Quavers

Quavers are a British snack food, originally made by Smiths, and now produced by Walkers. Walkers, part of the Pepsico family, purchased the Quavers brand in 1997 where it became one of the Frito Lay International brand names.^[1]

History

Quavers were launched in 1968 with the advertising slogan "you get a lovely lot of Quavers in a bag". Packaging described them as "curly potato puffs".^[2]

In February 2007, Quavers were re-launched in new packaging (along with other Walkers brands such as Wotsits and Monster Munch) to coincide with the new usage of sunseed oil in their ingredients.^[3] In 2009, Quavers, Squares, Wotsits and French Fries changed their packaging again because of a reduction in calories. In 2011, Quavers packaging updated to a brighter bag colour with the Walkers logo on the packets again. Still based in Leicester, Walkers joined the PepsiCo family in 1989.^[3]

Ingredients

The primary ingredient in Quavers is potato starch. They are deep fried to give a snack with a similar texture to Krupuk (prawn crackers), but have a different flavour and are smaller with a curled-up rectangle shape (similar in cross-section to a quaver). Originally only available in cheese and smoky bacon flavours, the product line now contains three flavours: cheese, prawn cocktail and salt and vinegar.^[3] Ketchup and sweet and sour flavours were also introduced, but for a limited time only and are no longer available.

Nutrition

A one pack (16.4 g) serving of regular Quavers contains 88 calories, of which 44 are from fat. Quavers contain a mixture of fats (4.9g): saturated fat 0.4g, polyunsaturated fat 0.6g and monounsaturated fat 3.8g. The sodium content is 170mg.^[4] Quavers have 88 calories in their Cheese flavour and 86 in the salt and vinegar variety.

There was also a Cheese and Onion flavour in the 1980s which, although proved very popular, was discontinued.

Advertising

The first mascot of Quavers was a hyperactive cartoon dog named 'Colin Curly', created by Bob Lawrie and voiced by Lenny Henry who featured in many TV commercials. Colin also appeared in two Amiga and Atari ST puzzle games: Pushover (1992) and its sequel, One Step Beyond (1993), both published by Ocean.

The second was a boy named Quentin Quaverhead and his family. They were first seen in a memorable advertisement shown in 1996 (animated by Aardman). it featured Quentin trying to catch a Quaver that had blown out of his bedroom window, ending with the slogan "They're floaty light!"

References

1. "Brands under Frito Lay". Pepsico International. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
2. Opie, Robert The 1970s Scrapbook
3. "Walkers". Pepsico UK. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
4. "Calorie Count". Retrieved 2011-03-12.