The ‘tingliest’ salt and vinegar crisps have been revealed in a new taste test ranking the potency of the classic British snack.
Food enthusiast Liv Newman undertook an eight-month-long quest to find the most flavoursome packet out there.
And after tackling 40 packets (and forking out £80 for the experiment) she has now shared her ranking.
Marks & Spencer got the crown with its Salt & Double Vinegar Extreme Ridge Cut Crisps, while second place went to Golden Wonder’s Fully Flavoured Salt and Vinegar Crisps.
Still making podium in third was Exceptional By Asda, for its Hand Cooked Sea Salt and Chardonnay Wine Vinegar Crisps, with Discos Salt & Vinegar crisps in fourth and Co-op Irresistible Hand Cooked Sea Salt & Chardonnay Wine Vinegar Crisps in fifth.
For those wanting a less acidic kick, Jack’s Salt & Vinegar Twirls was bottom of the list, along with Seabrook Trebles’ offering.
Pomsticks, Squares Crisps and Burton’s also failed to impress ‘tingly’-wise.
Liv, 28, started the taste test in August 2025, after returning from a 12-month backpacking trip around South East Asia.
The ‘tingliest’ salt and vinegar crisps have been revealed in a new taste test ranking the potency of the classic British snack
While on her travels she claims salt and vinegar crisps ‘didn’t exist’ so she said she was craving a taste of the tangy snack.
After trying a few of each crisp, she would score the product on a scoreboard logged on her phone, rating the crunchy snack on how strong and sharp the taste was.
To whittle down the top seven, Liv then hosted a crisp party where she and her friends blind taste-tested them and ranked their favourites.
After revealing the top three online, Liv said people were shocked that Co-op’s Irresistible Hand Cooked Sea Salt and Chardonnay Wine Vinegar crisps didn’t appear and were ranked fifth – as crowds claimed it’s an ‘elite’ offering.
Despite clashing opinions over the top-ranked crisp, Liv feels she’s done the investigation ‘justice’ and is ready to try out different flavours.
‘I wasn’t necessarily rating them on the best flavour, but the most salt and vinegar-ist. The ones that made your mouth tingle and hurt your tongue,’ she explained.
‘Some of them were really nice to taste but they were quite weak [in flavour]. We were going for a pure tingle factor.
‘The more salt and vinegar they tasted, the higher the score. The M&S Salt & Double Vinegar Extreme Ridge Cut Crisps were the top ones.
‘They weren’t actually rated that highly by myself at first but it’s one of those crisps that build and build and have a really intense vinegar flavour…’
The second place Golden Wonders however were ‘a fan favourite from the start’.
Despite clashing opinions over the top-ranked crisp, Liv (pictured) feels she’s done the investigation ‘justice’ and is ready to try out different flavours
‘I had never had one of these before but when I tasted it, I thought it was really good. They were always a clear leader for me,’ Liv added.
‘The third were Exceptional By Asda Hand Cooked Sea Salt and Chardonnay Wine Vinegar Crisps and these were my favourite ones.
‘The taste was a nice sweet flavour, a good amount of tingle.’
While searching for the top crisp, Liv said she also found some she didn’t like as they ‘lacked flavour’.
In her taste testing she also had a couple of honourable mentions, with one product being a spooky seasonal special.
Liv said: ‘Some of the Irish ones were really good. I did an honourable mention of the Halloween fright bites but as you could only get them once a year, we didn’t include them.
‘The Simply Roasted ones, which was a small company who sent them out to me, didn’t look like they’d have a strong flavour but they had a zing.
‘I didn’t like Jack’s salt and vinegar twirls. There were quite a few at the bottom that I thought were really bad due to their lack of flavour.
‘Sometimes when the crisp was too thick, it would dull the flavour as you spent most of your time chewing on the potato.
‘Sometimes the thin crispy ones carried the nicer flavour.’
While trying all the different products, Liv says she picked up tips on how to allegedly enhance their flavour, including putting them in the freezer and opening the packet upside down as that’s where the seasoning would gather.
‘I feel like I’ve done it justice,’ she admitted. ‘And I don’t need to try any more salt and vinegar crisps. My tongue is burnt.’



