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Ruth Jeffcoate
Jacob's Orange Club Review |
With reference to the discussion about Clubs - my friend and I used to make "magic mirrors" with the wrappers when we were little (this would have been in the early 80's). We would flatten out the paper outer tube, and then wrap it in the silver paper in the same way you wrap a present. We used to see who could make the smoothest mirror - you still couldn't see yourself in it, too many greasy fingerprints, but we thought they were magic anyway... happy days... |
Nicey replies: That's a wonderful account of why biscuit wrappers are not just packaging.
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David Bourgoin
Jacob's Orange Club Review |
In response to an email which mentioned the different pictures on the wrappers of the various varieties. The milk chocolate Club had a light blue coloured wrapper with a picture of some playing cards (suit being Clubs I would imagine). And the one with the Golf ball was the plain chocolate. I can remember how you used to be able to bite off huge chunks of chocolate to leave just the biscuity bit in the middle.
Oh there was also a wafer Club that I think had a dark blue wrapper. I was once brought a large box of the plain chocolate ones as a Xmas present and after eating them all very quickly I never again had much of a taste for the plain chocolate ones and the milk one became my favourite. The mint ones were pretty good but I found the filling a bit too sweet. But all this reading of emails has made me long for a Club so I might have to nip to the Supermarket and see just how much they have changed.
David Bourgoin
P.S Is it my imagination or is there really no review of the Plain Choc Digestive. Surely one the best biscuits ever created.
P.P.S As for more recent biscuits I find that the Echo bar is very pleasant (though it may not qualify as a biscuit per se). |
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Steveand charl
Jacob's Orange Club Review |
Fantastic subject for a website!
Just a quick bit of useless info regarding the (formerly) mightly Jacobs Club.
Upon graduation from the University of Northumbria in Newcastle myself and fellow graduates went our separate ways but vowed to keep in touch. Seven years on we still all keep in touch and meet up from time to time. To cut a long story short, I met up with a friend of mine for a beer recently who studied industrial design. After a few work related stories, he reminised about how his first project after graduation whilst working for a top London product design agency was to redisgn the JACOBS CLUB!
His brief was to basically to make it smaller whilst not immediately obvious (to the untrained eye of course) and therefore use less chocalate, biscuit and other vital ingredients.
He probably saved Jabobs millions and carved a name for himself in the buscuit design world, however, I am not proud to say i know the man who made the saying 'if you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club' defunct. |
Nicey replies: OK, can just about bring myself to type.
Your friend would do well to keep quite about what he did to the Club Biscuit until now I have randomly blamed the French, as it seemed to coincide with Danone's take over of Jacob's, however now we know its down to a bloke who went to University of Northumbria, and graduated in what 1994? I don't care that he was young and eager and just out of University, he could of refused to do it on moral and ethical grounds.
The Top London design agency would also do well to keep a lid on its dealings in the demise of the Club from treasured national icon to chocy snack obscurity. Nothing to be smug about there. Anyone who ever had a proper Club biscuit morns the day they changed to the new format. |
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Ian Klein
Jacob's Orange Club Review |
I just thought you might like this Club biscuit anecdote.
I went to university at Westfield College, London. Sadly, its' now gone away with the re-org of London Uni, but that's another story. Anyway, I used to live in the college halls, and one of the conditions was that you had to buy meal tickets to use in the college refectory. The food was dreadful, with the result that at the end of each term one had a whole book of meal tickets (cannot remember the value - it was in 1978/79). All one could do was buy wine (Liebfraumilch) ... and Club biscuits - makes a great meal. In fact, in my first year I recall only ever buying Club biscuits by the box-load (you know, the ones with the box lid that folded back down to make a handy shop display). I coated the desk in my room with the silver wrappers - this being a particularly time consuming process as one had to peel off the waxy paper, then smooth out the wrapper, and then apply to the desk! If the silver foil broke, the wrapper was of course discarded! Oh, what times I had as a student! I stopped eating Club for the same reasons as you, but I can still hear the slogan ringing in my ears "If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club". Also, I'm not sure about your dates, because I think the wrapper changed in my third year (1980) - surely that was the end of the chocolate biscuit legend.
I am now quite partial to Tesco's finest range of biscuits - the choc ones and the almond ones. |
Nicey replies: Your quite right of course the exact construction of the inner paper and foil liner did change, I had forgotten that. |
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Steve
Jacob's Orange Club Review |
I have a little bit of info for you regarding what happened to the club biscuit.
For quite some time Jacobs were considering deleting it as it was far too costly to produce. They contacted the company I work for to buy special on-line weighing machines that could be used to control the amount of chocolate which the bars were enrobed in. Putting too much of something in a food product is called 'give away'. Every gramme of chocolate too much is increased cost of manufacture.
I would guess that this equipment didnt help them in cost reduction enought, so instead of deleting the bikky, they made it cheaper and poorer quality.
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Nicey replies: Upon hearing that news I feel I can relate to the emotions held by Charlton Heston at the end of Planet of Apes. |
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