Posh flavored crisps are new supermarket battleground

Anyone for gin and tonic or winter berries and prosecco-flavored snacks?

Forget cheese footballs or Twiglets, retailers have raised their game this Christmas to tempt shoppers with an unprecedented range of upmarket flavors in the battle of posh festive crisps. 

Crisps flavored with pulled pork or with drinks such as prosecco or gin and tonic feature in retailers' snack offerings. Cheese and onion or salt and vinegar have been elbowed aside in favor of camembert and caramelized onion from discount supermarket Aldi, or sear salt and chardonnay wine vinegar, on sale at the Co-op.

Marks & Spencer revealed its Christmas hand early with winter berries and prosecco hand-cooked crisps, made with blackcurrant and raspberry juice and M&S prosecco, scattered with edible gold stars. "There's been a big trend for wacky flavored crisps over the last few years," said M&S snack developer Katy Patino. "At Christmas everyone loves a glass of prosecco and a salty snack, so we decoded to combine the two."

A cheaper alternative, but with a similar theme, are Tesco Finest's prosecco and elderberry crisps. Aldi's gin and tonic crisps have sold out as part of multipacks that include venison, red wine and thyme. 

Another first for crisps this year has popped up in Lidl's Deluxe range. It is selling pulled pork and wildflower honey crisps alongside its more conventional roast turkey and sage and onion stuffing offering. Lidl's crisp buyer, Lukas Schmidlin, said: "In the last year we have noticed a real trend for trying to find the most interesting and unusual crisp flavors. Under the influence of our chef in residence, Kevin Love, we have taken classic British flavors like pulled pork, roast turkey and cheese and onion and transformed them using more unusual ingredients such as wild flower honey, stilton and thyme.