Bad Baker - Ginger & Dark Chocolate product reviews

The shape was the first thing I noticed. These biscuits are noticeably larger than usual biscuit selections and they are quite an undertaking for that reason. I think you would be a very unusual individual to get through two of these substantial creations - both in size and taste. There is a lot going on. You need a plate in my humble opinion as they were reasonably crumbly for a child to lose track of the crumbs (or a husband). Also you don't want to waste any of these lovely biscuits and they did feel quite good value for a grown-up treat.

That leads me to my next point that these biscuits are great examples of ginger and chocolate. The taste combination is well known and a good flavour contrast that I have tried quite a few times in the UK and I associate it most often with older men as a preferred taste (having baked a lot these were really very good texture). I realised that ginger is not often used with chocolate in New Zealand but hopefully it will be a trend that continues as I think they are complementary (but I don't really love chocolate). Also as the world seems to have moved towards cookies rather than old fashioned crisper biscuits be aware these are not cookies!

We are not big biscuit eaters so this was a rare and unusual treat to try in our house and we did get to pass them around quite a few people after dinner with a coffee which was a perfect setting for them. We commented they wouldn't be a child-friendly snack and it was quite nice to have an adult treat that wasn't too rich or sweet. I forgot to take a picture before I put them out and then they were gone which I guess indicates they were a hit with the group.

I love ginger so these were in my personal taste range preference and I do make ginger crunch, ginger loaves, cook with fresh ginger a lot and like the ginger with my sushi - so all in all a ginger fan in all forms so they would have to have been pretty bad to not appeal. I divide ginger into ginger powder, fresh ginger and crystalised sweetened ginger. These biscuits use the latter. So this means you get small hits of ginger (and chocolate) not a uniform taste which I loved but may not be to everyone's taste. I am not however a big chocolate fan and they chocolate thankfully did not overpower which was a win for me (not so much for the chocolate lover in the house who suggested there could have been more!)

As for future use, I would bring them to older gentlemen as a gift or someone who like crystalised ginger more than commercial ginger powder. The packet was quite big to me and one was a lot to eat so they would last quite some time unless you entertain a lot - I don't think kids would be likely to love these are they are quite a strong taste. In my view, these biscuits would not be a for a straight chocolate lover as that was the lesser flavour but I would be interested to try more in the range to see if they did similar strong tastes and intense flavours.

Its funny you know when people do not like something in this house as it lasts longer than a day. Although, everyone said its nice (with a high pitched voice) you could tell the complete opposite. It did take me two biscuits to confirm that I was not a fan and where as my husband loved them, my girls only had one and left the room and have never asked for another since.

Where as we have never had an issue with eating a packet of Bad Bakers biscuits before (usually in one day), this time they did last over 24 hours so we had to put into an air tight container and they were put in the fridge where they are still sitting today some four days later. Unless hubby hurries up and eats I am not sure what their fate will be.

Now I do like the biscuit, well the chocolate chips at least I just do not like the ginger. It stands out in each mouthful as this tangy undercoating and I hate the after taste lingering on my tongue after swallowing the last mouthful. It is not my cup of tea at all. I was hoping the ginger would of died down in the fridge but unfortunately the flavour does not change at all. Funny as I like ginger kisses and gingernuts but the flavour in these just not work for me on any level.

Definitely will not be purchasing again. Its a big no from me - but love all the other Bad Bakers flavours. Such a shame as a fantastic quality biscuit and I do love how much quantity you get in one biscuit and one packet.

As a kid, I grew up with ginger in a lot of baking - gingerbread, ginger and fruit cake, ginger loaf, ginger kisses... my grandparents loved the flavour and so my mother learned a lot of ginger-based recipes in her early years. Unfortunately, after having my tonsils removed, my sense of taste changed somewhat - no idea why - and the taste of ginger became something I could only tolerate in very small, mild doses. (Ginger Kisses are still a favour naughty treat.) However, having tried the rest of the range it seemed worth the gamble to try this flavour as well - especially as the Salted Caramel gave me such a pleasant surprise.

Alas, while I found them surprisingly easy to eat and tasty, they are in fourth place in the line-up for me. That said, it is worth noting that despite my lack of desire to inhale the entire pack in one sitting - like the others - I still enjoyed eating them and the whole pack did disappear over the span of 3 days. This gave me a good insight into why the pack recommends that you eat them within 24 hours of opening the packet - they start off so fresh, moist and soft, and become drier and chewier as time goes on. By the third day, the last cookie was on the border of 'too tough for my poor teeth to handle' - which is actually more about my teeth than the cookie. They still tasted good (days later and it still surprises me to be able to say that and mean it) but the texture had changed noticably.

Overall, these were a nice surprise, but not the first flavour I will grab if there are others in the range on the shelf too. If you like your cookies to be on the firmer, crisper side of the scale, open the pack and leave it on the bench overnight - they will slide a little more towards your side of things. If you prefer a soft, gently-chewy cookie though, pop the pack and tuck in. Seriously though... if you are a fan of ginger, I'd be genuinely surprised if they lasted more than a few hours once you take that first bite. The little chunks of crystalised ginger are small enough to be easy to eat but pack such a powerful flavour punch in the first few hours of being open. It's really the potency of the ginger that fades over time.

Try one and then try stopping. It's an interesting phrase to use for a brand of cookies when according to their own packaging, one cookie is equivalent to one serving. Measuring in at around 114 calories per cookie (or nearly 10% of my recommended daily calorific intake), it's definitely a product that you would hope that you could stop yourself after one, otherwise, my waistline is just going to get so much bigger.

Realistically, these cookies are pretty good. I can recognize the ingredients listed on the packaging, so it isn't full of random artificial things. You often find that to be able to say that a product is sugar-free or fat-free, they replace it with an ingredient that is actually worse for the body, but isn't technically fat or sugar. It's a weird thing with terminology and marketing that allows unhealthy products to look healthy. In this case, this certainly isn't a diet cookie, but there are no lies about what is inside, and everything is as simple and natural as a cookie can be.

The main reason why these cookies would really have a reasonably high-calorie value is because of the size of them. If you can even remember how big the Griffins Chocolate Chip cookies before Griffins started shrinking them every year, these are much larger than even those. Perhaps halfway to a Cookie Time size. So bigger size equals bigger calories.

But what is really the most interesting thing about this product is the flavour. Ginger and Dark Chocolate. You don't get ginger as a flavour too often (outside of gingernuts, I couldn't name another example), and dark chocolate is almost as rare a flavour. This product does differ a lot from a ginger nut though. Where gingernuts generally use ginger powder to get a consistent flavour throughout the cookie/dough, this product uses crystallized ginger; little chewy pieces that have a reasonably intense flavour when you bite into them, but like chocolate chips, they are spread randomly throughout the product, so each bite will vary in flavour depending on how many chocolate chips and ginger pieces you get.

The consistency of the cookies is surprising. They are incredibly soft. There is no crispy crunch, instead, it is almost like biting into a melting moment, where the cookie disintegrates in your mouth as you bite into it. There is a little bit of denseness in the centre of the cookie, but this is where you will find more of the ginger pieces adding extra texture. The softness is helped by the dark chocolate which is so soft it is practically a liquid at room temperature. Bite into the cookie and the chocolate is absolutely oozing.

Would I buy these though? Ginger is an interesting flavor, but it certainly not my favourite. The flavour is still quite subtle though, the variability in flavour keeps it interesting, and the price is incredibly fair for the amount of cookie you actually get. It puts this product quite firmly into the "I'll happily eat it, but would not be top of my shopping list" category.

We brought these cookies on a road trip because we thought they would be an ideal snack when we got hungry but did not want to stop for a meal. Both of us like ginger, and it is good for the digestion too when you are eating too much fast food, so it seemed like a really good choice. We had expected something like a ginger nut but with slightly more spice, so we were really surprised to find that they were much thicker and softer that we had imagined.

The ginger flavour was less obvious; instead of being disseminated through the cookie in a fine powder, it took the form of little chunks of ginger - just like the crystallised ginger pieces you might buy in a supermarket, These chunks were quite hard and at first I thought they were nuts, but then as I chewed them they became softer and revealed their true identity. When I checked the ingredients list, there was definitely no nut content - although there was the usual warning about nuts sometimes being present in the factory during the production process.

We liked the balance between chocolate and ginger pieces. You could taste them individually, even when you had both in your mouth at the same time - it was a great combination. We had a hot drink in the thermos but did not try dunking although we were tempted. The biscuits were of the type that might just melt and fall in! Although we felt like eating more than two, we stopped because we were heading off to the Interislander and rough seas were forecast. I am a good sailor but my partner is not, so we thought it prudent to keep some for the crossing.

We thought a packet of these cookies might be a lovely festive gift for an older person living alone. Sometimes you want to take a contribution for an afternoon tea or an after-dinner snack, but many crackers are too hard, and sweeter biscuits can be too rich. This product would strike a nice balance, and would appeal to most palates. I have seen them on sale in supermarkets recently so they should be fairly easy to find. They would be great either served on their own or on a platter with preserved fruit, cheese, crackers, and other nibbles.

I have one family recipe I will try with them when we return home. This involves taking a cardboard strip about 1.5 cm wide and forming it into circular sleeves to wrap around each biscuit. You then top each biscuit with home-made marshmallow and leave it to set. Finally, you remove the sleeve and top each one with chocolate icing. This is fun for children to make. If each child has a different food colouring to add to his marshmallow, the finished cookies will add a decorative touch to a festive table. And they taste divine!