Small is sometimes better girls (Mc Vities Mini Cheddars)

Member Name: belfin

Product:	Mc Vities Mini Cheddars
Date:	29/12/05 (496 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lovely cheesy snack

Disadvantages: quite high in calories compared to some snacks

These used to be made by Crawfords but are now part of the McVities range.

My 3 year old loves Jacobs Cheddar biscuits but he is never happy with just one or two so this McVities smaller variety is great for a treat and I don't really mind him having these occasionally as they aren't as bad for him as chocolate etc. although there are more calories and slightly more salt and carbs than corn snacks like Skips or the likes so I do try to encourage him to eat them instead if a treat is being offered. They are really handy though if you are having a day out and small enough to stuff in a bag for that occasion when you're faced with the inevitable sigh accompanied by 'I'm hungry mum,' when you're nowhere near a food source as my son often does to me.

Now the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this product is an advertisement when I was younger with a group of ballet dancing mice in tutus singing 'mini cheddars, mini cheddars' but nobody else seems to remember this so I'm not sure if I'm going mad or if I'm just old. Let me know if any of you do remember this ad.

I was quite surprised when I first realised that this mini version was made by a company like McVities as I had thought they would just be made by Jacobs as they are very similar in packaging and smell with their bright orange coloured packets and the familiar cheesy smell often associated with feet - or is that just my family. I had thought McVities to be more associated with sweet biscuits rather than a savoury snack such as this until I found out that they are part of United Biscuits group who are also responsible with supplying us with Hula Hoops, KP Nuts, McCoys and Skips. Of course as traditional biscuits go then McVities are well known for their famous chocolate digestive biscuits which I just love with the plain chocolate covering although the milk chocolate variety are lovely too. I must apologise, when it comes to chocolate I do tend to drift off dreamily but I will stick to the subject in hand.

These small biscuits are baked and not fried so says the pack. This should make them a bit healthier than other crisps, however - for a small bag, around 30g if I weighed it correctly as there is no weight given on the individual or outer multipack packets there is an amazing 155 calories which is a bit more than the average bag of crisps which usually come in at around 130 calories per packet. The cheese flavouring comes from dried powdered cheese which it states makes up 10% of the ingredients.

They are a crunchy and fulfilling snack and there is a section on the back of the pack where it tells you that as long as you eat these as part of a healthy and balanced diet then it's ok. There is also a section telling you to keep active and a website address to give you information on how to get the most from exercising and maintaining a good healthy diet. Good advice these days for many people who end up over weight by snacking constantly. Don't get me wrong I'm not having a go at anyone who is overweight - I was stunned when I realised none of my clothes for summer fitted me last year and was determined to get rid of the half a stone I had put on, since then I have been a bit more wary as to what I eat although I've always been one to eat treats in moderation and not have more than around 5 packets of crisps in a week. I do feel however that there are too many children picking up the bad habits of parents and sadly this is leading to the rising problem of obesity in children and young adults so I applaud this packet for making this point about eating too much junk and not exercising enough.

There is also the information on the back of the pack that this contains milk, eggs, and gluten so not suitable for anyone who has an intolerancy of these products. It is also produced on a line handling sesame seeds and soya so again if you have allergies this won't be the product for you.

Now for the pricing - you can get the small bags in multipacks of 7 or 12 and you are around £1.15 for the 7 and £1.90 for the 12. At Tesco's you can get the 7 multipack as a buy one get one free just now though so that works out at just over 8p per bag - pretty good value. You can also buy them in 50g single bags for 35p. Great if you are setting them out as nibbles at a party. As well as the cheese variety they come in Smokey BBQ, Branston Pickle and Cheesy Beans flavours too. There is also a new variety called Crinklys which is a thinner crispier version and they are available in Totally Cheesy, Springing Onion and Wow!ster Sauce, haven't tried these yet so can't comment on them.

These tasty snacks go great with dips at a party or barbecue too and I always seem to have to be topping the dish up as everyone seems to love them. Be careful though as they do tend to get broken quite easily in the packets and the little crumbs get everywhere.

I have to say I'm not a big savoury biscuit fan and believe that biscuits should be sweet hence the choccie reference earlier but my bloke loves these as does my younger daughter and my son of course. So if you love crackers or the Jacobs bigger version of Cheddars then I would recommend you try these.

Summary: if you like cheesy snacks then try these