British Packaged Treats: A Taste Test!

I have been shopping in British grocery stores for almost six weeks now, and have noticed the strange (in my humble opinion) flavors of packaged items.

Crisps (called chips back home; chips here are our french fries, but I digress) range in flavors from prawn cocktail, beef teriyaki, ketchup, to basic salt & vinegar. I know we have strange flavors in the US (cool ranch or flaming hot, anyone?) so who am I to say their potato chip flavors are strange. However... I was just at Marks & Spencer and saw their "Ever so Posh" brand of crisps and one of the flavors was parmesan, asparagus, and truffle. Say what?!? That flavor sounded so weird, I gave in and purchased a bag.

I reheated last night's chicken stir fry and sat down with my lunch and side of "Ever so Posh" crisps.

The initial flavor was a dark, musky parmesan (probably influenced by the truffle oil) with a hint of earthy green. Not bad, really. After eating a few crisps, I started to notice a distinct asparagus taste in the back of my throat. However, it wasn't a fresh asparagus taste, it was more like what the unfortunate smelling biological after-effects of eating asparagus would taste like. Needless to say, I stopped eating them and drank lots of water to get the "Ever so Posh" taste out of my mouth. 

I also spotted a box of sweets in the Marks and Spencer checkout line earlier today. I figured what the heck, I'm already trying some weirdly flavored chips, I might as well try something else, too. The rhubarb and custard drops faired much better in my one-person taste test. They were similar to an old school Werther's butterscotch but with a hint of fruit. I couldn't have said they were rhubarb flavored (in fact, the back says there's more elderberry juice in them than rhubarb juice), but they're tasty nonetheless. And helped get rid of the asparagus aftertaste.

I doubt I'll buy either item again, but the taste test (and this write up) was a nice diversion while I await our washer and condenser dryer delivery and installation. The delivery will take place between 2PM - 6PM. It's 2:19 now, so I only have 3 hours and 41 minutes to kill...