Tesco Value Jaffa Cakes? No, thanks (Tesco Value Jaffa Cakes)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Tesco Value Jaffa Cakes
Date:	17/10/09 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, fair taste

Disadvantages: Not as nice as standard Tesco ones

My husband adores Jaffa Cakes and I suppose, given his sweet tooth, they are one of the better things in the sweets, cakes and biscuits selection that he can eat.

We recently tried the Tesco version of Jaffa Cakes and couldn't tell the difference between these and the 'real' Jaffa Cakes. I wrote a review about them - of course - and promised that we would try the Tesco Value version and report back, so here is the result of the taste test!

Before we start let's get one thing straight Jaffa Cakes are legally a cake and not a biscuit. Apparently the Inland Revenue took McVities to court saying that Jaffa cakes were liable for VAT as they are classed as a 'luxury biscuit'. McVities said that they weren't and they won with the explanation that Jaffa Cakes go hard when stale as cake does, whereas biscuits go soft when stale.

Have the Inland Revenue got nothing better to do?

The Price

Tesco Value Jaffa Cakes cost just 38p for a pack containing 24 so the price is definitely right!!

For the sake of comparison and to see just how much you are saving by buying Tesco Value - McVities Jaffa Cakes are available in packs of 12 for 98p, 24 for £1.62 and 36 for £2.41.

Tesco's own Jaffa Cakes are available of packs of 12 for 52p and 36 for £1.24.

The Packaging

I purchased the box of 24 and the box is very basic with the blue and red Tesco Value logo on the top left hand corner a picture of a pile of Jaffa Cakes on the front.

On the bottom right hand corner there are the now very familiar boxes containing the basic nutritional information expressed as a percentage of the adult recommended daily consumption.

On the back of the box there is a full list of the ingredients, nutritional value and allergy advice. By the way these are suitable for vegetarians.

Inside the box the Jaffa Cakes are further wrapped in cellophane in two lots of 12 so you can eat one lot at a time - if you can resist the others of course!

I must say that I was surprised that they were actually called Jaffa Cakes - I thought that it may be a trademark registered by McVities but obviously it isn't.

The Jaffa Cakes

According to United Biscuits the original recipe for McVities Jaffa Cakes is a closely guarded secret so we must assume that the Tesco Value version is going to be at least slightly different.

Suffice it to say that Tesco Value Jaffa cakes look very similar to the other versions and are composed of a base layer of light sponge topped with dark chocolate and they have that tangy orange flavoured filling we have all come to associate with Jaffa Cakes.

I did notice at this stage that the sponge looked flatter in the value version than in either the McVities or standard Tesco versions so I did wonder if they were going to be as nice.

The Taste

Just in case you've been hiding for the last 60 years (and the originals are that old!) Jaffa Cakes are round and about 5cm in diameter. The filling is a tangy orange flavour and is jelly like in consistency. The mixture of the sweetness of the sponge, the sharpness of the orange jelly and the bitterness of the dark chocolate makes for a perfect taste sensation in the mouth.

What you all want to know is do the Tesco Value ones taste as good as the original and the standard Tesco ones?

Well they taste okay but are not as good as either the originals or the standard Tesco ones. The chocolate is nice enough and the orange filling is pleasant but not as nice as in the other ones; it seems more synthetic tasting somehow. The sponge is quite dry and almost stale in taste not the fluffy sponge that we found in the others.

The Nutritional Value

Again the nutritional value of Tesco Value Jaffa Cakes are almost identical to the values for the standard Tesco ones.

This is the nutritional Value per cake:

Calories 42
Protein 0.5g
Carbohydrates 7.6g
Of which sugars 6.0g
Fat 1.0g
Of which saturates 0.6g
Fibre 0.2g
Salt trace

Price 1.58p

Conclusion

We both agreed that the Tesco Value Jaffa Cakes were fair and we did eat them all, but I wouldn't actually but them again as they were not as nice as the other versions.

We both loved the Tesco's Jaffa Cakes and thought they were just as good as the more expensive McVities ones and I will stick to buying the Tesco ones in future.

I am quite happy to buy Tesco Value items if they are as good or better that their more expensive equivalents but I'm afraid Tesco value Jaffa Cakes do not fall into this category!

Summary: I wasn't too impressed