Kettle Chips Sweet Chilli and Sour Cream Crisps

When Kettle chips broke onto the market, they took a crunch out of the field dominated by Walkers, Golden Wonder and Tayto, (even I have to say these crisp puns are tenuous!) offering a new product for the previously un-catered for gourmet crisp muncher (this was Britain in the 90’s I remind you).

Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar was one of their early variations, likewise the idea of sweet chilli flavour is thanks to the likes of them, and both have since become staple flavours in our collective junk food diets.

This one in particular was revised about a year ago and incorporated the additional flavour of sour cream to the base of Sweet Chilli, and as far as I’m concerned it’s a twist on a now common flavour, but a twist that is only in part successful.

The old chilli crisps had a warm, slightly acerbic heat but with a cunning sweetness that negated the objections of a sensitive palate and pulled you back for more. It allowed both characteristics to be appreciated fully, but now the sour cream has rounded out the flavour, making it appeal to more of ones tastes but diminishes their character on the overall flavour. The resultant crisp has tamed what little threat their once was, and obscured the previous merits, however it adds a new enjoyable creaminess that is none the less worthwhile. The smell also shares this feature, but I consider, unlike its onion or chive counterparts, the sweet chilli to be too submissive and never really matching up to the role.

Looking back at the packet, I feel the sour cream sub-title should have equal billing since it now shares the taste sensation, but as far as creamy, slightly warm crisps go, these aren’t too bad at all.

Walkers Tomato Ketchup Crisps

Tomato Ketchup crisps are such an obvious concoction when considered, as like salt and vinegar, the combination is regularly indulged upon dinner tables and in take-aways throughout the world. It seems far more natural than the oddly similar prawn cocktail certainly, so I can’t help but wonder why there are not more available?

Walkers Tomato Ketchup flavour crisps also seem to suffer from the lack of marketing interest and are no longer Heinz branded, but I feel they demand more attention than what they get. When I was younger I would regularly enjoy these alongside the defunct Marmite variety, but they both have long side lost the shelf space they seemed to previously command and these I now rarely see. Having tracked a bag down, I was eager to find out whether my fond memories as greedy little child were perhaps misinformed, and tucked in quickly!

I always compared the smell of the crisps to that of a bottle of ketchup on a warm day, or in a temperate greasy spoon, and found the recognisable aroma still occupying the bag.

They have a slight spicy, sweet tomato taste with the important hint of vinegar that gives them a slight edge. I do feel typical Walkers crisps are relatively thin in comparison to more prestige brands and although this allows the flavour to distribute well, it misses out on the potential of a quality spud. Saying that, they are as good as I remember and just wish they were more readily available!