penguinsix

I built up quite a taste for Lays Salt and Vinegar crisps while living in Hong Kong, and recently had a friend bring me a case of them back for me to snack on. Maybe I'm just getting old or my memory is rusty, but they now tasted pretty much exactly like Lays salt and vinegar.

Did they change up the taste in recent years? Maybe I was just eating Walkers Australian crisps (which are supposedly more 'zingy' than the UK version) and didn't know it. Any crisp experts notice a difference between Walkers and Lays?

mikelincs

As they are both parts of the same company, I would suggest they are just rationalising flavourings.

The pack design gives it away, but some flavours are specific to certain areas, I loved Lays Olive oil crisps when we lived in Spain.

SpoogleDrummer

I'd say neither, Walker's tastes different to me, it's a bit like when Hershey produce a Cadbury product, if you're desperate it might be passable but otherwise it's completely off. That said I'd still try a Lays version of Cheese and Onion if they ever made one.

robtuck

It surprises me that flavoured crisps haven't really taken off in the USA given they are owned by the same company. You'd think they would go for an Armadillo flavoured pack down here for example, to replace Hedgehog. Certainly Cheese and Onion is hardly pushing boundaries and most cooking shows give a shout out to Worcesersire Sauce these days, so why not the crisps having a home?

lizzyq

The cheddar Popables are a similar taste to cheese quavers, light and crunchy too, though they don't have the cling to the tongue texture.

SpoogleDrummer

I've always found that odd too. Even if it's just Smokey Bacon or Roast Chicken, how are they not options? Who could possibly not like them? At Christmas they release chocolate covered crisps covered in salt (sound disgusting but were surprisingly good) so if they're prepared to take a risk on that why not some tried and tested flavours?

scrubbedexpat091

Lay's seems to have a decent variety of flavored chips in the US, different flavors but different countries have different tastes, and even within the US some flavors might be regional nature and not available nationwide.

Canadians love ketchup flavored chips, American's not so much. I can tolerate them now but I still don't get the love Canadians have for it.

Lay's has over the years had short runs of different flavors that are sold in other countries, ketchup flavor for example was tested in the US market a couple times, seems to not be popular though since its never made it to permanent status.

One Canadian flavor that seemed to be a hit in the US, is ruffles All Dressed, for many years it wasn't available in the US market.

neill

Lays do Poutine flavoured chips in Canada. :O

Pulaski

My guess would be that the difference is as much in the potato and the oil used to cook it, as it is in the flavourings used, especially for salt and vinegar crisps as sodium diacetate is the flavouring used - basically salt and acetic acid in one convenient molecule, which is a white crystalline solid - i.e. it looks exactly like NaCl salt when applied to crisps.

About half the world's supply of food grade sodium diacetate used to be made in a chemical plant in Gloucester. The plant is long gone and I don't know where production was shifted to.

scrubbedexpat091

I don't know if Lay's still does in Canada, they no longer list it on their product page, and I can't recall see Poutine flavor in store recently. I know they had it at one point along with some other flavors they no longer sell, but not sure they still do.

Ruffles had Poutine flavor but they don't list it on their product page anymore either.

I think Presidents Choice may still have Poutine flavor though.

Boomhauer

What was the brand of 1980s crisps that was square shaped and more or less flat? It came in a small packet, the same size as the 1980s Walkers crisps. It might even be Walkers, can't recall. Did Walkers ever make square shaped crisps?

Edit
I think it is Smiths, but not sure.

scrubbedexpat097

It was Smiths. Lenny Henry did the commercials, I think.

Boomhauer

Just checked it out, yup it is the one. How I miss those.

scrubbedexpat097

The original Smith's had the little blue salt bag. I loved tipping it over the crisps and shaking the bag!

Giantaxe

Hershey's version of Cadbury's is truly disgusting. But I wouldn't say that about Lays, even though there's a difference. I read somewhere it's because EU regulations are more strict about food additives than the US is, so some of the crap that's in Lays can't be in Walkers.