The Crisp World Cup taste off, the first round

THE CRISP FLAVOURED WORLD CUP

On the evening of 29th May, me and three friends went through the Walkers World Cup range of crisps, with the 12 available in England plus 4 added to make a total of 16 from countries in the World Cup finals, we had a straight up elimination to determine the best flavour, the winning flavour and country had the (somewhat dubious) honour of being supporting by Irishman Scott Ryan at this years World Cup (something he agreed to do on the provision it wouldn't be Ireland).

Introducing the tasters, this is Jason, he's an English thoroughbred man, with 30 years of crisp eating experience behind him and having already tried a few flavours already, he was keen to get tasting and see who he thought tasted the best.Also helping out was Nigerian Femi Olaiya, would i'd like to say he flew over especially for this.....but he's recently moved to the UK and more than willing to help give this 'monumental' event a truly global feel.

Many thanks to the boys for their particiaption and to Scott for agreeing (as long as it's not France) for supporting the winner.

So the rules were that Jason and Femi would try both flavours with only one advancing to the next round. If they couldn't agree, i had to decide out of the two which was the better.

First up, the flavours:-

1.United States, cheeseburger, what you'd expect, but how would it do as a crisp flavour? A flavour as big as Texas? Grab your pom-poms and join the cheerleading section

2.Brazil, Brazilian salsa, the greatest World Cup nation of all time, reduced to one flavour, will it put a party on their tongues, this flavour combination sounds as exuberant as the Rio Carnival, SAMBA!

3.Argentina, Argentine flame grilled steak, would the boys like the taste and flare of a passionate couple dancing the tango, encompassed in a meaty crisp?

4.Japan, Japanese teriyaki chicken, is this flavour as delicate as an origami swan?

5.South Africa, not antelope as Femi suggested, but South African sweet chutney (no, me neither), a flavour of warm, tangy spices and fruity chutney, has it got the taste to put the other flavours in a pickle?

6.Australia, Australian BBQ kangaroo, rightly guessed as the flavour by Femi and Jason, forget bush tucker, say g'day to a flavour that hopes to leave taste buds jumping for joy?

7. Holland, not daffodils of clogs as Scott suggested but Dutch Edam cheese, cheese, cheese and more cheese, if mice could vote, this would be a sure fire winner, but will the boys get behind the big ball of Edam so it rolls over the opposition?

8.France, again Scott suggested frogs or chicken, but Walkers have produced French garlic baguette, a flavour with a certain 'je ne sais qoui?', it's an attempt at a chic combination of butter, roasted garlic and parsley, ooh la laa

9.England, with Walkers doing the awful fish and chips flavour last year (don't remember them? for a reason!), Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, like a Sunday lunch in a bag, this flavour is as traditional as morris dancing, but without the hanky waving foolishness?

10.Germany, Bratwurst sausage, will this leave the boys fearing the Wurst?

11. Italy, spaghetti bolognese, mamma mia! what a choice of flavour, will this Italian job be leaving the boys saying 'siao' to the other flavours?

12. Spain, chicken paella, Viva Espana! will this flavour have the others on the run like a Spanish bull?

as only 12 flavours are available in England, i bought four more from other ranges to make a total of 16, these are:-

13. Denmark, smokey bacon, will this flavour bring the bacon home for it's country?

14. Mexico, cheese Doritos, big crunch....but big flavour?

15. New Zealand, chargrilled steak, meaty in flavour, but will it progress far?

16. South Korea, apparently dog tastes like chicken (Femi says) so roast chicken, will this flavour come home to roost? or are their chances already gone to the dogs?

So with the boys all set with a drink in their hands, we drew the teams for the first round out of the hat, then the winner of the first played the winner of the second, 3rd against 4th etc.

Let's see what happened in the first round with all competing, first taste off was SPAIN vs AUSTRALIA with Spain being tasted first. With a distinctive red looking crisp and a smell like 'sick', Jason described the taste as 'strong' but with a full flavour, it has to be a nice flavour and neither seemed too impressed and admitted they''d struggle to get through a whole pack. As i tried, it tastes like 'Spicy Curry Pot Noodle' and smells like it too, interesting though slightly sickening. Australia's kangaroo was met with nods of approval, Jason describing it as 'beefy' and Femi saying he could taste the meat. As i tried, it's a nice gentle flavour, not overpowering like the Spanish paella, could casually eat a large bag quite easily. Both Jason and Femi went for Australia over Spain! The World Cup tournament favourites are out....though this is in crisp form.

Nest was SOUTH KOREA's roast chicken drawn against DENMARK's smokey bacon. both traditional flavours available all year round, Jason preferring the bacon, Femi the chicken, we let Scott decide this one as to who goes through, he went the the chicken so South Korea go through to face Australia in the next round.

GERMANY''s bratwurst sausage was to take on SOUTH AFRICA's sweet chutney. Jason admitting he had previously tried the German sausage crisps and not being too impressed, opening the pack and they did smell nice, had a strong meaty sausage smell though the flavour wasn't strong, tasted light though enough to suggest the flavour is a fried sausage, a tough flavour to beat. South Africa's sweet chutney was an interesting crisp, looking covered in flavour but without much smell, they tasted like a 'slightly watered down Worcestershire sauce' flavour, light, tangy and brought lot's of 'mmmmm's' from the boys, somehow, Germany's strong effort is out and South Africa go through to the next round.


With a place against South Africa in the quarter finals up for grabs, who would face them, it was FRANCE's garlic baguette against UNITED STATES cheeseburger, the French effort tastes like 'soft cheese' according to Femi, which it does, not much of a hint of garlic and the boys not overly impressed with the effort. the United States cheeseburger wasn't with a strong smell and does taste like a cheeseburger (like a McDonald's quarterpounder, i should be ashamed to know that to compare so easily), personally i would of voted United States but the boys preferred the French garlic baguette (in fact, Jason's response to trying the cheeseburger flavour was a loud 'EEEUUURRRGGGHHH), saying the cheeseburger had a too strong tomato ketchup aftertaste! the French beat the United States

JAPAN's teriyaki chicken was up next against ITALY's spaghetti bolognese, the Japanese flavour is light but spicy, 'sweet' as Jason described it, not too tangy and quite a nice crisp with a small kick. I don't think anyone was looking forward to the Italian contribution, surely trying to define spaghetti bolognese as a crisp is a recipe for disaster. Opening the packet with a slight look of fear on Jason's eyes, i tasted first, and absolutely loved it, immediately thinking this flavour is the best so far, it tastes perfect, not strong, just the right balance and tastes perfectly like spaghetti bolognese, Jason licking his lips and describing as 'nice', Femi going one better and saying it's 'very nice', a very impressive Italy goes through.

Next up was ENGLAND's roast beef and Yorkshire pudding against HOLLAND's Edam cheese, with many people already having tried the England flavour already, it was tasted and Jason did point out 'it should be just beef and mustard' and i think Femi didn't really know what a Yorkshire pudding was. The Dutch crisps, a soft cheese flavoured crisp, was met with shrugs, 'it's plain' pointed out Jason, it does taste like Edam, it's one of the best like for like recreation of a flavour but obviously not a flavour the boys enjoyed, both voting England to go through.

Next up was the NEW ZEALAND's chargrilled steak against the MEXICO cheese Doritos, with Jason saying 'i don't like Doritos and not even trying, Femi said he preferred the steak flavoured crisps so it's New Zealand that go through.

The final taste off in this round is BRAZIL's salsa in a South American heavyweight clash against ARGENTINA's flame grilled steak, the Brazilian crisps tasting 'tangy, spicy, but not doing for me' by Jason and a bemused shrug from Femi, both tucked into the steak crisps with relish, 'not too strong a flavour' said Femi (meant in a good way), both agreed the Argentines should go through, clearly not impressed with the Brazilian effort (to be fair, they are awful!)

The quarter final line up is:-

AUSTRALIA vs SOUTH KOREA

SOUTH AFRICA vs FRANCE

ITALY vs ENGLAND

'the steak off'

NEW ZEALAND vs ARGENTINA

the results of these and the winner will be published in a near future blog with the tense final rounds included