What’s That Flavour? Tasty Competition from Walkers

Those that know me will know that I’m a big fan of crisps. I’ve been known to munch my way through an entire multipack in the space of an afternoon; I know, I know. I’m not proud of it (actually, I am. Jemma vs Food! Jemma vs Food!) It’s possibly crisps fault that I’m on this boring old slow carb diet in the first place.

So imagine my joy when Walkers got in touch to ask me to sample some of their new flavours. It’s situations like this where I ask myself: what would Gary Tank Commander do? So of course I said “aye!” because every radge likes crisps.

They sent me three bags of mystery crisp flavours: one meat, one dairy, and one spicy, all in white bags with question marks on.  At first I thought this was a game to test if my food blogger pallette really is all it’s cracked up to be, but it turns out that it’s actually Walker’s new competition, #whatsthatflavour

As of last week, Walkers have unleashed their three flavours of mystery crisps onto the shelves of Britain’s supermarkets (and mini markets). Obviously eating mysterious crisps is fun in itself, but the most exciting part is that if you guess the flavours correctly you could win £50,000: and in this economic climate, who wouldn’t want £50,000? Just think guys, you could buy a 2 bedroom top floor flat in Wester Hailes and still have change left over for a garage in Corstorphine.

If you want to enter the competition, buy a packet of mystery crisps and then visit Walker’s website or Facebook page and say what you think the flavour is; you have until the 9th of March.  They’ll be uploading clues on Facebook throughout February, so keep an eye on those to increase your chances of bagging that cash. There will ultimately be three winners, with a prize draw for everyone who gets it right.

But why this campaign, and why now? Let’s see what Miranda Sambles, Marketing Director at Walkers has to say:

“The nation has never been more interested in food and flavour and at Walkers, we love flavours too. We’ve spent months perfecting these mystery flavours, which we hope will really spark a nationwide flavour conversation.”

But less chatting, more chomping! Read on for a live blog of my first impressions of these tasty fried potato delights. Did I mention that I love crisps?

The flavours are inspired by recipes loved by the Great British public.  So they’re probably not salad flavour.  I was a bit apprehensive, of course, as we’re talking about the same British public as watches the X Factor and voted  for David Cameron. But I’ll let that slide: as a nation we may not have good taste in TV, music, or politicians, but British taste in food is bloody brilliant, despite the stereotypes.

Mystery Flavour A: Dairy

On the nose, similar to cheese and onion. I think they’re sour cream and chive? If not they taste very like it, which is great because that’s my favourite flavour. Thinking about the fact that they’re based on British food classics, I suppose it could be cottage cheese and chive baked potato? Another of my favourites. Damn potatoes be gooood.

Mystery Flavour B: Meaty

Very saucy on the nose (if wine tasting has taught me one thing, it’s to get your nose right in there and give it a good sniff); the dominant flavours here seem to be beef and worcestershire sauce, maybe with a hint of tomato. It’s very rich: James says beef and horseradish whilst I’m inclined to go for some kind of casserole. ACTUALLY I’ve just had a flash of inspiration and now I think it’s a burger with ketchup, argh! This is so confusing. I just don’t know what to think! James has settled on sausages and baked beans. I think he’s onto something.

Mystery Flavour C: Spicy

On the nose we have a rich, tikka kind of spice smell. James immediately claims that he knows what it is and says “coronation chicken”, which would make sense as it’s the Jubilee this year and Coronation Chicken is a well loved British dish (evidenced by its abuse in forecourt sandwiches). It definitely has that curry powder taste to it, I might throw a wildcard out there though  and say tandoori chicken.

Out of the three of them, I think the meaty one is my favourite. If I wasn’t on a diet, I’d probably buy a couple of packs a week to “figure out what the flavour is”. I really like the sauciness of the flavour. The cheesey ones are yummy too, don’t get me wrong, but the spicy crisps are a little similar to other curry flavoured crisps and I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy them. I’m quite excited to find out what they actually are, though!

Before you start saying “Jemma, you’ve changed, you’re such a sellout” Walkers didn’t pay me to write this post. They just sent me six packets of mysterious crisps in the post and said that I could write about the campaign if I wanted to: which I did, because I think it’s a really fun idea!

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