Today is May 10, and some very famous people were born today!

1838 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin of Abraham Lincoln

1930 – Pat Summerall, American football player and broadcaster

1955 – Chris Berman, American sportscaster

1957 – Sid Vicious, English bassist (The Sex Pistols)

1960 – Bono, Irish singer (U2)

And of course….My sister!  Well, one of my two sisters, that is.  Happy Birthday shout-out from the Junk Food Guy! Woot!  (I like pretending I matter.  Cough.)

Anyways, onto the the junk food.  While I was in Ireland, I saw plenty of snacks that I thought looked interesting.  For example, these:

But...we have chipotle chips here in the US

I didn’t buy them, of course, because well, frankly, we have chipotle chips here in the US too – how much different could these be? And that happened a lot abroad.  A snack would have a funny shape, or a funny name, or a funny picture on the packaging that made it ridiculous…but when it really came down to it, it wasn’t a big jump from what we already had here in the good ole states.

Of course, then I stumbled upon Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps!

Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps: The Money Shot

I have to admit, these are not two flavors I would’ve ever put together OUTSIDE of a chip flavor, much less ON a potato chip.  So when I saw these Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps, I knew that I had to review these.  I mean…do people put caramelized onions and balasmic vinegar on burgers or something? I’ve never heard of it.

Apparently, having Googled this combo, this recipe happens a lot (?) and people like the combo on pizza (?????) Whatever, weirdos.

That is some sensational design

Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps looks sensational, doesn’t it? The sleek black bag, the flowery white piping…how regal.  Sort of. Although the use of an S instead of a Z is TILTING ME.

These...are not two flavors I'd expect to go together

I do like the pretty blunt display of the flavor profile on this bag of Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps.  Big ole red onion and a pitcher of vinegar.

The Sensations line came out in 2002 when Walkers decided it wanted to the up the ante over the likes of Prawn Cocktail chips and develop some crisps along the more refined palette-line. Indeed, Walkers calls them “posh” chips, with such flavors as Lamb & Mint, and Lime & Coriander Chutney.  Wow.  Didn’t see any of these in Ireland.

Love the description. Thank you.

Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps lays it all out for you – this tastes like onion and then it tastes like vinegar.  Simple as that. I am curious though. I love sour cream and onion chips, but these aren’t sour cream and onion – these are just plain ole onion. And I’ve had just plain onion powder before… and it was a little strong. How would these be?

Now these are some ingredients that don't seem complicated at all

I know the font’s small, but these Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps contain dried onion and balsamic vinegar, and appear to be suitable for vegetarians.  Unless you’re allergic to celery. Plus, I like how they add paprika just for color. That’s a nice touch 🙂

Crunchier than standard Walkers Crisps

Upon opening this bag of Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps, the onion smell was IMMENSE.  Holy cow – I mean, this was like putting your nose right up to a bag of onions and taking a BIG WHIFF.  WOOOOO.  This is what someone’s breath smells like after eating a bag of onions.  Duder.

More like US potato chips

I took a big fingerful of these Walkers Sensations Caramelised Onion & Balsamic Vinegar Flavour Crisps and crunched.  First, the texture of these crisps was different than regular Walkers Crisps.  For one, these weren’t as light and flaky and, well, crispy.  These were a little thicker and basically felt more like the texture of US-made potato chips. Not crunchy, per se, but had a more substantial bite than a traditional Walkers Crisp.

The taste of caramelized onion hits you right away.  RIGHT AWAY. These were sweet and onion-y right off the bat, and they didn’t skimp on the onion flavor.  These were pretty interesting – at first there wasn’t much savoriness to this – it was just a strong sweet onion flavor.  Then all of a sudden the extreme tang and sour of the balsamic vinegar came rushing forth, and made my lips pucker ever so slightly. The sweetness of the vinegar was sort of unexpected since I didn’t taste it at first.  Very odd.

This chip definitely had two halves of taste – you start out tasting the sweet onion and then end it with the tang of balsamic vinegar.  The combo? To me, it was unusual, but I can SORT of see how they worked together.  I mean, I liked them – the flavor was just so curious I couldn’t stop eating them.

A definite try if you’re ever in the British Isles.

Thoughts? Hit me in the comments below or hit me on Twitter @junkfoodguy or on my Facebook Page.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy