Walkers Mixups Snacks Mix Spicy

Tech taste tester found this packet of Walkers MixUps in Tescos. He admits he had meant to pick up the Cheese flavour selection but accidentally bought the Spicy flavour instead.

And I must say the reluctant taste testers and I were a little... reluctant to try this mix of crispy snacks. The bag was sitting in the kitchen at work for several days while we worked our way through several other offerings and I certainly wasn't at all sure. But we opened the packet and poured out a bowlful anyway.

Oh wow. It looks like the bottom of a school kid's lunch box. What a weird mixture.

However, once we tried we found this is rather a fabulous mix. Or some of it is, anyway. The spicy Wotsits are very good, and the Monster Munch too (much nicer than the quite tough to like Pickled Onion Monster Munch for example). But we didn't think the Doritos worked so well, and frankly the French Fries could have been much more flavoursome.

But here's a fascinating fact: History Graduate Taste Tester had never tried Monster Munch before. Amazing. I don't think Tech taste tester could quite believe it. But then it seems his childhood diet was mostly Monster Munch. Although it could be that he exaggerates.

Anyway, despite being deeply sceptical about the whole concept of MixUps, we really rather enjoyed this spicy selection. And quite to our surprise the main complaint was that there were not nearly enough Monster Munch.

4 different snacks = 4 x the fun! Maybe that's true.

Oh, and look at that. There's a little guy throwing his rubbish away responsibly. I think think this is a fresh design and I haven't seen one in ages.

Walkers French Fries Salt & Vinegar

Here's another little packet of French Fries from a Walkers multi-pack.

Same shiny texture as usual, still long and thin (obviously), same gentle flavour (although the initial aroma was very strong), same entirely pretence form of crispy snack.

All the same I really can't help liking these a lot. Can you stop yourself from finishing the packet?

I bet you can't.

Walkers French Fries Cheese & Onion

Halloween was approaching fast when I bought this multi-pack of French Fries (along with several packets of chocolatey this and that and some lollipops) for the basket of goodies. And obviously I tried one of the little 18g packets of Cheese & Onion.

You get a surprising amount of French Fries for your 18g; well, they probably are mostly air, being nothing but extruded and puffed potato starch and granules. And they definitely are very thin.

So the reluctant taste testers and I tucked in.

Very tasty indeed.

It isn't a very obvious cheese & onion flavour. In fact somebody thought it was salt and vinegar! However I thought, and it seemed that everyone taste testing agreed, that this is a very tasty crispy snack.

With the strange shiny texture of packing peanuts it is plain that French Fries are a fairly pretence kind of food. History graduate taste tester said he'd never liked them. He didn't like the texture. I kind of know what he meant and can't blame him. But he tried them anyway and reported that now he "really rather liked them" and this packet had "changed his view".

Success.

And it does rather go to show that periodically you should try foods you don't think that you like just in case you find you've changed your mind.

Walkers French Fries Worcester Sauce

Another little packet of crisps found at Paddington Station. And another packet with the number of calories: 93. This packet has 21 g of crispy snack in it and 93 kcal. I've never studied calories so I have no idea if this is good or not. But I'm guessing it probably is.

I've tried Walkers French Fries before but only Ready Salted. So finding a little bag of the Worcester Sauce flavour is something of a triumph. This seems to be the sort of crispy snack found at airports and railway stations, or in little corner shops.

As we don't have many of any of these near where I live I stock up when and where I can.

So what do the Chef and I think? Pretty good actually. There's a lovely sharp something or other that contributes to the Worcester Sauce flavour: it's a secret recipe I'm sure so we have to go with ingredients like "Worcester Sauce flavour", "Flavour Enhancer" (that's MSG to you and me), dried garlic and tomato, and... so on. It's not a very clear recipe. But it certainly is a tasty recipe and there's a great after taste.

The French Fries still remind me of very long thin packaging peanuts or whatever they call themselves but luckily this snack is not made from expanded polystyrene. The sharpness of the flavour - maybe the umaminess (probably not a word) - seems to work very well with the texture.

The packaging includes an image of that little guy throwing his rubbish away responsibly. But if you want to see him you will have to click on the Ready Salted link above because it's the same design. He's a lot thinner than usual.

The Chef & I rather liked this little packet of crispy snacks. We managed to eat the whole tasty (rather small) packet without really noticing. Which is surely an encouraging sign.

Actually, we liked the small size of the packet very much. It's good to have a small packet to try. I'm so fed up of having to buy gigantic bags of crispy snacks without knowing whether I'm going to like them or not. This is fine if you like what you've got, but if this is a taste test then a small packet is miles better.

I am including some photographs I took in the Oxford University Botanic Gardens which were looking beautiful this weekend. I read that this is one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world; founded in 1621 for "the glorification of the works of God and for the furtherance of learning". What a wonderful reason to found a garden, and how very nice to see such old gardens looking so pretty. Really, what more can you ask?

Walkers French Fries Ready Salted

For ages I've been wondering what Walkers French Fries would be like but I've only ever seen them in packs of six or more and who buys a pack of six somethings not having any idea if they are going to be nice or not. So when I saw this little bag in the Post Office I thought why not? And then the guy behind the counter gave them to me for nothing because the packet was past its sell-by date.

So I didn't know what to expect: some past their sell-by crisps are absolutely fine while others are not so nice.  So I was pleasantly surprised because these seemed perfectly fine and tasted delicious.

You know those shiny little expanded polystyrene packaging peanuts? French Fries have a very similar silky feel to them and also a similar foamy texture. Because they are made of potato granules and not slices of potato. Whatever it is that Walkers do to turn potato granules and starch into a tasty snack via some sort of extruding machine gives them an amazing shiny feel. Although if you bit into a polystyrene peanut I imagine it wouldn't have a yummy salty taste. Or a satisfying crunch either.

French Fries are not so long and spindly as shown on the packet, but they are still fairly long. A little bit (but not too) thin. And a little bit curvy. And really and truly they are delicious. This is a great traditional ready salted flavour.

OK, so one of the ingredients is MSG (surprise!) but as I'm not intending to eat these crispy crunchy tasty snacks every day I don't really care. Moderation is everything. I would like to try French Fries in another flavour though.

Once again the design department at Walkers has played with the little guy who disposes of his rubbish responsibly. And to go with the spindly thin design of this snack the little guy is now terribly thin and spindly. And it looks as though he's throwing away several French Fries.

I really enjoy these little guys and (perhaps a little sadly) I've started to look out for different designs. It's a harmless pursuit I suppose. But all credit to Walkers for going to the trouble because they don't need to.