(A look at some of the weird and wonderful product variants that make supermarket shelves a bit more fun.)
Why are there suddenly so many flavours of Jammie Dodgers? Be honest, we’ve all been wondering this, even if we’re not all as incensed about it as my friend Alix is.
I didn’t have good answers for Alix when she posed these questions on LinkedIn a few weeks back, so I’m taking the time to explore this phenomena further.
The business of biscuits
(Spring Break 2016)
I remember learning about the business practice of product extensions in one of the drier units on my degree in Advertising and Marketing Communications. As I struggled through trying to understand the numbers side of the profession I’d end up in some day, my ears certainly pricked up when a lecturer started talking about the innovative possibilities presented by the iconic Jaffa Cake, for example.
(© Tynan D’arcy for Fox’s Burton’s Companies UK)
This recent tactic from Burton’s equally iconic Jammie Dodger is far from reinventing the wagon wheel though. It’s not a Jammie Dodger flavoured milkshake or a venture into merchandising with a variety of shaped products to resemble the biscuit. These are variations on the existing format. This is beginning to sound a lot like collecting.
(© Tynan D’arcy for Fox’s Burton’s Companies UK)
It’s beginning to look and feel a lot like collecting too. In writing this article I committed to some very important research. I visited a few supermarkets, quickly finding a total of 5 different Jammie Dodgers, including banana, strawberry, apple and blackcurrant, the original raspberry flavour in limited edition packaging for Asda’s Tickled Pink campaign and the new double strawberry edition where both the filling and the biscuit are flavoured.
(© Tynan D’arcy for Fox’s Burton’s Companies UK)
Perhaps I should’ve covered the trend sooner, these unhinged flavours have been on shelves for a few years now. Toffee and chocolate variants were available in 2011. Back then I might have been earlier to the party ring. Having written a blog for the best part of a decade I decided to start a second in Autumn 2011, this one reviewing limited edition food products.
It wasn’t a total out of the blue raspberry idea. The ‘limited edition’ premise plays a big part in the hobby of collecting, and I’ve had a collector’s mindset going as far back as I can remember. I spent a lot of time in the 2000s (and subsequent decades) browsing shelves of sweets looking for new Pez dispensers to add to my burgeoning collection. Eventually the rows of Dairy Milk and Skittles became wallpaper, it took a seasonal variant to stand out.
The idea of something recognisable being the same, but different feels like it’s at the core of what drives me as a collector. Pez are uniform, they all stand neatly next to one and other. It’s the colour of the stem and the licensed character heads on top that separate one from the next. The same could be said for vinyl records for example, another collection I was drawn to.
Collecting aside, perhaps there was something self-punishing about allowing myself to fall for a product I could only have for a few months each year, or possibly never again. Maybe by not allowing the novelty to wear off I could hold it in a wistful regard indefinitely.
This certainly wasn’t true for every product, in fact the majority of them were bitterly disappointing.
The blog was called ‘LTD. EAT’. ‘Eat’ sort of sounded like the e from ‘edition’ and the abbreviation of ‘limited’ kind of matched my initials. It was clever enough for a title, even if I had to spell it out to you 14 years later.
Like the temptation of a new flavour Kit Kat, my motivation was curiosity. If I documented, or, simply put, collected a variety of these limited edition products in one place, might I draw the attention of any brands who saw value in my audience of 11 and send some swag my way?
Into the archives
And now, for a trip down memory lane, here are some of the products I featured, as well as a few other limited editions from years gone by.
The proof in the pudding
So, did it work? Unbelievably, yes.
It wasn’t McVitie’s or Nestle who reached out to me. Instead it was the producer of a new cake product called the ‘duffin’. I think you can probably work this one out, but it was half donut, half muffin. I liked it! Technically it wasn’t intended as a limited edition but given the company went bust I guess you could say it was in hindsight.
I called it a day for the sake of my teeth shortly after this. I didn’t have the time to push the idea past it’s half-baked state and the joy of trying a new product started to wear off when I spent most of my munching drafting a review in my head.
I’m not saying I inspired a generation of Instagrammers to take the idea and run with it, but I must have been onto something because you don’t have to look far on the platform to find accounts reporting on exactly this subject. Check out Newfoodsuk and their 362,000 followers for example.
Since becoming vegan in 2020 I’m limited to which of the these novelty products I can try. Fortunately Jammie Dodgers are vegan and I am firmly on the ride with Burton’s for whatever mad variant they concoct next. Of course old habits always find new vices and there are plenty of accounts posting about plant-based discoveries (The Goood Soul is a favourite).
The Oreo influence
Jammie Dodgers are far from the first biscuit-filling-biscuit product to go wild on their flavour range. You haven’t got to look far on the supermarket shelves to find who, or what might be the culprit for instigating JD’s expansion… OREO. I’d be hard pushed to recall each of the variants of Oreo I’ve had since they officially entered the UK market around 15 years ago.
Their recent Coke Zero mash up is so mind bogglingly bizarre it makes Jammie Dodgers’ mischief look relatively tame. My partner Sam’s review of the themed drink was “accurate flavour, average taste”.
It’s Oreo’s stateside Star Wars tie-in this year that is most noteworthy in the collecting context. The supersize packs are standard vanilla flavour, but coloured either blue or red to represent the light or dark side respectively. The mystery of which colour filling your Oreos will have in each pack isn’t just a fun addition, it’s surely designed to encourage repeat purchases.
The stylish case design makes this release even more appealing to Star Wars collectors, and if you’ve never met someone who keeps food packaging featuring their favourite franchise, allow me to introduce you to one.
Liam Toms 