Martin Lewis: The UK's best cheese 'n' onion crisps, a data-Crunch

Some honourable munchions...

In true MSE style, we've done a deep-dive data-Crunch, so much so the best way to lay it out is via this MSE cheese 'n' onion PDF, available to download (or if you need a more accessible version, there's this Word doc), where we go through the scores, calories, whether they're gluten-free and more.

I should also note that of our group of 26 tasters, only nine professed to be proper cheese 'n' onion fans. If we look purely at their results, you get the same top three, but Craft Tayto moved from third to first, followed by Keogh's and Kettle Vegan Sheese & Onion.

As for my personal thoughts – I felt there was less of a difference between cheese 'n' onion flavours than with salt 'n' vinegar.

Also, while for S&V my top pick was also the overall top pick, it wasn't the same here. The overall winner Keogh's was high up my list, though I had it in fifth. Yet my favourites were Slabs Cheese & Onion (which was the marmite of crisps – if you exclude Marmite crisps, obvs – as it really divided opinion, strange crispy beast it is), followed by Tesco Finest Mature Cheddar & Onion, Savoursmiths Somerset Cheddar & Shallot and Golden Wonder Cheese & Onion.

1. Unlike with salt 'n' vinegar, cost matters a little more

We also got people to rank on strength, and we had some new additions to the podium, with Savoursmith's Somerset Cheddar & Shallot and Yorkshire Crisps' Cheddar & Caramelised Onion Chutney rising to first and second place on strength from overall positions of fourth and 18th.

3. Spring onion is the best onion?

Look, everyone knows salt 'n' vinegar are blue packets, cheese 'n' onion green. It's the rule of nature. Sadly, everyone knows that, except for Walkers (though they get it right with Squares). So let's have a look at the pack  colour pie chart...

So you've got the main conclusions, but there are a few more interesting quirks and titbits about our taste test we can confirm...

• Cheese 'n' onion is divisive. We experienced a level of tribalism we didn't have with salt 'n' vinegar, probably due to the wide variety of types of flavour available. Editor-in-chief MSE Marcus allegedly "almost vomited" at one of my favourite picks (and not because I picked it).
  
  
• They are CHEESE ('n' onion). Most tasters said there was a consistent lack of onion flavour in all the crisps we tried – all we got was a hit of cheese (well, unlike S&V, C&O are a bit imbalanced).
  
  
• We tried to avoid tastebud overload – 44 is a lot of crisps to taste! To avoid this, all the tasters were spread around the table at the start, so they began with different crisps, all moving clockwise to try and ensure there was no "taste-fatigue bias".
  
  
• We had some peculiar testing techniques. The most interesting of them all was MSE Gareth, who decided to take a deep meditative breath into the crisp as part of his rigorous process. MSE Freddie was even caught holding some crisps up to the light... we never quite got to the bottom of why (maybe next time we should add a transparency category).
  
  
• We listened to you and included Tayto from the Republic of Ireland. We had lots of comments last time from Tayto lovers, saying the reason it didn't do so well for S&V was because we only got Northern Irish Taytos, and that ones from the Republic were better. This time round, we got both, and our testers just about agreed, but there was a scant 0.04 points between them.
  
  
• Most crisp best-befores expire on a Saturday. This is due to the manufacturing working week. Walkers, as an example, starts its manufacturing week on a Sunday, so all of its crisps expire on a Saturday. PS: Do remember best-befores don't mean you can't eat it afterwards.