Packet #100 - Walkers Max Strong Hot Chicken Wings

100 Crisp reviews is a lot. So for this Crisp reviewing landmark, we thought we'd go all out. We'd go for a bold, hard-hitting Crisp that promises to shake things up.

After the moderate success of our last Crinkle Cut review (Keogh's Irish Cheddar and Red Onion), we decided to continue with this seemingly insatiable Crisp trend. That's why we decided to sample Walkers Max Strong Hot Chicken Wings Crisps.

Well, when we say we decided to sample them, we actually just got them for free off a guy selling cartons of water at a festival. He only had one flavour of Crisps in his shack and we accepted them gladly.

But maybe the fact that he was giving them away for free should've indicated the sad truth about these Crisps. They are kind of horrible. And when I say kind of, I mean REALLY HORRIBLE.

In my opinion, chicken flavour Crisps are usually more miss than hit. You might think that as a vegetarian reviewer I'm biased against all meat flavoured Crisps. On the contrary, dear reader. My favourite Crisps are usually meat flavoured. Smokey Bacon, BBQ Beef and Flaming Steak all rank highly in my esteem. But I don't think I've ever met a chicken flavour Crisp that I liked. Well except Chickatees. They're lovely.

Anyway, I really thought that these Hot Chicken Wing Crisps would be the ones to change my mind. I love hot wing sauce. I like the fact that they are rated on the packet as a two flames out of three flames level of spiciness. And the crinkle cut format is always fun to eat. At least that's what I thought before I ate these crisps.

If you look carefully at the packet you'll see the tagline "Perfect With Beer". As friend of A Blog About Crisps, human rights fan and reveller Niall put it: "We had beer. They were not perfect.".

He's right. There is nothing perfect about these Crisps. They weren't even spicy. They didn't have the vinegary tang that you get off a good hot sauce. They just tasted a bit musty. Kind of like old soy sauce or something. Maybe vaguely herby. Weird anyway.

The texture was actually grand. A good thick Crisp with a bit of bite. But because the flavour was so unpleasing, I couldn't even stick with them for the satisfying crunch.

I'm not sure if this has ever happened before, but I didn't even finish the Crisps. I just gave them to an unsuspecting festival goer and went on my way.

So no. I wouldn't recommend these Crisps. But I am intrigued by the rest of the Max Strong range, so maybe I'll give the other flavours a bash at some point.

Christine.