Time for something a bit different, taking a break from eating mince pies for a little while now and looking at some other things.

First up, it’s the classic, the favourite of 80s children everywhere, the McVitie’s Family Circle biscuits, formally a tin, then a tub and now, disappointingly, a box. So, let’s start there shall we…

So, this is now a box, last year and for quite a few years before that too, it’s been a plastic tub. Before that it was a tin, but I’ve given up on that as a mainstream option these days.

As a value proposition, a disposable box is not the same as a plastic resealable tub and that is disappointing. Worse, last year, the tub weighed 700g and this year the box weighs in at 670g.

All for the same price (this was £3.00 from Sainsbury’s but I reckon they’ll be £2.50 here and there).

Let’s take a look at last year:

Wait a minute…”Crawfords”?

But mine are McVitie’s…

Don’t panic, they are all the same and it seems it might even depend where you get them from. Family Circle are by United Biscuits, of which both Crawfords and McVities are a part of the brand. Who knew…

Anyway, last year’s tub shows you, it’s a good quality tub and we do still have the 10 varieties included, so maybe, just maybe, the 30g loss is the removal of the tub to reduce the costs enough to keep the biscuits the same. Maybe.

But I also found this from probably a few years back:

900g here…and 11 varieties…well, that does upset me, what’s missing? A brain I think for whoever made the box, because there are only 10 varieties shown!!!!!!! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve just counted them, I’m right, there are 10 shown despite a claim of 11. The ones shown are pretty much identical to the ones we currently have, apart from the change to the smiley faced freaky looking thing on the new box.

While I’m here, let’s pause and remember some old tins:

 

These tins have plainly been used for Mum’s sewing kit, but my oh my do these like like real event treats. Understandably, there are some differences in the biscuit selection (this would have been the 80s remember for these tins) but there is a big issue to raise now.

PINK WAFERS

Where have they gone? I realise they were the ones always left to the end, but that was the magic, you’d always have a biscuit left in the tin for when you were desperate on December 30th!

I think we should consider a campaign to bring them back, and while we’re at it, McVities (or Crawfords or whoever) should go big next year on a Family Circle tin, go for something like 1.2kg, add the pink wafers back in, charge a fiver, advertise it on telly, they’ll fly off the shelves. Make it a special edition, people like me will buy them and take photos too!

So, what’s in the box?

Well, it’s a tidy selection that, and the jammy dodgers will be first to go in my box guaranteed.

Opening the box, there are two trays, both individually wrapped in this quite fancy looking wrapping. No clear plastic bags here, interesting words though:

Once opened, store in an airtight container

Well, I would do, but you only gave me the box…now, if it was a TUB…

Anyway…

It’s underwhelming right?

Doesn’t help that the chocolate chip cookies are upside down and the chocolate on the chocolate digestive couldn’t have been spread thinner if they’d tried. Do I need to mention the lack of sugar sprinkles on the shorties? Or that the fingers look a bit sad? And…WHERE IS THE JAM ON THE SMILEY FACE!

So there you have it…I’m not going to go through and taste these, you know if you like them…custard creams, bourbons, jammy dodgers, shortcakes etc. They’re all classics and each of these is at least as good as the Tesco value variety you can buy for 30p.

For three quid, it’s worth it, just for Christmas!