Here’s a surprise: this is actually good.
Lea & Perrins Worcester sauce is a genuine product with genuine flavour complexity. Fermented, umami-rich, tangy in ways that basic crisp seasonings never achieve. By licensing the name and, presumably, the flavour profile, Seabrook has outsourced the thing they’re worst at: making crisps taste interesting.
The Worcester sauce flavour is well-developed. There’s depth here that Seabrook’s own flavour development never achieves. You can taste the fermented complexity, the anchovy undertones, the tamarind tang. It’s recognisably Worcester sauce rather than “brown savoury flavour.”
Why this works
Worcester sauce is bold enough to dominate Seabrook’s problematic base product. The flavouring overwhelms the texture issues, the stale undertones, the general mediocrity. You’re tasting Lea & Perrins, not Seabrook with Lea & Perrins on it. The brand partnership has effectively rescued the crisp from itself.
The lesson Seabrook won’t learn
This proves they can make good crisps when the flavouring is strong enough. But rather than improving their base product, they’ll presumably continue relying on partnerships and licensing to compensate for fundamental weaknesses.
Whatever. It works here. Buy these and ignore the rest of the range.
