Milk matters! (Nestlé Magic Straws)

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Nestlé Magic Straws
Date:	09/04/08 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gets me five minutes peace!

Disadvantages: The straw can get bunged up.

Ever since I was a child, I have the fondest memory's of having supper with my siblings. At night my mum would handover a couple of biscuits or a slice of homemade cake and a glass of something to wash it down with.

Now I don't know about you but at that age, almost anything that resembled "healthy food", was in my books out of bounds, so that is how we came to milkshakes. My mum would very often have a small selection of powdered and liquid varieties in her store cupboard, admittedly there were very few options available then so we pretty much stuck to the Nesquik and Crusha varieties.
The sweetness and vivid colours, gave the pretence of unhealthy, which actually looking back, may have been the case, but I think my mum was just grateful to get us to drink the damn milk!

After becoming a mother myself, I have often tried to emulate many of my mum's "traditions", supper being one of them.
My children are however less militant about healthy options, often opting for the standard glass of milk or even juice to wash down their cake, when spotting these on the shelves of Asda , about 6 months ago, I'm afraid that all changed!

My kids have always been a fan of milkshakes but could take or leave it, depending of course whether I remembered to buy any, upon seeing the "magic straws" I live in purgatory if I forget to buy a supply!

~~~~~~ THE PACKAGING ~~~~~~

The packaging is a bright and vivid yellow, with clouds of chocolate milk billowing around the Nesquick bunnies head, who is on the front of the packet apparently watching the magic of the milk being sucked up through the straw and coming out........ CHOCOLATE!!

Upon opening the plastic pouch the straws are housed in, the pouched straws are exposed. The straws are all packaged in another long plastic pouch but are individually sealed, to retain the freshness of each one.
Down the side of each straw there is a perforation for ease of separation.
On each of the individual pouches, there are pictures of the Nesquik bunny, all in different poses (basket ball, skateboarding...very hip don't you know!), but all trying to give the impression that - magic straws + milk = healthy, happy and active child.
On the bottom of each packet there are instructions for use, a ridiculous thing you may think but not so, once the straw has been emptied of its contents, the straw should then be discarded, not washed up and saved for the next time like my husband did, unfortunately using it the second time around compromises the integrity of the plastic so starts disintegrating in the child's mouth.... Not good.
Also these are not for use with hot milk as they obviously will melt!
The back of the pouch is transparent so the straw is visible, the straw itself is also transparent, through that you can see the small chocolaty milkshake beads.

~~~~~~ USE AND TASTE ~~~~~~

Once you have detached a straw along the perforation, you can remove the straw from the pouch, there is a tiny rip in the pouch at the top end for ease of removal.
The recommended amount of milk per straw is 250ml, which will also provide 39% of the RDA amount of calcium for a child, of course I cannot comment on an adults percentage, as these beauty's are aimed at children.
The beads of milkshake are held in the straw by two small "grates", one at each end. These are large enough to let the milk flow through freely, but not allow any small fragments of milkshake through.
You then place the straw into the milk and slurp!
The intensity of flavour depends entirely on the child, the harder they suck the more the beads bounce together in the straw, thus encouraging quicker breakdown of them, then increasing milkshake to milk ratio.
The first couple of sucks the milk is the normal colour going through, after a few moments however it just turns into a chocolate mush, not something that seems to bother my kids!

The taste of the milkshake is admittedly no different to the powder version, the milkshake is sweet, chocolaty and creamy, (of course also depending on what sort of milk you use), the milkshake is very moorish and doesn't last very long!

The one thing I will point out with these is don't place the straw into the milk until the child or you are ready to drink from it, once the straw is immersed in the milk the beads start to melt, so if the straw is not drank from, the ends tend to block up and you have got no chance in hell of drinking from them, it seems to set under the grates, so no milk goes in and no milk comes out, I seem to go through more straws replacing them than the ones my children actually finish!

~~~~~~ NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION ~~~~~~

If using the recommended amount of milk (250ml), there are only 131kcals per serving.

There are however a reasonably high amount of sugar and fat - 14.5g of sugar,
4.2g of fat, of which 2.6g saturates.

This does not really worry me, my children have a healthy and varied diet, so a little treat like this is not a concern.


~~~~~~ INGREDIENTS ~~~~~~

Sugar, edible starch, fat-reduced cocoa powder (13%), flavourings, salt, sweetener, aspartame, emulsifier, soya lecithin and cinnamon.

Sorry for the boring list, but I do like to include the ingredients in case of food allergys.

This product also contains a source of phenylalanine (aspartame), which as many of you dieters out there know is a sweetener, excessive consumption of this causes a laxative effect.....nice!

~~~~~~ PRICE AND AVAILABILITY ~~~~~~

These come in packs of 4 and 10, we always get the 10 packets for reasons I mentioned earlier!!

For a pack of 10 I pay £1.77 from my local Asda store, although the majority of the time, due to the sudden competition from a brand called Sippah who also produce milkshake straws at a cheaper price, they are available as part of a BOGOF offer, bonus!

These are readily available from most supermarkets and come in chocolate and strawberry.
(As an afterthought, the Sippah range do a banana flavour as well, which my kids enjoy also!)

~~~~~~ CONCLUSION ~~~~~~

Nesquik say - "Magic straws" make life easier for mum, they are mess free, good for you and great wherever there's milk.
There another great way to enjoy the delicious taste of Nesquik which has been loved by kid's and mum's for 55 years.

Ok, I agree in part with their statement, these are a gimmicky way to encourage children drink their milk and yes these do provide another way to enjoy the "delicious" taste of Nesquik.
Good for on the go and mess free.......... Not in this lifetime!! You still have to have a glass of milk and unless sealed in plastic sheeting, my kids could spread a single straws worth throughout an entire room!! But that's just kids for you!

Would I recommend them.... Yes if for no other reason than they give me five minutes peace and quiet will they are drinking it!!

Thanks for reading x

Summary: A fun and gimmeky way to get kids to drink milk.