Walkers Salt & Vinegar - has the flavour changed or is it me?

Oh god. Do I need to know this information?

My shopping list so far, due to this thread...

1. Co-op for small bags of Co-op Irresistible Hand Cooked Sea Salt & Chardonnay Wine Vinegar Crisps

2. B&M for Fish and Chips (and Lea & Perrins Seabrook)

3. Iceland for Spicy Tomato Wheat Crunchies multipacks

4. Tesco for Worcestor Sauce French Fries

Any other additions I need to add to my list? I may do a tour tomorrow 😀

@binners we have had both B&M Fish and Chips + Aldi Chipsticks and can confirm they are both welcome in this conversation.

The GOAT however were the Phileas Fogg Bubble Crisps. I was devastated when having searched the shops with no luck I Googled down a rabbit hole to find that the brand had been mothballed and the factory tooled up to make another less delicious snack!

As for salt and vinegar, Pipers Cider Vinegar and Sea Salt are worth a mention however why you'd ever pick them over their Kirkby Malham Chorizo delights is beyond me?

Not all co-ops have them...this convenience store isn't a co-op but does sell co-op branded stuff.

Unfortunately I’ve moved on to Square crisps so the spiral of addiction continues.

Nothing unfortunate about your path to enlightenment

All crisps are opened from the bottom.

They look suspiciously similar to those Co-op ones, but ASDA 'posh' S&V are puckeringly good too.

ALDI nice-n-spicy knock off Nik-Naks are way better than the current version of the real thing. Again only in a big bag though which is just plain vindictive of them...

I’ve just had a look on the B&M website and they do these, which are super salt and vinegery. I used to work in Burtons biscuits warehouse during holidys from Uni. I used to eat a LOT of these.:)

They reissued Fish & Chips semi-recently, along with chip shop curry flavour and IIRC pickled onion. Seemed short-lived though.

Any other additions I need to add to my list? I may do a tour tomorrow

The only crisp you don't crunch, but melt in the mouth.

Fish 'n' Chips lost their true potency decades ago. For cracker based mouth-stripping it's these or nothing:

No mention of marmite yet? Very difficult to find these days

@kayak23 - who doesn’t love Skips? And that’s just reminded me of some ‘motivational’ illustrations I did a few years back when I was briefly, for an hour or so, reducing the calorie count of my crisps intake

https://flic.kr/p/RjfYUq

https://flic.kr/p/Qg8Jah

https://flic.kr/p/RvbiKE

https://flic.kr/p/RAeqmf

The absolute bests are no longer made.

is that true of Chipsticks? A local bar seems to have no shortage of them now.

They also have cheesy wotsits (regular-sized), quavers, McCoy’s of various flavours, and scampi fries and bacon fries.

Chipsticks are common enough still.

puckeringly good

Excellent descriptor for the potency of S&V crisps!

On the topic of Skips, Tesco's own brand prawn shells kick the arse of the original. Much more flavoury. That's another for your shopping list Binners.

Tesco’s own brand prawn shells

Also a marvellous accompaniment to red wine!! OK. I just like red wine. I admit it. And crisps. I like crisps. Crisps and wine. Ooh.. Cheese too 😬 I'll stop now. I'm hungry 😂

Just doing some research, first bag in sometime, they definitely taste a little sweeter

[img] [/img]

In other disappointing snack news, I’m gutted that Walkers have stopped doing their wasabi flavoured Max Strong peanuts

The ultimate mouth destroyer are salt and vinegar snackajacks. They make your lips fall apart.

Why does that Skip look like a cat’s arsehole?

Some great crisps mentioned.

Frisps are also splendid, if they can be found.

I’ve been a serial sv eater for years. Tried them all and these are by far the strongest I’ve ever had !!!

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When I rang Walkers to complain about not being able to find their Max Strang Wasabi Crisps they told me that they didn't sell very well, so they had discontinued them. Every supermarket I went into at the timetold me that they'd sold out and to come back soon. If you can't find them, how are you going to buy them and make them good sellers. Can't find the Dutch made Wasabi ones that Morrisons used to sell now either. Can anyone help?

While we’re complaining about the unfathomable logic of crisp purveyors, who can explain one of the most mysterious and baffling issues modern society faces…

Why prawn cocktail? WHY?!

I’ve been a bit too busy today for my planned Retro Crisps Tour (t-shirts available soon) so I popped into Mozzers to grab some of my usual supplies to tide me over the weekend, and there it is emblazoned proudly on the multipack…

4 x prawn cocktail…

https://flic.kr/p/2oCSiBN

When was the decision taken that prawn cocktail was a staple in crisp world? What we’re the criteria? Who made the call? I can think of much more worthy candidates for multipack inclusion. And if you were a massive prawn cocktail fan, surely Skips are your default?

Absolutely inexplicable!

I was making my way through a pack of Crawford's s+v snacks a while ago and I found lump of the pure s+v flavouring. It's one of the greatest moments of my life. My wife loves it when I remind her every time I have something s+v flavoured... "Remember the day I find the solid lump of pure flavour?" The dark nights fly by.

Anyway, does anyone remember "thin Jim's?" They were like chipsticks, blue packet with a guy behind bars on the front. They were wince inducing.

here it is emblazoned proudly on the multipack…

Seriously though, who eats "plain" crisps. Ready salted is surely the rose wine of the crisp world. The only reason anyone chooses to buy them is because you've got people coming round, you don't know what they prefer so to be on the safe side you'll buy something that no-one particularly likes but will tolerate.

@richardkennerley - sounds like you struck gold…

Not sure they'll last our week in the Lakes 😁

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The last time I had McCoy's S&V, my tongue was white for a couple of hours afterwards!
Like I'd doused it with 6% hydrogen peroxide.
It was a good pain though.

I think for calibrated consistency over the years, Scampi Fries FTW.

Your mistake is Walkers

Barely above a value supermarket crisp these days. I don't know if others have upped their offering, there is more choice at the top end or they're trying to squeeze production prices to compete against the cheaper volume part of the market/for supermarket price promo. Or maybe my tastes just changed. 😖

Pipers or a premium supermarket crisp are far superior as are others like Seabrook and even McCoys (although the cheese and onion has a very artificial taste imo).

Seabrook are very good indeed...I also really like Burt's Guinness crisps, but thankfully don't have a local supply of them as I could easily eat all the bags on a shelf in 1 sitting!

Slightly OT, but but I have a crisp foible which others seem to think is odd...

Picture the scene; you've gone to visit friends or family and they've kindly laid on a buffet of some sort. Part of the buffet involves a bowl of crisps. You ask the host, "What flavour are these?" and they say "Oh, I just poured a few different ones in together...".

This is clearly unacceptable - or so I thought...

Anyone else, or just me?

Anyone else, or just me?

I'd never do that.

Maybe your hosts considered it a crisp-based punch?

This is clearly unacceptable

100% correct. Why? Cos some bugger will have mixed sour cream and chive crisps in that melange, ruining anything else remotely worth eating. SC&C - worthy only of binning 🤮 (Needless to say Mrs Fazzini loves them 😂)

@fazzini - thats a fine selection you've got there!

Lea and Perrins Seabrook would wipe the floors with the others in a qualifying round of the Crisps World Cup there, I reckon. The Argentina of Crisps!

I've just been reading through this whilst eating a bag of McCoy's Thai Sweet Chicken and now I want to go back and get a bag of their S&V....

I think the confusion with the S&V/C&O bag colours is down to Golden Wonder. Their Salt & Vinegar crisps were in blue bags and Cheese & Onion in green but they don't seem to be about much these days which is a shame as their S&V used to be excellent.

Picture the scene; you’ve gone to visit friends or family and they’ve kindly laid on a buffet of some sort. Part of the buffet involves a bowl of crisps. You ask the host, “What flavour are these?” and they say “Oh, I just poured a few different ones in together…”.

This is clearly unacceptable – or so I thought…

Anyone else, or just me?

No, I think that's an abomination. In my world I'd want a label on the bowl or to tuck the packet underneath so people knew what they were eating. I appreciate that I'm a bit weird with food so I may not be wholly representative, but plenty of folk have things like allergies so it's not a wild notion.

I think the confusion with the S&V/C&O bag colours is down to Golden Wonder.

No, it's Walkers. S&V has always been blue and C&O green across all manufacturers I remember from childhood. It was Walkers who did it the other way around for some reason.

Pipers or a premium supermarket crisp are far superior as are others like Seabrook and even McCoys (although the cheese and onion has a very artificial taste imo).

I used to be on the road often and regularly pick up a meal deal for lunch where my favourite 'snack' was a bag of McCoys. One day the taste of the Cheese and Onion changed and it made me sad. Used to be so much better.

Anyone else, or just me?

NEVER cross the streams! Thats the work of a deranged and frankly dangerous mind

No, it’s Walkers. S&V has always been blue and C&O green across all manufacturers I remember from childhood. It was Walkers who did it the other way around for some reason.

It was definitely Walkers who corrupted the S&V packet colour. God intended all S&V to be blue and C&G to eb green. That just the natural order of things and Walkers are clearly satanists

God intended all S&V to be blue and C&G to eb green

Is right.

I may have altered my work schedule to be next door to a Co-op this evening. Sweaty commute earlier, so I need salt, right?

Mmmm sour cream and chive/onion 🤤