Let's cut to the skinny: American potato chips are boring as heck. They're always just "sour cream, 'cheese', barbeque" flavors, occasionally with the odd "Salt n' Vinegar, Cool Ranch, 'spicy'" flavors depending on the brand. Very uninteresting when you get down to the fact that so many other flavors exist in other countries that don't Stateside. When I think of potato chips I really enjoyed, I think back to my days in the United Kingdom where a myriad of flavors existed in the various Safeways and other stores of the sort.
This brings me to today. This summer, I decided that I wanted to relive some of my favorite crisps of my youth (crisps are what potato chips are called over there since chips are fried cuts of potato like steak fries), and so I imported a wide variety. This review will focus on Walkers Crisps, which are essentially British Lays.
Flavor 1: Ready Salted
Ready Salted is simple a basic crisp and is the foundation for the rest of the flavors. The crisps are nice and crunchy, and it's not overly salty; just enough to make it taste nice. This gets a thumb up from me.
Flavor 2: Salt & Vinegar
This is a normal Salt and Vinegar crisp. The texture of them are more pleasant than the grease bombs that you can get some places, so it's enjoyable for sure. Thumbs up.
Flavor 3: Beef & Onion
Now we get to the more interesting stuff. Beef and Onion tastes like those beef bouillon cubes you can find in the soup isle at stores with a hint of oniony flavor. They're "Suitable for Vegetarians", as the package says, and doesn't appear to contain any beef fat at all, just spices of sorts to make it taste that way. Thumbs up.
Flavor 4: Cheese & Onion
Whenever I tell any American friend about this flavor, they always say "that sounds gross". However, it isn't. It tastes like onion! But not so much cheese. Bit of a disappointment for a cheese lover such as I, but what you gonna do? It gets a thumb up for being tasty, but a thumb down for not being what it promised.
Flavor 5: Smoky Bacon
A good British classic flavor with their snacks, it tastes rather well of smoky flavors, and has a salty nature to it. Not overly salty, though. Thumbs up.
Flavor 6: Roast Chicken
Tastes a lot like chicken bouillon cubes, this does. Has a nice savory taste to it. Thumbs up.
Flavor 7: Prawn Cocktail
And here we are, one of my favorite childhood treats. Prawn Cocktail basically tastes like cocktail sauce, with sweet, savory, and salty flavors. It's rather pleasant and still holds up to this day in pleasantry. Thumbs up.
These crisps weren't very expensive to import, and certainly satisfy as a light snack. They're not too greasy, not too salty, and are something freaking different. Seriously, America. Live a little.
