Log this one under ‘impulse buy’.
After a rough day ‘at work’, and finding that my local Co-op was sold out of their dairy-free ice-cream, I took a chance on these. I just needed a pick-me-up and these looked enticing.
Surviving the wilderness is not just about the essentials. I have a sweet tooth (and a tendency to eat my stress), so having some go-to indulgences is also a necessity. Chocolate muffins – or in this case ‘cupcakes’ – are a particular favourite, so did these scratch my itch?
Tastes good?
Erm, yeah. They aren’t bad. But they’re not great either. The chocolate ‘frosting’ is pretty decent – sweet without being sickly, and quite rich too, although I did find it a bit… loose. More gooey than I was expecting, which made eating them a messy endeavour.
The cake also tasted nice, but was quite dry. Not tough, but certainly not as moist as they looked. They were adequate, but definitely not indulgent.
And the mini marshmallows. They tasted marshmallow-y, but the texture wasn’t right and – weirdly- they were damp, like they’d been sweating. Not actually as unpleasant as it sounds, but not to my liking.
A proper treat?
On the whole, no. These weren’t great – and when it comes to chocolatey treats for a hit of indulgence, it’s needs to be better than this. What’s worse is that they were on the small size. I know these are cupcakes rather than muffins, but I usually imagine them as being of similar size. I’d say these were three quarters the size of your usual cupcakes/muffins, especially ones sold in a two pack.
Value for money?
I’ll be honest, when I grabbed these, I was sure the price point was around £2 – I remember being annoyed with myself for picking up something so expensive with only two in the pack, but feeling too paranoid about virus best practice to put them back. I didn’t get a receipt with my shopping so checked online and the website says £1.50. So, even though I’m sure I paid more than that, let’s go with it.
They are too expensive. Plain and simple. Only getting two is obviously an issue, and so is the fact that I think they’re too small. But even if these tasted amazing, £1.50 is a lot to pay, when you can get a pack of five Morrison’s accidentally-vegan-doughnuts for 50p. To me, this is another example of vegan food still costing too much.
FINAL VERDICT
The two and a half stars isn’t a great score for these. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t unpleasant – I did generally enjoy them. But I wouldn’t buy them again. Too small, too few and just not indulgent enough. As mentioned above, Morrison’s give you more than twice as many doughnuts, for a third of the price, and there’s no compromise on taste there. So I guess that’s where I’ll head next time I have a bad day.
