Walkers Max Strong Chilli & Lime

I have seen this new style of crisp from Walkers advertised on TV recently so it was a bit of a triumph to find it at Luton airport. Luton has always been a good source of crisps and I hope it continues to be now that the shopping area has expanded so much and got so fancy.

The packet, and indeed the ad, tells me this is a crisp that is perfect with beer. A beer magnet. It also tells me the strength of the chilli has been classified as medium. Really? I thought this was pretty damned hot with a strong hit of chilli and a terrific bite, so I am not perhaps encouraged to try the Hot Chicken Wings (hot) or Jalapeño & Cheese (extra hot) flavours.

And we tried this crisp on a plane and you know your taste buds don’t work so well at altitude.

The Chef thought the taste very hot too. But I confess neither of us attempted to pair this crisp with beer. See? Trying out pairing... and er... failing before we've even begun. Well, the Chef doesn’t drink and I don’t drink beer unless I’m somewhere very very hot like Sydney in a heatwave.

So maybe next time I should try with a beer. The back of the packet says Calling all beer lovers! We've worked with flavour experts to perfectly match Walkers Max Strong with different types of beer. We’ve done the research, so you don’t have to look any further for the perfect crisps for your pint. Walkers Max Strong: a range of ridged crisps in spicy flavours to deliver maximum flavour hit. Hum. They don’t say which beers they’ve chosen do they?

Don’t get carried away with the idea that I didn’t enjoy this crinkle cut crisp. I sort of did in a masochistic kind of way. But I can’t help feeling that without actually admitting to it, Walkers have aimed this range of crisps firmly at, you guessed, men. Because, apparently, men like it spicy.

I confess there are one or two women in the TV ad. But I don’t include a link here because it kept asking me to confirm my age before allowing me a glimpse of something I had already seen on the television. Just like the DIY checkout in the supermarket when you try and buy a bottle of wine. The shop assistant never asks to see my ID; she knows I am old enough to buy alcohol but the computer doesn’t know that. Actually I don’t know why not. It seems to know everything else about me.