Chocolate Chip Muffins

Lucky you. The morning I left for Heathrow I decided to grab a bit of breakfast. I so happened to grab the Sainsbury's Basics chocolate chip muffins some time ago, and I had enough spare time to take a few photos of what I was about to eat. I then took the photos with me on my flight, and now, with my jet lag keeping me up in the wee hours of the morning, I am taking the trouble to write this post for my friends back in the UK.

I only have vague recollections of the regular Sainsbury's muffins, but if those recollections are any indication, the Basics muffins are smaller, and don't taste as sweet or as rich. Which would probably be a good thing for Asian tastebuds, who have a more subtle palate. Another problem would be the lack of chocolate chips (9% versus 17% for the regular muffins) Aside from this, you are greeted with dense muffin goodness, with a chocolate chip making the experience more pleasurable every now and then.

A brief glance at the ingredient lists and nutritional information for both Basics and regular muffins suggests that other than the proportion of chocolate chips the muffin mix is essentially the same, meaning that you only pay for size and chocolate chips. Doing a bit of calculation based on nutritional information found on mySupermarket, you get about 250g of Basics muffin against 300g of regular muffin per pack, ie. paying 50% more (see below) only gets you about 20% more muffin.
Bear in mind however that the Basics muffins are only available in Choc Chip. A bit of a letdown, if you ask me really: I would imagine coming up with a Sainsbury's Basics Blueberry Muffin, which would satisfy those who either don't like chocolate (yes, they are out there), or those looking for a slightly healthier offering.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Chocolate Chip Muffins	£0.85	4	+£0.44	Bigger muffins, more variety (Blueberry and Double Choc Chip), more chocolate chips

I had tried in vain to make a Christmas pudding using only Basics ingredients to rival Sainsbury's own Basics offering after looking at the mind-boggling amount of environment-destroying, heart-killing palm oil they put in the latter, but was unable to due to time and other constraints. Maybe next year, if the blog is still around. In the meantime though, have a meaningful Christmas everyone, from the people who bring you this blog.