The Best Arnott’s Shapes Flavours

The Best Arnott’s Shapes Flavours –

This was mainly written as a response to an article that was doing the rounds on Facebook recently which ranked the best and worst of the Arnott’s shapes flavours. I felt compelled to write my own one because:

a)    I’m as close to a Shape’a’holic as there is. (if that’s even a thing)

b)    The other article (whilst well written) was clearly not penned by a true Shapes connoisseur.

Firstly, a bit about my Shapes experience. For most Shape lovers, their memories of Shapes began with family fun packs in their lunchboxes, sometimes you were lucky to even get 10 biscuits in a packet, but hell, at least they had a good amount of flavour. Not like today, Shapes have changed, but I have not given up hope on them, on the contrary, I find it more of a challenge to find a well flavoured packet these days.

I haven’t stopped buying family packs either, just now rather than having them in my lunchbox I will usually just take a packet out with me in my pocket. I sometimes refer to them as ‘disco packets’, because they’re great for when you’re out at a bar and are feeling peckish but can’t be bothered walking down the road to get a kebab.

Random box of shapes I found in Bali.

Along with enjoying Shapes on the regular (particularly buying them by the carton when on special) I’ve scoured the world for rare Shape varieties. I’ve come across my fair share of obscure looking shapes. The double shape, the triple shape, the rolled up shape – I’ve seen them all, in fact for a while I was even saving the flavouring at the bottom of the packets in a salt shaker, until it was full, at which time my girlfriend crumbed a chicken parmigiana in it for my Birthday (highly recommended).

Myself with the rare double shape.

So without further a do here are the standard flavours of Shapes - ranked from worst to best. Not going to bother with the Shapes of the world varieties or any other limited release ones that they bring out, because whilst I do try them all, I’m thoroughly disappointed in every one that comes out (the worst being the football and rugby flavours, poor form Arnott’s!) The ranking system I put together is out of a score of 10.

Would also like to point out that I do enjoy ALL Shapes flavours. Obviously some are better than others though…

8. Chicken Drumstick

These are rare, you generally won’t find them at Coles or Woolworth’s but more often or not they stock them at IGA’s or random independent grocers. You may well have tried their competitor ‘In A Biskit’ chicken flavour. Like the name suggests they are shaped like a Chicken Drumstick. They’re incredibly salty, quite fluffy and definitely the most oily of the Shapes varieties. 

Shape: 1 (a chicken drumstick is not a shape but it gets 1 style point)
Flavour you can see: 8

Flavour you can taste: 5
More’ishness: 3
TOTAL: 17

7. Chicken Crimpy

Chicken Crimpy is a love hate one for me. I love them because they do have quite a good chicken taste, unlike most chicken flavoured snacks (chicken twisties cough cough) but I dislike them because they are A) not a shape, they look like a cartoon cloud and B) they are way too big. You can only really fit one in your mouth at a time and because of their size there isn’t a great deal of them in a packet so they’re a poor choice to take to a BBQ or get together.

Shape: 0
Flavour you can see: 2

Flavour you can taste: 7
More’ishness: 5

TOTAL: 14

6. Savoury

Savoury are the only flavour actually worthy of the name ‘Shapes’ because there are actually multiple different shapes in the packet. As the name would suggest they’re just a plain savoury biscuit, so why on earth would you buy them ahead of any other cracker? Well generally you wouldn’t, most of the time they’re just the packet that’s left over at the end of a party that someone brought over and didn't get eaten. There is something really nostalgic about the good ol savoury taste though, that and they are the most versatile of the Shapes, in that you can have them with dip (hummus is highly recommended). Also worth mentioning that they're the only Shapes flavour that is appropriately named to what it tastes like.

Shape: 10
Flavour you can see: 0

Flavour you can taste: 4
More’ishness: 5

TOTAL: 19

5. Cheddar

There are plenty of fake cheese flavoured crackers on the market, and let’s face it, most of them suck! Cheddar Shapes by no means come close to actually tasting anything like real cheese but they do have quite an enjoyable, interesting taste. They're perfect for when you’re feeling too lazy to cut some cheese and have real cheese & crackers. Again they do go really well with dip, but they are kind of let down in that they probably have the worst tasting flavour that remains in the packet once you’ve finished all the biscuits.

Shape: 6 (it’s just a rectangle but hey it works)
Flavour you can see: 5

Flavour you can taste: 5
More’ishness: 5

TOTAL: 21

4. Cheese & Bacon

A lot of people end up buying this flavour because the sound of ‘cheese & bacon’ is very appealing, that and the fact they come in a brightly coloured pink box. They taste nothing like cheese and nothing like real bacon, in fact most of the time I’m eating these my tastebuds don’t know what to make of them. They are however quite a delicious, salty attempt at fake bacon and for many people they are the best flavour of them all.

Shape: 7 (it’s just a rectangle but hey it works)
Flavour you can see: 5

Flavour you can taste: 6
More’ishness: 6

TOTAL: 24

3. Nacho Cheese

I remember when Nacho Cheese first came out I thought they tasted god awful as did many people, I was actually pretty surprised that they stayed around considering how well Doritos already had them covered with the ‘Nacho Cheese’ flavour. With time though and my taste buds maturing, Nacho Cheese has actually become almost a guilty pleasure. In no way does it taste like you would imagine Nacho Cheese to, but for some reason you just can’t put them down. They also have probably the coolest shape of all the Shapes biscuits, but beware the sharp edges on the biscuit are prone to cut the roof of your mouth.

Shape: 9
Flavour you can see: 7

Flavour you can taste: 6
More’ishness: 7

TOTAL: 29

2. BBQ

They are probably the most iconic of all Shapes flavours, mainly because they seem to be the packet everyone buys to take to a BBQ. They’re a safe choice, it’s rare to meet anyone that actually hates them. At times they can be a bit overwhelming with the amount of flavour on them. In no way do they taste anything like a BBQ flavoured chip would and over recent years its become harder to find packets with much flavouring on them so Arnott’s have kind of let themselves down there.

Shape: 8
Flavour you can see: 10 (on a good packet, which is quite rare)

Flavour you can taste: 9
More’ishness: 7

TOTAL: 34

1. Pizza

Pizza shapes are shaped the same as BBQ shapes (hexagon) but slightly slimmer. They don’t taste anything at all like you would expect a pizza to. Again, Arnott’s has let themselves down in recent years with not putting as much flavour on the Pizza variety, however when you do find a packet with a lot of flavour nothing can beat it. They tick all the boxes, they’re more’ish, well shaped, go well with dip, great coloured box and best of all they have the best flavour that is left at the bottom of the box. If you timed how long it would take a person on average to consume any given box of Shapes, Pizza would definitely win simply because they are the most delicious.

Shape: 9
Flavour you can see: 10 (on a good packet, which is quite rare)

Flavour you can taste: 9
More’ishness: 10

TOTAL: 38

Honourable mention to Tomato Salsa Shapes. Probably my second favourite Shapes flavour of all time and hopefully one day Arnott’s will come to their senses and bring it back!