Today, I went into Sainsbury’s for my Thursday Meal Deal treat. A wrap, Fanta and snack for £3.50. It’s not as if I think wraps are the greatest thing in the world, but they’re usually the most expensive item covered by the meal deal so it feels like good value even though it isn’t really. The £3.50 “deal” is just an upsell.
In any case, if you’re a bit slow you’ll be wondering which snack I chose. I was perusing the shelves when my eye spotted a “Jaffa Jonuts” packet. It called to me. I previously mentioned them in 2021, but hadn’t actually noticed any for sale and didn’t want to go out of my way to get some.
At 45p, it was cheaper than most of the offerings there. I suspect this is a temporary discount, as that makes the individual Jonut cheaper than each one in a pack of four.
I stole the below image from Sainsbury’s, but my packaging is the same, only with the addition of “individually wrapped Jonut” under the “1” and calorie information (167kcal).
Yup, after a year and a half of being on the market, they’re still considered new. It also rubs me the wrong way how it reads “Jaffa Jonuts” when there’s only a singular Jonut inside.
But let’s open it up and see what’s inside!
It really is just a cake with a hole in the middle. I’m not quite sure what the appeal here is, as it just means you’re getting less cake. At least with Polos the hole adds some surface area for your tongue, but here there seems to be no benefit whatsoever other than to fulfil their name.
While the name is obviously a play on “donuts” — I guess “Joughnuts” would be a bit long to fit on the packaging — they never actually claim it to be a doughnut. The back of the packet describes it as a “doughnut shaped ring”. I’m going to keep calling it a cake, because calling it a ring doesn’t sound very edible.
The chocolate layer is satisfying to bite through, as it breaks easily. It’s really just there more for texture than taste, as it’s very thin compared to the amount of sponge cake, which is the majority of what you’ll be tasting. Mmm… sugar.
The orange filling is nice, with a thick consistency. But the filling:cake ratio anecdotally isn’t as high as you’d get in a Jaffa Cake, regardless of whether you buy McVitie’s or most off-brands. They managed to get it first on the ingredient list at 21% filling, equivalent to 10% orange juice, so I think it just feels like less due to the airy nature of the sponge.
To conclude, it’s a nice wee treat but doesn’t beat the original product and somehow just isn’t very exciting.