FoodStuffFights! Chocolate Creme Oreo Vs Choccie Dodgers

FoodStuffFights! Chocolate Creme Oreo Vs Choccie Dodgers

Two and a half years ago I came up with a great idea for snack articles - FoodStuffFights.  In a nutshell you take one existing product and one new product in the same range (or budget in store versions) and test them together to see if the king has been dethroned.  It was so successful that I decided to try to do it on a larger scale and ended up with 8 different types of custard cremes that I couldn't tell the difference between.  It took months to eat them all - I didn't have the heart to write it up.  I spotted both of these chocolatey chocolate biscuit sandwich snacks both on special offer at the same time and decided now was the time to rekindle the original idea:

FIGHT!

I decided that the Oreos had to be the reigning champ - they even have their own review.  Choccie Dodgers are the 'new' to market product that I suspect doesn't copy the Oreo but has a common biscuity ancestor (like us & chimps) - the humble bourbon biscuit.  While both of these are much more complex affairs the similarities of the biscuit and creme with multiple flavours of chocolate is quite definite evidence.


The Oreos have the most interesting texture - they crumble quickly and have a pattern on them which is pleasing to the tongue.  You can easily separate the halves and the biscuit portion tastes identically to the original flavour vanilla creme Oreos. The strong cocoa flavour of the biscuit overpowers the creme inside which is a shame - the vanilla sticks out due to its difference but this just melts into the chocolaty flavour in general.  I do enjoy these, I'd have picked them up from the special offer section without any prompts, but maybe I'd say that the vanilla version is better overall.  These are a good American style bourbon and something I will eat again.

The Choccie Dodgers are a different proposition entirely.  The biscuit is a hard, crunchy kind and really quite morish, its not as strongly flavoured as the Oreo.  I'd say that it's even crisper than the normal Jammie Dodger variety which has a tendency to crumble when eaten.  The jam centre in most versions of this biscuit is just a different flavour, but here it really is a chocolate creme.  This feels like it's cheated the Dodger's brand a little until you bite into the middle and the softness of the creme gives it the same crispy and squidgy feeling of the original.  This is a good hit.  The creme itself is maybe slightly stronger or darker than the biscuit and works better because of it.

It's clear then - the Choccie Dodgers are the new Champions and the title comes back to the UK (if that's where these things are made - I lose track these days)!  These really could become a whole new legitimate brand in the Dodger's range which suffered in the past a bit from continued special editions.  As proof of this I offered around the biscuits at work after talking about them at lunch and the remaining 5 in the packet were vanished by colleagues.  I still have Oreos left - but I think that if I had offered similarly based soley on their mighty reputation these would have gone too.  At the moment I still have half a packet on my desk, for another break-time...

FoodStuffFights {via @Nli10} - Kellogg's Krave Vs Asda ChocoSquares

I'm a bit of a bargain hunter and unlike a lot of people I like buying the store brands of everyday things as long as you follow the 'no liquids, no reduced ingredients' rules. If you question these rules then try washing greasy pans with Value washing up liquid, or try own brand reduced sugar cola - I'm convinced that swapping these two round would result in similar outcomes to their intended uses...

Despite this often the biscuits are better for you than the popular brands. Imitation Jaffa cakes have dark choc and a thinner layer of it meaning less calories, and store brand biscuits have less expensive fat & sugar and more cheap wholemeal flour. It really is win-win.

To celebrate this I've come up with a new feature where I pit a store brand against a heavy hitter from the world of the big brands. And I'm starting with my favourite food type in the world - Cereal.


Big Brand: Kellogs KRAVE
Store Brand: ASDA Choco Squares

Although I've chosen to start with this comparison it's actually quite a reversal on the norm in that I've been buying and loving the ASDA version of this cereal for about 3 years. There are a wide range of imitation brands in the Asda range, Coco-Pops, Shreddies - nothing is sacred - and on the whole for a pound a box they represent decent value. The king of this section has always been the Choco squares.
The content of these is essentially Nutella, making me think that they imitate a Euro cereal or one that is long forgotten in the UK (like Kellogg's Start which you can still get and is still basically fortified with stimulants & concentrated sugar). Kellogg's make a big play on not making cereals for anyone else - this means that both these cereals must be different factories and recipes and the ingredients do show differences. As with all imitation cereals I automatically thought that these were going to be the big new thing and popped a box into the trolley with the other cereals (I typically have more than 10 kinds at any given time - think 18 is the most I've had...) despite them costing twice the price of the Asda brand.

Cinabar's original KRAVE review is here.

Flavour-wise I was surprised. There is more of a hazelnut flavour to the Krave than the Chocos but the flavour is much sweet and less subtle. Also the bit is a lot softer, with less of the coating than the pictures on the box to the extent that you can see the filling through the sides. These are not bad things, but it does give the cereal a much lighter texture than the Chocos. By contrast they are a much heavier, crunchier cereal and rely on the chocolate of the filling for the flavour. It is a much smoother taste with less of an edge to it. I'd say that both have their plus points.

And now the final important part of the comparison - mascots.


The Chocos used to have a really nice purple box with some kind of mildly psychotic looking rodent on the box. I thought it was cool. Now they have gone with a generic bear/dog for all their cereal range. He may be doing the rock hand-sign, but he's clearly like the guy who runs the youth-club who isn't as cool as he thinks he is. Krave seem to have a masked version of one of the cereal as a tiny mascot hiding in the corner. I'm sure he's on a TV advert on a commercial channel I don't watch. He has an air of mystery and beckons from the box that he will protect us - even though his eyes are badly done and don't show any depth.

Overall the question is this: Two boxes of Chocos, or one box of Krave?

And I think that the Chocos edge it at 1:1 pricing, but at £2 for two boxes instead of £2.30 for one it's no contest. Unfashionable as bear/dog is, the kids keep coming back to him because he has the best value cereal.

by Nli10