Crisp fans queue for taste of discontinued flavour

Crisp aficionados have flocked to Worcestershire to get their hands on a discontinued favourite flavour.

Walkers' Worcester sauce variety was axed two years ago, but returned to shelves on Tuesday at one newsagent in the condiment's home city.

Would-be customers lined up outside Charlie's Convenience Store on Barbourne Road before it opened for a taste of the limited supply.

One of them, Hannah Harley Young, said it was worth the five-hour round train trip from London adding: "I would travel the globe for a packet of crisps."

The self-proclaimed "crisp connoisseur", 37, said the returning purple packet signalled a "defining" flavour from her childhood.

"It was kind of like that wild-card flavour that was always quite a pleasant surprise," she said.

"I was kind of sad when it was discontinued."

She would not disclose exactly how many packets she would take home but hinted it would be "quite a few".

Worcester sauce crisps were previously discontinued in 2023

Others in the queue said the flavour's return had lured them to the "beautiful city" for the first time.

Lorna Robinson from Visit Worcestershire welcomed crisp fans staying on to explore the area.

"Lea & Perrins has a home in Worcestershire, they've been here for hundreds of years," she said.

"I think it's only right that the crisp comes back to the city first."

Purple boxes synonymous with the flavour were unloaded outside Worcester sauce producers Lea & Perrins

Local customers questioned why the flavour, also available from other crisp manufacturers, was not being sold in a more pertinent location such as Broad Street, where Worcestershire sauce was originally created.

The concoction was first produced in the city during the 19th Century by chemists John Wheeley Lea and William Perrins and went on sale in 1837.

It is still made in the city today, although the recipe's origins remain a mystery.