Oreo Strawberry Cookies

Now to review some strawberry flavored products instead of the usual chocolate ones. First up is Oreo Strawberry Cream. Surprisingly, the taste is not that very different from the classical variety. In the classical Oreo flavor, the cream is extremely sweet, which balances out the bitter sweet dark chocolate cookies. On the other hand, the strawberry cream is relatively much milder as it offers a more fruity flavor. But the taste doesn't seem to be that noticeable unless you really focus your sense of taste on that faint hint of strawberry essence. Then again, Kraft cannot make the cream too fruity or else the balance of flavors will be compromised. Still, Oreo Strawberry Cream is still a great variety worth trying out especially if you find the classical version to sweet for your taste buds.

Premium Cookies for the Upper Market

From product to packaging, Jack n Jill created a variant of Cream-O that targets the upper market class. The name "Premium" is an immediate indication that the cookies are creating its own niche, different from the other varieties. It has a glossy gold-colored packaging to give it a luxurious presentation. The appearance and taste of the biscuits themselves are also far from being ordinary. The cookies are filled with chocolate cream and they are covered in even more chocolate! I noticed that the chocolate is not the usual sugary-sweet type normally used in other cookie and biscuit products of URC. Instead, the cookies have a bitter-sweet chocolate taste. They capture the essence and rich flavors of pure cocoa. If I were to make a comparison, I would say that Cream-O Premium is close to eating chocolate fudge cookies. It is a really great fix for chocolate cookie addicts.

Sadly, the product is also luxurious when it comes to its price. At around Php 7.00, a pack of Cream-O premium contains only two cookies, whereas the classic Cream-O has three pieces for the same price. But if you want more flavor for your money instead of quantity, then Cream-O premium is really worth trying out.

Note: For those who want a milder chocolate sandwich cookies, Cream-O premium filled with Vanilla cream is also available.

From Circles to Rectangles

The Cream-O brand is normally associated with the cream-filled cookies. It is the favorite Filipino cookie of many local consumers. So I was really surprised when I saw a Cream-O wafer bar at Cafe Azul. It was the first and probably the only time I saw such a variety. I just had to purchase this rare product.

Among all the snacks I've reviewed, this has got to be the most mysterious. It's the most elusive item in the market. I've been browsing through different supermarkets around the city and this snack simply cannot be found. When I returned to Cafe Azul, their stock was not replenished. Apparently, I already bought the last wafer bar at that time. I'm not sure if this is a new product of URC, a limited promo or if the company intentionally produced a small quantity. Aside from its rarity, it is a "clone" or duplicate of URC's Hello Wafer product line. At first I thought it was like a cookie-wafer bar combination with a new rectangular shape. It turns out that it was no different from the Hello wafer bars in terms of its texture, appearance and content. Is URC planning to replace their Hello product line permanently? Why are there no Cream-O wafers in the supermarkets? Is this product simply experimental? The mystery continues...

Gourmet Pleasure

Chocolate is pretty much a foreign product. The Americans brought it here as solid chocolate bars while the Europeans brought it here as a beverage. Most of the hot chocolate drinks are expensive and currently imported from the United States, thus classifying them as luxuries. It's great that there are a few local brands that offer a more affordable alternative. One of them is Alfonso's Gourmet Hot Chocolate.

I'm happy to say that Alfonso really captured the essence of gourmet chocolate. The drink has a rich, deep and bitter sweet cocoa taste. It is slightly sweet and not at all creamy, but of course you are still free to customize it to suit your taste. The product is priced at Php 14.00 per cup. The bulk of the cost is most likely attributed to the Styrofoam cup and stirring stick (included inside packaging). But the price is practical enough if you're the type of person that is always on-the-go. So if you crave for a nice, instant and affordable gourmet experience, this product is excellent.

Real Leaf... Really Healthy?

There is a trend of a healthier lifestyle that is currently sweeping the market. Consumers are becoming more conscious of what they eat and they want food that offers the most health benefits. Companies such as Nestle and Coca Cola have been exploiting this trend. They are launching green tea beverages which would hopefully grab market shares from once popular soda industry.

Green tea is believed to offer the most benefits since it is rich in antioxidants and other disease-preventing ingredients. But are all of the green tea products in the market really that healthy? Let's take Real Leaf for example. The advertisement claims the product to be rich in Theanine, a type of amino acid that is proven to boost the immune system and reduce stress. But when I checked the nutrition facts, it has 28 grams of carbohydrates per 240 mL serving. Although it is not explicitly stated, I assumed that the carbohydrate count is equivalent to its sugar content. That is around 0.12 grams of sugar per mL of Real Leaf. It may not sound much but if you look at other green tea products, their sugar content is significantly lower. For example, URC's C2 original green tea variety only has around 0.04 grams of sugar per mL (or 10 grams per 240 mL serving). As for the calorie count, Real Leaf has 0.46 calories per mL while C2 has 0.19 calories per mL. So if you're calorie conscious, diabetic or just simply want to reduce your sugar intake, then you may want to give this beverage a second thought.

I'm not saying that Real Leaf is inherently bad nor is it inferior to C2. It's just that some of us may be led to believe some things and miss out on the other half of the story. This just goes to show that some products are not always what they are cracked up to be. We must be wise consumers and we cannot be persuaded to believe everything we see on ads.

Remeber the Magic

It's the comparison that started this blog. Which chocolate coated sandwich is better? URC's Magic Creams or Rebisco's Extreme? To my surprise, they are similar in a lot of ways and are only unique in a characteristic that may be not easily noticed by consumers.

Both products are equal in terms of size and quantity. They both have the same biscuit size and each have two layers of crackers. Magic is not topped with chocolate sprinkles, unlike Rebisco Extreme. But I believe the sprinkles only add aesthetic value and has negligible effect on the overall taste. The difference between the two biscuits is the type of chocolate flavor that they have. It may not be obvious to most but Magic Creams has a sugary sweet chocolate taste while Rebisco Extreme has a deeper bitter-sweet cocoa essence. If your taste buds crave for a sweeter delight, then Magic Creams is the better choice. But if you are searching for a snack with a more authentic chocolate flavor, like me, then Rebisco wins this round hands down.

Monde's Voice in the Competition

When a product becomes a hit in the market, its competitors are never far behind. They make their own version and brand of the product and try to outdo other players in the market. I remember Monde having an aggressive marketing campaign during its initial launch, yet I cannot say for certain which company was the first in creating this innovative snack. So far Rebisco is the only company that has an answer for Monde's wafer sandwich and with Combi's previous review, it's time to judge Voice Combo.

In terms of taste, Voice is pretty good. Each bite bursts with the sweet flavor of strawberry. Unlike Rebisco Combi which has one flavor only, Monde has released other varieties of the wafer sandwich. If I'm not mistaken, Voice is also available in butter cream and chocolate. At Php 36 for a 10-pack set, it is cheaper than Combi but it is considerably smaller in size. Despite these positive points, Voice still has its drawbacks.

The biscuit's texture is absolutely brittle. The cracker easily crumbles when a small amount of pressure is applied. It's best to eat Voice by the sink or over a plate since each bite scatters crumbs everywhere. In a word, it is a messy eating experience. The most frustrating part of the experience is opening the sandwich pack. The packaging is lined with a thin film of tough clear plastic which takes me forever to tear open. This is an annoying combination of packaging and product because when I tear open the pack with the necessary violent force, I destroy the brittle crackers in the process. Does anyone else have this kind of experience?

For an overall evaluation, I would say that Voice Combo Sandwich is a product decent enough for snacks and sharing with friends. But I recommend this product more to those with the patience and strength to tear open that blasted plastic seal. Probably it's best not to try this food when you are already weak from hunger.

Ovaltine 3 in 1

The industry trend of having fast and economical products and services led companies to re-engineer the packaging of their goods. Take the case of Ovaltine for instance. They launched a 3-in-1 drink sachet, which is great for people on the go.

But if you highly value food flavor like me, you might be disappointed with this product. The mix is a combination of Chocolate-malt exract, milk and sugar. The problem is that the proportions of those ingredients may not be suited to your taste. In fact, you have to be very careful at how much water you dissolve the powder into. I don't even know what the exact amount is needed to achieve the perfect balance between volume and flavor. Dissolving it into half a mug of water preserves its taste but does not produce a satisfactory volume. Add a little bit over that amount and the beverage suddenly loses its flavor.

I think this characteristic is also true for the regular Ovaltine Chocolate Powder Drink. I remember that I used to consume up to half a glassful or more of the mix just to get the strong cocoa flavor. Sometimes I just eat the powder raw since its liquid form is too weak. I'm not sure if this is really how Ovaltine is intended to be or if there is something in its ingredient that serves as a flavor retardant (could it be the malt extract?). All I can say that I find it difficult dealing with this drink and the perfect water to mix ratio is yet to be discovered.

Black Forest Bread Style

As I have mentioned before, I'm a big fan of the Black Forest flavor. So far I have seen it used as a variant of cakes, ice cream and coffee. And I thought the food manufacturers have already exhausted the kind of products they can use this flavor on. So I was surprised and excited to see Gardenia making a Black Forest bread. They have really out done themselves this time.

So how does the flavored bread fair? The pastry has a strong sweet, chocolaty scent. But to my surprise, the taste is very (emphasize on "very") faint. You have to focus on your taste buds' actions to notice the weak aftertaste. It claims to be made of cherries yet I sense no fruity sensations other than the ones in the bread's scent. There is a thin lining of, what I suspect to be, cherry jelly swirls on the slices. However, these swirls are not uniformly present in each loaf, probably because the breads are made in batches and not by piece. A good indication of a relatively heavy jelly content is the bread's dark color. The darker or heavier the color, the more flavorful it is.

Despite this feedback, I'm not at all disappointed with Gardenia's flavored bread. After all, if they really intended to create a pastry with a strong resemblance to cake, then they would have made cupcakes, muffins or pies. At Php 65 per loaf, it's quite expensive and it's no substitute for the real black forest cake. But the innovative idea behind its flavor still makes it, as it says on the label, AMAZING!

Rebisco Combi

A recent development in the biscuit industry is the cracker wafer sandwiches. Instead of having a flavored cream filling, it has a layer of sweet wafer in between the crackers. Rebisco is just one of the few companies who launched their own brand of such a snack.

At first glance, a single pack of Combi looks larger than your average-sized biscuit. That's because it is. It turns out that one pack contains two square pieces of cracker wafer sandwiches instead of one solid serving. It can guarantee hunger satisfaction and it can also be shared. Rebisco is already a veteran corporation trusted for the quality taste of its products so I want to focus on the texture of Combi. Compared to the other biscuits I have tried, this snack has the most stable structure. It is firm enough to preserve its form yet its crunchiness is not compromised. That's good news for consumers who hate losing biscuit and wafer crumbs to the ants. The product is priced at Php 41.50 for a 10-pack set. It is a bit more expensive compared to the average price of biscuits which is Php 36 per set. But given its bigger size and better texture, Rebisco Combi is really worth trying if you're not on a strict budget.