Quavers are a

deep-fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Normal ...

potato-based

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

snack food A snack is a small portion of food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snack ...

. Launched in the UK in 1968, they were originally made by Smith's. Since 1997 they have been produced by Walkers. The name comes from the musical note,

quaver 180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest. 180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together. An eighth note (American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note play ...

History

Quavers were launched in 1968 with the advertising slogan "you get a lovely lot of Quavers in a bag", described as "curly potato puffs". The brand was originally sold in

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

and smoky bacon flavours, but over the years flavours like Spicy Beef, Sweet and Sour, Prawn Cocktail, and Ketchup were also part of the range. In 1993, a Salt and Vinegar flavour was added to the range, and by this time, the packaging transitioned to the Walkers brand name. Walkers, owned by

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

, purchased the Quavers brand in July 1995, when it became one of the

Frito Lay Frito-Lay is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavor ...

International brand names. In 1996, a Tangy Tomato flavour was added to the range. By 1997, the brand was part of Walkers' short-lived "Snackshack" range, and was relaunched twice in April 1998 and in March 1999. In October 1998, the first relaunch coincided with the return of Prawn Cocktail with a new recipe (as such, was branded as "New") replacing Tangy Tomato, while the second relaunch coincided with a newly refreshed Cheese flavour. Another packaging refresh took place in July 2000. In August 2002, a "Streaky Bacon" flavour was added to the range, which contained pink and brown pieces, that resembled bacon. In September 2004, Ghost-shaped Cheese Quavers were released for Halloween, and returned in September 2005. In February 2007, Walkers changed the packaging for Quavers,

Wotsits Wotsits is a British brand of cheese flavoured corn puffs sold first by Golden Wonder and now by Walkers Crisps. The most common form is the "Really Cheesy" flavour of corn puffs. Other shapes and flavours have also been sold, including limited ...

, Squares, French Fries and

Monster Munch Monster Munch are a British baked corn snack created by Smiths in 1977 and manufactured by Walkers. They are aimed at children and widely consumed in the United Kingdom. Flavours include Roast Beef, Pickled Onion and Flamin' Hot. On the issue ...

. This packaging reflected the usage of

sunseed oil Walkers is a British snack food manufacturer mainly operating in the UK and Ireland. The company is best known for manufacturing potato crisps and other (non-potato-based) snack foods. In 2013, it held 56% of the British crisp market. Walker ...

, which was used in all products. The Multipack bags were in a different layout, being in Landscape style. Quavers' logo was changed slightly, and the flavours remained the same. In December 2009, Quavers, Wotsits, Squares, and French Fries all changed their packaging again to coincide with a "99 Calories or Less" range with a consumers’ focus on “New Year New Me”. The Cheese flavour was reduced to 87 Calories for a standard pack. In February 2011, Quavers packaging updated to a brighter bag colour with the Walkers logo on the packets again. After a while, the brand was sold in simply Cheese flavour. In July 2013, the six-packs were reduced in size removing 30% of the wrapping but keeping the same amount of bags inside. In August 2019, the packaging was updated alongside other Walkers Snacks, to inform about a reduction in plastic used on the packet. In December 2020, Walkers announced that Prawn Cocktail and Salt and Vinegar would return to shelves in January 2021 due to popular demand.

Ingredients

Quavers are currently available in Cheese, Prawn Cocktail and Salt and Vinegar, but have had many other varieties over the years. The primary ingredient in Quavers is

potato starch Potato starch is starch extracted from potatoes. The cells of the root tubers of the potato plant contain leucoplasts (starch grains). To extract the starch, the potatoes are crushed, and the starch grains are released from the destroyed cells. Th ...

. They are

deep fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Normal ...

to give a snack with a similar texture to

krupuk ''Krupuk'' ( Javanese), ''kerupuk'' (Indonesian), ''keropok'' (Malay), ''kroepoek'' (Dutch) or ''kropek'' ( Tagalog) is a cracker made from starch or animal skin and other ingredients that serve as flavouring. Most krupuk are deep fried, w ...

(prawn crackers), but have a different flavour and are smaller with a curled-up rectangle shape (similar in

cross-section Cross section may refer to: * Cross section (geometry) ** Cross-sectional views in architecture & engineering 3D *Cross section (geology) * Cross section (electronics) * Radar cross section, measure of detectability * Cross section (physics) **Ab ...

to a

). The product line went on to introduce two other flavours,

prawn cocktail Prawn cocktail, also known as shrimp cocktail, is a seafood dish consisting of shelled, cooked prawns in a Marie Rose sauce or cocktail sauce, served in a glass. It was the most popular hors d'œuvre in Great Britain, as well as in the United ...

and

salt and vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

. These were discontinued in 2012.

Ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among other ...

and sweet and sour flavours were also introduced, but for a limited time only and are no longer available. In January 2021, Quavers returns two long-lost flavours (prawn cocktail and salt & vinegar) by popular demand.

Nutrition

A one pack (16.4 g) serving of regular Quavers contains 88

calories The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of on ...

, of which 44 are from fat. Quavers contain a mixture of fats (4.9g):

saturated fat A saturated fat is a type of fat in which the fatty acid chains have all single bonds. A fat known as a glyceride is made of two kinds of smaller molecules: a short glycerol backbone and fatty acids that each contain a long linear or branched c ...

0.4g,

polyunsaturated fat Polyunsaturated fats are fats in which the constituent hydrocarbon chain possesses two or more carbon–carbon double bonds. Polyunsaturated fat can be found mostly in nuts, seeds, fish, seed oils, and oysters. "Unsaturated" refers to the fact tha ...

0.6g and

monounsaturated fat Monounsaturated fats are fatty acids that have one double bond in the fatty acid chain with all of the remainder carbon atoms being single-bonded. By contrast, polyunsaturated fats have more than one double bond. Molecular description Fatty aci ...

3.8g. The

sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...

content is 170mg. Quavers have 86 calories in their Cheese flavour and 83 in the salt and vinegar variety.

Varieties

Main range

*Cheese *Prawn cocktail *Salt and Vinegar *Bacon (discontinued) *Cheese and onion (discontinued) *Chinese Spicy Beef (discontinued)

Limited edition

*Ketchup (discontinued) *Sweet and sour (discontinued)

References

External links

*
''Quavers'' packaging, from 1995 with Walkers logo
{{PepsiCo The Smith's Snackfood Company brands Walkers (snack foods) brands