| Product: |
Weight Watchers Double Choc Chip Cookies |
| Date: |
09/05/07 (100 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: May turn you against chocolate all together
Disadvantages: tastless!!!
Summer approaches. 18 year old girls run around showing off their perfectly toned legs in ridiculously short summery skirts and their newly tanned flat tummies sport dainty diamonds pierced into their cute little belly buttons. They have no bags under their eyes despite having fallen into bed at 3am after dancing the night away at some club where the music is loud enough to deafen all club-goers. Their hair is perfectly shiny, their teeth are perfectly white, their skin is perfectly flawless and their boobs are perfectly pert.
And then there is me with my laddered tights gathering around my ankles like Nora Batty as I hide my lumpy legs under a semi-clean skirt bought some time before the millennium. My tummy hasn’t been flat (or tanned for that matter) since my early days in my mothers’ womb and a piercing of any sort would quickly get lost beneath the rolls of flesh that camouflage my belly button so efficiently. I have bags under my eyes after falling into bed at 3am having been woken by my three year old, my hair is matted, my teeth are stained, my skin is a mine field of dry, red scaly patches and my boobs are perpetually pointing at my wrinkly knees as if to mock their imperfection.
If you identify better with the second paragraph it is likely that like me, you face the oncoming summer and dreaded bikini weather with a deep fear and sense of loathing. It is also likely that like me, you have embarked on at least one diet of some sort in a desperate attempt to blend in inconspicuously with the pretty young things you curse as you go about your daily business.
I am living off spinach salad, humous, plums and enough water to quench the thirst of several third world countries and I feel good on it but there is no escaping the physical compulsion for all things chocolate. One night last week, as I chopped my cherry tomatoes for my salad I actually found myself considering sprinkling cocoa powder on top just to get the taste I crave. It was at that point I recognized I had a problem and decided to action. I did this, by picking up a pack of Weight Watchers Double Chocolate Chip Cookies with the hope that I could nibble on these to ease the pain and still remain guilt free.
***Do they really taste good enough***
The first time I tried these, I would have thought toilet roll painted to look like a chocolate chip was bliss which was a good thing as these don’t taste too dissimilar to that. There is a (bitter) chocolaty taste to them, but it doesn’t linger like good chocolate should. Instead it appears to evaporate as soon as it hits your tongue – as if it is only teasing you. I can hear the chocolaty essence taunting me, dancing across my taste buds stopping only long enough to give me a hint of what I am missing and then poof! It is gone and I am left wanting chocolate even more than before.
There is no weight in these cookies at all. That is why they are considered a healthy alternative snack – they consist of lightly coated air with about one and a half chocolate chips per cookie just to fool you. Imagine what the SINGLE chocolate Chip Cookies would be like!
As a comparison, I once bought my brother a bunch of freeze-dried astronaut food as a joke (I was 14 and it seemed funny at the time) before he went tree planting for the summer. These cookies would absolutely do well in space!
***What’s in these cardboard cookies and how many calories really are in air***
*Ingredients*
Wheat flour, sugar, oat flakes, wheat starch, vegetable oils, sugar, cocoa, cocoa butter, reduced fat cocoa powder, salt, vanilla, soya, and other agents like emulsifiers used for keeping these wastes of valuable air from disappearing all together.
Apart from the reduced fat cocoa powder, there aren’t really any ingredients you wouldn’t find in any other cookies which makes their complete lack of taste even more bewildering.
These cookies are suitable for vegetarian but be aware, they may contain traces of nuts.
*Nutritional info per recommended portion of 2 cookies*
Calories: 102
Protein: 1.1g
Carbohydrates: 16g
Fat: 3.8g
Two Jaffa cakes are only 92 calories with 2g fat!
***Packaging***
I am not entirely sure where Weight Watchers are investing in their products. It is already clear it isn’t into creating a nice tasting treat for those suffering through cabbage soup and plain boneless, skinless, tasteless chicken breasts. Perhaps they are pouring it into creating eye-catching, environmentally friendly, trendy packaging….No. The white and blue box with Weight Watchers logo and a picture of cookies that look like they have been around since before Labour were voted in is hardly alluring. Inside the box, additional and wasteful plastic packaging is used to divide your 12 tasty treats into 3 compartments. The cookies are then wrapped in pairs by “insanely difficult to open” cellophane wrapping.
***Price and availability***
As dieting and depriving ourselves of anything good becomes an increasing trend, products endorsed by companies like Weight Watchers are popping up more and more frequently. I bought mine in Asda’s but all major supermarkets as well as some Spar shops and Co-op’s. They aren’t expensive – and so they shouldn’t be at roughly £0.79 per packet.
***Try some other Weight Watcher Products – they aren’t all bad***
Range of breads (paper thin and relatively tasteless)
Assorted Ready Meals (they do a really nice lasagna)
A variety of Cookies (including Lemon and Ginger and Strawberries and Cream from this range)
Finger Cakes (Avoid them all apart from the Lemon Drizzle Cake which is quite nice)
A choice of Pasta Sauces (Just stick your tongue in the blender – it is less painful)
Crisps (Not bad although they don’t fool anyone)
A selection of desserts (Belgian Chocolate and Vanilla is nice – apart from the slight aftertaste)
***Final thoughts from a chocolate deprived addict***
There are some things a woman should never fake. I know what you’re thinking, but chocolate is even more important than that and must never, ever be tampered with. Anything as delectable as Chocolate, cannot and should not be good for you. Give chocolate the respect it deserves with a healthy dose of caution and it will see you right. I avoid temptation all week and on the weekend I might indulge in a couple of Jaffa Cakes or a cheeky cream egg which incidentally I can now make last a mouth watering 23 minutes.
Weight Watchers are a great organization but sadly, making edible snacks and particularly cookies is not their strong point. Back to drawing board guys – I challenge you to create a guilt free cookie which isn’t also taste-free.
Summary: There is a reason these cookies are seen as a healthier alternative....
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