I am supposedly trying to eat a little bit better in the run up to Christmas so I can indulge to my heart's content on the day! :D And one of my downfalls in definitely cheese, I love heaps of it grated on a jacket potato, shephards pie, lasagne or simply in a sarnie but when I was scouting the cheesey isle in Tesco's an alarm bell rang in my head and I thought I could definitely cut out some of the bad guys buy buying spreadable cheese because a little goes a long way! I would usually opt for something like dairylea triangles or Philadelphia light, however I spotted these Primula squeezey tubes of ham and cheese spread (the ideal combination) and thought it would do me no harm to try it, especially because the fundings from the product goes to support charitable causes!

~ Primula ~
The company behind Primula is called Kavli, which has a long history and a strong heritage of producing high quality, wholesome foods for all the family.
Kavli is different to most other businesses because its sole purpose is to generate funds which can be used to support good causes. Kavli is part of the Kavli Group, which also has commercial operations in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

The whole group is owned by The Kavli Trust, a charitable organisation, which uses profits from the commercial operations to support a variety of good causes both locally and worldwide, including research, cultural activities and humanitarian work.

Aswell as ham & cheese squeezey tubes, Primula (Kalvi) also produce other flavours such as cheese & chives, cheese & prawns, regular cheese and light cheese (both available in tub style aswell). There are also a range of dips available; thai sweet chilli, salsa, sour cream & chive, roasted garlic and nacho cheese. More recently Primula have introduced cheese and cheese & chive PODS.

~ Price & Availability ~
Primula squeezey cheese spread is sold in asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco. The tub style is only available in Tesco's in one flavour. You can find them for around the £1.30 mark at full price but all of the supermarkets I've listed currently have it on offer (10/12/12).

~ Packaging ~
Primula ham & cheese spread comes in a triangular-ish shaped tube with a dark blue screw top lid. The tube itself has a background colour of a pinky red and on top of this a creamy yellow to represent the flavour combination. Primula's logo is printed at the top aswell as the name of the flavour in this case 'ham'. Beneath this is a picture of some very delicious looking, thickly carved ham on a plate and on the side some nice yellow cheese. Just below the picture is a little mouse informing me that the profits of this product go to charity. The back of the tube gives me serving suggestions, ingredients, a nutritional information table as well as at a glance nutritional chart, product weight and contact details.

~ Smell, appearance, taste & texture ~
On opening the lid there is a little foil tab to keep the innards fresh, once you've peeled this back you are greeted with an appealing, mild smokey bacon smell. Squeezing some out of the tube you get a thick, pale yellow creamy looking cheese spread with little flecks of pink running through it. It's not so thick that it's difficult to spread but thick enough that it doesn't just run everywhere. The taste is perfect, you get a definite hit of smokey bacon mixed in with a mild hint of cheese. The ham for me, is certainly the prominent flavour and works so well! I do find this spread to taste a little salty though, but that's what you get for mixing cheese and ham together as they are both salty enough on their own. But it doesn't ruin the overall taste experience. The texture is perfect; it's very smooth and has no unpleasant lumpy bits. I like to pair this spread with a jacket potato as it melts beautifully into the potato, on a bagel or toast instead of butter for lunch or just simply in a sandwich with some salad. There are endless possibilites really, you could even use it in pasta to make a gorgeously creamy, smokey, cheesey sauce.

~ Other information ~
Each 25g squeeze (which is actually quite a lot) contains, 50 calories, 0.8g of sugar, 3.8g of fat, 2.5g of saturates and 0.5g of salt. So, compared with actual sliced ham and cheese is it a lot better for you - imagine the calories you're saving! But yes, unsurprisingly the salt content is high as is the saturates.

A 25g squeeze provides 12.5 % of your daily calcium. It's high in protein, contains no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, is gluten free and is a pasteurised product suitable for mums to be.

~ Overall opinion ~
I love this cheese, I much prefer it to any other cream cheese I have tried and I think it's the only one on the market that does a ham & cheese variety. The combination works perfectly together and it is so versatile. I would highly recommend this spread to anybody who enjoys ham & cheese together, you wouldn't miss the actual slices of ham and cheese because the taste is just the same, if not better!