Not every snack brand is named after a decade's biggest cultural export, but Discos is. The name and the shape were both chosen to cash in on one very specific moment in 1979.
Named for the dance floor, not the shape alone
KP Snacks launched Discos in 1979, when disco music was at its commercial peak in Britain. The crisp itself is a flat, perfect circle, styled to resemble a miniature vinyl record, and the name leaned directly into the disco craze rather than describing anything about the ingredients.
Not quite a normal crisp
Unlike a traditional crisp, which starts as a sliced and fried potato, Discos are made from a base of wheat starch and dried potato. That gives them a distinctly different, lighter texture from a standard crisp, closer to some of KP's other extruded snack formats than to a bag of ready salted. The range has also stayed free of MSG and artificial colours or flavours throughout its history, and is suitable for vegetarians.
Part of the KP heritage range
KP Snacks now groups Discos alongside Hula Hoops (1973), Space Raiders (1987) and Wheat Crunchies (1987) as one of its classic heritage snack brands, a set of distinctively shaped savoury snacks that have stayed largely unchanged in format for decades even as flavours have rotated.
A crisp aisle survivor
Plenty of snack brands launched in the same disco-era wave have long since disappeared from UK shelves. Discos, punchy tangy flavour and all, is still there, which says more about the strength of the format than the strength of the 1979 cultural reference that gave it its name.
Frequently asked questions
When were Discos crisps launched?
KP Snacks launched Discos in 1979, at the height of disco music's popularity, which shaped both the name and the round disc format.
Are Discos actually potato crisps?
Not exactly. They're made from wheat starch and dried potato rather than sliced potato, giving a different texture to a standard crisp.
Who makes Discos?
KP Snacks, which classes Discos as one of its heritage snack brands.