Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 13: Scottish Haggis

Finally got hold of Scottish Haggis, though it wasn't really worth the wait or the search. It tastes nothing at all like Haggis, even though it contains a multitude of meat extracts (poultry and mutton to be precise). It is slightly peppery and a little meaty (yes, once again I tasted before I read the ingredients) but all in all a real disappointment.

Scottish Haggis: "Tastes nothing like haggis, despite containing bits of animals" 3/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 12: Argentinian Flame Grilled Beef

Bovril.

"These just taste of Bovril" was the almost unanimous verdict of the blind taste panel. I had to agree, or more precisely they taste of Bovril flavoured crisps, which in themselves don't taste exactly like Bovril.

A decent effort if you want Bovril crisps, but in that case you'd just buy Bovril crisps! A poor effort if you want Argentinian Flame Grilled Beef!

There will now be an indefinite hiatus in the Flavour Cup reports as I have had no luck obtaining the last three flavours, Welsh Rarebit, Haggis and Irish Stew. If anyone sees them, either tell me where or get me some!

Argentinian Flame Grilled Beef: "They just taste of Bovril" 6/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 11: Australian BBQ Kangaroo

Hmm.  No one's really sure just what Kangaroo should taste like, other than it's a kind of red meat. Therefore the fact that these crisps tasted like a very nice BBQ Beef (as most of the blind taste panel guessed at) means that I must put them down as pretty good crisps.

Certainly it was one of the most flavoursome efforts so far (some have been so subtle as to be almost indistinguishable from ready salted), too flavoursome for one of the panel who prefers those subtler flavours (but who often states "they taste of nothing" - you just can't win!).

Definitely one of my favourites, and now knowing that the  Roast Beef and the Bratwurst contain "poultry extract" and are therefore docked a mark, this goes up into joint first with them and the American Cheeseburger. (Come the tie-breaker those meat-containing flavours won't be included, so they are effectively out of the running now.)


Australian BBQ Kangaroo: "Not sure if it really tastes of Skippy, but it's a fine BBQ flavour and up there with a chance of winning" 8/10.

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 10: American Cheeseburger

Amazing. Probably the most identifiable flavour so far. Almost all of the blind taste panel identified "gherkin", "mustard" and "meat", though no one mentioned cheese. Someone said the crisps "tasted like a McDonald's". Praise indeed. Most were agreed it was their favourite flavour so far too.

American Cheeseburger: "Tastes just like a McDonald's Quarter Pounder With Cheese - but without the cheese" 8/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 9: South African Sweet Chutney

OK, hands up if you know what South African Sweet Chutney tastes like? Why did Walker's even choose that as a flavour? Desperation to include South Africa while not really wanting to do a "BBQ Springbok" flavour (which would probably taste identical to the BBQ Kangeroo that they already feature)?

Well, the blind tasting panel detected "Prawn Cocktail", "Tomato Ketchup", "Worcester Sauce" and "Tomato Ketchup mixed with Worcester Sauce". That's how I described it, like ketchup but a little spicier. Not a bad flavour and one I could eat again.

South African Sweet Chutney: "Like Ketchup mixed with Worcester Sauce" 7/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 8: Dutch Edam

The first blind taster to try these suggested "ready salted", such was the amount of "flavouring" on them. There seems to be quite a bit of variation in how strongly/mildly some varieties are flavoured - are Walker's letting QA standards slip?

That aside, if you tried really hard, you could actually discern a mild cheese flavour, and as Edam is a fairly bland, inoffensive, mild cheese I suppose this was a pretty good effort. I'm not sure that it doesn't just taste like Cheese & Onion would if you missed out the onion, maybe the cheese in that flavour has a bit more tang to it.

Anyway, I liked it, most of the panel could tell it was meant to be cheese, and most thought they were "alright" (they've not been very enthusiastic about any of the flavours so "alright" counts as a thumbs up!)

Dutch Edam: "Tastes like bland, mild cheese, so a pretty good effort" 7/10

Walkers Flavour Cup: Warning To Vegetarians

Ugh. No wonder the German Bratwurst flavour tasted so authentically meaty, I just read the ingredient list (or rather a colleague of mine did) and it contains "poultry extract". What the hell is that? Obviously it comes from poultry, but describing it as "extract" is a bit nondescript and rather vague. Probably intentionally so. To call it by what it actually was would probably sound even worse and more off-putting.

Well, that means that the remainder of the 6-pack of Bratwurst crisps that I had are going into the Tuck Shop for general consumption by people who don't care what they put into themselves!

This led me to check up on the other flavours and my other former favourite, English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding contains "Poultry Broth". I suppose that sounds a little better than "extract".

I guess the lesson to be learned (apart from always read the ingredients) is that the best flavours contain meat, so it must be difficult to make good analogues of meat flavours from non meat sources.

Gone are the days when the only non-vegetarian Walker's flavour was Cheese & Onion!

Footnote: The Scottish Haggis flavour is also non-veggie, containing the ubiquitous "poultry extract" and also "mutton broth".

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 7: Brazilian Salsa

Back to disappointments again today. Brazilian Salsa was lacking in anything identifiable as "Brazilian" or "Salsa", not tasting of spice, tomato, onion or of very much else actually.

Once again the overriding flavour was "sweetness" (a lot of these Flavour Cup flavours are pretty sweet). None of the blind taste panel had the faintest idea what it was supposed to be, which is hardly surprising. What is "Brazilian Salsa" anyway? How does it vary from any other kind of Salsa?

No, I have to say this ranks as one of the most disappointing flavours of the whole bunch.

Brazilian Salsa: "Tastes of nothing, really." 2/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 6: German Bratwurst

The competition is really heating up. Having found what I thought would be the winner on Friday, along comes another contender today.

Being neither German nor carnivorous I'm hardly in a position to decide what tastes authentically of "German sausage" and yet I fancy that these do. They certainly taste undeniably "sausage-like", a nicely seasoned, slightly smoky, meaty kind of flavour.

The blind tasting panel were equally conclusive. Three of them said it was "some kind of sausage" while a fourth said it was "some kind of smoked/burnt meat". Most agreed it was the best flavour so far.

I'm marking it equal top with Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pud, we can have a play-off at the end of the competition.

German Bratwurst: "Undeniably tastes of sausage, an excellent effort" 9/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 5: English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner. Or at least a probable winner. I loved this flavour and it's going to be pretty hard to beat. Even (most of) the blind taste panel agreed it was the best flavour so far, and one even guessed that it was "roast dinner" flavour. Pretty good considering they've been totally clueless about all of the other flavours so far.

Tasting (naturally) of beef, having that elusive, hard-to-describe "Yorkshire pudding" sub-taste, a touch of gravy and even a "hint of greasiness" I thought it was superb. I'd give it 10/10 but have to hold 1 back in case an even better flavour comes along later.

English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding: "So good you could confuse it with a real roast dinner" 9/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 4: Japanese Chicken Teriyaki

Another flavour that I liked that didn't go down well with the taste panel here at work. To me it was chicken, tomato & Marmite & sweetness all mingled together into quite a nice flavour. As Teriyaki is a sweet soy sauce, I thought it a fairly decent effort.

Obviously I was picking up Marmite where I should have been getting Soy, but then I'm a big Marmite fan. Some of our tasters detected BBQness, some the sweetness, very few of them the chicken.

For me this is the second best flavour so far, but maybe I'm just swayed by the Marmite.

Japanese Chicken Teriyaki: "Tastes like chicken in sweetened Marmite" 7/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 3: Italian Spaghetti Bolognese

You could imagine what these were going to taste like before you even opened the bag. A bit of beef, a bit of tomato and a bit of oregano was what I was expecting, and that's exactly what I got.

The blind tasting panel didn't agree, they thought them rather tasteless and not one of them guessed at the supposed flavour. The best one taster could come up with was "a bit like BBQ Pringles". None of them even noticed the oregano, which was quite apparent to my cultured taste buds.

Italian Spaghetti Bolognese: "Taste exactly as you'd expect them to, a very decent effort and the best of the bunch so far" 8/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 2: Spanish Chicken Paella

So day two of the Walker's Flavour Cup brings us Spanish Chicken Paella. Using the same blind tasting technique as before, none of the panel had any idea what the flavour was supposed to be, not even picking up on the Chicken-ness of it. "Damp" and "Fried" were two "tastes" that cropped up, not bad considering how Paella is produced.

Ultimately, on knowing what the flavour was, no one said "Oh yeah, of course!" and most agreed they would never buy this flavour, though I actually liked them.

Spanish Chicken Paella: "they taste OK, but nothing like the flavour they are supposed to be" 4/10

Walker's Flavour Cup:Day 1: French Garlic Baguette

OK, so after the false start of Jamaican Jerk Chicken here's the first REAL day of The Walker's Flavour Cup.

I've decided to use my test audience as blind tasters and not tell them what flavour the crisps are supposed to be. This gives quite interesting results. 5 people thought these crisps were Sour Cream & Chive, one thought it was anything from Lime & Coriander to BBQ'd something or other (makes us wonder about his taste buds) and one thought they just didn't taste of much at all.

So did anyone think it tasted like Garlic Baguette once they'd been told what they were? Only the Lime/Coriander/BBQ guy :-/

French Garlic Baguette crisps: nice enough tasting crisps, but nothing like garlic and entirely like cheese & chive. 5/10

False Start

Apparently the Jamaican Jerk Chicken isn't part of the "Flavour Cup" contest, despite it having the logo etc. on the packet!

Our Tasting sessions will begin afresh on Monday then, with French Garlic Baguette.

My local ASDA doesn't have all of the flavours in so I'm on the lookout for the missing culprits. I'm determined to get the lot!

FYI the nations/flavours involved in the cup are:

1. American Cheeseburger
2. Argentinian Flame Grilled Steak
3. Australian BBQ Kangaroo
4. Brazilian Salsa
5. Dutch Edam Cheese
6. English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding
7. French Garlic Baguette
8. German Bratwurst
9. Irish Stew
10. Italian Spaghetti Bolognese
11. Japanese Teriyaki Chicken
12. Scottish Haggis
13. South African Sweet Chutney
14. Spanish Chicken Paealla
15. Welsh Rarebit

Walker's Flavour CupDay 1: Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Day 1 of the Walker's Flavour Cup challenge begins with Jamaican Jerk Chicken.

The decision of the voting panel here at work was:

"Decent tasting Chicken crisps but with no hint of the heat and spice that defines 'jerk'. Therefore, quite a disappointment".


Jamaican Jerk Chicken 5/10