The Snack For When There's Nothing More Exciting! (Jacob's Twiglets)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	Jacob's Twiglets
Date:	16/02/08 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Yummy Marmite flavour, fairly natural ingredients

Disadvantages: The kinda tacky feeling they leave on my hands!

At last the final Christmas edible is gone from the house and I can recommence my healthy eating plan. Yes, I ate the Twiglets last night; the Twiglets that had been staring down at me each time I opened the cupboard just begging to be eaten. I hadn't actually resisted it's just that whenever I fancied a munch there were loads of other (and let's face it, nicer) things on offer.

A Twiglet. It's a funny thing really. Whoever came up with the idea of a savoury snack shaped like it had just fallen out of a tree and into some partially dried mud deserves an award for the most bizarre and original idea in the history of snack foods. You see, it really does look like a little... erm... twig. OK, run outside and grab yourself a twig. You want a thinish one about 3 inches long and try not to get one with too much bark attached. Got it? Right, now look at it. See all the knobbles? You're looking at a Twiglet, you can peel some of the bark off in random places if you like to make it more authentic, but you've got the basic idea.

And they stink. Not a nasty smell (or a particularly nice one), simply a very strong smell of Marmite. Love it or hate it? They reckon no-one thinks Marmite is just 'alright', you either detest the stuff with a passion or think it's so scrummy on toast that you can eat it every day. And Twiglets are exactly the same. Over Christmas we had a box of 20 bags of Twiglets and every time I offered someone a bag the answer was always a variation on the 'love or hate' theme... 'Ewwwwwwww, no ta!' featured regularly, as did 'ohhhhh, Twiglets, I've not had a bag of them in ages!'. As a rule of thumb I think you could safely say that if the thought of Marmite on toast sends you gagging into another room then you probably won't like Twiglets, if you like Marmite you'll love them.

Twiglets have been around forever but Jacobs are jumping on the healthy food bandwagon and telling us in prominent letters on each bag that Twiglets are baked instead of fried and that as fibre goes, no can't do much better than a bag of Twiglets. You're still talking 173 cals and 5.3g fat in each 45g bag so not one to be able to fit into your calorie controlled diet too often, although marginally better than a bag of crisps.

So onto the taste. Again, Marmite. Not the synthetic Marmite powder that Walkers use on their crisps, Jacobs have captured the taste (as opposed to the flavour) of Marmite perfectly. Blimping at the ingredients list I can tell you that both yeast extract and vegetable extract are used to flavour Twiglets so it all seems pretty authentic. The flavour is pretty strong, the Marmite 'kick' has been toned down slightly to give a more mellow taste but the flavour is still quite overpowering. They taste really salty to me although when you've eaten your Twiglet the aftertaste isn't so much of salt as the ever present Marmite taste. The Twiglets themselves are gloriously crunchy and crispy as you eat them, shattering into little shards as you bite. If you decide to suck your Twiglet you'll find it will dissolve into a clumpy gooey deliciously tangy mass in your mouth - suckers of crisps will know what I'm talking about! Twiglets always seem really dry to me, I'm sure it's caused by the high salt content, and I find I have to have a drink while I'm eating these otherwise by the time I get to the end of the bag my mouth just feels horrible and tacky. By the time you get to the end of your bag the taste will get more and more intense as you head for Twiglet overload, and beware the dust in the bottom of the bag - it can feel hot after you've already scoffed a bag of these! The only down point as far as I'm concerned is the 'dry yet sticky' feeling they leave on your fingers after you've finished. It's not a greasy feel like a bag of crisps that you can just rub off on your jeans, when you've eaten Twiglets you've got to go and wash your hands afterwards no matter how much you really can't be bothered. The smell of Marmite also lingers on your fingers for a while and the aftertaste is so intense you know you've eaten Twiglets for hours by the feel of your breath!

A 45p bag will cost you around the 40p mark if you buy them individually, I brought mine in a pack of 20 which cost £3.99 from Londis in one of their rare 'grab a bargain' moments - told you it was Christmas! lol These are suitable for vegetarians, so you've no excuse really have you? Unless you don't like Marmite...

Thanks for reading.

Summary: For a tasty savoury treat grab a bag of Twiglets - they're nicer than you think...