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

I’ll tell you what else is a shadow of its former self.

Nik Naks were always grim. They had the consistency of a kitchen worktop and the scampi ones smelled like a Salford sex worker at the end of her shift.

And while we’re talking about Wheat Cruchies, whats happened to the Worcestor Sauce and Tomato Sauce flavours? Both top notch crisps! I can’t find them anywhere!

They were discontinued years ago. I share your grief.

Agreed on the downfall of Nik Naks, disagree with Cougar’s summary of the snack.

Are these still a thing? Never see nowadays.

Lovely stuff.

@Cougar – Apparently Iceland do the multipacks. I think I may have to pop in. Still no Worcestor sauce but some Spicy Tomato. I’ve never tried cheese and onion Wheat Crunchies. What a time to be alive!

Another member of crisp royalty that I’ve not seen for ages, but are apparently still stocked in Tesco

These have already been mentioned by @fossy and are the absolute mutts nuts…

Squares are the daddy of SnV crisps – A box of Grab Bags is a MUST. A good pack of Pringles comes close, but the quality is far too variable.

Honourable mention for Scampi Fries.

Spar salt and vinegar used to bring us to tears as kids with the lip stingingly strong S&V flavour.

Iceland and B&M are the place to find retro snacks, judging by the stuff MrsMC brings home…

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.:)

It looks like I’m going to have to do a tour of various supermarkets to stock up with some old favourites

They’ve definitely changed the Walkers Salt and Vinegar crisps. Which is handy as I did have something of a weakness for them. I assume they removed the cocaine.
Unfortunately I’ve moved on to Square crisps so the spiral of addiction continues.

They only do them in big bags though

Not true @binners…my local convenience store (branded Eddy’s) does standard pack sizes of those as well as the proper sized bags. The standard don’t have enough to strip the top layer of skin off your tongue, the proper sized bags I need to decide if I’m prepared for the skin peeling issues to eat it all in 1 sitting.

They really are seriously good crisps.

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

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

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 !!!

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…

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 😁

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?