Cookie Dough Bites: Cookies 'n cream bites

Product name: Cookie Dough Bites: Cookies ‘n cream bites
Purchase details: £1.85 for an 80g box (United States Grocery)
Calories: 180 per 40g serving (360 per box)
Country of origin: USA

A couple of months ago I found a friendly little ‘candy’ shop called United States Grocery. Whilst still a relatively new business, they are gradually growing, and their aim is to provide imported American goods at cheaper prices than their competitors. Although, to my shame, I’ve only visited this store once so far, my monitoring of their website (see here) suggests that they are generally achieving this.

Anyway, on my visit to United States Grocery, I picked up a box of Cookies ‘n cream bites (it pains me not to add the extra apostrophe on the letter ‘N’ but I’m staying true to the brand name!). I’d seen this product before but only ever tried the peanut butter version of this Cookie Dough Bites product. I wasn’t actually a fan of the latter but I felt I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to try this cookies and cream version for the relatively cheap price of £1.85.

A box contains two 40g servings although, I admit, I ate the whole box in one sitting as I had enough points left on this particular evening! 

The packaging described these bites as ‘creamy white chocolatey balls with crumbled pieces of cookie’ and contained an illustrated picture of the product. On opening the box, I was greeted with a cellophane packet containing these balls which looked more cylindrical than circular to me! They were also more yellow in colour than the whiteness of the product image suggested, but this wasn’t a problem to me as I wasn’t expecting a non-photographic picture to be realistic anyway. On the whole, the product did look appealing.

The Cookies ‘n cream bites had a sweet smell that wasn’t overly strong, and they tasted pretty good, thus improving my existing image of the brand. Although the cookie was visible in the coating, I found that I couldn’t feel or taste these flecks in my mouth. However, I did enjoy the ‘white chocolatey coating’ all the same. White chocolate, if I’m honest, is my favourite kind, although I was dubious about this coating since I knew it wasn’t real white chocolate. Unsurprisingly to me, the coating didn’t taste of white chocolate, but this was made up for by the way it reminded me of a sweet, creamy cake frosting – very nice!

The cookie dough centre was also pleasant to the taste, although, again, I wouldn’t say it particularly tasted like cookies. Texture-wise, I found it to be fairly soft (with a bit of resistance coming from the outer coating), but it also had a slight sugary grittiness to it which reminded me of uncooked cake mixture. As somebody who loves to lick the bowl when baking this, again, didn’t overly bother me, although it did make them seem more artificial and I did wonder what it meant for the health of my teeth.

I did enjoy this product, but I do prefer the Cupcake bites variety which I tried at some point between eating the peanut butter version and buying these Cookies ‘n cream bites! 

For anyone else who is watching their weight, I would advise that the recommended 40g portion is certainly substantial and would still feel like a nice treat. As I neared the end of the box, the bites were beginning to feel a bit sickly, although not to the extent that I wouldn’t eat them all at once again!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 6/10
Overall score: 6.5/10