Product name: BN
Mini: Strawberry
Purchase details: tesco.com
Calories: 30 per biscuit (180 per pack of six)
Country of origin: France
I have a confession to make: I’m of the generation who, when they hear the tune to Mahna Mahna, automatically change the lyrics to ‘BN BN’. In fact, once it’s in my head, it tends to stay there so it was clearly a good advertising campaign back in the day.
Produced by United Biscuits, BNs are essentially sandwich biscuits with the USP being that the top biscuit has pieces cut out to make them look like different faces. As a kid, I loved the novelty of this idea, but I only had the opportunity to try them a couple of times. Having said that, I remember that I didn’t absolutely love their taste, so I didn’t see this as a particularly negative thing. However, absence makes the heart grow fonder, so when these biscuits returned to the UK earlier this year following a 10 year gap, I couldn’t resist reliving my childhood.
Purchase details: tesco.com
Calories: 30 per biscuit (180 per pack of six)
Country of origin: France
I have a confession to make: I’m of the generation who, when they hear the tune to Mahna Mahna, automatically change the lyrics to ‘BN BN’. In fact, once it’s in my head, it tends to stay there so it was clearly a good advertising campaign back in the day.
Produced by United Biscuits, BNs are essentially sandwich biscuits with the USP being that the top biscuit has pieces cut out to make them look like different faces. As a kid, I loved the novelty of this idea, but I only had the opportunity to try them a couple of times. Having said that, I remember that I didn’t absolutely love their taste, so I didn’t see this as a particularly negative thing. However, absence makes the heart grow fonder, so when these biscuits returned to the UK earlier this year following a 10 year gap, I couldn’t resist reliving my childhood.
Currently, the standard chocolate and vanilla varieties of
this product are sitting unopened in my stash, and so the first of my reviews
is of BN Mini: Strawberry – a version I hadn’t actually tried previously. I
ordered these a while ago so I’m afraid I don’t remember how much I paid for them
but they are currently £1.69 on Tesco's website
which is where I originally bought them from.
This fun-looking box contained 30 biscuits that were divided
into five snack packs. Unlike the more common BN biscuit, these were circular
in shape, rather than square, and they were obviously also a lot smaller than
the original. However, they still consisted of a variety of smiling faces, and
I just loved this attention to detail. Each biscuit also had ‘BN’ imprinted on
the back, just in case you couldn’t remember what you were eating!
The vivid red colour that was visible through each golden biscuit’s eyes and mouth was the ‘strawberry flavour filling’ which had a slightly artificial but very fruity smell. This did remind me of something, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. What I really wanted to do was take a picture of the inside of a biscuit, but I soon discovered that this was an impossibility. The filling was so unbelievably sticky that, despite several attempts, I could not separate the biscuit layers without breakage. In the end, I resorted to cutting through the middle with a knife, which promptly got stuck (as my picture shows!). This did make me wonder exactly what the product would do to my teeth and insides, but it wasn’t going to stop me trying them! I also noticed that this filling didn’t reach all the way to the edges of the biscuit, as suggested on the box’s picture, but this was probably a good thing, all things considered.
Despite my initial fears, I was pleased to discover that
whilst the strawberry flavoured filling was stiff and chewy, it was nicely
balanced by the larger proportion of biscuits which had a soft crunch to them.
I also discovered that it was possible to suck these biscuits as they were just
about small enough to fit in the mouth comfortably. When eating them in this
way, the biscuit layers gradually softened and dissolved, leaving the disc of
filling behind which could either be sucked or chewed. However, eating the
biscuits in this way was hard work so I would certainly opt for chewing over
sucking, on the whole!
I think it’s safe to say that Jammie Dodgers are the nearest British biscuits we have to BN Mini: Strawberry. However, these BNs did taste very different. The biscuits were sweeter and texturally different to Jammie Dodgers, and the strawberry filling, whilst sweet and fruity, was also very tangy and, combined with the texture, reminded me of boiled sweets that had been left in the sun for too long.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this variety of BN and didn’t expect them to score as highly as they did. However, they offered something different to other biscuit products and, let’s face it, they had cute little faces! That said, I remain slightly concerned by just how unnatural the filling appeared and felt, and so I wouldn’t make this product a regular purchase.
Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10
I think it’s safe to say that Jammie Dodgers are the nearest British biscuits we have to BN Mini: Strawberry. However, these BNs did taste very different. The biscuits were sweeter and texturally different to Jammie Dodgers, and the strawberry filling, whilst sweet and fruity, was also very tangy and, combined with the texture, reminded me of boiled sweets that had been left in the sun for too long.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this variety of BN and didn’t expect them to score as highly as they did. However, they offered something different to other biscuit products and, let’s face it, they had cute little faces! That said, I remain slightly concerned by just how unnatural the filling appeared and felt, and so I wouldn’t make this product a regular purchase.
Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10
I also remember BNs from when I was a kid. That advert jingle is imprinted in my brain lol! I was never impressed with them when I first tried them though so haven't been that excited about their return. LOL at that filling - looks like superglue!
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