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

Mc Vities Digestive Chocolate Creams

The good thing about being a chocolate blogger is that chocolate never goes out of fashion. There is never a dearth of new chocolate-based products, because chocolate can never go wrong... or so the brands like to think. It's like a company wakes up one fine morning and says, Hey, I need to increase sales...let's slather some chocolate on an existing product and bingo! Well, because there are chocolate fanatics like me, the idea works most times, but not always.

Here's a classic case in point. I really don't understand why Mc Vities decided to go down the chocolate route and dilute its Digestive category. In my opinion, Digestive biscuits, which are usually associated with healthy eating, don't really sit well with chocolate. While a lot of biscuit brands make Digestives and this is probably a good advantage over competition, it definitely does disservice to its healthy food identity.

Sadly, the end product is not great either. The biscuits are soggier because of the moist chocolate cream, taking away the characteristic crunchiness one associates with Digestives. The chocolate cream itself is also average, but much better than the kind they have in their Choco Creams product.The packaging is the only attractive thing about this product. A 100 g pack costs INR 25, which is on a slightly higher side than products in the category. But then again, one isn't sure what category to place this product in. Meh.

RATING: 2.5/5

Baker Street Choco Nut Cookies

I saw this attractive box of cookies at a local supermarket and picked it up to see how much it would fare on a scale of local bakery ka maal to multinational-made biscuits. The store had a number of products from this new brand and I was surprised at the variety. Of course I chose the Choco Nut cookies, because CHOCOLATE!

The makers turned out to be some Sarjena Foods Pvt. Ltd. from Mumbai and one ought to laud them for churning out a fair variety and taking over supermarket shelves almost overnight. Yes, I know those spaces can be bought, but they've managed to hang around for a while now. On my subsequent trips to other supermarkets, I saw more Baker Street products. Also, hat tip for a wonderful choice of brand name, an ISO certification, and packaging, which has all the trappings of fancyass brands - you know, nutrition chart and all. Only the ingredients list had no mention of nuts in the said choco NUT cookies. :D

That, however, makes the cookies no less good. Although more bakery than multinational, the cookies were rather appealing in terms of quantity and quality. A 200 g pack costing INR 45 (INR 50 outside Mumbai)  has about 20 cookies that are crunchy, nutty and somewhat chocolate-y. They're a little greasy to touch, but taste good enough for one to ignore that. Apparently, the brand also exports to the US, Canada, Australia, the Middle East and the far East, if their website is to be believed. I won't go as far as to say, they're export quality, but they sure are a good attempt by a homegrown brand to make better than average quality stuff.

RATING: 3.5/5

Chocolate things at Costa Coffee

Scoff all you want at my teenager-like preference, but the Costa Coffee outlet in Chembur, Mumbai is one of my favourite hangouts. What else is one supposed to do with teetotaler friends, aye? Drink coffee at a cafe, and if you're stupid like yours truly, you go ahead and order chocolate beverage. And if you're doubly stupid, you coerce your friend to order some more chocolate beverage.

So we waited expectantly for our Hot Chocolate, Double Chocolate Cooler, and Choconut Cookies to arrive hoping to die a chocolate overdose death by the end of the hour. Our pretty-looking drinks arrived in Costa's typically-pretty glassware but the contents were disappointing. The hot chocolate was insipid, and I could very well be drinking watered-down Bournvita. We hoped the Double Chocolate Cooler would fare better, but there didn't seem to be even a single portion of chocolate in there. At INR 110 for a small cup of Hot Chocolate and INR 160 for the Double Chocolate Cooler, the disappointment seemed magnified. If Costa is trying to do subtle here, I'm not sure it's such a good idea.

My last hope were the Choconut Cookies. At INR 80 for a pair, the cookies had better be good. Thankfully, they were. While I'm no fan of soft-baked cookies, these tasted quite decent with the dark chocolate and a generous amount of nuts - cashews and almonds. But these are not something I'm buying again.

Overall, the chocolate things at Costa Coffee were a disappointment, and you'd do best to stick to what Costa is known for - their coffee.

RATING: 2.5/5

Parle Hide & Seek

First things first, Parle's Hide & Seek cookies will never qualify as 'cookies' in my eyes, because only round and crumbly and buttery things can be called that. And secondly, they are definitely not the 'World's Best Moulded Chocolate Chip Cookies', but they're good in a way all things with chocolate are. Wikipedia defines moulded cookies as those... 'made from a stiffer dough that is moulded into balls or cookie shapes by hand before baking.

Moulded into balls or no balls, Hide & Seek is one consistent product. Since they launched a few years ago, I've consumed packets of these and they've always been the same. Slightly hard textured, but perfectly crunchy, these 'biscuits' have the right amount of chocolate chips in them to give them full flavour. The biscuit is mostly sweet, and the chocolate is just a tad dark, making for a good combination.

Parle's Hide & Seek is available in INR 5, 10, 20, 30 or 50 packets, and are perfect to go either with hot beverages or eaten by themselves. I like.

RATING: 3/5