Popchips Sea Salt & Vinegar

Product name: Popchips Sea Salt & Vinegar
Purchase details: £0.99 for an 85g bag (tesco.com)
Calories: 94 per 23g serving (349 per bag)
Country of origin: Europe

It’s time for me to try another flavour of Popchips from my stash: Sea Salt & Vinegar.

These chips were the same concept again as the Barbeque and Original varieties but, this time, the packaging was a gorgeous shade of turquoise.

The bag contained 3.5+ servings of 18 chips which featured ‘the tangiest pairing of flavours since, well, ever!’ and these discs had a very strong, tingly vinegar scent that went right up the nose...I quite liked it in a weird kind of way!

Interestingly, the flavour wasn’t as strong as the scent had suggested. The base flavour was very much like Popchips Original, but much less salty, and this was well-balanced with the barley malt vinegar which had a cooling effect, lifted the flavour, but wasn’t overpowering and didn’t sting the lips. In relation to more traditional salt and vinegar crisps, these had a much starchier taste, as well as the same enjoyable texture as the other Popchips I’ve reviewed.

I found these Popchips Sea Salt & Vinegar to be another great part of the range and I can’t wait to tuck into the smaller bags that Popchips kindly sent me recently!

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

Popchips Original

Product name: Popchips Original
Purchase details: £0.99 for an 85g bag (tesco.com)
Calories: 95 per 23g serving (351 per bag)
Country of origin: Europe

Since it’s been nearly a year since my first and only review of Popchips, to date, I thought it was about time I cracked on with some of the other flavours! For this post, I will be going back to basics with the Original variety.

These Popchips came in a cool blue bag that had the same overall style as the Barbeque version. However, this was a bigger packet that was supposed to contain at least 3.5 servings of around 19 chips. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get the point of that – surely it would be better to make it serve either three or four rather than somewhere in the middle? (I had enough spare calories for the whole pack but that wasn’t the point!)

Issues of logic aside, I was really quite keen to get tucked into these. The discs looked the same as the Barbeque ones, too, but without the red powder. I also found my mouth watering, once more, at the smell of the crisps – it was surprisingly powerful despite essentially just smelling of salt and potato! There also seemed to be a slight oily element to this which may have been down to the sunflower oil they’d been popped in.

Unlike Walkers Pops: Original, these chips were simply flavoured with sea salt and contained no additional flavourings. For that reason, they were much more like your traditional ready salted crisps. However, the level of starchiness in their potato flavour reminded me of something even more specific: Walkers French Fries. Despite being plain, I didn’t find these Popchips tasted boring and, if anything, I sometimes found them a bit too salty on the back of my tongue.

The chips felt a tiny bit greasy between the fingers but, aside from that, their texture was the same great one that the Barbeque variety had.

One minor criticism was that the bag these Popchips came in was far too big for the contents but, thankfully, this was deceptive as there were a lot more crisps in there than it first appeared. Furthermore, despite being lighter than most normal crisps, these Popchips still felt like a real treat...one I’d happily buy again.

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

Walkers Pops: Sour cream & onion

Product name: Walkers Pops: Sour cream & onion
Purchase details: £0.79 for a 23g bag (Tesco)
Calories: 102 per bag

Tonight’s my final review of the Walkers Pops range. These Sour cream & onion crisps cost a little more than the Melted cheese & crispy bacon and Original versions since they’d sold out when I went to buy them and, by the time I found them again, they were no longer on offer!

 

The majority of the information for this UK and Ireland-marketed snack remained unchanged so I won’t go into much detail.

The Pops came in a bag that was the kind of shade of green that’s often associated with the flavour on offer, and the potato discs had visible green flecks which made me think of chives. Their scent was slightly vinegary with a hint of herbs.

Rightly or wrongly, I think of sour cream and onion as being intrinsically linked with Pringles, so I can’t help but draw comparisons here in terms of taste. The flavour was very similar to the ‘green’ Pringles but not quite as strong. I quite liked this, though, as it allowed the potato’s own flavour to come through. Overall, the powdered seasoning tingled the tongue a little, and mixed onion, herbs and salt into a very enjoyable whole.

These Walkers Pops: Sour cream & onion were definitely my favourite of the lot so I’m glad they’re the ones I ended up paying more for!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

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

Walkers Pops: Melted cheese & crispy bacon

Product name: Walkers Pops: Melted cheese & crispy bacon
Purchase details: £0.50 for a 23g bag (Tesco)
Calories: 102 per bag

I loved Popchips so much that I was really keen to try the new Walkers Pops range when they were released. ‘Air-popped’ rather than fried, they claimed to have ‘all the great Walkers taste’, but with 50% less fat than ‘standard potato crisps’. They also contained no artificial colours or preservatives, and no MSG.

Now, I’m a weird member of the human race, in that I don’t like bacon. I wish I did – I like the smell but that’s about it on a standard rasher. However, I do enjoy crispy bacon as long as it is so crispy it can be snapped in two. The fact that this flavour specified ‘crispy bacon’ was a bonus, then, although really it’s the texture rather than the taste that causes me problems the rest of the time!

I should also add that I’m not generally a fan of meat-flavoured crisps, so I was taking a gamble with this Melted cheese & crispy bacon packet – it was definitely the melted cheese aspect that swung it for me.

Made for the UK and Ireland market, this ‘potato snack’ came in an orangey-brown bag and featured a nice and low calorie content. Despite the flavour, they were suitable for vegetarians, and 45% of the product was simply ‘dried potato’.

The Pops were presented as quite large discs with a red powdery dusting on top – they were almost identical to the Popchips Barbeque  but were more flat. Inside, they looked more white in colour, and were almost fluffy.

The strong scent of these Pops fascinated me. There was an element of a standard smoky bacon crisp aroma (not something I’m overly fond of), but I could genuinely pick up a cheesy tang too which was different to many other cheesy crisps available. The latter really lifted the overall smell for me so it certainly didn’t put me off trying this meaty snack.

On trying my first disc, the potato itself seemed to have the bacon flavour and, as soon as my tongue hit the build-up of powder, the cheese came through. Surprisingly, and slightly strangely, the taste was pretty creamy – I didn’t even know that was possible in a crisp! However, I did find the flavour a bit odd, and the melted cheese aspect tasted more like butter to me. The Pops were a bit salty too (as they should be) but, thankfully, not to the same extent as Frazzles. For me, though, the best thing about the flavour was that, whilst meaty, this was a subtle aspect rather than being overpowering.

The texture of this snack was great. Bumpy to the touch, they were fantastically crunchy and crispy in the mouth – maybe not something to eat when sitting next to another person, though!

On the whole, these Walkers Pops: Melted cheese & crispy bacon were a hit. I don’t think I’d call myself a fan of the attempt at a cheese flavour but the overall taste did improve as I worked my way through the bag. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.75/10