I confess I was quite excited to try six entirely new crisp flavours all in one fell swoop, but now I've got a bit fed up. It all feels a bit pretence. Which I guess it is. After all, one may enjoy one (or all) of these brand new flavours, but basically this is a marketing machine in action.
However, nothing venture, nothing gained, and once embarked on this mass testing I felt we must complete the exercise. So... I asked the reluctant taste testers at work to tuck in once again.
I try to conduct a blind taste test so they don't know what they're trying. So, one tester suggested the crisps were lentil soup flavour. And I see exactly what she meant. In fact, several people thought the soup theory was a good one. It sounds a bit odd perhaps, but... well, I guess you have to try the crisps for yourself.
Anyhow, another enthusiastic tester said she thought the crisps tasted of "those big peppers, whatever you call them". That would be peppers then. And she's right too I think. English is not her first language although mostly you would never know. I was very surprised she wasn't sure what to call peppers. Although, Americans say bell peppers and Australians say capsicums so I guess it can be confusing especially as peppers are totally different from pepper (don't you just love the English language?). I don't like peppers (horrid things if you ask me) so that didn't encourage me to look enthusiastically at these crisps.
We did have a couple of votes for a "meaty" taste. Which would be right because these crisps are not suitable for vegetarians. Amazingly the ingredients list includes powdered Aberdeen Angus beef. Although otherwise it's hard to say what went into the flavour. There's "smoke flavour', herbs, spices and flavourings. All a bit vague.
I have to admit I wasn't madly taken with these crisps. And neither was the Chef. I did catch two of the tasters in the kitchen discussing whether they could detect the sizzle or not. I don't think the chef or I got the sizzle. And I'm pretty sure I couldn't detect any sign of a tortilla but perhaps the potato crisps themselves perform this function.
But I did find one big fan. We have a volunteer at work who comes in every so often to carry out detailed investigations for us into all sorts of different things: I think he finds being retired terribly dull. He's recently discovered the joy of crisp tasting, and was very taken with these.
Sizzling steak fajita is not a flavour I particularly liked. So I'm afraid we have another "very sorry" for nice sounding creator civil engineering student Jed. You can find out all about him on the Walkers website, and don't forget crisp fans - you can only vote for your favourite flavour until 17th October.
So get voting!
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