Walkers Max Strong Hot Chicken Wings

Photo by Tech Taste Tester (stolen off Instagram)

Tech Taste Tester contacted me with news that he had just tried this crinkle cut crisp from Walkers. And he can confirm the taste is as hot as indicated on the packet. I am waiting for news on whether the taste is chickeny or not. It might not be. 

However, he points out that this is another crisp which suggests you pair it with beer. And therefore we think it qualifies as a “man crisp”. Tech Taste Tester, an actual man, deplores this. He says, in a swift Instagram message, “ladies do drink beer, but there’s a few too many other macho stereotypes and symbols used [on the packet]”. Why Walkers? Why do you do this? Does it really matter who enjoys this flavour? For goodness sake: it’s 2020 not 1975.

I looked in my local supermarket and discovered that both this Walkers Max flavour, and Jalapeño & Cheese, which the reluctant taste testers tried a couple of years ago, are on special this week. I wonder if they’re not very popular?

Walkers Max Strong Jalapeño & Cheese

These extra hot crinkle cut crisps from British crisp giant Walkers are described as being "perfect with beer".  I don't know about that as I only drink beer as a last resort, but it does seem that these crisps are (probably) aimed at men. The black packet, the beer glass shape in the middle of the O of the word Strong, and the go faster flames.

Now the reluctant taste testers haven't tried one of Walkers' Max Strong flavours (unless under their own steam and not reported back to HQ), but the Chef and I tried the Chilli & Lime on a plane to Geneva. I said then that I wasn't encouraged to try the Jalapeño & Cheese version. But apparently I forgot and here it is.

"Extra hot" says the blurb above an image of three red flames. And extra hot is right. Only two of the taste testers (including me) noticed the cheese part of the flavour. It comes first before the huge whack of chilli.

Tall Elegant taste tester choked at the first hurdle and coughed and spluttered to a glass of water. The rest of us managed a little better, and most of the 50g packet was snacked up.

I quite liked the flavour. As did taste tester from the New Forest. But we agreed we'd have liked it better if the heat had not been quite so intense.

They really are much too strong.

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.