Slurp it or bin it...the choice is yours? (Tesco Fruit Slurpers)

Member Name: missy0303

Product:	Tesco Fruit Slurpers
Date:	18/09/07 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Contains one portion of your 5 a day

Disadvantages: Just didn't live up to my expectations

Always looking for something different and healthy for my children’s packed lunch bags, I came across these Fruit Slurpers in Tesco’s at the weekend. Claiming to be Fruit smoothies, and looking relatively healthy and also in a fun pack obviously aimed at children; I thought I’d give them a try.

I picked up the only flavour my local Tesco had in stock which was the Apple and Strawberry (which both my children usually like) and went off to pay my £1.48 for pack of 4 squeezy snacks.
They also come in another 2 flavours, Apple or Apple and Banana.
It can be found on the snack and pot desserts aisle beside the yoghurts and such like.

These fruit slurpers come in a small box, and are each in a squeezable container with resealable screw off lid which is totally unsafe for small children as could be easily swallowed (there is a warning on pack that it is unsuitable for under 3s) The lid was easy enough for my 6 and 9 yr old to remove. So no having to ask their teacher/assistant for help.
Each slurper is 90g and contains 70calories, 0.3 g of fat and only a trace of salt…but is pretty high in sugar, because it contains fruit purées.

I don’t really like including ingredients in reviews but we all like to know exactly what we’re giving our children, this slurper contains apple purée (69%) strawberry purée (21%) concentrated apple juice (9%) concentrated blackcurrant juice and flavouring, and antioxidant(ascorbic acid)
For anyone with allergies this recipe doesn’t contain any nuts, and neither did the factory but still Tesco cannot guarantee the ingredients being nut free! (this is a bugbear of mine as my son does have a nut allergy..but if I refused to buy anything that had this warning then my son would starve completely)
It also makes up one portion of our 5 a day! It’s always good to find another way of getting fruit into our children without them knowing it.

Now on to the taste test……

I popped one of these into each of my little cherub’s lunchboxes yesterday, hoping especially that my son liked it as he is becoming increasingly fussy about eating his 5 a day fruit and veg and is becoming harder for me to get him to eat even half of that! My daughter on the other hand loves her fruit and veg and would rather have carrot sticks or cucumber slices for snacktime than chocolate or sweets!
When they arrived home and I emptied out their boxes however I was left facing 2 almost full slurpers…when questioned about it my son said it tasted disgusting, and my daughter said she didn’t really like it either. So I decided to try one for myself as I love smoothies usually (although prefer to make my own)

I opened the pack and took a sniff first of all…don’t we all do that? I could smell the strawberries instantly, with the hint of apple coming through, mmmm smells nice enough. I give it a slight squeeze, just enough to see the caramel brown coloured fruity compote ooze out of the top. Doesn’t look too appetizing to be honest, and I can see why children would turn their noses up; The texture is also pretty thick and gloopy and reminded me of the jars of fruit purée I used to feed the little ones when I was weaning them…So now on to the taste test… I squeezed a little drop into my mouth, to find it was really quite sweet, and artificial tasting. Yes it tasted of apples slightly and even of strawberries, but it was quite a tangy and unpleasant sensation on that first slurp. When I had let it settle a few minutes I was left with a strange almost sour taste in my mouth…I tried to finish the slurper but found I just couldn’t it was too sickly sweet and left that strange taste in my mouth every time I took a tiny slurp, and I really didn’t like the texture at all…it was nothing like the smoothies my children and I are used to.

Sadly I feel I’ve wasted almost £1.50 on something which no one in the house liked, and have had to throw out 3 half full cartons and 1 full one. I wouldn’t recommend it at all unless you like puréed fruit perhaps.

It’s available from Tesco only but I for one will not be attempting any of the other flavours and will stick with making my own smoothies from now on.

Michelle(sept07)

Summary: A disappointing baby like puree...definitely not a smoothie as it suggests.