Unibic Choco Kiss Cookies

Everyone's riding the centre-filled cookie wave, and the latest brand to join the bandwagon is Unibic. This Australian brand has been in India since 2004, and today has a wide pan-Indian reach through a number of products distributed through supermarkets and local retail stores. Given the variety of products, I'm surprised this is turning out to be the first review of a Unibic product.

It is, however, no surprise that their centre-filled cookies, called Choco Kiss caught my eye since everyone is making these and the category seems to be doing really well. So far, I've reviewed Sunfeast's Dark Fantasy Choco Fills, Sunfeast's Dark Fantasy Choco Meltz, Parle's Golden Arcs Choco Filled Rolls. The Unibic Choco Kiss cookies resembles Sunfeast's primary offering in this category, Dark Fantasy Choco Fills more than any other.

It's a plain cookie filled with liquid chocolate in the centre and scores over Parle's product, which has a gooey, but not runny chocolate filling. While Unibic's chocolate filling doesn't score too high on taste, one has to give it points for a very crumbly cookie. However, Sunfeast trumps both in terms of an overall taste experience.

Unibic's Choco Kiss Cookies are individually packed and a 75g box comprises six cookies. Priced at INR 35, each cookie comes to about Rs. 5.80. This makes it the costliest product in the category as compared to Rs 5 apiece for Sunfeast's Choco Fills and Rs 3 apiece for Parle's Golden Arcs Choco Rolls. Sunfeast's Choco Meltz is a more premium product with a chocolate coating on the outside and is priced around Rs. 7 per piece. Unibic, therefore, needs to find another USP if it is to pose any real competition to the existing players. For now, though, they can be happy with one happy tiny customer.

RATING: 3/5

Cadbury Oreo Choco Crème

I'm back with another review of 'The World's No. 1 (overrated) Biscuit'; this time, it's the Oreo Choco Crème. I've tasted all varieties of Oreo, including Vanilla cream, Strawberry cream, Blueberry cream and Oreo Double Delight, which I have reviewed on Chocosophy, and I maintain there are better products out there. The Oreo Choco Crème is just another ho-hum variation from Cadbury's (now Mondelez International) Oreo stables.  

This classic sandwich biscuit comes with two thin dark chocolate biscuits with a layer of chocolate cream in between. The chocolate cream is lame with little flavour and all one gets in their mouth is a load of sugary goo. The cookie seems to have more chocolate than the cream! You do not want to twist-lick-dunk this shit, especially the lick part.

What is good news, though, is that Oreo in India has arrived at a very competitive pricing point with a 150g pack (including the 30g Free) costing only INR 30. I think this makes it cheaper than or at par with most other Indian products. So you won't be spending much and still be indulging in a fancy schmancy brand, if you so wish. I, for one, give it a thumbs down.


RATING: 2.5/5

Oreo Double Delight

Whatever they do to the Oreo, I'm going to think they are overrated. Since the world-famous brand was launched in India in 2011 (almost a 100 years after it was first created in 1912, FYI), it has been aggressively promoted. So despite tough competition from brands like Sunfeast, Britannia and Parle, Cadbury India (owned by Mondelez International; previously Kraft Foods) has managed to keeping the sales figures up In India.

While the original Oreo recipe calls for dark chocolate sandwich cookies with vanilla creme in between, it brings out variations from time to time. The dark chocolate cream Oreo is easily available and I even remember seeing a blueberry/ blackcurrant variety at a store. Speaking of varieties, I spotted this one recently. The Double Delight Oreo has two kinds of cream  - chocolate and peanut butter.

Both are equally lame. The chocolate cream tastes nothing like chocolate, so with the peanut butter cream. It has a vague sort of flavour and the plain vanilla is definitely better. The cookie remains the same; made of dark chocolate and the familiar logo-flowers-dots-and-dashes design. This version has been made and exported from Singapore, and Oreo releases such limited edition flavours the world over from time to time.

The 137 g pack costs INR 65, and definitely something you can give a miss. Unless, of course, you are among the Oreo fanatics who make it the highest selling biscuit in the whole world.

Chew on this:If every Oreo Biscuit ever made were stacked on top of each other, the pile would reach to the moon and back more than five times!

RATING: 2.5/5

Priyagold Italiano Premium Choco Cookies

Wouldja look that this dandy version of Priyagold!? The brand, to me, has always seemed like the poor man's Britannia, selling similar products at lower prices. Because the brand image, the commercials and the packaging have also been consistently aimed at the LIG, it was surprising to see packaging like this from them. The pretty blue box comes with a fancyass name; although what Italy has to do with chocolate chip cookies is anyone's guess. (Also funny because it is obviously inspired by Hide & Seek's Milano!)

Priyagold is the brand under which Surya Food & Agro Limited sells biscuits and more recently, they've ventured into chocolate and candy manufacturing. The company has been around since 1992 and has been a steady contender in the biscuit segment. The Italiano Premium Choco Cookies (*eyeroll*) are the latest from their shed and I must say, they've come quite far in terms of presentation and quality. The card paper box has two separate golden packs of cookies lined on plastic trays. The flimsy trays don't do much in terms of keeping all the cookies intact, but this is standard practice.

The cookies were also rather nice and crumbly, albeit a little on the sweeter side. But if I were to start expecting subtler flavours from Priyagold just because they gold their packaging right, that would be too much. There are a fair number of chocolate chips, but these cannot hold a candle to Parle's Chocolate Chip offerings like Hide & Seek, Milano, etc.

But given that they cost only INR 35 for a 150g pack, they definitely offer value for money and if the brand continues this pretty trend, it should catch up with the rivals soon.

RATING: 3/5