Once bitten twice as shy (Walkers Roast Chicken Flavour Crisps)

Member Name: MI9to5

Product:	Walkers Roast Chicken Flavour Crisps
Date:	04/04/09 (180 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smell nice..... at first

Disadvantages: Smell and taste not plesant after a while

Imagine you're playing Family Fortunes and you're asked to think of a brand of crisps, what is the first one you think of? Well if you're thinking along the lines of Family Fortunes you might come up with some weird and wacky answer but I'd bet that the most popular answer would be Walkers - quite simply because they are the most popular crisp brand. For many years however we never really ate Walker's in my house, as they were and still are quite expensive and to be honest as young children my brother and I preferred the much cheaper brands. Now however Walkers crisps are a regular feature in our cupboard and although I usually find myself stuck with the Salt and Vinegar flavoured ones I do manage to secure a different flavour every now and then.

Whilst watching CSI last night I found myself in a rather peckish mood and so ventured to the kitchen. After a few minutes searching I located the hidden crisp stash (we hide them from my brother or he eats all the best flavours) and among the stash was a bag of Walkers Roast Chicken crisps. I must admit that I haven't had a bag of these for ages and vaguely remembered not liking them the last time but figuring that was a while back I plucked them out, opened the bag and sat back down in front of the television.

The bag itself is a pale orange in colour and looks rather different from all of the other bags, hence why I spotted it. The front of the packet has a picture of a potato and a crisp on the front as well as the iconic Walker's logo and the information that the crisps are foil fresh and made using Sunseed oil.

Turning over the bag you find the usual suspects: an ingredients list and nutritional values, as well as a little description by Walkers of how rain is wonderful for potatoes and therefore wonderful for crisps. Maybe this is their way of making us Brits feel better about our generally bad whether or maybe someone just felt a little creative the day the designed the packets. Either way it gives you something extra to read I suppose if you're bored during your lunch break.

I have reproduced the nutritional values for the crisps below for all of you that are calorie or fat and sugar conscious:
Energy 131kcal
Protein 1.6g
Carbohydrate 12.5g
of which sugars 0.1g
Fat 8.3g
of which saturates 0.7
Fibre 1.0g
Sodium 0.2g
equivalent as salt 0.6g

Getting past the information on the pack you can now finally turn your attention to the crisps inside, which is the star attraction really. For the sake of testing however I first took a sniff inside the bag and was pleasantly met by a chicken smell - I know they're chicken crisps but that doesn't necessarily mean they'd smell like it. This test did however cause me to get the flavouring that the crisps are dusted with up my nose and so all I can say is thank god for Sky+ because I spent the next five minutes sneezing like mad and didn't catch a word said on screen.

Anyway back to the crisps themselves, after taking a sniff of the packet, and after the sneezing had died down of course, I delved into the bag and by now let me tell you I had moved frm being peckish to feeling rather hungry. After noticing that all the crisps were a lovely golden brown colour despite their frequently changing shapes and sizes, I plucked one out and popped it into my mouth. Almost immediately my taste buds seemed to be overcome with a rather intense chicken flavour that was rather nice. Despite being intense there was something about it that made it seem rather warm, like a Sunday dinner. I must say however that this flavour despite lingering for a long time didn't stay so lovely as after I had swallowed the crisp the taste in my mouth became one I find rather difficult to describe. It wasn't a disgusting taste but neither was it wonderfully pleasant - maybe this is what I remembered for my tasting session before.

I must say that this aftertaste didn't particularly endear me towards the crisps and after a while the smell wasn't particularly becoming either. I did however finish the crisps in the packet, as I hate leaving food and unless it is inedible will completely avoid doing so. This does not mean though that I would readily choose a bag of these again and to be honest can't really understand why my younger brother likes them so much - maybe I should get my mum to hide some better flavours and leave these ones in plain view for him.

All in all therefore I wouldn't particularly recommend these crisps. To begin with they smell rather appetising and have a decent taste too but after a while this all seems to fall apart and I for one was left feeling a little bit disappointed and definitely more hungrier than before.

Summary: It all starts well and then slowly rolls down hill