Rash buys are the best buys – usually.
On yet another fabled trip through the harrowing aisles of the local Tesco, childish greed got the best of me. Upon seeing a seemingly endless pit of discounted Burtons Food‘s Jammie Dodgers, before I knew it I was shovelling four packs into my basket. It wasn’t until later, when unpacking my swag, I realised that they were not just any jammie dodgers but a new jam and custard hybrid.
Jam + Custard: Jamard Dodger
New and improved
I think it is important to note that having not grown up eating jammie dodgers I have no real emotional attachment to them. In fact, truth be told, I often get them confused with the similar (and some say superior) Fox’s Jam rings.
The idea of a stretchy dehydrated jam filling is not the most appetising, but strangely enough the allure of the friendly raspberry-coloured filling poking out of a heart-shaped hole in the ‘shortcake’ fills you with child-like nostalgia of times when snack food was an indulgence and, therefore, was allowed to be as dehydrated and artificial as possible… in fact, the more so the better.
The decision however to add a custard element to the scene is a strange one. Sure, it is a new product and therefore simply by it being released it (in theory) will add new impetus to the product’s selling power, but the question I ask is it any good.
This is not the first time that the Jammie Dodger product has offered alternatives to the original product. Remember the Berrilicious? or the Outrageous Orange? No? Me neither. Honestly, I think that Burtons Foods have missed the mark with the inclusion of the custard jammie. By halving the amount of raspberry flavoured plum-jam and adding the custard they have removed half of what made the original so appealing – the jam.
Even the appearance of it is affected. We no longer that cute little red heart that we automatically associate with Jammie Dodgers. Instead we see half a heart, showing the poetic justice of the half-hearted attempt to reinvent this British childhood icon.
Price
Reduced to 0.43p per packet.
