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.
Long before people started reaching for the alcohol to get the party started they relied on simpler, more innocent things. Indeed, no self-respecting children's party was complete without the merry addition of Party Rings. With their cheerful packaging, brightly-coloured surfaces and sugary hit there wasn't much to not like about this brand of biscuit as a young child.
THOUGHTS
Packaging:
The front of the packaging is as cheery as ever utilising a bright colour scheme of varying hues to impress upon the eye the feeling of energy and fun. The large brand name text is positioned on a slight diagonal and the letters are orientated at differing angles to inject a further playful spirit in to the design.
The main side of the packaging for display purposes carries on over the principal design in a nicely condensed fashion with the playful brand name featured against the biscuit decorated blue background. Moreover, Vinnie's 'quality guarantee' graphic features on the far right to help connect the product with the larger spirit of the Fox's brand. As for the other side, the primary design is cut short to allow for product information to be featured, which, at least by virtue of the bright background, doesn't feel overly dominant to the eye.
The back just includes the basic product text with a little notice to the far left referring consumer's to the product's variant, Party Footballs - a worthwhile inclusion as I didn't know this spin-off existed.
Biscuits:
Being reasonably small biscuits (around 45mm diameter), a Party Ring weighs in at a light 7g. Appearance-wise, I thought they still looked great with colourful toppings nicely finished off and decorative biscuit undersides - I particularly nice touch I thought.
Taste-wise, well, firstly, I will say they smelt inviting with a nice sweet - but not overly so - aroma. Eating one, the biscuits provided that nice bite of biscuit and, by virtue of their topping, a slight chew which I found quite pleasant and unexpected. Moreover, I thought the biscuits were going to hit me over the head with a sugar but, again, I was surprised to find the sweetness not too intense - don't get me wrong, these will still make kid's very happy.
SUMMING UP
I was pleasantly surprised with these. The packaging's design supports the biscuits positioning with its fun, vibrant overtones. The Rings themselves are still colourful and, I imagine, very attractive to the young children they are targeted at. Moreover, the biscuits aren't just a wave of sugar there is some pleasant textures to appreciate and the sweetness is not overdone. All in all, with all the nostalgia these evoked, I enjoyed this old favourite of the biscuit tin.
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
As with Jaffa Cakes the other day, I've just revised my Dairy Milk entry on the GBD website so you can now see the brand's evolution. I've found it really interesting going through all the decades so I hope you do to.
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:)
Browsing the biscuit aisle in a local supermarket with the blog in mind my eyes drifted to an area so positioned as to almost demand that it be overlooked. In this land of biscuit obscurity I spotted a brand pushed right back on the shelf that I hadn't eaten let alone seen for a very long time, Fox's Sports biscuits. Getting them home and quickly researching, the only information I could glean about these little shortcake beauties was that they were invented by a chap called David Glen in 1971. Indeed, with very little background and no advertising to memory these biscuits have seemingly been left to march on all by themselves and, to that end, I thought it was about time they got some attention.
THOUGHTS
Packaging:
Employing a red background with a large streak of light blue across it and accents of white, the basic look had a fluid, energetic feel about it that keyed in to the type of designs we've become accustomed to seeing in sports products. Building on this, the product shot was centralised to draw in the eye to the sporting depictions. This imagery worked well with the background: a streak of white lined up with the batsman to signify a ball's trajectory, and a cyclist's wheel connected with an area of red as if it was a road surface. This little interplay between the background and the product shot created a bit depth and added to the overall dynamism of the presentation. As for the 'Sports' brand name, italicisation supported the energetic feel whilst the 'stocky' font spoke of a certain solidness and dependability.
The sides condensed the primary elements of the design to reinforce the sports positioning and create an appealing display angle. The little 'quality guarantee' graphic featuring the brand's panda mascot, Vinnie, was a nice touch as it brought a bit of added interest and personality to an area which is usually more of copy and paste job.
The underside offered the usual, no-thrills design. That said, clean lines and use of the same colour scheme brought clarity to the content and reinforced the athletic, sporting connotations of the presentation as a whole.
Biscuits:
The biscuits were pretty large but weighed in at a relatively light 8g each. On the looks front, I loved their quaint little border design and embossed sporting depictions. Obviously, the depictions weren't of the quality shown on the packaging; however, they were sufficient to imbue each biscuit with a bit of its own sporting personality. As for their taste, the biscuits gave off a lovely sweet aroma that translated to the palette in a well balanced fashion with the salt and fats included.
SUMMING UP
The packaging did well in bringing together colour scheme, graphics and font to reinforce the key sports theme. Moreover, the interplay between the product shot and background was a nice touch that brought a little bit of depth and added dynamism to the design. The biscuits themselves proved the highlight with their embossed depictions of various sports. Whilst these depictions were not of the quality on the packaging, they effectively imbued each biscuit with a bit of its own personality. Taste-wise, the flavour balanced out the sweetness in the flour mix well with salt and fat to create a lovely, well rounded offering. Indeed, it may be a simple proposition but it did the simple things well and with charm - something that will always be a winning combination in my books.
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.
As a child Lion Bars had a certain maturity and manliness about them that made them feel like true heavyweights of the chocolate bar world. Indeed, the following ad came from a time when this bar still felt like it could put hairs on your chest.
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...
With it being National Biscuit Day and having just done a PG Tips review, it would be remiss of me not to mention something of the dunking variety. With Maryland having reminded of the day's significance I thought it only right that I review their now classic of the biscuit tin, the chocolate chip cookie.
THOUGHTS
The packet is unapologetically bright and bold with its shiny red wrapping, jolly 'Maryland' font and graphic declaring the product to be the nation's favourite cookie. Indeed, in terms of shelf standout, this packaging manages to draw the eye and lure it in with the promise of something that, even if just momentarily, will brighten the darkest and dullest of days - and we can certainly get a few of those up here in the North :)
Opening the packet, the very pleasant scent of cookie dough wafts out. The loose cookies are relatively small in appearance (around 5cm at their widest); however, they're a decent thickness and, for their size, weigh in at a respectable 9-11g each. Studded with chocolate chips, which can be a bit unevenly distributed in parts (though this makes them feel a bit less machine made to me), the cookies have a nice even bake and are very appetising.
Taking a bite, the cookies, being of the hard variety, provide a nice crumbly texture and slight sweetness which is delightfully punctuated by the chocolate chips with their darker, cocoa-rich notes. Of course, with dunking the textures are rather sacrificed but it does intensify the core flavours a little and is just the thing if you want that quick hit of sweet cocoa. Also, I should point out that, dunking-wise, Maryland's offering is, literally, a tough little cookie with it lasting a pretty impressive 23 seconds in a freshly made cuppa.
SUMMING UP
A cheery little product with good shelf standout, Maryland Chocolate Chip Cookies have stood the test of time and are now a staple of many a British biscuit tin. Indeed, they may be small and understated when compared to newer offerings, but they're good on price, boast impressive dunking stats and pack in enough deliciousness to keep the nation coming back to them.
