Hi Everyone! How are you? I am fine.
I ended the last blog with the promise of something huge* this time around, but full disclosure, this is not the blog I had planned. That will follow next time, and has been delayed due to ‘factors’. Instead, this week, I’m venturing in the world of breakfast! (Pause for applause…).
I’m a big
breakfast guy, the thought of missing breakfast is inconceivable to me (as is
the thought of missing any of the big 3 meals), and breakfast is a very fertile
hunting ground for novelty food, going all the wayback to the first cereal marshmallows of
the early 60s. This was a big deal for me.
This weeks’
taste test is perhaps on the lower end of novelty, but novelty is as novelty does**,
so let’s get cracking with the newest novelty food on supermarket shelves! Say
hello to Golden Syrup Weetabix!***
*Despite my
bravado, next weeks’ blog will be a lot less ‘huge’ than you might expect, I think
even calling it ‘big’ is pushing it, but it’s all relative isn’t it?.
**I couldn’t
figure out how to end this sentence, so I made up this saying. Pretty pleased
with it though, so may keep it.
***Apparently,
Golden Syrup Weetabix has been around for years. I hadn’t tasted it yet,
so it still counts. Shut up.
Who Could these be based on? There;s no way of knowing...
(for those
interested, the product this time was bought at ASDA in Feb 2018).
Taste
For a
novelty food, this was an odd one. On first taste, I wasn’t sure, but with each
serving afterwards, I really started to enjoy this cereal. I was the only one
eating this in my house, but to my surprise I got through the full box pretty
easily and was disappointed to be finished it.
For someone
who loves novelty as much as I do, to have the same thing for breakfast every
day for around 2 weeks, and to still want more is an impressive achievement.
The Golden Syrup was 100% there in the taste. It was subtle, sure, but it was
there and unlike the subject of the last blog, the subtlety was welcome.
This was
the rarest of beasts, a novelty food that I enjoyed even after the novelty wore
off. A good argument that these are removed from the novelty category, and should
be produced by the good people of Weetabix on a more regular basis. (See above,
they’ve been around for years, still counts as novelty though. Shut up).
A true
Cherry Coke of the cereal world. (That’s right, I said it! I stand by it!).
Texture
I sometimes I
find that cereal with milk can get very soggy, very quickly. Maybe it’s because I buy
supermarket own brand ‘wheat flavour biscuits’ more than I buy the marquee
brand, so I get what I deserve. I was still really surprised at how much better these kept their shape and
texture than the cereals I had been used to.
Packaging
Good, but
could be better. They followed the rules of classic big brand novelty food,
keeping the brand prominent, but changing it slightly. I thought the change was
a little too subtle to be honest, they could have done with a bit more of a change in colour, or prominence of the 'Golden Syrup ' logo in my opinion.
When I picked
up the box, I had to do a double take that I had the right ones and hadn’t picked
up standard Weetabix in error.
It was Ok
in the end though! Phew!
Marketing
Loads of
marketing when it was first released, but it’s died down a bit since then.
There was even a TV Advert! Imagine that!
Marketing
can’t have been that great though. It’s been out years, and I’ve only just
heard of it. I’m willing to accept that’s my fault though, who watches adverts
anymore? Not this guy!
Novelty
This is
where it falls down a bit. Is it novelty if it came out ages ago and I’ve just
heard of it? (As above, yes. Shut Up.)
But the key
question here is how novelty does it taste?
Well this is tricky, because I thought
the syrup flavour was just enough to make the product taste great, but not too
sweet. That probably harmed its novelty factor though and it’s a bit of a catch
22 situation.
What I
want in a product is something that tastes very different to what i'm used to,
but not so much that it’s unpleasant, and not so much that I can’t see the
link back to the product on which it’s based. This one does well in the last 2 categories,
but at the expense of the first one, leading to a lower score in this area.
Oh Well! Rules
are rules, and I didn’t make them up did I? You can’t have everything…
Final
Scores
Taste- 8/10
Texture- 8/10
Packaging- 6/10
Marketing- 5/10
Novelty
factor- 4/10
Overall 31/50
Head and
shoulders above everything else so far and the new leader, rightfully so. I called
this the cherry coke of cereal and I can’t give higher praise than that in the
novelty food world, I honestly can’t!
A novelty
food I could happily eat every day, and you don’t get many of those.
Next time I
promise the most world changing blog on Novelty food and drink ever to be
created by human hand. It’s a guarantee!****
****It’s not.
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