Convivial @YorkshireCrisps - Black Pepper flavour (Amazon) [By @SpectreUK]

Some snackers out there may disagree, but I always find a decent packet of fairly plain crisps goes perfectly well with a pint of beer during an evening's TV entertainment. I was first introduced to plain Ready Salted Walker's crisps when I was a wee lad by my Auntie and Uncle Fred. Later realising in my late teens in a local pub that a pint of ale went awfully well with a packet of Ready Salted crisps on a quiet afternoon with a good book. Later in life I have found that not only Ready Salted, but No Salt crisps go just as well with beer, as well as Salt and Black Pepper flavoured crisps.

We'd recently recorded the new James Spader series called The Blacklist on the TiVo box and decided to watch the Pilot episode one evening. I'd received this drum of Convivial Yorkshire Crisps Black Pepper flavour in a hamper for Christmas, as clearly some members of my family think I need feeding up a bit and haven't seen the belly in my Birthday suit. There was a picture of Scarborough Castle on the packaging and some history about it, which I shan't go into here, but I'd recommend that you visit, as the town and castle are lovely with rock pools and also a long sandy beach. On pealing back the foil seal on the drum there was a light smell of sunflower oil and delightful whiff of potato crisps mixed with salty black pepper. The crisps are called "convivial" as the drum states that they are festive and fun, and meant for sharing. In the spirit of this sharing I gave Cinabar a small (very small) pile of crisps, but thankfully she didn't want any of my beer! These crisps had a decent crunch to them and were very moreish. I could taste the balsamic vinegar and a sumptuous mix of salt and black pepper merged with the potato flavour in the crisps, which complemented the hoppy bitterness and malty flavours in the dark brown porter that I was drinking at the time. We also very much enjoyed the Pilot episode of The Blacklist and now can't stop watching the recorded episodes too.

Information on the drum;
Crisps were made in Wales Bar in Yorkshire with locally grown Yorkshire vegetables, pure sunflower oil and totally natural flavourings. The foil sealed drum was made in Bradford. The 100g drum had 496 calories per 200g, and 24.8g of fat. Ingredients included; potatoes, sunflower oil, vegetarian lactose, vegetarian whey powder, sea salt, ground black pepper, yeast extract, vegetable powder, dried lemon, and balsamic vinegar powder.

By Spectre