Unlike some people, I am not a fat bastard. But for me, a day is not complete without a packet of crisps. Or two. Or three.
At work a few months ago I was talking to the representative from Walkers Crisps. He told me that Cheddar Cheese flavour was being discontinued along with Spicy Chilli (which most people thought was too hot) and Lamb and Mint (which was never going to be popular beyond novelty value, but I personally enjoyed it).
This made way for the return of Worcester Sauce and the introduction of Cajun Spice. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Cajun flavour has bombed as badly as the three discontinued flavours.
I was most upset by the fact that Cheddar Cheese was being discontinued. When they were first introduced I recognised the flavour immediately from one of Walkers’s special limited edition rangers. It was the same as Feta Cheese from the Mediterranean flavours. I absolutely loved it!
Seemingly, other people did not. However, while single packs of Cheddar Cheese have been bumped off, they are seemingly still being solid in multipacks. So I can still get my cheesy crispy fix.
Apart from the taste — which would be enough really — the Cheddar Cheese flavour has another thing going for it. Despite being flavoursome, it does not make my breath honk (as far as I know!).
This is unlike certain other flavours such as Cheese and Onion or — even worse — Pickled Onion. I mean, Cheese and Onion crisps are tasty enough, and they are not particularly offensive if I come into close quarters with someone else.
But if I were to get peckish late at night and find myself in need of a midnight snack, Cheese and Onion is a no-go area. Of course I brush my teeth before I go to bed, but the powerful odour of Cheese and Onion is such that the offensive fumes travel back up my digestive system the wrong way and leave me with the most foul taste in my mouth when I wake up.
Cheddar Cheese is not bland like Ready Salted (not that I would say no to a pack of Ready Salted, which is one of my favourite flavours). But its tastiness does not give me a yukky mouth that tastes like its been full of beach sand that the dog pissed in.
Speaking of which, I have also discovered at my work that Pickled Onion is one of the biggest sellers, if not the biggest seller. Why? Has this country got a vampire problem that nobody has told me about?
I’m not a crisp person really (why eat potato’s when you could eat sugar?) but Al is, so we always have some in the flat. Currently, it’s a Walkers multipack labelled Scottish Favourites, which I insisted we get, because it has only Tomato Ketchup and Pickled Onion flavours and, yes, those *are* both my favourites. So it seems to be a Scottish thing generally!
I think it’s because we were all brought up on those 10p Space Raiders.
Oh, good lord, I just saw what spellcheck changed potato (singular) to. I apologise to the world.
I can remember when flavoured crisps first came out, way back in the sixties. The first flavour was cheese and it was magnificently effective. I think they used real cheese rather than chemicals and the taste was exactly right.
Then they started experimenting with other flavours and, eventually, along came cheese & onion (actually my favourite now but very chemical-based) and it did for cheese – they took it off the market. I have mourned cheese’s disappearance, lo, these many years so it was with rapturous joy that I read of the appearance of cheddar cheese flavour in your post. When I left Britain they had not introduced it so I was not aware of its comeback.
How sad that it seems destined to be taken from us yet again. The crisp companies have become quite creative in their attempts to describe the chemical tastes they invent and I admit that I’ll try anything once – but nothing approaches that simple, down-homey taste of cheese crisps. Knowing my luck, even the multi-packs will have disappeared by the time I get back to Britain.
Trust me, the flavoured crisps in the States are truly awful. They may call prawns shrimps but you’d have thought they’d at least do a shrimp cocktail flavour, that king of the blatantly chemical tastes. But no, I have to be content with second rate attempts like sour cream and onion (insipid) and barbecue beef (indescribable). Oh, for a good cheese crisp.
Oh, I am a fan of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles and BBQ Beef Walkers.
Basically, I like crisps. Except for Space Raiders. Yeeuch.
Disappointed that Walkers have such a thing as ‘Scottish Favourites’, but it turns out to be ‘Favourites of Scotland’. What do you reckon would make a good Scottish flavour of crisps? Neeps (I was going to say Neeps and Tatties, but the tatties bit would be a bit obvious given that they are crisps)? Haggis? Irn Bru?
Haggis, Irn-Bru and Highland Toffee. Edinburgh Rock flavour. Deep fried Mars Bar flavour. Black pudding flavour… the possibilities are endless, quite frankly!
Deep fried pizza!!!
Deep fried pizza would definitely work. It sounds like it would be similar to those pizza crisps you get in France though. (It’s all France, France, France on this blog at the moment.)