Crisp/Savoury Snack Review 2
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Manufacturer: Golden Wonder
Product: Wotsits
Flavour: Flamin' Hot
Fat per bag: 5.7g
Manufacturer’s Description: Flamin' Hot flavour corn puffs
What can we say? Walker's once again strike out with a new variant of a classic snack. When Golden Wonder owned the Wotsits and Monster Munch brands there was no such adventurism - you knew "Wotsits" meant little day-glo orange cheesy flavour, or little brown beefy flavour things of indeterminate origin. You also knew that most of the colouring would transfer to your finger tips. These days, with Walker's at the helm of both Wotsits and Monster Munch, the brands are diversifying at break-neck speed. This latest offering "cross-pollenates" the now-established "Flamin' Hot" flavour from the Monster Munch brand with a standard, naked Wotsit.
I found myself not really wanting to test these out for several reasons. The main one being that Wotsits are cheesy or very occasionally, Barbecue Beef. Period. Surely this new variety would be like eating a cheesecake and finding it tasted like turkey? Secondly, I'm not a Walker's fan. Their standard potato crisps have annoyed me for ages. The sterile, bland identicalness of every Walker's bag of potato crisps is simply no comparison to the variety you get with a Golden Wonder pack. Golden Wonder don't appear to be embarrassed by the fact that occasionally a potato is not uniformally round, might have the odd unidentifiable brown bit, or may even be a bit green around the edges. With Walker's you don't need to have your eyes open to know what you are eating, there's no surprise, no danger. With Golden Wonder, each crisp is different, a new experience, an individual, an unknown and doesn't taste like it was mass produced in quite such a ruthlessly efficient manner as Walker's. Anyway, I digress a little.....Back to the Wotsits: even though not a fan of Walker's potato crisps (given a choice, that is), I became a big fan of Flamin' Hot Monster Munch once I overcame the initial trepidation. The same can be said for Flamin' Hot Wotsits. These have a pleasantly hot taste and the well-loved texture of original Wotsits. In a nutshell, they do exactly what it says on the bag. Whether or not the public respond to a dilution of such an established "cheesy" flavoured brand into other variants remains to be seen. I am not convinced they will.
Ah-ha I hear you cry, "but you've previously said of the Jaffa Cakes Mini Roll XL that you are in favour of diversification/cross-branding and hope it to succeed". Indeed, you'd be right. However there are two different issues here: Jaffa Cakes Mini Roll XL has taken an existing brand and is trying to create a new market for a new product type i.e. large, singly available cake bars. Flamin' Hot Wotsits is simply adding a new flavour to an exceptionally well-defined brand in an already heavily contested market. There is, in my opinion, a danger that these new Wotsits may cause confusion at the checkout, leading to a possibleloss of market share. We, as consumers, don't like confusion. I cite the case of "New Coke".
Summary: 7/10 - Nice snack, whether or not they manage to succeed is the question...... (oh, and my keyboard does indeed now have lots of keys covered in a strange red residue)
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Hair today, gone today
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
So, I succombed. It has gone. Bye-bye £40. Hello not looking so freaky and getting cuddles off Jane again. Life's full of hard decisions.
Anyway, I tried to take pictures before/after "the cut" with my ickle camera. The results are below and kinda speak for themselves:
As you can see, when I say "speak for themselves", what I mean is "shout loudly for The Cause (namely, Phil buying a new shiny digital camera with all kinds of buttons and modes that will need playing with)". Darn.
To reflect this, we have a new Poll - I know, I can feel your excitement too.
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
And you thought I was sad.....
Genius! This guy scores full marks!!
Yep, he does
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
I knew it
Ha-ha
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Summer?
Over the weekend, British Summer Time kicked in. According to the Royal Observatory British Summer Time "was first suggested in a whimsical article by Benjamin Franklin in 1784". What this means is that I lost 60 minutes of my life due to some "whim" that later somehow got through Parliament - was it a "slow legislation month"? were they bored? drunk? all three? Either way, it's a shame because there's a lot I was planning to do in that 60 minutes (namely; iron all my shirts for the week and clean the bathroom).
I've never really understood the point of changing the clocks twice a year - it's a major inconvenience for everyone. Changing all the timepieces that aren't radio-controlled is something generally spread out over at least a fortnight, some timepieces not actually getting changed until the clocks change back again some months later. I reckon the time spent changing the clocks by the average person breaks down something like this:
90 mins - lie-in as thought had ages left to get up and make the most of Sunday
15 mins - looking at the clock in the kitchen and getting confused
2 mins - cursing because the Sky box died overnight and you now have to re-program all your favourite channels (whilst watching the "Sky Guide Demonstration" loop, obviously)
11 mins - struggling to convince the microwave that there is no way it was manufactured on 01 January 1880 and would it please set itself right and give up offering to defrost 6 kgs of meat
7 mins - wandering around house in a daze trying to make a mental note of everything that needs the time changing
23 mins - going through stacks of manuals and trying to follow some poorly-translated instructions on how to persuade the video recorder that it should comply with the law. I mean, surely if it knows the day, date and year, could it not know the time?
When this is added up and multiplied by the number of years in an average lifespan the results are astonishing. I want that time back. Now
And why do I want that time back?
Well here's what happened to me last night:
Left work in a right stress as had to stay late due to various problems. Crossed the road and noticed that it was still light and actually quite pleasant out. As I glanced to my left I noticed two gents sat on the bench outside the pub in short-sleeves, smiling and enjoying a pint. I meandered up the path feeling strangely lifted and passed the same playground I pass day in, day out. But yesterday something was different - children were in the playground. Tens of them. I have never before seen a single child in this playground, let alone many of the little loves. OK - perhaps not "loves", they were after all running around and hitting each other with sticks (seems to be the latest thing), but none the less, enjoying themselves. What was also strange was that the council had chosen yesterday to mow the grass, so the scent of freshly cut grass filled the air.
I don't mean to sound all soft, but the whole set of circumstances conspired to make me feel relaxed, happy and generally warm inside. A feeling I've carried into today.
It's there that my point lies really; the reason I felt so happy yesterday evening was that it was 19:00 and still light enough for people to enjoy the outdoors after being cooped up all day. It was 19:00 because I was robbed of an hour the day before. Surely the joy this hour made to the people I saw (and myself) shouldn't be rationed by some outdated Act that was conceived on a "whim"? As a majority, we should be able to enjoy all the hours of sunshine we can get. We (the British that is) are credited with inventing the present way of measuring time, yet feel compelled to give ourselves a bad deal, a deal that I believe no longer reflects the way our society wishes to live.
If anyone knows of any groups pressing for the whole "spring forward, leap back" thing to be given the heave-ho, let me know where I join.
Update - by the way, it's reverted to all misty and grey today :-(
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Not the best start to the week...
Monday, March 29, 2004
I was looking forward to quite a quiet start to the week today, plenty of time to go out looking for new confectionery etc. What I didn't need to try and deal with is the fallout from this on my work's customers. Means I've had to ring far too many people today. Hey-ho.
On the plus side, I have been looking at these.....
Obviously only the 4Gb one. Bloody yanks and their iPod Mini buying frenzy. Still upset basically. And no, the several hours spent ensuring all my MP3's are named using the same naming convention and accurately tagged is no indication that I am getting "purchase itch". In fact, there's another whole rant there: who is it that actually uploads MP3 names/tags with misppelled entries/no capitalisation/sheer wrongness. If it's proven to be yanks not bothering to type correctly because they're in such a hurry to rip their MP3's and save them to their iPod Mini there will be trouble.
Bit of a busy weekend really, what with having to be at work all day Saturday. Essentially, missed out on time windows to ring mum and sis in Oz for a natter, but will be doing so real soon.
Going for lunch now....more later
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Way fast!
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Now this is quick! Just waiting for them to be fitted to 747's now!
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Mess?
Thought about doing a lot of cleaning this morning. Then realised that I don't need to just yet, not until the place looks like this guy's:
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Noooooooooooooo
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Oh my god! Am on a bit of a roller coaster ride today. Here's an extract from an e-mail I've had today:
"Apple Moves iPod mini Worldwide Availability to July
CUPERTINO, California--March 25, 2004--Apple® today announced that it is moving the worldwide availability of iPod(TM) mini to July due to the much stronger than expected demand in the U.S."
Words cannot describe the anger. Ipod Mini was supposed to be out here in April (already several months behind the U.S.). Also, the yanks are paying $249 for it, while the UK launch price was going to be £199 (a whopping $360 at today's exchange rate - nearly 50% mark-up for the UK market. Nice). I cannot believe Apple's cheek. Wish I had bought one off Ebay now. In fact, I think I'll look into that tomorrow......
Why do we always get stitched? My money is as good as any yank's? In fact, it's probably better than any yank's as I can at least recognise the faces on it.
Gonna leave it for now or am likely to rant on for hours. With any luck all the first-run ones that the yanks buy will have been built with a crap batch of the Hitachi microdrive they use and will all fail and explode or something.
Geez, I'm upset.
There's more detail here
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Crisp/Savoury Snack Review 1
Continuing the review theme, here’s a Crisp Review
Manufacturer : Golden Wonder
Product: Wheat Crunchies
Flavour: Doner Kebab
Fat per 35g bag: 9.2g
Manufacturer’s Description: Crunchy Wheat Tubes
Wheat Crunchies have, for me, always been a great snack. They deliver consistent crunchiness and their uniform physical form makes them easy to eat. The existing range of flavours were winners and so any addition to the range had a lot to live up to.
If Golden Wonder’s target market was the likes of me, then launching a flavour as original as Doner Kebab is bound to be a hit. People like me will buy one of these purple bags of delights just to try them out, with almost the same fervour as a 16 year old in an Off Licence he knows he’ll get served in.
These little gems of snacking genius give pleasure on every front; the packaging is pleasing to the eye, the flavour IS reminiscent of a drunken night’s doner kebab and the texture is clean and crisp. The only negatives I can think of are Jane’s immediate dislike of anything quite so tacky, the lack of a decent “tag line” and the error in packaging. The error being that the pack suggests you try the three other flavours of Wheat Crunchies when there are in fact four other flavours; Crispy Bacon, Spicy Tomato, Worcester Sauce AND a chicken flavour (fairly sure it’s Chicken and Mushroom, but if not it is Country Chicken). The reason I’m fairly sure that the chicken variety is Chicken & Mushroom is I remember thinking two things when I first bought a pack:
Firstly, “I don’t like mushrooms but I’m sure this’ll be OK” and secondly “Why, when Golden Wonder has a recognisable Chicken & Mushroom brand colour of green in it’s Pot Noodle range, have they plumped for a murky yellow for the Chicken & Mushroom Wheat Crunchies?”. Is there anyone who can clear this up for me before I have to go to the shops and check myself? I do stand to be corrected…..
Getting back to the point – these rock!!!
Score – 9/10 (lost a point because 50g Big Bag’s weren’t available for me to purchase from my retailer)
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Confectionery Review 1
First of hopefully a series of reviews of new confectionery:
Product: Jaffa Cakes Mini Roll XL
Manufacturer: McVitie's
Manufacturer's Description: "XTRA LARGE moist sponge mini roll with loads of the smashing orangey bit fully covered in plain chocolate"
Calories per cake: 169
Fat per cake: 5.0g
Sensations of excitement when finding this new product at position E5 in work's vending machine were almost immediately dampened when I actually got my hands on the product (the delay was because I had to wait 5-6 seconds for the spirally metal thing to work it's twisty magic and watch helplessly as my product gracefully slammed into the "tray" at the bottom that has seen so many broken Twix's). I was expecting this cake to set new standards and cross the boundary that seems to have existed between standard confectionery bars and the numerous "cake-bars" that have only existed in "weekly shop" six-packs.
I was disappointed to find that in the same way crisp manufactures ensure their bags are big enough to allow for any "settling of product in transit", McVitie's have ensured that this product looks much bigger on the shelf than when you actually pick it up; the wrapper is some 17cm long when the cake is only 11cm. I am a fan of McVitie's (let us not forget the "baked by McVitie's" Snickers flapjack and their stance in the "cake or biscuit" lawsuit) but felt cheated by this. I bought another to make sure it wasn't a one-off.
On to the tasting: once unwrapped there is no great surprise, this product after all is simply a longer Jaffa Cake Mini Roll. Unlike KitKat Chunky, or other brands where "spin-off" bar's differing surface-area-to-volume ratio seems to dramatically change the taste experience, this cake tastes like it's normally-packaged cousin. And therein lies the problem; to my mind Jaffa Cake Mini Rolls never really cut the mustard. Sure, it's great cross-branding (who would buy it if it didn't have the words "Jaffa Cakes" on it?) but there was something missing. In the transition from cake to cake-bar several elements have not been faithfully reproduced. For instance, there's the issue of the layer of chocolate - it is only just a layer, not nearly enough to satisfy the "Jaffa Cakes" branding in my opinion. Then there's the orangey bit - again, so thinly spread you'd think that the only way it could be manufactured is by asking mermaids to wring it out of kryptonite during a solar eclipse. Disappointing. I shall not even mention the foamy cakey stuff.
Overall, an average experience. If you are familiar with a Jaffa Cakes Mini Roll you'll know exactly what you're getting here. Whether or not singly available cake-bars are able to leave their six-pack market and carve their own niche in the hyper-competitive mainstream confectionery bar market remains to be seen. I do hope so, for although this particular offering is not a winner, I'd be keen to see what the other well-established cake-bar brands can come up with - I'm looking at you Cadbury's Mini-Roll!!
Score = 6/10 (though most of those points are for innovation)
PS HotPhil reminds you to consume cakes and confectionery sensibly
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
F1
I've got a few minutes for an early morning post today as it is raining. This means I will mostly be getting the tram to work and not walking.
F1 then. Am currently top of the fantasy F1 league that Christian set up for us again this year. This is a repeat of last year where I was in the lead for a little while. Sadly, Christian (Scum-acher fan) then came storming back to win. Here's hoping the same doesn't happen again this year.
One of the best reviews I've read of the Malaysian Grand Prix is here.
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Sunny
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Right that's it. I've had enough of the weather. I now will not be able to see on the way home due to the intense sunshine. Have half a mind to compile that Top-Ten-things-that-annoy me list tonight
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
It's Snowing
Nuff said
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Cuts
Jane has dug out a picture of me with proper big hair that I am contemplating scanning and posting this evening. The bad news is that she seems adamant I should get my hair cut. On a concessionary note, it is starting to annoy me, and even Tim says it looks messy. May give consideration to getting it cut for the wedding...
Today's hotpic is a poor shot of the dinosaur that normally lives on top of my monitor. Maybe I do need a newer, cooler, shinier camera ;-)
Oh, and I lost at my game of squash last night (again)
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Drills......
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Oh, nearly forgot the funniest thing I've heard today:
Mid-morning the fire alarms went off at work and we all had to trudge out to the car park, remembering not to collect personal belongings etc. Once safely outside wearing overcoat (it's cold and rainy) and with ham and mustard sandwich (have been stuck out there for long periods of time in the past) we did the usual hanging about waiting for the all-clear.
After a relatively short time (boo, hiss) the Fire Marshall raised his loudhailer and managed to utter "Ok folks, thanks very much for coming out so quickly" the rest of his message was interrupted by someone shouting "Aye, but it's about time thee came out"
Maybe you had to be there......
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Kerfuffles
Two big problems today, both related to the same occasion, the impending wedding of Neil and Lottie:
Firstly: Jane says needs to be cut before Lottie's wedding that we're going to on 10 April 2004!! This is gonna take some working out! Could do with your help though, please vote in the poll on the right
Secondly: Have been invited to the Stag Do on 8 April but have already agreed to work on 9th!!
On good front, I've coughed up a bit of cash for my iTagg, so those of you who have cause to use it to find out where/what I'm doing when I'm not contactable now get to do so for free! Simply send a text message with the word "hotphil" to 83248 and you will get an auto-reply. Nice. Only costs you the price of the message you send.
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Learn early....
Monday, March 22, 2004
Mother's sent me the picture below that I thought I'd share - a young gent finding out what's important to hang on to......
And before anyone says it: It's not me
.....at least I don't think so
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Just Because
A quick post from the tram just to see if I can really
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Back in the land of the living......Just
Various updates today, we'll take them one at a time shall we-
Hair: still growing (get your tenner's ready lads). As you may know, I normally wear my hair quite short (too short some would say) but following several pints in the Freemason's Arms one Saturday a few weeks back I was offered a reasonable sum of money to let it grow until 20 April. It is still growing and is now annoying me. Maybe I can sort out putting a Poll up on here for votes to be cast on whether it should be allowed to continue to grow, or be shaun?
Sunday: it was mostly sofa and bad movies, including the truly dreadful Extreme Ops. Awful. Unspeakably bad. Only £4 from Blockbuster. Perfect hangover viewing - the plot is SO thin that you can happily nap for 15-20mins at a time and not miss anything. Synopsis: Extreme snowboarders try to shoot a TV commercial in the mountains, but find themselves near a terrorist camp. Run away. That's it. They couldn't even stretch it to 90mins which is what I think the minimum length of a "movie" should be, anything else is just a "TV special" surely?
Food: Ah, now this is interesting (moderately). The cupboard had some potatoes, onion and bacon, and with the weather being a complete monkey’s wedding, decided to make a dish I remember Mum making years ago; stovies. Not sure if I did it right, but it tasted great and was certainly filling. Jane was chuffed as well, she’d just got back from her friend’s hen night and didn’t have to cook! So we had a nice evening sat on the sofa with bowls of stovies watching a holiday program about how to blow far too much money in Thailand. I want that job, nay, deserve that job!
HotPics: Have resurrected (well, “found” really) my ickle tiny low-res digital camera (a bit smaller than a box of matches) and have decided that I will take little snaps every now and then and post them as a HotPic in the section on the right of this page. The one there at the moment is just to prove it’s set up correctly and is a lovely shot of the wall in our attic. Took a couple on the way to work this morning so one of them may be posted later!
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Sofa
Sunday, March 21, 2004
Curry was good, wine was bad. Also a few beers last night are conspiring to force me on to the sofa for the rest of the day. In fact, I feel a little like I did in Skegness a couple of weeks ago.....
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Busy?
Friday, March 19, 2004
Shorter than planned post today as have to dash to the pub for a birthday lunch (not mine). “Dash” is I think the best word to use as it looks like the oh so clement Sheffield weather is going to keep up it’s stupid heavy showers then blinding sunshine for 10mins apiece for the rest of the day. I wouldn’t mind but my shoes are still wet from this morning and have had an email from Mother reminding me exactly how hot it is in Perth at the moment. What is wrong with this country? Who first decided it was a nice island to live on?
In fact, that’s given me an idea for something to do this afternoon – I will compile a Top 10 Reasons Why Britain Sucks (but avoid the Channel 4 style of getting very minor celebrities to give their opinions and memories). Watch out for that…..
This evening am off out for beer and curry (but need to be home early to see Jane as she is away tomorrow at a hen do (more on that later as well)). I am quite excited as have never been to this particular restaurant before. I will write a short review tomorrow. I am also very tempted to try a dish I have never ordered before (although nothing with prawns in), am contemplating maybe beef madras? Who knows what will happen when I actually get there……
This morning has dragged somewhat. There’s been an ongoing issue at work that has been causing issues every day and has been a right pain. However, it appears to have finally been resolved a couple of nights ago and now my workload seems to have diminished somewhat. Can’t win really, think I would rather be busy on something crap than struggling to find something interesting to do. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty I could be doing, but not much of it is enthralling. Will find something productive though.
Other news: Smugness level today is set at 8/10 as remembered for the first month in ages to put the blue wheeled bin out last night – first in street, get in!
Looking back, this has turned out to be quite a long post really. Hey-ho.
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Track me down.....
Thursday, March 18, 2004
One other thing that is quite cool today is that I now own the "mobile domain name" of "hotphil" at 83248. What this means essentially is that anyone in the UK can text the word "hotphil" to 83248 and they will get back a response that I have pre-programmed. Useful for organising nights out etc.
The service from iTagg was launched last month and I tried to buy the name I wanted but their website crumpled under the load. This morning got five nice e-mails from them apologising and giving me a voucher code so that I could have it for free! Best bit of customer service I've had for a while.
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Getting started....
Right then, guess this is the first serious post. Given up trying to upload to and host from my kit at home for the moment. Will follow that up when the network gets a rebuild and upgrade in (hopefully) a few weeks.
Nothing much else is happening today. Various people around the office seem a bit hungover after last night's St Patrick's day exploits - thankfully I am not among them!
Probably the most interesting thing today is the fact that I am quite proud of my finger nails at the moment - having been a "biter" for as long as I can remember, they are now a respectable 2-3mm long on average. Got a little way to go until I beat this guy though
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
First post to test it all out really
Author: HotPhil » Comments:
