Walkers Wotsits Crunchy Sweet & Spicy Flamin’ Hot

Hmmn…. If you ask me, calling this crispy corn based snack a Wotsit is somewhat disingenuous. Honestly, these are not corn puffs and they aren’t at all like the fabulous corn based puff that is a Wotsit. I feel a bit cheated.

Yes, I know, I shouldn’t take taste testing crispy snacks so seriously, but Wotsits are wonderful and this snack isn’t.

It reminds me a little of the Italian Fonzies the Chef and I tried once, or if you are a fan of Australian snacks, think Twisties. But tasting rather different and quite orange.

But not to worry, at least not too much, because they are crunchy. And they are covered in lots of tasty orange flavour dust. And they are quite spicy, but unless my taste buds have had a major personality transplant, I really don’t think they can be described as flamin’ hot. Except, wait, wait, it appears that flamin’ hot is not a description but rather a flavour. Which includes all manner of ultra processed ingredients such as acidity regulators, disodium 5’-ribonuceotide, hydrolysed vegetable protein and sulphite amonia caramel. Yes, I imagine your guess is as good as mine.

I can’t put my finger on what this crispy corn (maize) based snack actually tastes of. A bit sweet and sour. A bit of a kick. Sort of paprika.

However, do you genuinely want flamin’ hot? Let me introduce you to the impossibly volcanic Takis Fuego snack I found in Switzerland earlier this year. That’s what we in the taste testing trade call much too hot.

Co-op Irresistible Limited Edition Hand Cooked Chicken Shawarma

I really don’t know quite what to say about this limited edition crisp from our local Co-op here in North London. You will probably think the Chef and I are terribly boring, but we are both fairly sure we’ve never had a chicken shawarma. We almost never have a takeaway. I think the last one was a pizza in lockdown in Switzerland. So neither of us knows what taste to look out for in these crisps. Oh dear. That’s not a great help, is it!

I looked up a chicken shawarma recipe to see if it tallied at all with the ingredients on the packet. What do you think? Not really. I think the taste that I can’t quite get to grips with is lurking behind the unhelpful ‘chili chicken shawarma flavour seasoning’. I wish I knew what that concoction is made with.

Don’t run away with the idea that this crisp is nasty. It’s not. I have eaten quite a few, and the Chef has been absent mindedly snacking away with no complaints. 

The crisps themselves are not very large but with a nice crunch, and they are richly golden in colour. It’s just that I can’t work out what they taste of. Could it be the cumin? I can’t make my mind up. Whatever they taste of, it’s like no other potato crisp I ever tried before.

Walkers Squares Ready Salted

And here, plucked from a multi pack, is the unadulterated version of Walkers Squares. Well, it’s what we in the UK call ready salted. Because in the olden days, the first years of crisp manufacturing, you got a packet of fried potato slices and a little blue bag of salt which you untwisted and added the salt yourself. Only then was the huge technological leap of the ready salted crisp invented. Or indeed the ready salt & vinegared or ready cheese & onioned crisp, but of course we don’t call them that.

Anyway, with just salt as the flavour, you can taste just how different reconstituted potato products are from potato crisps. Nice texture, easy to eat. I rather like the flavour but would I want to eat them every day? I think not.

Here’s another square snack I think I must have liked better, from Marks & Spencer.

In other matters, recently someone was referred to this blog by Wikipedia. I wish I knew how that happened. Oh look at that… it’s here. Scroll down. I wasn’t expecting ever to be a reference on Wikipedia. 

Ella’s Kitchen Tomato & Basil Melty Sticks

We bought this small packet of organic crispy snacks as part of a birthday present for the Chef’s great nephew, who is one this week. He’s not our child, so I won’t share the photo of him enthusiastically grasping the packet, but I can see he knows what he’s got, and he’s looking forward to his mum opening the packet for him.

I am sure that these tomato and basil melty sticks got eaten, or at least crumbled enthusiastically on to the floor (I saw what happened to his poor birthday cake), but his mum tells me he really likes the cheese and apple flavour best.