Wacky flavoured crisps

Last year, Walkers crisps held a competition in which the public were invited to submit flavour ideas for a forthcoming range of crisps. The competition was called "Do Us A Flavour'. I was buying lunch and coffee from our sandwich van on Monday, and spotted the Do Us A Flavour range, all available from said van. Needless to say I had to try them all, and my guess is that you greedy lot will want to try at least a few of these flavours.

Here's your choice of crisp, with my opinion on each flavour below:

Fish and chips: I reckoned this would be a the tamest flavour, but the flavour is quite fishy and chippy. There is vinegar with a hint of fish essence, plus some lemon. Just like a day out in Margate. Works pretty dang well for me. 7 out of 10.

Crispy duck and hoi-sin sauce: quick a strong flavour of duck. My boss thought it was too ducky, though I considered this an advantage. At least it says what it is going to do on the packet. 7 out of 10 again.

Chocolate and chilli: You can taste the cocoa for the first five seconds, then the chilli kicks in. The flavours on their own work well, but the the flavour overall is chilli. 4 out of 10.

Onion Bhaji: The smell is pretty good, I bought my Indian colleague Amir a pack and he thought the smell was Ok, and the taste, he rated as "nice". However, the main flavour for me seemed to be monosodium glutamate. Very salty taste with a hint of onion only. Only 3 out of 10.

Builders Breakfast: This again is quite a good replication of the flavours, which, according to the packet, are sausage, bacon, egg, buttered toast and tomato ketchup. Quite a challenge for the flavour chemists then, and one which they've made work. For its sheer accuracy, I'm giving these 9 out of 10.

And the weirdest flavour, I've saved till last: Cajun Squirrel. Since I'm not Ray Mears, I've no idea what a squirrel, cajun spiced or otherwise, is meant to taste like. If this was described as cajun chicken, then I'd give it a very high mark indeed as that's just what it tastes like. I'm going to give it 7 out of ten as the cajun spice is just hot enough to give your tongue a small whack without blowing your face off. A good novelty flavour.

I think Walkers have done a pretty good job overall, and i envy the person whose job it was to replicate these flavours.

Happy crunching for the credit crunch.

Adam