For some, Nestle's original Blue Riband (a combination of very thin milk chocolate and wafer) is considered just a bit too bland. Personally, in a very British way that has seen the likes of the Rich Tea biscuit endure, I quite like the not-too-sweet plainness of this offering. That said, Nestle has tried some flavour variants over the years to help the brand cater to those wanting a bit more from their snack bars. This newest offering, dark chocolate and orange, is a good example of this and, with the time-tested combination a particular favourite of mine, I thought I'd give it a go.
The multi-pack packaging shares the core offering's basic look with the shades of brand blue sitting behind large 'Blue Riband' text in somewhat flamboyant white font. The inclusion of brownish/orangey hues at the bottom of the design is actually quite nice and brings feelings of warmth and luxury to the overall look. Moreover, a bit of thought has been put in to the attendant text with the 'dark' font slightly more stylised for those connotations of sophistication and the 'orange' font more rounded as per the fruit's form.
The individual bar's packaging, the multi-pack design benefits from being uncluttered as it condenses down rather nicely on to the small area of plastic. As for the look of the bar itself, I have to say that the dark sheen of the chocolate just puts this offering ahead of the original in my book.
Taste-wise, a pleasant smell of orange is apparent straight off the bat. Tucking in, that orange flavour translates beautifully with the thin layer of dark chocolate providing some deep cocoa notes on the back end. Personally, I would say it's more 'orange with dark chocolate' than the other way around as the fruit certainly leads the bar's flavour profile. In any case, the not-too-sweet basic offering proves itself a great vehicle for these flavours and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Overall, the packaging communicates the flavour variant well with the added hues complementing the core blues very well for me. As for the bar itself, I thought it was an interesting offering with a bit of role reversal: orange led the charge whilst the dark chocolate came through in the background. Indeed, for a cheap, everyday snack bar I thought this worked well.
Big blast from the past time. Trio, a marriage of biscuit, toffee and chocolate originally manufactured by Jacob's, once again graces store shelves! The revival has come as a result of McVitie's - present owner of the Jacob's brand - giving in to what it described as "massive consumer demand". That said, it's only a limited edition return for this cult classic so I was keen to try it out to see if the 2016 version is worth stocking up on.
Presentation-wise, the multi-pack design is instantly recognisable as it borrows straight from the late 80's/90's look. Indeed, the brand name typeface directly picks up on the advertising from yesteryear in which an animated girl called Suzy would shout 'Trio' repeatedly - if you're not familiar with this, see the end of this post. To be honest, on today's shelves the design still works really well with the loud presentation feeling sufficiently differentiated amongst the mass of competing offerings.
Moving on to the design of the individual bars, the artwork condenses down really neatly and I am delighted by the use of paper. On the latter point, I've written about this before, but, generally, I really dislike brands use of plastic as the go-to option. I say this purely on aesthetic grounds as, for me, plastic just signals cheapness and mass production. On the other hand, glass, foil, paper, card etc generally make a product feel a bit more special and cared for - even if that isn't the case at all.
As for the look of the bar itself, there's no lack of character as it harks back to the original with three segments sporting an embossed 'Trio' brand name.
Taste-wise, I'm very glad to say the 2016 Trio hits the spot. Expecting an overly hefty dose of sugar to overwhelm the palate, I was delighted to find they've been pretty restrained. Indeed, the biscuit layer is really quite plain and the chocolate boasts nice milky, cocoa flavours rather than pure sweetness. All of this provides perfect support for the sweeter toffee cream layer creating a balanced and rather tasty offering. In summary, these bars are a great throw back with a few modern temptations pleasingly avoided. Moreover, the bars taste great with all three layers adding something different whilst complementing one another. These get a definite GBD thumbs up from me.
Oh, and on the advertising front it's worth mentioning that McVitie's are currently looking for people to feature in the bar's new ad. If you're interested, see here - you'll need to scroll down the page for details. That aside, this wouldn't be a retro revival post without indulging in some advertising nostalgia...
Weetabix is launching two new cereals under the 'Protein Crunch' brand name to target consumers wanting more protein in their foods. This move comes after the cereal manufacturer kicked off a new advertising campaign, entitled 'Weetabix. Incredible Inside'. The campaign focuses on the feats the human body manages to perform on a daily basis and how Weetabix's portfolio is, apparently, nutritionally designed to support such performance. Personally, I think this is an interesting move as the market for protein offerings is certainly out there to be capitalised on by cereal manufacturers. However, credibility will be an issue and, thus, communications will be crucial in convincing health-conscious consumers of the health benefits.
It's that time of year again when strawberries and cream will soon be reappearing at Wimbledon for the tennis. Therefore, Cadbury have decided, once again, to bring out their Strawberries & Creme flavoured Dairy Milk tablet. This bar was initially launched in Summer 2013 and consists of the manufacturer's signature milk chocolate with a strawberry filling thrown in. Indeed, if you like your Dairy Milk you may well want to give this limited edition offering a look before it goes.
Here's a couple of ads for Rolo based around the brand's famous line, 'Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo?'. The first one is a very charming animation whilst the second is a very funny ad featuring none other than Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Enjoy.
I love going through the decades and seeing how the advertising changes, therefore, I thought I would begin this morning with 3 decades in 3 ads for the Weetabix-owned breakfast cereal Weetos. From the fun animations of Derek and Professor Weeto in the 80's and 90's respectively to the 00's buffed-up wholegrain cereal mascot keeping physically active in the kitchen, you can certainly see the changes.
They went away and, as the pack indicates, they're back. To be honest, I didn't really see them the first time around so this point was kind of lost on me; however, the combination of chocolate and orange is one I've always loved so I couldn't resist giving them a go.
THOUGHTS
Packaging:
With all the many variants in the Digestives range integrated on the design front, this packaging shares the signature Digestives graphics with an image of orange segments to customise things just a little. Moreover, the packaging is bright and cheery with a plain orange design that naturally picks up on and communicates the key ingredient. That said, whilst the range's palette swap approach does produce designs that are logical and coherent, individual products do lose a punchy sense of character and, consequently, are relatively easy to gloss over.
Looking around the other side of the packaging and basic information is provided in a clear and concise manner. Indeed, I felt the light orange text boxes and blue text worked in well with the colours introduced in the principal design.
Biscuits:
Weighing in at around 15g with a diameter of 65mm the Digestive is of respectable weight and size. Indeed, in dunking terms, this biscuit proved that chocolate, orange and wholewheat biscuit is obviously strong stuff as it took over 30 seconds submerged in a fresh cuppa for this offering to structurally fail. Appearance-wise, this variant looked like a bog-standard milk chocolate digestive, which isn't a bad thing, and even the cross section didn't show evidence of the added ingredient. That said, the smell gave away the orange as an aroma reminiscent of Terry's Chocolate Orange was discernible.
Taking a bite, undunked, the orange did come through and it sat well alongside the milk chocolate, which provided lusciously creamy, cocoa-infused notes as I continued to chew it. The significant biscuit layer provided a great textural contrast as it gave the biscuit a bit of resistance. Moreover, I found the biscuit layer to be a welcome mellow component alongside the indulgent feel of the topping.
On the other hand, when dunked the texture of the biscuit layer was obviously lost but those sweet, milky cocoa notes emerged with full force alongside a very prominent taste of orange creating a particularly indulgent feel. Personally, after eating them like this, I would probably switch out the milk chocolate for dark in order to temper the sweetness a bit and give the biscuit a more balanced taste profile.
SUMMING UP
The packaging was logical in its use of colour and it was coherent with the larger Digestives range. However, on the shelf, this nicely integrated look did compromise the personality of individual brands making it easier for the eye to gloss over. The biscuits themselves looked like normal milk chocolate Digestives but there was a pleasant orange-chocolate aroma about them. Undunked, the plain wheat base provided a great contrast in textures whilst the orange was carried through nicely on a smooth wave of milky chocolate. Dunked, the biscuits proved incredibly sturdy as they held together for over 30 seconds in a freshly made cuppa. Taste-wise, the texture of the base was lost but sweeter, milker notes of chocolate hit the palette immediately alongside a prominent orange flavour to create a very indulgent feel. All in all, aa tasty addition to the range but one I would certainly like to see in a dark chocolate version.
Just a quick bit of news on a current promotion Kit Kat is running. As part of the brand icon's new 'Celebrate the Breakers Break' campaign, the product has broken with its traditional wrapper design to amuse shoppers with different types of 'break'. Here's just some of the breaks that came in my multipack...
McVitie's have just gone and announced that they are selling personalised Jaffa Cakes exclusively on their newly opened 'Sweeet Shop'.
If you want your name emblazoned on a Jaffa Cakes pack or think it might be a fun, quirky gift for a family member or friend who loves these little sponge delights then head on over to: McVities.co.uk
Growing up Cadbury's Fruit & Nut was what my parents scurried away in the fridge and ate the odd bit of in the evening. Together with the foil wrapper and maturely designed paper sleeve, I ended up elevating this bar to a very special, sophisticated status far and above any other. Indeed, every morsel that came my way was pretty much cherished. Of course, as this ad puts so well, I had effectively turned in to a complete Fruit & Nut case:)
In what I feel will be a continuous project of revising old articles and integrating blog content, I've just updated the website with a McVitie's Jaffa Cakes resource.
With new products seemingly coming thick and fast from the big chocolate brands at the moment, I wasn't surprised to find this offering from Nestlé's Aero pop up on shelves. Admittedly, like the Toffee Crisp from yesterday, I was intrigued as I couldn't really remember the last limited edition/new product from Aero, plus I didn't know how much this 'mousse' layer would really add.
THOUGHTS
Packaging:
Like the Galaxy Salted Caramel in yesterday's post, this bar's design borrowed very heavily from the core offering in its general colour scheme and stylisation of the brand name. One addition though was, obviously, the 'mousse' text which nicely employed a fluid look and 'wispy' lines of varying stroke width to convey a notion of lightness and elegance that was very in line with the bars intention of targeting women. The product shot on the right kind of showed the mousse layer if you looked closely but, to be honest, to an eye scanning the shelves this would look like a picture of a regular piece of Aero. Lastly, a gold coloured 'new' graphic appeared in the top left though, by virtue of its positioning, I found the creases in the wrapper obscured the text. Indeed, the design looked nice enough and, in terms of brand design coherency, it was on the money. However, unlike Nestlé's Toffee Crisp Honeycomb design, it could be argued that it didn't do enough to differentiate itself on the shelf and, thus, give it sufficient personality in of its own right.
The reverse provided the basic product information with light and dark colour used effectively against the gold backdrop to bring some clarity to the design. Moreover, the 'cocoa plan' graphic under the flap sat very nicely with the overall Aero colour scheme and, by virtue of its crisp text, reinforced a certain sense of smartness and sophistication about the bar.
Bar:
Even more so than the wrapper, the bar itself remained on-brand in adopting the Aero's bubble-like segments inscribed with the brand name.
Taste:
Taking a bite, the bar's aeration delivered that classic Aero textural experience of chocolate almost crumbling away in the mouth. Trying to be very aware of the textures, I do think that there was a bit more of a contrast in textures with the addition of the mousse layer but it wasn't overly apparent. That said, I found the taste incredibly smooth and light. Indeed, I felt at the very end that the bar had more perfumed my senses with the flavour of cocoa than weighed me down with it. All in all, I don't think people will think this too different to the original bar, but I did find it pleasant enough to eat and I may well consider it again if I want a light hit of milk chocolate.
SUMMING UP
Looks-wise, both the packaging and the bar were very on-brand with a lot of very strong design nods to the core offering. Indeed, as with all Aero products, it pitched itself to a female market well with its smart, elegant appearance that reinforced the lightness of the chocolate. Admittedly, I think it was so on-brand that it lacked a bit of its own personality and, certainly, didn't stand out on the shelf as well as it probably should have. Taste-wise, this bar offered beautifully smooth and light milk chocolate; however, I feel the difference between it and the core offering would, perhaps, be a little too subtle for some.
After yesterday's Galaxy ad and its 'interesting' portrayal of the bar, I thought I would share this 80's ad for Mars which can be summed up ten seconds in by the line, 'all the goodness that's in a Mars...milk, sugar, glucose and thick, thick chocolate'. Got to love them for trying!
After my earlier post on Galaxy's new salted caramel offering I thought I would finish things off today with a nostalgia hit for this popular brand of milk chocolate. Featuring a farmer who carries around of a seemingly melt-proof bar of Galaxy whilst ploughing the fields, this ad reassures us that the brand is 'part of country living...the way things ought to be', hmm.
Salted caramel has been a relatively big trend of recent times with it popping up in everything from supermarket offerings to restaurant menus. Therefore, it was no surprise to me to see that Mars had got on board with a new variant for their Galaxy brand of milk chocolate.
THOUGHTS
Packaging:
This Galaxy variant very much employed the signature design notes of the core offering with the cursive brand name text styled after molten chocolate and a backdrop of browns, golds and yellows. The key design addition came in at the bottom where a 'wave' rises from left to right. The colour split in this wave design nicely reinforced the text displayed and the vivid blue provided a strong point of contrast to draw in the eye. Overall, I thought all components worked well together to impress upon the eye a strong sense of fluidity that was very supportive of the key caramel selling point.
The wrapper's underside presented a pretty plain, no-thrills design. The white text was set off nice and clearly by the darker background and content didn't feel overly cluttered in.
Bar:
Coming in two thin bars, this offering looked great out of the wrapper. The fingers of chocolate were elegant in appearance and the added detail of the 'G' inscription with wavy lines above and below it - picking up on the caramel theme again - gave the product a sense of class. Taking a segment, the relatively soft set caramel lusciously pulled apart leaving strands hanging out of both the piece taken and the remaining bar making seconds and thirds a very hard thing to resist.
Taste-wise, this is where the product really excelled itself for me. The Galaxy chocolate was beautifully smooth and milky as ever but the star of the show was the filling. The addition of salt to the caramel enhanced the flavour and gave it a depth that was beyond the simplicity of a nice sugary hit.
SUMMING UP
The wrapper design keyed in to the core brand look and had a lovely sense of sophistication and fluidity about it that picked up on the key selling points of the bar. Moreover, the flash of blue to highlight the 'salted caramel' text provided a strong point of contrast in the design and helped attract the eye when looking over the shelves. Unwrapping, the sleek fingers of chocolate were very attractive with a distinctly elegant feel to them. Taking a bite, as lovely as the milk chocolate was, the salted caramel stole the show for me. Rather than just a nice sugary hit, the caramel had a certain maturity and depth of flavour to it that proved devilishly moreish. Indeed, on taste alone, I would give this bar a hearty GBD recommendation.
Created by Mackintosh's back in the 60's and now owned by Nestlé, the Toffee Crisp is a simple proposition combining puffed rice suspended in toffee with a milk chocolate exterior. Personally, I still love the brand and cannot help but notice its vibrant orange and yellow packaging which still feels so retro in design. Therefore, when I saw this Honeycomb limited edition offering, I was more than happy. That said, I did take pause as I realised, in a world saturated with variations on a theme, I couldn't ever remember seeing a Toffee Crisp spin-off before. Suddenly appreciating the added novelty of this happy chocolate bar encounter I just knew I had to give it a write up.
THOUGHTS
Packaging:
By retaining the brand's basic colour scheme of highly saturated colours, this offering felt vibrant and fun whilst visually connected to the original product. The striped nature of the background design was suitably indicative of a bee and, thus, supportive of the bar's key selling point. As for the added 'Honeycomb' serif-style text, like the brand name, it was centrally aligned and orientated in a standard fashion across the horizontal, thus, giving the bar a very balanced, classic look that spoke of reliability and trustworthiness. That said, some fun was injected in to the text with the 'o's' offset a little from word's baseline and a yellow honeycomb-shaped graphic positioned at the letters' centres.
The reverse provided no extra thrills in particular. Black was used very effectively to make the content stand out from the bright background, whilst further picking up on the bee connotations with the black-yellow aesthetic.
Bar:
Sporting a nicely rippled milk chocolate exterior, the bar was a decent enough size and looked appetising. Taking a bite, textural sensations immediately hit the palette with the rice and honeycomb providing a pleasant crispiness alongside the chew of toffee. Quickly, the chewy toffee took centre stage and sweet, rich tones developed. Admittedly, at this stage I thought the flavour of the honeycomb had been overpowered by the toffee. However, as I continued to chew, I was delighted to find the honeycomb flavour emerged and eventually took centre stage itself. Admittedly, with the chocolate being as thin as it was it didn't get much of a look in, bar some general sweet milky notes, but, nevertheless, this was a tasty offering full of interest both in terms of texture and flavour.
SUMMING UP
It was nice to see Nestlé giving some attention to this brand, which had been largely left to do its own thing. The packaging was identifiably Toffee Crisp but, at the same time, built on the original design to bring a vibrant, summery tone that stood out amongst competing offerings. Whilst the bar equally tacked on a new dimension with all the textural points of interest there, as per the original, plus an undercurrent of honeycomb. Indeed, I was very impressed with the way in which the honeycomb flavour gently built up and eventually took centre stage at the end to round off the experience nicely.
Launched back in August 2013, the Fox's Caffè range is a relatively recent addition to a biscuit aisle still dominated by age old brands. Pitched as made-for-coffee biscuits, this proposition did get my attention at the time purely for the fact that I didn't exactly know what made a biscuit specially suited to a cup of coffee. Therefore, when I saw this product from the range, together with its caramel variant, so prominently displayed in packaging that diverges markedly from other Fox's offerings, I thought it time to give it a go for the blog.
THOUGHTS
Packaging:
- Primary panels:
In terms of the colours used, black and grey combine to give the product an air of sophistication and luxury. The presence of red injects the design with warmth and significantly amplifies the sense of indulgence felt in the product shot to the right of the panel. Basic colour principles continue to be employed well with a central black graphic accentuating the redness of the key product text, in particular, the smart 'Hazelnut' cursive text. Moreover, the creamy white of the Fox's graphic contrasts well with the other components setting it off nicely. Indeed, the three overlapping components of the Fox's graphic on the left through to the product shot on the right are visually delineated by shape and/or colour whilst sharing enough tonally to sit as a cohesive whole.
As for the front panel, here the basic nutritional information was displayed in a manner that continued to be very clean in its lines. The only thing I will say against this area of the packaging is the positioning - I would have rather seen such content buried on the opposite panel as it does slightly detract from the main presentation angle.
- Secondary panels:
In following on from my last thought, the content pictured here on the back panel would have been ideal for the front. Its quick description of the biscuit and condensed 'Caffè Slices' graphic would have been coherent with the top panel's presentation and added that extra bit of visual impact. That said, I'm not sure why the brand chose to invert the content as it simply makes it awkward to read.
More basic product information was given on the bottom. Admittedly, this was a no-thrills presentation but one that retained a sense of maturity about the design and, subtly, made a visual link back to the main product logo with the small top-hat graphic on the far left.
Looking underneath the flap a lovely bit of content was exposed. Serif-style text on the left provided a bit of historical background to the Fox's brand. Whilst, next to this, a more relaxed, sans-serif style of text quickly explained the Caffè range. This was a great touch for me that helped place the range amongst the larger brand narrative.
Opening up the pack the biscuits came in a pull-out black plastic tray that was partitioned to hold three lots of two stacked biscuits. Simple and effective with my only gripe being that, just like the back panel, everything seemed inverted with the biscuit's smart Fox's branding pointing away from me.
With respect to the individual biscuits, these were pretty substantial offerings. Each biscuit weighed in at roughly 23 grams (over twice the weight of the Maryland Cookies I reviewed the other day) and measured 60mm in length, 46mm in width and a decent 11mm in depth. Presentation-wise, the Fox's branding on the top was very clean and smart, there were no blemishes in the chocolate finish and the shortcake had the look of a very even bake.
Taking a bite, the hazelnut centre with its more savoury notes did come through and was a welcome contrast to the powerful wave of sweet milky chocolate that hit the palette. The shortcake biscuit had a very nice buttery taste to it but that was lost in the strong flavours of the toppings. That said, it did provide a strong textural point of interest amidst the softness of the other components.
SUMMING UP
I felt the packaging had good shelf standout with a maturity about it that differentiated it from surrounding brands. Indeed, the principal panel design felt well thought out. Basic colour principles were effectively employed to place emphasis where need be and the stylisation of the text and graphics all worked in concert to reinforce the range's more sophisticated positioning. The biscuits themselves were relatively substantial offerings and with their clean look and Fox's branding they looked impressive. Taste-wise, sweet milky chocolate dominated the palette but the savoury notes of the nut filling did get a good look in and the shortcake provided strong textural contrast. Personally, I would have toned down the sweetness in the chocolate, but, with the bitter notes of a strong coffee to balance things out a bit, I can see many people really enjoying these 'biscwits' - as Fox's Vinnie the panda come Mafioso would say.
Anyway, I'll give the last word on the Caffè range to Vinnie himself...
