Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones appeared to breach rules following a ‘bonkers’ pitch, but only to demonstrate how enthusiastic he was about the product.
Maria Antoniou, an entrepreneur, joined the BBC One competition hoping to win £50,000 for 20% of her firm, a crisp chocolate bar.
She claimed she was ‘bored’ with the chocolates on the market, with orange, mint, and salted caramel no longer satisfying her cravings.
Instead, she created a milk chocolate bar filled with crisps, including a contentious cheese and onion taste.
Maria’s items have sold over 8,000 since their premiere in January 2022, but fans aren’t persuaded.
‘A bar of crisps just no, disgusting,’ viewer @realalescouser wrote.
‘Chocolate bars with cheese and onion crisps??? Disgusting,’ @TheLovelyStina added.
But the Dragons were totally onboard.
‘I was terrified before you came in,’ Sara Davies admitted, saying she’d feared a ‘disaster’ of chocolate-flavoured crisps.
But the other way around, she was ‘enjoying it’.
Peter Jones was just as enthusiastic, dismissing Maria’s financial data and claiming that this was all about ‘the future of chocolate’.
‘I’m serious about this,’ he added.
He was so excited about it that he broke away from the formal setting and raced off camera to offer producers and cameramen some of the gifts, surprising the other Dragons.
‘Try that!’ he insisted to the crew.
‘I don’t know what you’ve done, Maria,’ Deborah Jones admitted, stunned by Peter’s obsession with the novelty snack.
Meanwhile, Steven Bartlett had no idea who he was sitting next to and compared Peter to Bruce Bogtrotter from Matilda.
‘Are you OK?’ Steven asked him, as Peter replied with a big grin: ‘I love it.’
He then quipped: ‘Do you know that boy from Matilda that eats all the chocolate? I feel like I’m sat next to him!’
And while Peter was obsessed, even saying he had ‘the chocolate sweats’, Steven said he didn’t ‘get it’.
‘You are literally so boring,’ Peter – still with his mouth full of chocolate – hit back with.
‘Weirdly, I get it,’ he told Maria, as even Touker Suleyman defended Maria against Steven.
But despite how much he loved the product, Peter didn’t actually invest.
After all the other Dragons sadly confirmed they were ‘out’, Peter said: ‘I think it’s bloody brilliant. And I know it’s an indulgent treat and I know you shouldn’t do it, but there are just some days where you go, “I’m going to have a bar of chocolate and a packet of crisps and watch something on TV.”
‘It was only a matter of time before somebody comes out with it and you’ve come out with it.
‘It’s really niche though, this is the downsize of your product.’
He added: ‘I would still buy it, it’s just not an investment, so for that reason I’m out, really sadly.’
Maria had earlier admitted her product could be seen as bonkers, saying: ‘When I first started making the product people thought I was a genius, or a little bit bonkers.’
And, while Peter did not invest in the firm, his enthusiasm for it won many viewers at home.
‘Omg crisps inside chocolate bars yes please… I’m going to make my own this weekend but white chocolate.. that lady has just given everyone ideas to make at home… what a legend,’ @khomsi_miriam wrote on X.
‘I fancy crisps and chocolate together now!’ @cathyduck69 added.
Dragons’ Den airs Thursdays at 8pm on BBC One.
