What Meat Is It Anyway? (Walkers Crisps Steak & Onion Flavour)

Member Name: keeperofthematri

Product:	Walkers Crisps Steak & Onion Flavour
Date:	06/10/09 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pleasant flavour

Disadvantages: High in fat content, Not many crisps in the bag

I spotted an enormous multipack bag containing 26 packets of different flavoured Walkers crisps at the weekend and, due to the fact it was on offer and that there were a couple of flavours I hadn't tried before I decided to buy it.


Packaging.

The front of the multipack bag is predominantly red and brown with the usual Walkers logo and various bands of colour telling you that it contains:-

4 x Roast Chicken
4 x Smoky Bacon
4 x Steak and Onion
4 x Salt and Vinegar
4 x Ready Salted
4 x Cheese and Onion.

The back of the bag contains the usual lists of ingredients and nutritional information for each of the flavours and a blurb about the spuds used for the crisps.

The Steak and Onion flavour itself comes in a brown bag and has the usual ingredients and nutritional information printed on the back of the bag as well.

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


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

Energy kJ: 546kJ {2183kJ}
kcal: 131kcal {523kcal}
Protein: 1.6g {6.2g}
Carbohydrate: 12.6g {50.4g}
of which sugars: 0.5g {1.9g}
Fat: 8.3g {33.0g}
(of which saturates): 0.6g {2.15g}
(of which mono-unsaturates): 6.7g {26.9g}
(of which polyunsaturates): 0.5g {2.1g}
Fibre: 1.1g {4.2g}
Sodium: 0.14g {0.55g}
Equivalent as salt: 0.35g {1.40g}

Allergy advice. These are suitable for coeliacs and vegetarians.
These crisps contain no MSG, no preservatives and no artificial colours


Ingredients:

Potatoes, Sunflower Oil (33%), Steak 'n' Onion Seasoning [Flavouring, Dried Onion, Dried Parsley, Salt, Glucose, Sugar, Barley Malt Extract, Paprika Extract, Hydrolysed Soy Protein]


Price:

At the time of writing Morrisons are charging £2.68 for a multipack containing 26 bags of crisps.


Taste & Opinion:

I'd never actually tried this flavour before so I was quite interested to see what it was like. After opening the packet I take a smell and can't detect much of anything. Other reviews I'd read suggested that these have a 'meaty' smell but I certainly didn't find that to be the case. However, I do have a notoriously bad sense of smell (combined with a slight cold at the moment!) so it's possible that any smell present has well and truly slipped under my radar.

The crisps themselves seem to have a slight orange tinge from whatever flavouring process they've been subjected to and there are little flecks of black on them which is odd as I'm not sure where that came from. I wouldn't have though that it's from the dried onion or the dried parsley and other crisps I've had that have Paprika Extract listed in the ingredients don't have these little black flecks so I'm not sure what the flecks are or where they came from.

The crisps themselves are pleasantly crunchy as you'd expect any flavour in the standard Walkers brand to be. They're in the mid range of crunchiness, being crunchier than Skips or Quavers, but are less crunchy than McCoys or Walker "Baked" Crisps.

Tastewise these aren't particularly representative of Steak and Onion at all. They're pleasantly flavoured with a vaguely meaty taste but you could just as easily stick the name of almost any meat on the packet and it wouldn't particularly matter. There is the merest hint of onion but this tends to hit your tastebuds more as an aftertaste rather than being something that is readily apparent when you're actually eating the crisps.

These crisps are slightly greasy to the touch than some other crisps so you may feel as if you need wash your hands after eating them.

Walkers claim that using sunflower oil in these crisps has reduced the saturated fat by 70%. That may well be the case but, even so, these crisps are towards the higher end of the table when you look at their fat content (33.0%). As such they're quite nice for an occasional treat but, when choosing crisps, there are other options on the market which are equally (if not more) tasty without being quite so bad on the fat content front.

Personally I find them pleasant rather than something I'd consider as one of my favourite flavours. If I was asked to pick 10 different bags of crisps to take on a trip with me then these wouldn't be amongst the ones I'd pick because there's nothing about them that makes them stand out for me.

Then, of course, there's the amount of crisps in a bag. Either we used to get more than 25g or the bags have got bigger......


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=) Walkers (Cheese and Onion Flavour): 33.0%

05=) Walkers (Steak and Onion Flavour): 33.0%
07) Pringles Extreme (Smokin' Ribs Flavour): 32.0%
08) Quavers (Prawn Cocktail Flavour): 31.0%
09) McCoys (Flame Grilled Steak Flavour): 30.7%
10) McCoys (Roast Ham and Mustard Flavour): 30.6%

11) McCoys (Thai Sweet Chicken Flavour): 30.3%
12=) Quavers (Cheese Flavour): 30.0%
12=) Quavers (Salt 'n' Vinegar Flavour): 30/0%
14) KP Discos (Salt 'n' Vinegar Flavour): 29.6%
15) KP Skips (Prawn Cocktail Flavour: 29.5%

16=) Golden Wonder Wheat Crunchies (Crispy Bacon flavour): 25.1%
16=) Golden Wonder Wheat Crunchies (Worcester Sauce flavour): 25.1%
18) Golden Wonder Wheat Crunchies (Spicy Tomato flavour): 25.0%
19=) Smith's Chipsticks: 23.0%
19=) Smith's Frazzles: 23.0%

21) Sainsbury's Bacon Crispies (20.6%)
22) Walkers French Fries (Ready Salted / Cheese and Onion / Salt and Vinegar flavours): 16.0%
23) Walkers Baked (Bacon and Cheddar flavour): 8.5%
24) Walkers Baked (Salt and Vinegar flavour): 8.1%

I added the fat content for the Walkers Cheese and Onion flavour to the table now. I don't like them and won't be reviewing them but, for information purposes I've included the fat content percentage.

Summary: Walker Steak And Onion Flavour