Walkers Sensations Oven Roasted Peanuts Honey and Salt Flavour

Here we go again, another year, another snack to write about, and just for a change (not) here’s another packet of nuts. Because I wanted to compare Honey Roast Peanuts with Honey and Salt flavour nuts.

You might suppose that they would be pretty nearly identical but you would be wrong. The Honey and Salt are much less sweet than the Honey Roast, and considerably more salty. Much more to my taste. Lots of delicious flavour dust. Very nice. 

But sadly the peanuts are not so good. Smaller and harder than KP nuts usually are. 

However, this is a good option if you fancy a sweet and salty nut.

I wonder why Walkers chose Californian honey? Surely there is plenty of honey produced in the UK, or failing that, Europe?

Walkers Sensations Hickory Smoked Cheddar & Crispy Bacon

Ski Instructor told me that he and Farmer’s Daughter had poured over this blog the whole evening before the Chef and I went round for a drink and to admire their new garden. He claimed they wanted to be sure I had a fresh crisp to try. 

I am quite certain he completely made that up but in fact Farmer’s Daughter did manage to find a crisp we hadn’t seen before.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the actual crisps, and the crunch is just fine, but I am not too sure about the flavour. The cheesiness isn’t tip top; I am not certain that smoked cheese is the way to go with a flavour for crisps. And the crispy bacon? How can you create a crispy flavour? Well obviously you can’t.

Not nasty at all, just not particularly special.

The packet says “new” but we don’t know how long that label has been around.

Walkers Sensations Japanese Sweet Wasabi & Ginger

This packet was donated by Senior taste tester who found it in the local branch of Waitrose and ate the contents gradually over the space of a week or so and then donated the rest to the traditional bowl in the kitchen so the rest of the taste testers to try.

It probably has not escaped your notice that I'm really not mad for wasabi. People tell me I should like it because it tastes very like horse radish... but I've never liked that either. No nor mustard neither. And as for that nasty mixture my mother was so fond of, Tewkesbury Mustard, which is a mix of horseradish and mustard... well need I say more. In the olden days you couldn't even buy it outside Tewkesbury which is in darkest Gloucestershire at the confluence of the Avon and the Severn and consequently subject to frequent flooding.

Anyway, Senior taste tester said he liked them and ate quite a few. I wasn't sure. There's a big hit of heat when you crunch into the first crisp but that quickly dissipates and the flavour becomes less strong. Slightly Red-Haired Bristolian, like me, was not that taken with these crisps but I notice that  fair number were snacked up before I left to go home. Which I do at 2 these days.

Unlike some so-called wasabi flavoured crisps, this do actually contain wasabi powder rather than horse radish. And mustard too. So; full of ingredients I don't like! not for me then. However, the scent of the crisps coming out of the bag is quite pleasant.

The packet says first the bite of sweet wasabi and soy, then the zing of tangy onion, finishing with a warmth of ginger. As I said: not really for me, and I think these subtleties passed me by.

If you are a wasabi fan I daresay you will enjoy these quite a lot.

Walkers Sensations Californian Honey & Salt Oven Roasted Peanuts

Another packet of ostentatiously oven roasted peanuts. Just how are old style (you know, what we grew up with) nuts cooked? Tossed in a giant frying pan or something?

Here's a recipe explaining how to make salted peanuts at home. I never thought about soaking the nuts in brine but now I know. There are also recipes that explain how to do it without the oil, but where's the joy in that?

I wonder. Do you suppose that products labelled oven baked are cooked without oil, but those labelled oven roasted are cooked with oil while still managing to sound a little bit healthy. What do you think? There is certainly oil involved in this recipe, but perhaps there is no difference between baked and roast.

One of my cousins makes a really tasty Christmas Day treat of fresh almonds fried in butter and sprinkled with salt. It's really good. Hot buttery saltiness makes almonds so easy to eat with a glass of fizz. And I don't really like almonds much. I guess you could try this with other nuts too.

Anyway, these peanuts are a lot more complicated than ordinary salted peanuts, and thus, I daresay, even less good for you. Look at all the honey and salt, and the second ingredient after peanuts is sugar. No real surprise there, but remember to restrict your intake because they won't do your diet any good.

They do taste good. And I think the sweet/saltiness works very well.

But both the Chef and I thought the nuts are rather harder than we were expecting. I don't know why they should be quite so hard.

Walkers Sensations Crispy Thins Mexican Fiery Sweet Chipotle

New from Walkers these really fine Crispy Thins are really crispy. And really thin. And because they're so crispy and thin they do suffer from quite a lot of breakages. Which is a shame because you ought to get a packet full of thin and crispy squares, and you don't.

As I have had to say quite often over the last 590 odd posts, breakages do not affect the flavour. However, they do affect how you feel about a crispy snack and I would hesitate to serve these little biscuitty snacks at a party. Thin and crispy is a great texture but I think I would be happy with not-quite-so thin and crispy if you got more squares and fewer small broken bits. Or perhaps there is scope to change the packaging, which although it features a gusset at the bottom, does not seem to offer much protection?

I'm not sure this crispy snack is really for me. Some of the reluctant taste testers liked the flavour a lot, but I don't really like the deep smoky flavour of chipotle chilli or the spicy sweetness and the lingering heat of paprika. Sorry Walkers. My tastebuds were not seduced.

Disappointingly although this crispy snack is made by Walkers it features only the most generic of little guys throwing his rubbish away responsibly. You know how Walkers have a different little guy for all their different crispy snacks? OK, well regular readers may have noticed my obsession with this subject. Will Walkers read my post and do something about this? I wish. But somehow I doubt it!

Walkers Sensations Oriental Crackers Peking Spare Rib

Noble Friend picked up this packet of crispy snacks and brought them in to the office. Actually I think she meant to buy quite a different packet but she bought this and in fact they turned out to be quite popular.

Walkers Sensations tend to have a very strong taste. I guess that's what the sensation is all about. And these Peking (why not Beijing?) Spare Rib crackers are no exception. Except that quite honestly it's hard to tell that this flavour is Peking Spare Ribs. It might almost just as well be Hoisin Crispy Duck. Although the recipe does include dried pork, it's all about the seasoning. Which is pretty strong.

And then we read the list of ingredients and wondered why is this crispy snack made from a combination of tapioca and cassava? Cassava? Isn't that what people eat if they live 2,000 miles up the Amazon? So what's it doing in a crispy snack in London?

Anyway, almost all the reluctant taste testers really enjoyed this crispy snack. Extremely Sceptical taste tester pronounced that "Deffo" the taste gets better on the 6th, 7th, or 8th crunch. Deffo. And Tall taste tester said he could probably eat the entire packet at one sitting. All well and good.

But Giraffe Fan taste tester said it was lucky she was so polite otherwise she would have spat out the first crisp she tried. Not a fan. Well, she should have. Don't go around eating something you don't like. That's silly.

The packet tells us that the flavour of sweet, sticky pork hits the tastebuds first, before ginger and pepper add spicy heat, making a distinctly Oriental aniseed finish. Hmm... not sure about that. But I did find this crispy snack very tasty.

Quite small crispy snacks, a regular oval shape, and a very good crunch. A very good crunch indeed.

Walkers Sensations Poppadoms Lime & Coriander Chutney

Amazingly this crispy snack comes highly recommended by the extremely skeptical taste tester. Yes really. And indeed she kindly donated this packet which I understand she found in Sainsburys.

"The freshness of zesty lime and coriander leaf leads you into the sweet creamily rich taste of curry" says the packet. Does it indeed?

This crispy snack has a lovely light crunch and a zingy lime taste over the chilli heat. Very tasty, very nice indeed. And quite hard to stop eating.

The extremely skeptical taste tester admits she bought a packet to bring in to work the other day. And accidentally ate the whole thing before it could leave her flat. So I think we were lucky to get the chance to try this second packet. But do admit; that is the best kind of recommendation.

It's interesting that here the lime & coriander works really well but in the previous crispy snack - the M&S Green Chilli Lime & Coriander Pea Snaps - it really doesn't.

The Chef thinks the poppadoms look quite nice too. And that can't be bad.