Crisps accomplished

[nou]

Happy new year! One of my resolutions last year was to eat at least 52 different flavours of crisps (potato crisps only, not ridged, not reconstituted), and I’m pleased to announce that I succeeded.

The full list ([*] indicates that I liked them and would buy them again):

1. Lay’s Korean cream cheese garlic (bought online from Tuk Tuk Mart) [*]
2. Koikeya teriyaki (bought from Ocado) [*]
3. Mr Singh’s chilli, cheese, and onion (bought from Mr Singh’s website)
4. Koikeya sweet & sour pickled plum (bought online from the Japan Centre)
5. Koikeya sea salt and seaweed (bought online from the Japan Centre)
6. Savorsmiths Italian cheese and port (bought from Ocado)
7. Fairfields Farm bacon & tomato (bought from Ocado) [*]
8. Walkers prawn cocktail (bought from Ocado) [*]
9. Estrella Fine Slices sourcream & onion (bought from West Point Coffee, Croydon; note that the regular ones are crinkle-cut, but the Fine Slices are not) [*]
10. Oishi salted egg yolk (bought from Wing Yip) [*]
11. Calbee chilli crab (I think these were bought online from Tuk Tuk Mart) [*]
12. Lay’s spicy Korean ramen (bought online from The Asian Cookshop)
13. Walkers Marmite (bought from Ocado)
14. Torres black truffle (bought from Ocado)
15. Walkers roast chicken (bought from Ocado) [*]
16. M&S beef wellington (bought from Ocado)
17. Walkers smoky bacon (bought from Ocado) [*]
18. Koikeya Kara Mucho hot chilli (bought online somewhere, I forget where)
19. Mr Singh’s chilli and lemon (bought from Mr Singh’s website)
20. Torres caviar (bought online from Souschef) [*]
21. Walkers Sensations roast pork & apple (bought from Ocado)
22. Koikeya wasabai nori (bought from Ocado)
23. Walkers Sensations baked cheese & honey (bought from Ocado)
24. Calbee hot & spicy (bought online somewhere I think)
25. Walkers tomato ketchup (bought from Ocado)
26. Mackies lorne sausage & brown sauce (bought online from The British Corner Shop) [*]
27. Tyrrells mediterranean herb (bought from Ocado) [*]
28. Lay’s Mexican chicken tomato (bought online from Starry Mart)
29. Calbee shumai (bought online from Starry Mart) [*]
30. Mackies haggis, neeps & tatties (bought online from The British Corner Shop) [*]
31. Lay’s 酸菜鱼（translated on a sticker as “sour & spicy”, but “fish soup with pickled vegetables” is a more usual translation) (bought online from Starry Mart)
32. Lay’s lime (bought online from Starry Mart) [*]
33. Lay’s matsutake (bought from Starry Mart) [*]
34. Ten Acre “when hickory got BBQ’ed” (bought from Ocado)
35. Lay’s Italian red meat (I think these came from Starry Mart)
36. Torres fried egg (bought online from Souschef)
37. Lay’s mieng kam krob ros (bought online from Starry Mart)
38. Lay’s American classic (a gift from a friend)
39. Lay’s Texas grilled BBQ (I think these came from Starry Mart)
40. Burts Guinness (bought online from The British Corner Shop) [*]
41. Calbee curry (I think these came from Starry Mart)
42. Lay’s cucumber (a gift from a friend) [*]
43. Pipers chorizo (bought from Ocado) [*]
44. M&S pigs in blankets (bought from Ocado)
45. Yorkshire Crisps tomato, basil & mozzarella (bought from Amazon)
46. Yorkshire Crisps roast lamb & mint (bought from Amazon) [*]
47. M&S Worcestershire sauce (bought from Ocado)
48. M&S turkey feast (bought from Ocado)
49. Pipers jalapeño and dill (bought from Ocado)
50. Yorkshire Crisps sweet cured ham & pickle (bought from Amazon)
51. Yorkshire Crisps sweet chilli & lime (bought from Amazon)
52. Lay’s onion (bought from Polski Supermarket in Croydon) [*]
53. Lay’s spicy paprika (bought from Polski Supermarket in Croydon)

The reason there are 53 instead of 52 is that I couldn’t decide whether “when hickory got BBQ’ed” and “Texas grilled BBQ” were separate flavours or not.

The highlights and lowlights:

• Most delicious: Oishi salted egg yolk (runner-up: Calbee chilli crab)
• Most disappointing: Koikeya sweet & sour pickled plum
• Most reminiscent of Batchelors tomato cup-a-soup: Lay’s Mexican chicken tomato
• Most detrimental use of aspartame: Lay’s mieng kam krob ros
• Most divisive: Lay’s cucumber (bob thinks they taste very much of cucumber, I think they very much do not)

I’m not doing a resolution for 2023, but I thought maybe next year I’d do this one again but with cheese.

Poll #28112

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

View Respondents

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View Answers

Hello Kake!
31 (86.1%)

Well done!
29 (80.6%)

Next year with cheese sounds like an excellent idea.
29 (80.6%)

ticky
17 (47.2%)

box
14 (38.9%)

Comments

[naraht]

What a fantastic project! If you're not heartily sick of crisps already I can recommend Lay's oregano crisps. My mother had some in Greece over two decades ago and still happily reminisces about them from time to time. They're for sale in various Greek delis in Oxford so I imagine you could buy them in London, or online.

[nou]

Ooh, thank you. I’m not sick of crisps in the slightest, and I do like oregano, so I’ll look out for these!

[emperor]

What a lot of crisps!

[nou]

There was scepticism expressed when I announced this project over whether 52 flavours of crisps actually exist. I was never in any doubt :)

[watersword]

What a delightful project.

[nou]

Thank you! It’s certainly helped me discover some delicious things.

[squirmelia]

Wow, so many! I saw some crab crisps in a shop near my office a month or so ago and wondered how you were doing with it. :)

[nou]

I love that crisps are now making people think of me :)

[miss_newham]

Oh, I'm delighted that you finished and succeeded in this project!

[nou]

Thank you! I feel very accomplished now. But also looking forward to eating crisps that are not part of the challenge. (“You made crisps into a task,” said bob. He was not wrong.)

[liv]

Wow, 52 flavours of crisps was a genius plan. And I'm so impressed you stuck to it. What a great thing to look back on for the past year.

[nou]

It was inspired by squirmelia, whose annual ice cream lists I have been admiring for a while. I only just got it done in time! The final flavour of crisps was opened around 8pm on 31 December.

[spiralsheep]

Congratulations on completing a double crispathon. In 2022 I ate the worst crisps I've ever encountered (Seabrooks - too salty, no other flavour). In 2023 I intend to collect clouds. Happy Gregorian rollover!

[nou]

Thank you! (Not only for the congratulations, but also for the word “crispathon”.) Boo to Seabrooks!

I like your cloud idea. Are you going to photograph them or just admire them in-situ?

[spiralsheep]

Don't forget to emphasise it was a "double" crispathon, not merely 26 but a full 52 varieties (short of a Heinz 57 though, lol).

I mostly decided to collect clouds because they're free, easy, and don't require storage. I'm consulting the Cloud Collector's Handbook, which is a truly handy bag-sized book. I began at winter solstice, because the end of December tends to have more variable weather than grey January, so I got a few interesting skies in early. Can't stop myself taking photos but I never do anything with them - it's just lifelong habit.

I'd been collecting in situ local geology within walking distance of my house since the start of the pandemic but after nearly three years I think I'm done, with the last rock being the notoriously difficult to identify pseudotachylite that turned out to be easy because it was the only rock in the vicinity smooth enough not to be covered in lichen, lol.

[nou]

Now I’m wondering what would be good to attempt 57 varieties of! Bottled condiments, perhaps.

The Cloud Collector’s Handbook looks excellent (I found a preview on Google Books).

[spiralsheep]

Condiments, yes, or the truly dedicated could try 57 varieties of recipes for differing beans. I've probably eaten that many, maybe even 57 in 57 weeks. Back when I haunted supermarket deli counters at discount time I definitely ate 57 new-to-me foods in 57 weeks, especially cheeses.

The CCH is perfect for me as it's detailed enough to hold my interest but slightly too comprehensive for me to aim to collect them all, which represses my completist urges. There's also one "new" type of cloud missing as it was designated by scientists after publication. The book is divided into sections. Easy top ten types, plus seven species and varieties, are all collectable in the UK from a chair by a window. The eight accessory clouds and supplementary features should also be collectable in the UK. "Other Clouds" (11) and optical effects (10) include some unlikely to be viewable in most of the UK most of the time and a few would need actively persuing, e.g. diamond dust. The CCH also includes two very useful visual indexes, and then readers have technical terms to google if they want to know more. /enthusing

[nou]

It sounds brilliant. I really do not need a new hobby, but I sort of wish I did.

[selki]

There are MANY flavors of jerky if one goes looking.

[nou]

Ha! I’ll keep that in mind, thanks :)

[doseybat]

Would you like me to bring back interesting crisp and cheese flavours probably not easily available in the UK?

[nou]

Ooh I will definitely take you up on this for the cheese challenge once I start it. Thank you!

[juli]

The cucumber crisps! They are so divisive. I was taking things from my stash of crisps to a queer youth group for a while, and the kids loved and looked forward to my offerings each month. Then I brought the cucumber crisps, and as each kid arrived the last person to have eaten one dared them to eat one, and almost all of them hated them, while a few couldn't imagine why that could possibly be, but they also argued a lot about what they actually tasted like. There was no consensus about anything about them, and kids stopped eagerly rushing to whichever packets of crisps I brought quite so eagerly. I got less-strong and more consistent reactions to, like, numerous durian snacks.

[nou]

Ha, yes! They’re definitely a bit weird, and I’m also not sure what they actually tasted like, but I did like them.