Quavers

Quavers are a British snack food, originally made by Smiths, and now produced by Walkers. Walkers, owned by PepsiCo, purchased the Quavers brand in July 1995, when it became one of the Frito Lay International brand names.[1]

This article is about the snack food. For the type of musical note, see quaver.

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 October 1998, Prawn Cocktail Quavers was introduced to both Cheese and Salt & Vinegar flavours, replacing Tangy Tomato. "NEW PRAWN COCKTAIL" was said inside multipack bags.

In March 1999, Quavers was re-introduced again, which were called "New Cheese Flavour," "Salt & Vinegar Flavour" and "Prawn Cocktail Flavour."

In February 2007, Walkers changed the packaging for all their snack products, which were Quavers, Wotsits, Squares, French Fries and Monster Munch. This packaging reflected the usage of Sunseed Oil, 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.[3]

In December 2009, Quavers, Squares, Wotsits and French Fries had all changed their packaging again because of a reduction in calories. Quavers has 87 calories in the Cheese flavour.

In February 2011, Quavers packaging updated to a brighter bag colour with the Walkers logo on the packets again.

Ingredients

Quavers are currently only available in Cheese flavour, but have had many other varieties over the years.

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 went on to introduce two other flavours, prawn cocktail and salt and vinegar.[3] These were discontinued in 2012. 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. Quavers have 88 calories in their Cheese flavour and 86 in the salt and vinegar variety.

Varieties

Main range
  • Cheese
  • Prawn cocktail (discontinued)
  • Salt and Vinegar (discontinued)
  • Cheese and onion (discontinued)
  • Bacon (discontinued)
  • Deep Fried Chicken with sage (discontinued)
  • Chinese Spicy Beef (discontinued)

Limited edition
  • Ketchup (discontinued)
  • Sweet and sour (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), which 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. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-03-12.

4. Packaging of Quavers from 1995 with Walkers logo

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