Almost a crisp... (Walkers Baked Ready Salted)

Member Name: liquidio

Product:	Walkers Baked Ready Salted
Date:	30/06/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Surprisingly potato-like taste and genuinely lower fat, non-oily

Disadvantages: settle in the bag

These were a real revelation to me - I'm a big fan of crisps but it's easy to see the effects of eating them or abstaining for a few days in terms of their effect on your weight. I've never like most of the 'diet' crisps I've seen in the past because they were either too puffed up and full of air or too much like easting compressed cardboard. So I tried some of these when offered by a friend and was impressed.

Firstly they do actually taste of potato, which is nice, and have a solid texture not too dissimilar from a normal thick crisp in terms of density. They have thin ridges, which I'm ambivalent about but I know some people who love or hate ridges on their crisps. The most interesting thing about them though is the mouthfeel. They aren't oily like a normal crisp, but are still pretty satisfying and I did feel like they addressed my hunger when snacking. I'm not under the illusion that this isn't created in a lab by a food technologist - if you look at the ingredients there is plenty of stuff mixed together, but I think they have done a decent job at getting something that tastes good and not too artificial.

The crispiness is high, almost brittle, and perhaps it got a bit boring having crisps of the same size and shape. But I'm normally a sucker for eating two thin crisps at once for the extra crunch and these are quite satisfying to eat individally from a texture point of view. Contrary to another review I read there is plenty of crisps in a bag, but they do tend to settle as they are flat and of even size.

The ready salted flavour I can most easily describe as being similar to hula hoops, with a gentle saltiness complementing a particularly 'potatoey' backtaste. In fact, hula hoops are a pretty good approximation of the texture of these things too, although as they are flat rather than in a ring they are less 'tough'.

Summary: Give them a try, very edible crisps