McVitie’s Digestives Jaffa Cakes (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

This may mess with your minds. In the debate of whether Jaffa Cakes are biscuits or cakes, McVitie’s have bought out these Jaffa Cake Digestive Biscuits. I have been assured that no Jaffa Cakes were hurt during the making of these Digestive Biscuits.

These McVitie’s Digestives Jaffa Cakes actually smell like Jaffa Cakes. There is a layer of Jaffa orange like sticky caramel in between the Digestive Biscuit and chocolate topping. They taste like Chocolate Digestive Biscuits, and then that familiar moreish Jaffa orange goodness sets in at the back of the flavour. Definitely yum.

Information on the packet; Per biscuit is 80 calories, with 3.6g of fat, 5.2g of sugar, and 0.14g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Jaffa Cakes Mango (Ocado) By @Cinabar

Another summer edition from Jaffa Cakes, who are really going all out with new flavours this year. They have even released a range of Jaffa Cakes that are specifically marketed as biscuits, but that's a review for another day. Today we're talking about the wonderfully tropical-sounding Jaffa Cakes Mango. The box is lovely too, with a bright, summery design that certainly catches the eye.

As much as I enjoy trying the new flavours, my heart will always belong to the classic orange Jaffa Cakes. They just work so perfectly together. That said, I'm also a fan of mango, so I was keen to see how these compared.

Opening the box, they looked exactly as expected. I broke one in half and there wasn't much difference there either, with the familiar layer of jelly looking much the same as usual. There wasn't a particularly noticeable aroma either.

The flavour, however, was a different story. From the first bite the mango really bursts through, delivering a juicy, tropical sweetness that is genuinely delicious. Combined with the familiar soft sponge and thin layer of chocolate, it works surprisingly well. The mango is distinctive without overpowering everything else, making these a fun twist. They're definitely worth picking up if you spot them, especially if you're a fan of fruity treats.

McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes Yuzu Lemon (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

I like McVitie's Jaffa Cakes. I've tried a few different flavours, but the original Jaffa Cakes are my favourites. These new Japanese inspired McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Yuzu Lemon may change my mind. Instead of tangy orange Jaffa Cakes, these should be zingy lemon. I'm not expecting anything super face twistingly sour, but I am expecting a Lemon flavour, not orange and nothing too weird in between.

 

On first opening the packet, there was a lemon aroma from the Jaffa Cakes inside. Good start. On first soft chocolatey jelly cake taste, there was the usual dark chocolate flavour from the coating, with a tart lemon flavour from the jelly inside, and then the usual cake taste. These McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Yuzu Lemon weren't too strong on the lemon flavour, in fact a little more subtle than I preferred. So, I guess my favourite is still the original orange Jaffa Cakes.

Information on the box; There were 10 Jaffa Cakes in the box at 41 calories per cake, with 0.9g of fat, 5.4g of sugar, and 0.03g of salt. Please the ingredients

Aldi Knock-off Passion Fruit Jaffa Cakes [@NLi10]

 What has Luna found?  Why - it's Aldi's finest imitation Jaffa Cakes - and they are Passion Fruit flavour!

Unfortunately it seems that concentrated passion fruit juice is very similar to the things they use to flavour children's medicine in England - so nostalgic - but it makes them a bit odd

Each Jaffa cake is listed as it's own portion of 12g

But its tiny!  They are good quality though - and frankly as good (and as big) as the official ones.

I think if Belmont/Aldi wanted to shock the world and sell a lot more then all they need to do is make these a little bigger to suit adult portions and tastes.  As it stands, these are merely good, but an enjoyable snack.

McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes Hot Honey (Morrisons) By @SpectreUK

I love McVitie's Jaffa Cakes. I can happily eat a whole packet. I nibble around the edges of each one, bite off the orange jelly filling, enjoy the flavour, and then pop the rest of the cake in my mouth. I can't help it, I'm a bit of a child.

I saw these new McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Hot Honey flavour in our local supermarket. They are honey flavour, with a little orange juice and a kick of chilli. I take it's meant as a waker-upper for those who are falling asleep over their afternoon tea, or in a boring meeting at work.

On opening the packet there was an aroma of honey, a touch of orange, dark chocolate, and with a little of something else. I take it that 'something else' was the chilli. Of course, I ate my McVitie's Jaffa Cakes Hot Honey in the usual way.

On tasting the Hot Honey jelly, there was mild honey sweetness, whereas the added orange juice made it taste slightly of Manuka Honey, and a mouth warming medium chilli kick at the back of the flavour with the dark chocolate coating. These will be good in Autumn and Winter, which are fast approaching.

Information on the box; The box contained ten cakes at 41 calories per cake, 0.9g of fat, 5.3g of sugar, and 0.03g of salt.

Jaffa Cake - JoNuts - Jaffa Doughnuts Are Back! [@NLi10]

 4 years ago - at the height of the CroNut Craze the bods at Jaffa HQ decided to release their own version.

It's a bigg jaffa cake - or a doughnut with Jaffa inside and chocolate on the top.

And they come individually wrapped so they stay fresh.

The chocolate could be darker and thicker for my liking

And the Jaffa could be thicker - or more like a jelly - and have bits of peel in it like marmalade.

But - as it stands - instead of a luxury must have they have created a decent enough elevensies snack. And while one isn't quite satisfying enough for me, I suspect that these are more designed for a lunchbox.

Worth a try - especially if you didn't sample them on their first visit.

Jaffa Cake - Special Cola Bottles Edition [@NLi10]

 McVitie's long ago realised that only the smallest of changes to the Jaffa Cakes recipe was needed to get us to pick a box up.  And we buy them all - they even have their own category on this site. Gradually they are straying further from the hallowed ground of the Orange to other Citrus Fruits, then other fruity things, and now technically I guess nut flavoured things.  

Well natural flavourings approximating the cola nut I assume.  Mr Whiskers is interested eitherway.

Only 10 in a pack now - that's another gradual change

And they still seem to be shrinking.

But - a fresh-from-the-pack official Jaffa Cake is still a thing of great beauty, and a less acidy flavour like Cola means you can happily eat a portion of 3 without batting an eyelid

Less 'jaffa' than before too - but all things in balance.

These taste like a weak cola bottle on a jaffa cake base, which is still plenty good enough.  Gone are the days when I'd get through a box of 36 Tesco own brand Jaffa Cakes in a week, so I'll settle for having these decent quality ones in a variety of flavours every so often.

Jaffa Cakes Cola Bottle Special Edition (Tesco) By @Cinabar

Well, this is a bit of a different twist on a Jaffa Cake. Although we have had different flavoured Jaffa Cakes before (blackcurrant was awesome), I think this is the first non-fruity one. And it is a bit of a curious combination, too. Here we have Jaffa Cakes Cola Bottle Special Edition; yes, these ones are flavoured like the popular sweets. I’m not sure cola and a chocolate coating sound like they should go together, but I'm obviously happy to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I opened up the packet of Jaffa Cakes Cola Bottle Special Edition, and the minute the packet was opened, I could smell the playful aroma of cola bottle sweets. They did smell delicious. I gave one a try, and wow, they made this work. They shouldn’t have worked, but they did. The cola sweet taste was quite a sharp flavour, not quite zingy but more on the sour lemony side of things. This gave the flavour a fruity taste, and that made it work with the chocolate. There was such a nice contrast between the cola and the rest of the Jaffa Cake. They were zingy and moreish, one of the nicest limited editions they have done. They are even up there with the blackcurrant. Who knew this would work, but I think the lesson learnt is to never doubt a new variety of Jaffa Cake.

Jaffa Cakes Raspberry (Ocado) By @Cinabar

We have a thing about Jaffa Cakes here; they are probably the most commonly purchased biscuits here. Ok, cakes that are found in the biscuit aisle. I’m not re-opening that old argument; you know what I mean. The point is that we eat a fair amount of Jaffa Cakes and always look for their new flavours. I spotted these while online grocery shopping, and it didn’t take long after they arrived for us to open them.

The Jaffa Cakes looked like the standard ones, but one broken in half the jam inside is a bit more pink. I gave one a try and was pleasantly surprised to find the raspberry flavour was quite strong and nicely sharp and zingy. This worked very well with the sweet sponge and the chocolate. There was a lovely contrast in the flavours, and they worked very well. I loved the blackcurrant edition they did previously, and I thought it would be hard to find a rival for the limited edition flavour, but these are a delight. The raspberry is lovely and tangy and works a dream; I'll be stocking up for more.

McVities Jaffa Nut (Krispy Kreme) By @Cinabar

Is a Jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit? Cake surely as there is sponge? Is a Jaffa Nut a Cake or a Donut? Donut? Snacking can be a complex business when snacks collide. This is the latest of the hybrid snacks with McVities in conjunction with Krispy Kreme turning Jaffa Cakes and Donuts into Jaffa Nuts.

The chocolate coating these Krispy Kreme McVities Jaffa Nuts is quite dark, and a little sticky. I was just trying to turn the donut to take a look and my fingers were getting chocolate on them. I do like the look, the icing looks very similar to Jaffa Cakes. I assumed from looking at that the central part, the bit that looks like the top of a Jaffa Cake, would be where all the orange jam would be loaded. I bit in and didn’t get any filling once I hit the middle, just a nice soft donut and the darker chocolate topping. A couple more bites was sadly the same. At this point, there was no orange taste, I thought my donut was broken.

Then I tucked in around the edge and found the jam, off centre at the edge but present at least. It was a lovely filling, it had a good zesty sweet orange taste, and was a bit more runny than you’d find the traditional Jaffa cake. I think it was a bit more zesty and sour too, but I liked that contrast with the rest of the sweetness. The orange jam filling made it, so it was a shame I had a few bites without it, but once discovered, I was thoroughly enjoying the flavour.

I think they have done a good job of combining the two snacks and I would gladly pick up more of these Krispy Kreme McVities Jaffa Nuts while they are available. What is next? I’m hoping for a Hob Nut (HobNob Donut). Yes, maybe don’t leave me in charge of picking the names, that sounds more like a spare part for an oven!

Jaffa Cakes Blackcurrant (Tesco) By @Cinabar

What is going on at Jaffa Cakes head quarters? We have had several years where there are no new interesting products from them, which is fine the originals are amazing. This year however we have seen loads of innovation from them Passion Fruit, Cherry and even Jaffa Cake Jonuts (doughnuts). There is now another new flavour these Jaffa Cakes Blackcurrant, using the classical British fruit, they are spoiling us. I love blackcurrant so this is rather exciting.

Inside the box were ten cakes (or biscuits but I’m not going down that rabbit hole) and a bit of a gap in the box. Oh well. Inside each of these new Blackcurrant Jaffa Cakes was a dark purple layer of jelly along between the thin chocolate and the sponge base. I gave them a try and found that the flavour from the blackcurrant was good, quite zingy but not quite a strong as I had hoped for. The chocolate is only a thin layer but it held the majority of the flavour. On a regular Jaffa cake the orange shines out with no question, these were more of a glow, tasty but they needed a stronger, dare I say sourer hit of blackcurrant. I’m loving the innovation though, wonder which fruit will be next?

Jaffa Jonuts - Jaffa Cake Doughnuts (Tesco) By @Cinabar

Well I have finally got my hands on the new Jonuts, apparently the next big thing. This is the latest in product names to portmanteau. We’ve seen Cronuts (croissant doughnuts) but now we have Jaffa Cake doughnuts, introducing the Jonut. Orange as a flavour is having a great year, it is the the new salted caramel in terms of popularity and trend. Inside the box were four individually wrapped Jonuts. I was tentative about this product though, the best part of a Jaffa cake is the orange jelly layer. On an original Jaffa cake the chocolate is a thin coating and is ok, the base is a slightly dry sponge but it works because of the magic of the fruit jelly. Lets see if these Jonuts are the same.

The Jonut is flat and topped with the same Jaffa Cake chocolate you expect, it cracks nicely when you bite in. There is no layer of jelly under the chocolate but there is a ring of it inside the sponge, it adds all the magic to the flavour. The sponge itself isn’t quite as moist as a regular donut but it is better than a regular Jaffa Cake. Despite the odds these work, and they work well; sponge chocolate and that zingy sweet orange flavour. Lovely with a cup of coffee as an afternoon treat.

McVities Jaffa Cakes - Passion Fruit Flavour (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

We are being treated by McVities Jaffa Cakes at the minute, NLi10 found the new Cherry flavour and I found these new Passion Fruit ones! We don’t get many new flavours from Jaffa Cakes so to get two new ones at once is a proper treat and these sound quite creative in their flavour choice too. Just quickly, I dunk all biscuits but I don’t dunk Jaffa Cakes therefore they are cakes not biscuits, we will say no more about it.

 

So these New Jaffa Cakes Passion Fruit Flavour come in a very pretty and nicely decorated summer themed box. Inside though, much like NLi10 pointed out with the cherry ones, there is an empty space that could have held a couple more Jaffa Cakes. The cakes are tasty, the fruity layer seems milder than the orange ones but they still have a good tropical flavour. The chocolate tastes quite strong but I think this is because of the milder fruity taste, but I liked this. The soft cake base and cracking chocolate all added to that easy to eat nice texture. These McVities Jaffa Cakes Passion Fruit Flavour are a nice edition to the range and one I’d buy again, good and different but they don’t quite knock the originals from first place.

McVitie's Jaffa Cakes - New Cherry Flavour (@NLi10) and a suggestion...

 Variation is very much the aim of the game at the moment for McVitie's.  Things you know - but with a flavour twist.

Maybe it's because they know we will buy at least one to try - and then talk about here!

Today we have a lovely box of orangey Jaffa Cakes - that British staple - only they are Cherry not Orange.

As per modern rules you only get 10 in a box - this feels quite mean because of the size gap.  Maybe McVitie's should make the box 25% shorter and get more on the trucks.

I'm sure the filling on the top used to make it all the way to the edge, and the chocolate was thicker too.  I'm betting this is to make the sugar per portion lower and so we get less calories per cake.  Cheeky Cherry Bomb will distract us all from this though.

They taste like good cherry sweets though, not the cough mixture version you get, and anyone who has had a Black Forest Gateaux (BFG?) will tell you good cherry, cake and chocolate is a great mix.

Enjoyable and snackable, and very much something that I'd eat again.  I just wish companies would own up to the fact that these are bad for us and just sell us the bad versions at the price they cost to make. 12 Dark-Side BFG Jaffa Cakes with all the cherry jam, thick dark chocolate and maybe even a chocolate sponge? Now there is a snack worth the calories that I'd pay full price for...

Seasonal Jaffa Cakes - spooky, festive and pandemic?! (@NLi10)

 Jaffa Cakes are magical. They are a great way to bond with new people and turn any meeting into a race to eat as many as possible without looking greedy.  New flavours are always great as you HAVE to try them.

This year has been an odd one so I think they have just dumped everything in store at once so here’s what we picked up.

Halloween 

5 zesty orange cake bars? Yes please!

And with a day of the dead theme they evoke Pixar movie comparisons more than scary things. I approve!

They are quite little

Purple is a lot of fun, but these taste the same as normal. Great style, and the same great flavour. Just too small. Not worth chasing down, but enjoyable alternative.

Christmas/Festive

After non-scary Halloween we get non denominational Christmas. I approve again. This should upset no one while being pretty cool. I am excited to try these.

With only 10 in the pack these will go faster than the old dozens will.  (Ok - bad picture - imagine a Jaffa cake).

Looks like a slightly redder jelly bit. And to me it tasted almost identical. The younger people in the office got quite excited by the cranberry flavour they could taste though, so I think my old jaded tastebuds just needed to eat more.

Nice, not overpriced compared to normal cakes (except for these aren’t multipacks)

Pandemic/Sharing

Hint at future review here too!

So - whether this is just a good choice of what to put on special, or a cunning way of saying that three cakes is a portion, but here are individually wrapped Jaffa cakes ready for an office full of lab workers to share without risk of cross infection.

In my head these are overpriced, because snack packs usually are, but 18 cakes for £1.29 when it’s usually just under a pound for 10 seems fine to me.  I should have got these too!

We were very careful to tip the cakes out of the packets into peoples hands and not to fondle all the cakes as we handed them to people to try. Here you are sanitary and keep everything fresh too. Great plan.

Not very exciting offerings this year, but with solid flavours and no jacked-up prices I can see myself dipping back into these (especially if the post spooky ones end up in the discount section as usual!)

McVities Jaffa Cakes - Pineapple (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

This bright box was very much unmissable in Morrisons as it drew my eye to the new McVities Jaffa Cakes - Pineapple edition. We haven’t had many different Jaffa Cakes flavours in recent years, especially if you excluded the annual Halloween ‘slime’ lime varieties. I was really pleased to see pineapple as the choice this time, it is a much under loved fruit and I am even one of those people who think it is acceptable on pizza. Bring on the Hawaiian.
Inside the box the Pineapple Jaffa Cakes look very much like their regular orange counterparts, there isn’t any difference in aroma and the jelly layer looked dark and about the same colour. The make up of the cakes is the same too, a spongy base and a dark chocolate crackle layer on top.
I found the pineapple flavour to be rather mild, they are still tasty but the overwhelming flavour it a generic “fruity” taste, sweet and slightly acidic with little definition. After a bite or so it becomes apparent that it is pineapple, but it is a very subtle flavour. They are not bad they are just nowhere near as interesting or as exciting as I had hoped they would be. Why make a tame version that even someone not into pineapple could tolerate, it is missing the point. Pineapple is a wonderful fruity tropical flavour, and these didn’t really do that justice. They had such a bright and zingy box too, it isn’t unreasonable to have hoped the flavour would follow suit.