Retro Crispy Snacks are Making a Comeback

 

I read several articles this September about how retro style crispy snacks are making a huge comeback. Of course, one person’s retro snack is another person’s childhood favourite. Apparently it’s a TikTok trend. I have never looked at TikTok and don’t intend to start now, but it seems that TikTokers will watch absolutely anything for a laugh. And if that means discovering retro snacks that’s fine by me.

Here’s the Daily Mirror. And here’s The Guardian. And The Daily Mail.

Here’s what I had to say about Nik Naks. How interesting, I had quite forgotten them. They’re rather like Crunchy Wotsits. 

And here’s me trying Skips if you are interested.

Since I started eating crisps and crispy snacks in the early 1960s none of these “retro” snacks strikes me as particularly old school. Especially as the little local shop at the bottom of our road has never stopped selling this style of snack. Ditto our post office. Mind you, these days retro seems to apply to anything that wasn’t made or thought of this year. So you decide if these snacks seem retro to you.

Also TikTokers seem to have the attention span of a goldfish (I gather this is longer than we thought), so this trend will probably be over by Christmas, if it isn’t over already.

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.

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 Baked Wotsits Really Cheesy

I've been eating so many exotic varieties of crisps recently I have ignored the old classics. And Cheesy Wotsits really are a classic which I always used to love.

But guess what? These cheesy flavour corn puffs aren't the same as they used to be. Yes, you've guessed; they're baked not fried these days.

Everyone knows that crisps and other crispy snack foods are not at all healthy and we shouldn't be eating too many of them. So changing from unhealthy frying to baking is surely just a marketing thing.  It makes your unhealthy crispy snack marginally less unhealthy; although still chock full of salt (and in many cases sugar too).

The only trouble is that baked snacks are never so tasty as fried. Well.... they are actually just fine if you never tried the old version. Sadly though they leave me lusting after the olden days when truly unhealthy crispy snacks tasted truly fabulous.

But ongoing ignoring the above, these aren't at all bad. Yes, and ignoring the fact that my newly upgraded Mac (which used to be Snow Leopard and is now Mavericks or something) randomly changes what I type for whatever it thinks fit; eg it changed ignoring to ongoing without asking me, they do taste pretty cheesy. The crunch is rather soft but the taste is good.

I must admit I miss the old excess flavour dust; there's nothing like so much flavour dust as there used to be, and your fingers don't turn orange any more. Perhaps the dust sticks better on each little baked Wotsit, or perhaps Walkers just use less dust these days? There wasn't even lots of dust left inside the bag or in the corners. Nothing left to lick off!

The flavour seems to be mostly created from milk: dried cheese, milk whey powder, buttermilk powder and milk proteins. So don't try these if you are allergic to milk. Also in the mix Disodium 5'-Ribonucleotide (sounds like a chemistry lesson) and Potassium Chloride which I could have sworn was mentioned in a murder mystery I was watching on TV this afternoon; yes, I read you can stop the heart with the correct amount of this chemical. Hmmn. They do put odd stuff into crisps sometimes don't they?

And here's the Walkers design team again playing with the little guy who throws his rubbish away responsibly. For some reason he has morphed into a mouse on the Wotsits packet. I guess it must be all the cheese.

The packet asked if I am a cruncher or a melter? Do I like to nibble each Wotsit? Or let it gently dissolve in my mouth? I think I'm a cruncher but unfortunately I finished the packet before reading the bag so failed to try out each eating technique. Stupid! I also should have weighed the bag before starting because weirdly it doesn't have a weight on. These convenient little portions have 99 calories or less (it says) but not how big the portion is.

Perfectly acceptable cheesy crispy corn puffs. But fings ain't wot they used to be. And my Mac hates the word fings.