Sunday 25 May 2014

Walkers Baked Wotsits Really Cheesy

I've been eating so many exotic varieties of crisps recently I have ignored the old classics. And Cheesy Wotsits really are a classic which I always used to love.

But guess what? These cheesy flavour corn puffs aren't the same as they used to be. Yes, you've guessed; they're baked not fried these days.

Everyone knows that crisps and other crispy snack foods are not at all healthy and we shouldn't be eating too many of them. So changing from unhealthy frying to baking is surely just a marketing thing.  It makes your unhealthy crispy snack marginally less unhealthy; although still chock full of salt (and in many cases sugar too).

The only trouble is that baked snacks are never so tasty as fried. Well.... they are actually just fine if you never tried the old version. Sadly though they leave me lusting after the olden days when truly unhealthy crispy snacks tasted truly fabulous.

But ongoing ignoring the above, these aren't at all bad. Yes, and ignoring the fact that my newly upgraded Mac (which used to be Snow Leopard and is now Mavericks or something) randomly changes what I type for whatever it thinks fit; eg it changed ignoring to ongoing without asking me, they do taste pretty cheesy. The crunch is rather soft but the taste is good.

I must admit I miss the old excess flavour dust; there's nothing like so much flavour dust as there used to be, and your fingers don't turn orange any more. Perhaps the dust sticks better on each little baked Wotsit, or perhaps Walkers just use less dust these days? There wasn't even lots of dust left inside the bag or in the corners. Nothing left to lick off!

The flavour seems to be mostly created from milk: dried cheese, milk whey powder, buttermilk powder and milk proteins. So don't try these if you are allergic to milk. Also in the mix Disodium 5'-Ribonucleotide (sounds like a chemistry lesson) and Potassium Chloride which I could have sworn was mentioned in a murder mystery I was watching on TV this afternoon; yes, I read you can stop the heart with the correct amount of this chemical. Hmmn. They do put odd stuff into crisps sometimes don't they?

And here's the Walkers design team again playing with the little guy who throws his rubbish away responsibly. For some reason he has morphed into a mouse on the Wotsits packet. I guess it must be all the cheese.

The packet asked if I am a cruncher or a melter? Do I like to nibble each Wotsit? Or let it gently dissolve in my mouth? I think I'm a cruncher but unfortunately I finished the packet before reading the bag so failed to try out each eating technique. Stupid! I also should have weighed the bag before starting because weirdly it doesn't have a weight on. These convenient little portions have 99 calories or less (it says) but not how big the portion is.

Perfectly acceptable cheesy crispy corn puffs. But fings ain't wot they used to be. And my Mac hates the word fings.

2 comments :

  1. To my mind, a baked crisp is a little like a non-alcoholic beer - never quite achieving its promise whilst causing annoyance by its very attempt. Now about Nick Clegg ....

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    1. To my mind changing a design classic to make it "healthier" is a grave error. Luckily the M&S version equals alcoholic beer.

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