Arnott's Tim Tam: Original

Product name: Arnott’s Tim Tam: Original
Purchase details: £4.00 for a 200g packet (monstersweets.co.uk)
Calories: 95 per 18.3g biscuit
Country of origin: Australia

I’m a big Ant and Dec fan and it was through one of their interviews, several years ago, that I first heard about Arnott’s Tim Tam. Dec (my favourite!) absolutely raved about them so I knew I had to try them one day. Thankfully, I was able to obtain a packet of the Original variety from the wonderful Monster Sweets, although this was a while ago now – I’ve waited quite a long time to open it!

Described as ‘the most irresistible chocolate biscuit’, the product was essentially Australia’s answer to the McVitie’s Penguin, but watch Ant and Dec’s chocolate challenge here to find out more!

The biscuits came in a lovely chocolatey brown packet but I did think it was a shame that they weren’t individually wrapped, meaning they had to be stored carefully in an airtight container. However, this did mean I could class them as ‘biscuits’ rather than ‘chocolate bars’ – I’m very specific about these things!

Each piece consisted of a purple-grey chocolate creme sandwiched between two chocolate biscuits which, in turn, were coated with chocolate. Cutting through a biscuit really emphasised these layers as the contrast between hard, soft and hard again was really obvious. In total, the biscuits contained 38% milk chocolate, and this produced a slightly milky, sweet scent.

I was less impressed by the taste, unfortunately. It was certainly chocolatey, with a milky aspect, but I just didn’t find the flavour was as good as British chocolate, but maybe that’s because I’m more used to British. I also felt the coating felt a bit synthetic and almost rubbery, which was a shame, but I did like the biscuits’ centres, so that was a positive. The texture was also good, with a similar chew to the aforementioned Penguin, despite the flavour being completely different!

Now, if you didn’t watch the Ant and Dec video I mentioned at the start of this review, you might want to have a little look before you read any further, because I just had to try the ‘Tim Tam slam’. I’m not going to beat around the bush...it was pretty incredible. The whole biscuit became so soft that it was almost like cake, and the flavour became much better too, even throwing in a creamy aftertaste.

The ‘slam’ definitely redeemed these biscuits for me but, on the whole, I wasn’t quite sure what all the fuss was about (for the record, I had heard people other than the Geordie duo recommend them!). However, I still found Arnott’s Tim Tam: Original to be an interesting product, and I’d definitely like to give the white chocolate version a go. As for the rest of the packet, I’ll be slamming all the way!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.25/10

Popchips Original

Product name: Popchips Original
Purchase details: £0.99 for an 85g bag (tesco.com)
Calories: 95 per 23g serving (351 per bag)
Country of origin: Europe

Since it’s been nearly a year since my first and only review of Popchips, to date, I thought it was about time I cracked on with some of the other flavours! For this post, I will be going back to basics with the Original variety.

These Popchips came in a cool blue bag that had the same overall style as the Barbeque version. However, this was a bigger packet that was supposed to contain at least 3.5 servings of around 19 chips. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get the point of that – surely it would be better to make it serve either three or four rather than somewhere in the middle? (I had enough spare calories for the whole pack but that wasn’t the point!)

Issues of logic aside, I was really quite keen to get tucked into these. The discs looked the same as the Barbeque ones, too, but without the red powder. I also found my mouth watering, once more, at the smell of the crisps – it was surprisingly powerful despite essentially just smelling of salt and potato! There also seemed to be a slight oily element to this which may have been down to the sunflower oil they’d been popped in.

Unlike Walkers Pops: Original, these chips were simply flavoured with sea salt and contained no additional flavourings. For that reason, they were much more like your traditional ready salted crisps. However, the level of starchiness in their potato flavour reminded me of something even more specific: Walkers French Fries. Despite being plain, I didn’t find these Popchips tasted boring and, if anything, I sometimes found them a bit too salty on the back of my tongue.

The chips felt a tiny bit greasy between the fingers but, aside from that, their texture was the same great one that the Barbeque variety had.

One minor criticism was that the bag these Popchips came in was far too big for the contents but, thankfully, this was deceptive as there were a lot more crisps in there than it first appeared. Furthermore, despite being lighter than most normal crisps, these Popchips still felt like a real treat...one I’d happily buy again.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.5/10

Ritz Breaks: Original

Product name: Ritz Breaks: Original
Purchase details: asos.com
Calories: 147 per 31.6g pack

It’s not every day you get sent a packet of crackers with your clothes order but, randomly, that’s what happened when I recently received my Asos delivery!

This little pack of new Ritz Breaks: Original didn’t contain much information on the promotional red, navy and yellow packaging, but the image suggested that it contained strips of mini crackers that could be snapped apart. This, combined with the name and slogan (‘get out and about’), made clear that it was a snack intended for eating on the go. However, since I don’t tend to eat on the move, I decided to try these as part of my usual evening routine.

I was able to obtain the nutritional information from Tesco's website and I also knew that the lightweight crackers were ‘oven baked not fried’. On opening them up, I could see that they were divided into five sets of three crackers that could be broken apart easily along their perforated edges. I thought the design looked a little bit like a Christmas cracker!

Now you, like me, may be thinking that the idea of plain crackers as a snack sounds really boring. The thing is, though, I’d never really appreciated Ritz crackers before. I’d had them with cheese, and I’d had the Cadbury Dairy Milk: Ritz, but I’d never eaten them unadulterated so I was quite interested to see what they were like.

The crackers had a golden, baked appearance and no aroma. Texturally, they were very crisp and had a biscuity element mixed in with the cracker feel, and I found that the crumbs really clung to the teeth afterwards.

The crackers were lightly salted and, although generally plain, there was a very slight sweetness to them which reminded me of rich tea biscuits. They were actually surprisingly nice on their own and not dry either! I also noticed that breaking off the pieces didn’t make a big mess which would obviously be a bonus if you were eating them out and about.

I couldn’t honestly say that I’d choose these Ritz Breaks in favour of my usual sweet treats but they were tasty nonetheless. Bearing in mind that this seemingly bland variety was executed so well, I’d expect the Rosemary & olive oil version to be delicious!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 6.88/10

Walkers Pops: Original

Product name: Walkers Pops: Original
Purchase details: £0.50 for a 23g bag (Tesco)
Calories: 102 per bag

I think it’s time to review another of the Walkers Pops varieties so here’s the Original version – exactly the same idea as Melted cheese & crispy bacon but a flavour which, for me, was safer!

I tend to find ‘plain’ crisps a bit hit and miss. With some higher quality crisps, like Kettle Chips, I find it hard to beat the Lightly Salted flavour but, in terms of everyday potato snacks, I usually find that kind of flavour really boring. As a result, I was interested to see exactly what I thought of these Pops: Original.

Despite being a new product for the UK and Ireland market, some things never change, so the Original flavour was represented by the colour red. Interestingly, whilst I always think of ‘original’ and ‘ready salted’ as being interchangeable, there was actually more to these crisps’ ‘seasoning’ than I first thought. Amongst other thing, it listed cheese powder, spices, herbs, and milk products such as whey powder. Maybe these things are present in ready salted products too but it’s not something I’ve ever noticed before!

These Pops were the same in appearance as the Melted cheese & crispy bacon ones, although they were paler due to the absence of orange powder. I couldn’t resist having a sniff of the inner bag and was surprised by how aromatic they were – I probably would have guessed that they were beef flavoured if I hadn’t known! Individually, though, they didn’t really smell of anything.

On munching through the bag, I was greeted with a familiar salty flavour, but not in an over-the-top way that caused me to worry about my health – even the feel of the crisps were powdery rather than grainy so, despite the red warning on the nutritional label’s salt section, they didn’t feel at all unhealthy. I also tried resting a few of the Pops on my tongue and found that my tastebuds tingled with additional hints of flavour that gave an almost cheesy taste.

Pleasingly, the texture of these Pops was unchanged from the Melted cheese & crispy bacon. They may have been thicker than standard potato crisps but it was good to know that, health-wise, they were lighter.

On the whole, these Pops pretty much tasted like plain potato chips, but the improved texture meant I’d definitely choose them over a standard bag of ready salted crisps in future.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.63/10