How Low Can You Go? (Walkers Baked Bacon & Cheddar Crisps)

Member Name: keeperofthematri

Product:	Walkers Baked Bacon & Cheddar Crisps
Date:	29/09/09 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Crunchy, low in fat

Disadvantages: Cheese taste, otherwise nothing

I spotted these at the weekend and, as I hadn't tried them before I'd thought I'd see what they were like. Firstly I should say that I'm not a cheese person at all. Mommie Dearest had a cheese craving when she was carrying me and consequently munched her way through piles of the stuff whilst she was pregnant. Which is probably why, in general, I don't like cheese. I don't mind it as part of a pizza topping, in a quiche, or even on toast (with some HP sauce ~ yum!) but I can't eat chunks of it like most people can.

You're probably asking why I chose to buy these then. Well, they're actually for Boyfriend but, seeing as they're on Dooyoo as something that can be reviewed I decided to put my dislike of cheese aside momentarily to "road test" them.


Packaging.

The Walked Baked come in a multipack bag which is predominantly a pinky-purple. On the front is the usual Walkers logo, a picture of some crisps, bacon and cheese, the usual Recommended Daily Amount percentages and a "70% Less fat*" claim. Turning over the pack you can see that the asterisk refers to the fact that Walkers are claiming that these crisps contain 70% less fat than ordinary Walker crisps on average.

The back of the bag contains the usual lists of ingredients and nutritional information as well as a blurb about how Walkers have used real food ingredients in their seasoning. As a result this flavour is not suitable for vegetarians.

You can also visit Walkers at:- www.walkers-baked.co.uk


Nutritional Information per 25g bag {per 100g in brackets}

Energy kJ: 419kJ {1674kJ}
kcal: 99kcal {396kcal}
Protein: 1.6g {6.5g}
Carbohydrate: 18.4g {73.5g}
of which sugars: 1.8g {7.1g}
Fat: 2.1g {8.5g}
(of which saturates): 0.4g {1.4g}
Fibre: 1.2g {4.6g}
Sodium: 0.13g {0.51g}
Equivalent as salt: 0.32g {1.30g}

Allergy advice. These are suitable for coeliacs. Not suitable for vegetarians (see above)
These crisps contain no MSG, no preservatives and no artificial colours


Ingredients:

Potato Flakes, Starch, Sunflower Oil, Bacon 'n' Cheddar Seasoning [Dried Bacon, Flavourings (contains milk), Dried Milk Whey, Dried Cheese (from milk), Butter (from milk), Milk Lactose, Colour: Paprika Extract], Sugar, Emulsifier (Soya Lechithin), Dextrose, Salt.


Price:

At the time of writing Morrisons are charging £1.45 for a multipack containing 6 bags of crisps. There is however a "Buy 2 for £2.50" offer on at the moment.


Taste & Opinion:

After opening the packet I take a tentative smell. These smell a little too cheesy for my liking and I'm not sure whether I'll enjoy then or not. They do smell of bacon but that underlying cheese smell is concerning me slightly. In appearance they look a little like McCoys crisps as they have similar sorts of ridges. However, these are lighter in appearance and seem to be thinner than McCoys are.

I bit into one and find them to be pleasantly crunchy, much more so that the standard Walkers brand are. They are, in crisps terms towards the upper end of the crunchiness scale so are perhaps not an appropriate product for anyone with oral issues with regard to "hard" foods. If you do have sensitivity issues which limits the sort of foods you can easily eat then I'd recommend you have a softer brand of crisps such as Quavers or Skips because, as well as being crunchy some of these crisps can have fairly sharp edges.

On first tasting these The bacon flavour is the more immediate of the two. It's not as strong as the bacon flavour in Frazzles, or indeed in Sainsbury's Bacon Crispies or Walkers own regular bacon flavour. The cheese kicks in more as an aftertaste and although I'm not finding it completely vile it is spoiling the taste experience for me. For those of you that have no issue with cheese though I'd suspect that you'd think that these crisps are pleasant rather than something moreish you'd be eager to have again.

They're less greasy to the touch than a lot of other crisps so you don't feel as if you should wash your hands after eating them.

Healthwise these come in at a very low 8.5% fat which places them firmly at the bottom of my ever growing fat content table. Compared to the crisps at the top on 38.3% fat (Nik Naks) that's a massive difference in fat percentage terms.

Overall though, I won't be eating this flavour again due to the cheese aftertaste. In terms of texture, consistency, crunchiness and the low level of fat I'll be trying out a few of the other flavours to see what they're like.

The three stars rating is merely a reflection on the fact that these have a cheese flavour rather than the shape, texture, crunchiness of the crisp etc.

Crisps ranked in order of fat content:

01) Golden Wonder Nik Naks (Rib 'n' Saucy Flavour): 38.3%
02) Frisps (Ready Salted Flavour): 35.1%
03) Frisps (Cheese 'n' Onion Flavour): 34.0%
04) Frisps (Salt 'n' Vinegar Flavour): 33.9%
05) Pringles Extreme (Smokin' Ribs Flavour): 32.0%
06) Quavers (Prawn Cocktail Flavour): 31.0%
07) McCoys (Flame Grilled Steak Flavour): 30.7%
08) McCoys (Roast Ham and Mustard Flavour): 30.6%
09) McCoys (Thai Sweet Chicken Flavour): 30.3%
10=) Quavers (Cheese Flavour): 30.0%
10=) Quavers (Salt 'n' Vinegar Flavour): 30/0%
12) KP Discos (Salt 'n' Vinegar Flavour): 29.6%
13) KP Skips (Prawn Cocktail Flavour: 29.5%
14=) Golden Wonder Wheat Crunchies (Crispy Bacon flavour): 25.1%
14=) Golden Wonder Wheat Crunchies (Worcester Sauce flavour): 25.1%
16) Golden Wonder Wheat Crunchies (Spicy Tomato flavour): 25.0%
17=) Smith's Chipsticks: 23.0%
17=) Smith's Frazzles: 23.0%
19) Sainsbury's Bacon Crispies (20.6%)
20) Walkers French Fries (Ready Salted / Cheese and Onion / Salt and Vinegar flavours): 16.0%
21) Walkers Baked (Bacon and Cheddar flavour): 8.5%

Summary: Bacon and Cheddar Crisps