Walkers Ready Salted and Cheese and Onion Crisps, 14 x 25g

This box settles an argument before it starts. Half the bags are Walkers Cheese and Onion and half are Walkers Ready Salted, seven of each, fourteen 25g bags and 350g of crisps altogether. For families where one child will only eat plain crisps and another will only eat cheese and onion, it is the whole shopping list in one box.

Two recipes, one crisp

According to the published pack listing, both flavours start from the same crisp: potatoes, sunflower and rapeseed oils in varying proportions, and four antioxidants (rosemary extract, ascorbic acid, a tocopherol rich extract and citric acid) that keep the oil fresh. The pack says the potatoes are 100% Great British potatoes.

The ready salted bags add salt and nothing else. That is the whole list, which makes ready salted the plainest crisp in the standard Walkers range and the clearest way to taste the potato and the oil on their own.

The cheese and onion bags add a seasoning instead: dried onion, salt, dried milk whey, lactose from milk, sugar, a flavouring containing milk, cheese powder from milk, dried yeast, citric and malic acids, whey protein, dried garlic, and the colours annatto bixin and paprika extract.

The milk difference

This is the detail worth knowing before you hand a bag to a child. The cheese and onion seasoning contains milk in five places. The ready salted ingredients list no milk at all. 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 as a whole, because the cheese and onion bags contain it.

So for a household managing a milk allergy, the ready salted bags are the ones to look at, but read the allergy advice printed on the individual bag you are giving, not only the box. Recipes and factory arrangements change, so check the allergy advice on the pack you receive.

The two nutrition panels side by side

The box carries a nutrition panel for each flavour, and comparing them shows exactly what a seasoning changes. Per 25g bag, the cheese and onion gives 128 kcal, 7.4g of fat, 0.6g of saturates, 0.7g of sugars and 0.29g of salt. The ready salted gives 130 kcal, 7.8g of fat, 0.6g of saturates, 0.1g of sugars and 0.3g of salt.

Per 100g the two have the same salt, 1.2g, and the differences are elsewhere. The ready salted crisp carries a little more fat, 31g against 29g, which fits with some of the cheese and onion crisp's weight being seasoning powder rather than potato and oil. The cheese and onion carries more sugar, 2.6g against 0.4g, from the sugar and lactose in its seasoning. On the UK front of pack scale both are high for fat, medium for saturates and salt, and low for sugars.

How they are made

Both flavours begin the same way. Potatoes are washed and cut into thin slices, rinsed to take off surface starch, and fried in the oil blend until the water has cooked out and the slices have set crisp. For ready salted, salt is scattered over the warm crisps. For cheese and onion, the powdered seasoning goes on at the same point. The box says the bags are packaged in a protective atmosphere, which keeps oxygen away from the oil until each bag is opened.

Who this box is for

Neither flavour has any heat, and the only allergen difference to explain is the milk in the cheese and onion. That makes it an easy box for a busy house, a school holiday, or a party where you do not know every guest's tastes.

The two flavours also do different jobs in the kitchen. Ready salted is the better crisp for a dip or for crumbling over soup, because it tastes of potato and salt and nothing else gets in the way. Cheese and onion is the one for a crisp sandwich or for crushing over a pasta bake, where its onion and dairy add something the dish does not already have.

If you would rather have a single flavour, we stock Walkers Cheese and Onion and Walkers Ready Salted in their own six and fourteen bag boxes, 45g bags and 150g sharing bags. For more variety, the Walkers Classic Variety box adds salt and vinegar and, in its larger sizes, prawn cocktail.

Looking after the bags

The pack advises storing the box in a cool, dry place. Keep bags sealed in the box until the day they are eaten; a sealed 25g bag stays crisp far longer than anything decanted into a tub. When the box is opened, split the two flavours into separate piles, so the people who want one flavour do not have to dig for it and a bag with milk in it is never picked up by mistake.

Other 14 x 25g packs of Walkers 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 are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.