Walkers Classic Variety Crisps, 14 x 25g

A variety box answers the question of what everyone wants by giving them the four classic choices. This Walkers Classic Variety box holds fourteen 25g bags, 350g of crisps in total: four bags of Cheese and Onion, four of Ready Salted, three of Salt and Vinegar and three of Prawn Cocktail.

Four flavours, one crisp

According to the published pack listing, every flavour starts from the same crisp: potatoes, sunflower and rapeseed oils in varying proportions, and antioxidants (rosemary extract, ascorbic acid, a tocopherol rich extract and citric acid). The pack says the potatoes are 100% Great British potatoes. The difference is what goes on top.

Ready salted adds only salt. Cheese and onion adds a seasoning led by dried onion, with whey, lactose, cheese powder, a little citric and malic acid and dried garlic. Salt and vinegar adds dry acids, potassium acetates and citric acid, with flavourings, potassium chloride, a little sugar, salt and yeast extract. Prawn cocktail adds flavourings, sugar, citric acid and potassium acetates, tomato and onion powder, spice extract and a small amount of the sweetener sucralose.

What to know before you share the bags

Two flavours carry something worth mentioning. The cheese and onion seasoning contains milk, in the whey, lactose, flavouring, cheese powder and whey protein. The prawn cocktail seasoning contains the sweetener sucralose alongside sugar, which is why the pack describes those bags as containing sugar and sweetener. The ready salted and salt and vinegar ingredients list neither milk nor sweetener.

The allergy advice for the box says the crisps may contain cereals containing gluten, mustard and soya, and the listing highlights milk for the box because of the cheese and onion bags. The pack states the crisps are suitable for vegetarians; no fish or meat is listed in any flavour, including the prawn cocktail. No vegan or gluten free claim is made. Recipes and factory arrangements change, so check the allergy advice on each bag you hand out, not only on the box.

Four nutrition panels

The box carries a panel for each flavour. Per 25g bag, cheese and onion gives 128 kcal and 0.29g of salt; ready salted 130 kcal and 0.3g of salt; salt and vinegar 127 kcal and 0.16g of salt; prawn cocktail 127 kcal and 0.16g of salt. Per 100g, the salt splits into two pairs: 1.2g for cheese and onion and ready salted, and 0.64g and 0.65g for salt and vinegar and prawn cocktail, whose seasonings lean on potassium chloride and potassium acetates. Fat is 29g per 100g for the seasoned flavours and 31g for ready salted. On the UK front of pack scale all four are high for fat, medium for saturates and salt, and low for sugars.

How the crisps are made

All four flavours are the thin Walkers slice: potatoes washed and sliced thin, rinsed of surface starch and fried in the sunflower and rapeseed blend until the water has cooked out. Each seasoning is dusted on while the crisps are warm, so the oil on the slice holds it.

Which bag for which person

If you are handing out bags, a rough guide helps. Ready salted suits the child or adult who wants no strong flavour, and it lists no milk and no sweetener. Cheese and onion suits most sandwich lunches, but it contains milk. Salt and vinegar is for people who like a crisp sharp enough to make the mouth water, and it has the lowest salt per 100g in the box alongside prawn cocktail. Prawn cocktail is the sweetest of the four, from sugar with a little sucralose, and it contains no seafood despite the name.

Who the fourteen bag box suits

Fourteen bags is two weeks of one bag a day, or a week of lunches for two. The mix means nobody gets bored and the fussiest eater in the house still has ready salted to fall back on. For a small party, fourteen bags tipped into four bowls by flavour gives guests a choice without anyone opening a bag they do not want.

Other sizes

The Walkers Classic Variety box also comes with six bags (two each of cheese and onion, ready salted and salt and vinegar, with no prawn cocktail) and with twenty bags (five of each of the four flavours). For single flavours in six bag multipacks we stock Walkers Cheese and Onion, Ready Salted, Salt and Vinegar and Prawn Cocktail. If your household leans towards meat flavours, the Walkers Meaty Variety box swaps ready salted and salt and vinegar for smoky bacon and roast chicken, keeping cheese and onion and prawn cocktail.

Storage

The pack advises a cool, dry place. Keep the bags in the box until the day they are eaten, and sort them by flavour when the box is opened so a bag with milk or sweetener in it is not handed out by mistake.

Sizes of Walkers Classic Variety Crisps we stock

Figures as published on each pack's label.

The published listing gives the United Kingdom as the country of origin, and the pack names Walkers as the maker. The tasting notes on this page are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.