Jacob’s Tuc Sandwich Cream Cheese & Chive flavour

I was very pleased to find this packet of Cream Cheese & Chive flavour Tuc when I last made an online order from my favourite supermarket. 

I have tried Sour Cream & Onion flavour Tuc and enjoyed them immensely. In this case I found them in Switzerland, check my enthusiast review, but they are (were) also available in France. I never really thought this flavour would be available in England (or any other part of the UK come to that), but here we have a very similar looking flavour. But not similar enough.

And are these UK Tuc sandwiches as tasty as the French version? Am I as excited about this flavour? 

Oh dear. Sadly not. Oh, they are fine in their own way, and the Tuc biscuits themselves are as tasty as they always are, but I cannot detect a trace of chives in the creamy squidgy filling. I ate the entire packet. But I am disappointed. 

If you have not tried the continental version of this flavour, well after all, chives are a member of the onion family, you might enjoy this crispy snack.

Have you noticed the serving suggestion? Just pile one biscuit on top of another. Presumably on something green.

In other news, I am sorry to see that longstanding British company (but started in Ireland) Jacob’s, supplier of Cheddars and Twiglets to generations of crispy snack fans, and owned by United Biscuits, has been bought by some company called Pladis. In Britain at least. I think. Company ownership these days is so complicated I’m surprised anyone can keep track of who owns what. 

Jacob’s Bites Mature Cheddar & Caramelised Onion Flavour

Well here we go. I thought these sounded good. On opening the silver baggie the initial aroma was rather good. The first taste was also rather good. But the more I tried it the more the taste wasn’t quite right for me. Too… oniony? Too much taste? Too much something. And the texture wasn’t quite right. Not to mention lots of ingredients (Sodium Metabisulphite anyone?) that I could do without.

I asked Cliffs of Moher Taste Tester what she thought. She wasn’t a fan. The taste wasn’t right and what’s more, the texture wasn’t right for her either. Her verdict was “No”.

However, Family Vegetarian rather liked them. Graffiti Artist Taste Tester wasn’t averse. But honestly I think Family Vegetarian would have finished the whole packet if dinner wasn’t going to be ready in 10 minutes. So, as ever, you have to try these things for yourself.

The Family Vegetarian was quite enthusiastic. She ate quite a few, and I’m sure she would have eaten more of these crispy snacks if she hadn’t known I was cooking a large dinner which was in the oven as we taste tested. I think even the Graffiti Artist liked this not very crispy snack more than I did.

This snack comes in a silver baggie inside a cardboard box. So at least part of the packaging is readily recyclable.

Jacob’s Mini Cheddars Frank’s Red Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce

Pay attention if you like spicy snacks. This is a limited edition offering from Jacob’s. Although, obviously I don’t know when the time limit began or when it will finish. 

Hot! A bit of a surprise to a regular Mini Cheddar fan.

Yes, these are basically the ordinary everyday Mini Cheddars that you know and love (always a good bet if you fancy a little biscuitty, crunchy, cheesy snack), but invigorated with the exciting addition of Frank’s Red Hot sauce (since 1920). 

Yum. Definitely yum. Not for you if you don’t like spicy, and honestly I didn’t used to, I really didn’t. But your palate evolves if you give it a chance, and perhaps you might like to start here.

But if you do fancy a red hot taste of cayenne pepper sauce, seek them out and try them while you can. I very much enjoyed this 150g packet and eked them out for a week, not wanting to snack them down too quickly.

Jacob’s Cheddars Red Leicester

Oh dear. I have enjoyed Cheddars for a long time. Delicious. Although I am surprised to find that I don’t seem to have reviewed them. How odd.

I have also enjoyed many bags of Mini Cheddars in various flavours*. Mostly delicious but smaller. So I was interested to try full size Red Leicester Cheddars.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Red Leicester is a red coloured cheese originally made in Leicester. I believe it works very well in sandwiches. 

However, and I am very sorry to have to report this, Red Leicester Cheddars aren’t a good idea. Same size as your classic Cheddars, same packet of biscuits style packaging, very nearly the same ingredients I expect, but and it is a very big but, they don’t really taste of anything. 

They have just the right crunch and snap, and feel the same in my mouth, but the taste is very disappointing. I am disappointed. I feel there is no real discernible taste of cheese.

*that’s four different posts about Cheddars for your delectation and delight.

Well, just my opinion because there’s no one here to ask their opinion now.

Jacob’s Mini Cheddars Nibblies Double Gloucester & Chive

It’s surprisingly difficult to find who actually owns Jacob’s, the company who own Cheddars and Mini Cheddars, or used to. Jacob’s used to be owned by United Biscuits who have a rubbish website that looks as though it was designed in 1975, but it seems they were bought by a Turkish company called Yildiz Holdings or more likely pladis Global (happiness with every bite). Look, I could have tried harder and spent more time investigating but life it too short.

And why is there almost no information about Mini Cheddars Nibblies online? I was really puzzled. There must be a website I failed to find. They look just exactly the same as any old ordinary Mini Cheddar so…. well, apparently it’s just that they have 30% less fat than other baked Mini Cheddars (which are all baked these days anyway) while looking exactly the same as regular Mini Cheddars. And the text on the packaging telling you this important fact is quite small: perhaps they don’t want you to realise your crispy snack is healthier than you thought? Who knows. 

To be honest, I would prefer my unhealthy crispy snacks to be fried like in the olden days. If you are going to eat unhealthy you want the full fat experience (but make sure you don’t eat too much of it).

Kids! Don’t take my advice on food and nutrition. I am just expressing a personal preference. When I was young we were allowed to eat all sorts and lots of it was bad for us.

Anyway, here we have the healthier Nibblies Mini Cheddar option in Double Gloucester & Chive. Hmmm. I can’t tell that this is the extra healthy option which is a good thing. Same size, same shape, same colour, same texture. Excellent. But honestly, I am not sure this little snack actually tastes of Double Gloucester (would you be able to pick that cheese?), or Chives either. They smell good when you open the packet but what you get to eat doesn’t quite taste like that. What a pity.

Not nasty at all. Just not quite as nice as I would have liked. I will finish the packet and another packet too. You might like the taste better than I do and the Chef thought they were fine but I wonder if they do a cheese version.

Jacob’s Mini Cheddars Nacho Cheese & Jalapeño

 

As you know if you have been following this blog for a while, my iPad knows how to spell jalapeño correctly. And I have learned to appreciate the taste. Mostly from crispy snacks.

My family was a bit slow on the uptake when it came to modern cuisine: my grandfather absolutely refused to eat garlic and only ever ate rice or pasta as a pudding. I honestly don’t know how he managed this because he was brought up in South West France but he was a very determined man. And my grandmother even disapproved of feeding bananas to children. I can’t imagine what they would have thought of Nacho Cheese & Jalapeño flavour Mini Cheddars.

Obviously my mother didn’t get much of a start in life when it came to interesting foods. I think the most exotic thing she ever cooked was Vesta Chow Mein and that came in a cardboard box. I’m not sure she would have been any more enthusiastic about this crispy snack than her parents.

However, when I picked up a multi pack of Mini Cheddars last year it seemed perfect normal to find such a spicy flavour. How things have changed. 

Anyway, rather stupidly I tidied them away and thus forgot to try them. So, slightly out of date, this Nacho Cheese & Jalapeño flavour crunchy little biscuit is rather good. The cheese seems incidental, the chilli packs quite a punch. Very nice.

Jacob’s Mini Cheddars Bangin’ Cheese Burger Flavour

Oh deary me. I was hoping that this Mini Cheddars flavour was going to be a banging (or bangin’ - which I really would prefer not to say) cheeseburger flavour. But I think it’s more about the cheese than the burger. Hmmm. They’ve created a range that celebrates foods that would be nothing without cheese. Which is not how I think about a cheeseburger. 

And on reading the list of ingredients it looks as though this crispy snack ought to be vegetarian, but I can’t find anything on the packaging to tell me if that’s the case. It does say that “no burgers have been flipped in the making of this product” and “flavouring only” but even though I can’t find any meat products in the list, I still can’t find any veggie label on the packaging. Odd.

The usual small round biscuits, crunchy and tasting of cheese… and smoky (possibly flame grilled?) flavour.

Unfortunately this crispy snack absolutely does not taste of cheeseburgers. You can only imagine how disappointing that is for me.

I couldn’t find this snack on the Jacob’s website so perhaps it is no longer available in actual shops. So thanks to a well known online purveyor of practically everything.