Walkers Pops: Original

Product name: Walkers Pops: Original
Purchase details: £0.50 for a 23g bag (Tesco)
Calories: 102 per bag

I think it’s time to review another of the Walkers Pops varieties so here’s the Original version – exactly the same idea as Melted cheese & crispy bacon but a flavour which, for me, was safer!

I tend to find ‘plain’ crisps a bit hit and miss. With some higher quality crisps, like Kettle Chips, I find it hard to beat the Lightly Salted flavour but, in terms of everyday potato snacks, I usually find that kind of flavour really boring. As a result, I was interested to see exactly what I thought of these Pops: Original.

Despite being a new product for the UK and Ireland market, some things never change, so the Original flavour was represented by the colour red. Interestingly, whilst I always think of ‘original’ and ‘ready salted’ as being interchangeable, there was actually more to these crisps’ ‘seasoning’ than I first thought. Amongst other thing, it listed cheese powder, spices, herbs, and milk products such as whey powder. Maybe these things are present in ready salted products too but it’s not something I’ve ever noticed before!

These Pops were the same in appearance as the Melted cheese & crispy bacon ones, although they were paler due to the absence of orange powder. I couldn’t resist having a sniff of the inner bag and was surprised by how aromatic they were – I probably would have guessed that they were beef flavoured if I hadn’t known! Individually, though, they didn’t really smell of anything.

On munching through the bag, I was greeted with a familiar salty flavour, but not in an over-the-top way that caused me to worry about my health – even the feel of the crisps were powdery rather than grainy so, despite the red warning on the nutritional label’s salt section, they didn’t feel at all unhealthy. I also tried resting a few of the Pops on my tongue and found that my tastebuds tingled with additional hints of flavour that gave an almost cheesy taste.

Pleasingly, the texture of these Pops was unchanged from the Melted cheese & crispy bacon. They may have been thicker than standard potato crisps but it was good to know that, health-wise, they were lighter.

On the whole, these Pops pretty much tasted like plain potato chips, but the improved texture meant I’d definitely choose them over a standard bag of ready salted crisps in future.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.63/10