bag

The M&S Hand Cooked range feature a 1950s retro look.The basic drawings to represent the flavourings are similarly vintage. The bags are flavour colour coded, which in turn causes the darker bags' black writing to get a little lost. The writing itself has a sort of stamped feel. This design would have been cutting edge at the time of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, but aside from its shelf stand out properties, it is just a bit old fashioned for a modern market. The Hand Cooked selling point does nothing to help it.
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Crunch

The very largest of what were predominantly medium sized Crisps, sustained its crunch throughout the eating process, but it did gradually decrease in strength until it succumbed. The Crisps were not as hard as some batch fried Crisps, but they were certainly more crunchy than almost all regular Crisps.

Texture

The first thing that hit us when opening this bag was the flecks of Black Pepper that were visible. There were not lots, but there was enough to hint at an accurate flavour description. There were not as many curly Chips as can usually be found in a bag of Hand Cooked Crisps. The colour was a sort of yellowy oil, if there was such a thing. There was also skin visible on most edges.
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Taste

A Nose Plunge Test revealed an oily Pepper aroma. There was a fairer balance between the Salt and the Pepper taste, which was good. However, the overwhelming flavour was oily potato.