Walkers Baked: Stars (pepperoni)

Product name: Walkers Baked: Stars (pepperoni)
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of six bags (Tesco)
Calories: 94 per 23g bag
Country of origin: UK

For someone who doesn’t consider themselves to be a fan of meaty crisps, I seem to have been trying a lot of them recently! Having never known pepperoni to exist in crisp form before, I really wanted to try these new Walkers Baked: Stars.

The purple packaging featured a fun design where a personified star-shaped crisp was depicted as a goalkeeper. The picture looked like the Stars would be slightly crinkly but they were actually even in appearance, although they did have a faint stripy appearance.

Promising to be ‘irresistibly delicious’, the crisps were ‘oven baked for extra crunch and a uniquely moreish taste’ and contained 70% less fat than average potato crisps. They also contained natural flavouring, were suitable for vegetarians, contained no MSG or artificial preservatives, and they were a source of fibre.

I was a bit disappointed by how few Stars were actually in each bag but I did like the six-pointed design that was used, and the way each point had a flick – it somehow made them look more friendly! The crisps also had an uneven coating of orange powder which gave an oniony, meaty crisp scent but, unfortunately, not a pepperoni one.

I ended up feeling very confused by the flavour. Most importantly, I couldn’t pick up any hint of pepperoni at all, but I couldn’t quite work out what I was tasting. At first, I thought it was some kind of burnt meaty flavour but, as I worked through a bag, I decided that they reminded me of sweet caramelised onion instead. The powder did also have a very small spicy kick to it but this really was minimal.

The texture was much better, thankfully, with their thick nature making them drier and less oily than a lot of other crisps on the market. The baked aspect was evident which was nice and produced a lovely crunch.

These Baked: Stars definitely had a lot going for them but, unfortunately, I did feel the flavour didn’t deliver. Still a nice, light snack though...

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.25/10