Company: United Biscuits
Rsp: £1.53/175g
Competition: Cadbury’s Biscuits
The sell: Quirks has been designed to attract younger consumers to the biscuit aisle


The consumer
I was excited to try this product as I think McVitie's make very tasty treats. The packaging on the outside informs people the double chocolate biscuits will be crunchy but that's not a word I would use to describe them. They were in fact quite soft and dry. They tasted OK, and very chocolatey, but I don't think I could eat more than one at a time. Overall, they were fine for chocolatey taste but let themselves down on the crunchy biscuit promise. Two stars
Aoife Hayes, student, Brighton

The expert
With the outer packaging describing McVitie's Quirks as 'crunchy' I expected a much crisper outer shell. The outer biscuit actually had a texture similar to fig roll and the chocolate filling was not as plentiful as the pack illustration implies. The flavour of the outer was reminiscent of slightly stale chocolate sponge and the filling lacks depth of flavour and volume. However, this product truly came into its own when 'dunked', and delivered a moist, gooey flavour. Three stars
Tina Hird, trading controller, Spar

The Grocer
NPD is tough when you have already created some of the best biscuits on the market. It's hard to improve on HobNobs, Chocolate Digestives and Jaffa Cakes and, almost inevitably, UB has failed to do so here. The packaging lacked wow factor and the biscuits failed to deliver. The promise of a crunchy outside with a smooth chocolate centre failed to materialise and the overall feel was soft and bland. Basically, UB has already done much better. Three stars
Ronan Hegarty, news editor

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