Biscuit Blog: Belmont Biscuits Cookies 'N' Cream biscuits

Belmont Biscuits Cookies 'N' Cream biscuits

These are Aldi's version of Oreos.  However, both the biscuits and the packet itself are very small.  They come close to the taste of Oreos but the darkness of the chocolate biscuit is so strong that it almost gives a 'burn' to your tongue.  The filling is very creamy and these flavours are so at the extremes from each other to make it a very odd taste overall.  You can compare it unfavourably with other sandwich biscuits such as Bourbons and Custard Creams, in which the filling compliments the flavour of the biscuit.  I accept that Aldi has done reasonably well in creating a biscuit which has strong flavours rather than the blandness of too many biscuits I review, but I think it needs toning down on the two components.  The packet and the biscuits themselves both need to be larger no matter what other company's biscuit they may be aping.

Rating:
*****

Biscuit Blog: Asda Cocoa Creams

Asda Cocoa Creams

These are a sandwich biscuit.  Historically BN, the French biscuit company, produced the gold standard for these, certainly in the years before they insisted on impressing smiley faces into all of their biscuits.  Sandwich biscuits are larger than many standard biscuits and typically have a chocolate cream filling.  The biscuit discs themselves really need to be creamy to counterpoint the chocolate in the middle.  BN always did theirs in a square shape; British versions of the 21st century seem to be round.  Perhaps the easiest to access version of the sandwich biscuit in the UK at present is the Lidl Princess biscuit which I need to get around to reviewing here.  This is a comparator for it but comes out as less successful.

The biscuit is large.  The discs have an appropriate snap and then a little crumble.  However, they really lack the creaminess which is vital in a sandwich biscuit.  I do not know how some of these supermarkets - Asda is not alone in this, Tesco is also guilty - manage to get so little flavour into some of their biscuits.  The chocolate cream inside is of the correct consistency.  It should be of a milk flavoured chocolate, but I recognise that dark chocolate is the leading flavour now.  I like dark chocolate so enjoyed this cream and funnily another person eating these who insists on milk chocolate and hates dark felt it was sufficiently milky for their taste.  The problem is, with so little flavour in the biscuit disc, all you get is the cream flavour, you might as well spread chocolate paste on a slice of bread.  Unsurprisingly, as a result, they lack moreishness.  These are another of those frustrating biscuits in which the company falls short on one element and so the biscuit fails to achieve what it should be doing.  Not terrible, but could so easily be better.

Rating:
*****

Biscuit Blog: Fox's Crunch Creams - Ginger

Fox's Crunch Creams - Ginger

I should have put a size indicator next to these biscuits as, in common with other biscuits I have seen from Fox's these are small.  The packet is short and the diameter of the biscuits is probably about two-thirds of the size of the average ginger nut I have reviewed here.  I did not include a picture of these biscuits on edge, but in fact, as you can see from the packet, these are sandwich biscuits, i.e. like a Custard Cream or a Bourbon, they consist of two biscuits joined by a smooth filling.

Aside from the size another challenge is the lack of ginger flavour in the biscuits.  They have the appearance, texture and snap of a usual Ginger Nut, but lack the flavour.  They are very plain biscuits.  As a result, it is the filling which gives these biscuits most of their flavour.  Perhaps surprisingly the filling is lemon.  It is not too sharp, and would counter-point a good ginger flavour but that is absent, so the biscuit flavour overall ends up imbalanced.  These are not terrible biscuits, but they do not really offer what they promise.  If you want this flavour then you would be better off with a standard Custard Cream, or, perhaps better, get two typical Ginger Nuts and spread lemon curd between them.

Rating:
*****