I finally jumped onto the bandwagon that is the Walker's Crisp New Flavour Competition. Just incase you haven't seen the ubiquitous television commercials I'll explain more about the competition. After inviting members of the public to submit their ideas for a new and exciting crisp flavour, Walker's whittled the entries down to six finalists, manufactured the flavours and put these special crisps on the market. Only one of the six can stay and be the new permanant flavour though. The public are invited to vote for their flavourite of the six by voting for free by text message or via their company website. The other flavours are Fish and Chips, Chilli and Chocolate, Cajun Squirrel, Onion Bhaji and Crispy Duck and Hoisin.

Over the school half term I got together with my sister and her kids and we had a tasting game of a few of the 'test' flavours. The 'Builder's Breakfast' sounds fun and as though it might taste quite unique. I imagined it would be a full English breakfast type of taste, with meaty overtones. The illustration and the information on the crisp packet tell us that the particular breakfast plate the crisp flavour is supposed to represent comprises of sausages, bacon, egg, buttered toast and tomato/tomato sauce.

The quality of Walker's crisps is very high. I find the potato chips to be large, thick, crunchy (but not dry) and not too greasy either. The crisps are often so big you need to bite them into pieces. On first biting into them they are crisp and have a crunchy, pointed texture. Once soft the potato chip has a soft, fluffy texture.

The 'Builder's Breakfast' crisp is dashed with red/orange flavouring. Upon opening there is a strong fried bacon aroma which is mouth-watering. There is also a hint of tomato sauce. When my sister, neices and I tried these we found that the crisps have a stange effect which I would dub the Violet Beauregarde Effect! Remember that scene in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate factory when gum chewer Violet steals Wonka's three course dinner flavour chewing gum and begins to yell out what amazing changing flavours she can taste - from starter to desert? Well, these crisps are a little similar. In one bite you might taste bacon. In another bite you might taste tomato. Some crisps seem to have multiple flavours whilst others have only one. Mine and my neices cries of "pure egg!" were ones of alarm rather than of satisfaction though! If you come across an 'egg only' tasting crisp the flavour is rather strong and unpleasant and it is much more like a boiled egg than a fried one.

One of the ingredients none of us could taste was the sausage. It simply isn't there. The taste of bacon is the most prominant flavour, followed by the tomato - but there is no hint of sausage flavour. I can only assume the strong bacon flavour cancels the sausage out! Overall these crisps are a little similiar to many pure bacon flavoured crisps already on the market. If I had to predict the success of this flavour in the competition though I'd say it has a good chance as the flavour is interesting and rich with a delicious meaty base.

The 'Builder's Breakfast' ingredients include: flavourings, black pepper, sage, barley malt extract, butter, citric acid and dried garlic. They are marked as being suitable for vegetarians and coeliacs and they have no artificial colours.

I bought the crisps in a singular 46g packet which is slightly larger than the average size packet of crisps. The nutritional information tells me that one pack contains 240 calories and 15.2 grams of fat.

If you want to vote for this flavour you can at:

www.walkers.co.uk

or text BREAKFAST for free to 51199