They just don't taste right (Walkers Chili and Chocolate Crisps)

Member Name: UK1981_female

Product:	Walkers Chili and Chocolate Crisps
Date:	03/05/09 (182 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good quality crisps as they are made by Walker's after all

Disadvantages: They are not tasty!

I bought a multi-pack (6 packets) of Chilli and Chocolate Walker's crisps from Asda a little while ago and thought it was time for me to state my opinion on them! If anyone is not aware, Walker's are running a competition to find a new crisp flavour. They started this competition quite a while ago and people were able to submit flavour ideas directly to Walker's via their website. From all the suggested flavours, Walker's selected and shortlisted 6 flavours which would go through to the 'final-round'. The 6 shortlisted flavours were made into crisps and have been sold around the country for the last few months or so and quite soon, Walker's will select the best flavour from the shortlist by conducting some sort of survey I would assume. The six flavours are:

Chilli and Chocolate
Fish and Chips
Onion Bhaji
Builders Breakfast
Crispy Duck and Hoisin
Cajun Squirrel

I have only tasted the Chilli and Chocolate flavour and this is the flavour I am reviewing today.


Nutritional info:

Well they are crisps so don't expect anything too healthy. A typical crisp packet contains 240 calories and around 15 grams of fat. The crisps are made of potato and are fried in sunflower oil.


The taste:

I generally do quite like Walker's crisps. I feel they have a decent 'crispiness' to them regardless of the flavour and they are always pleasant to munch through. Therefore Walker's have basically stuck to the same foundation with the actual crisps in this case and you can expect to find the same sort of crisp as you would have in an Original flavoured or Salt and Vinegar pack for example.

More specifically the Chilli and Chocolate flavour - although I do like most crisps, I wasn't so keen on these. When I first opened up the packet I had a little sniff of the crisps and the first thing I noticed was the chocolately smell. It didn't smell like ordinary chocolate though and it wasn't very pleasant either. The smell I think actually resembled chocolate rather than smelling of normal chocolate itself. This stuff smelt a bit like out of date chocolate unfortunately.

In terms of the chilli, well I couldn't really smell the chilli unless I tried quite hard. It was definitely there and in fact that's why I think the chocolate side of it smelt off - I think the chilli in combination with the chocolate doesn't work in this particular case. Not that chilli and chocolate can't work - I have often munched on a bar of chocolate whilst eating a packet of chilli flavoured crisps. It just didn't seem to work in this particular case.

Now onto the actual taste... well the taste seemed to reflect the smell. It was mainly a taste of chocolate but again it was a taste that wasn't quite right unfortunately. It also tasted a tad sandy and almost like the flavours had not been absorbed well enough into each crisp. The chilli flavour was barely there. I am quite good with tolerating foods that are very spicy so maybe that's why I couldn't really taste the chilli very much, except for a little at the end, and as more of an aftertaste.


To sum up:

Have to admit that although I am a self confessed crisp addict these did not do it for me. Although I did finish the whole packet (I have seen a lot of reviews here where people could not even finish their packet) the 6 pack multi-pack that I got from the supermarket still has 5 packets left in it and this was bought more than 3 weeks ago. I am not sure what I will do with the rest of the packets but I am not in a rush to finish them nor am I very tempted.

Summary: I think Walker's got it wrong this time