Walkers isn’t just a crisp brand to us East Midlanders — it’s a point of pride.
Born and bred (like me!) in Leicester, Walkers is one of our region’s greatest exports, right up there with Gary Lineker, the Golden Mile, and the unmistakable sight of the Clock Tower on a Saturday afternoon. So as Stuck in the Middle is an East Midlands publication, we thought it was part of our civic duty to finally rank the flavours.
So (takes a gulp!) below is your official SITM ranking — from the respectable to the legendary.
5. Ready Salted — the classic workhorse
Ready Salted is the flavour equivalent of a dependable Trent Buses route: not flashy, not trying to impress, but always there when you need it. It’s the crisp you grab when you don’t want drama. A steady, salty staple that’s been around since Henry Walker first fired up the fryer in 1948. It’s the baseline of the Walkers universe — the flavour all others orbit. The Citizen Kane of crisps had to make the list.
4. Salt & Vinegar — your sharp tongued local
Salt & Vinegar hits you like the first gust of wind when you step out of St Margaret’s Bus Station. It’s punchy, loud, and absolutely unapologetic. When you’re in the mood for something bold, this is the crisp that steps up and can be relied upon. A proper tangy icon.
3. Prawn Cocktail — the pink enigma
Prawn Cocktail is Walkers at its most mischievous. Sweet, tangy, and proudly pink — a flavour that shouldn’t work but absolutely does. It’s the crisp equivalent of Loughborough’s quirky charm: unexpected, a bit cheeky, and beloved by more people than will publicly admit it. And if you were handed a penny for every time you’d heard ‘I hate prawn cocktail but love these’, then you’d be having a money fights with Jeff Bezos at weekends.
2. Roast Chicken — The Underrated Hero
Roast Chicken is the flavour that quietly gets on with being absolutely brilliant. Comforting, savoury, and deeply nostalgic — like a Sunday dinner in a terraced house in Ilkeston. It’s the crisp that feels homely, warm, and oddly emotional. Roast Chicken doesn’t shout; it wins you over with pure, golden‑fried sincerity.
1. Cheese & Onion — The Leicester Legend
The king. The GOAT. The flavour that built an empire.
Cheese & Onion isn’t just Walkers’ signature crisp — it’s Leicester’s unofficial ambassador. It’s the taste that locals grow up with, the one that ends up in every multipack, the one that somehow tastes even better when eaten at the King Power on match day or watchimng Kasabian play an acoustic set at the Clock Tower. It’s rich, savoury, perfectly balanced, and absolutely deserving of the top spot.
If Walkers is the East Midlands crown, Cheese & Onion is the jewel.
