27th May 2011, on the menu today...

Jacob's Club Orange (2011 Update)

Jacob's Club is another perfect example of a product they should have stopped messing around with a very long time ago. There was a time when this bar had everything, it looked great, tasted fabulous and was accompanied by ads that featured one of the catchiest jingles I've ever come across. However, they continued to fiddle with it, the quality dropped and the product, although still tasty enough, ended up a shadow of its former self. Therefore, the news that Jacob's had finally decided to update the packaging and throw back in some of what they had taken out on the chocolate front, was very welcomed indeed.

Appearance:

Things got off to a good note as soon as I saw the multipack packaging on the shop shelf. The blockish 'Club' text was set off smartly by a brown plaque-like design, the orange background had been perked up by some subtle orange imagery, and the large graphic of the fruit segment on the right looked fresh and appealing.

Jacob's scored more points with the wrappers for the individual bars as, thankfully, they had retained the lovely paper and foil combo. Moreover, they had replaced the artwork with a condensed version of what appeared on the multipack packaging and this made for a smarter, more visually interesting look. Indeed, the orange and white background and positioning of the fruit graphic reminded me a bit of Club's wonderful 80's design:

(Above image is a screenshot of a third-party Dailymotion video)

As for the bar itself, unfortunately they haven't returned the product to its roots with the wonderfully classy design of old that paid homage to the manufacturer as it was originally known, namely "W&R Jacob & Co". Instead, the same informal, cheap and cheerful design remains and I'm once again left thinking how much better it could be.

Taste:

Needless to say, my primary interest was the amount of chocolate so I moved quickly to inspect the bar's cross section which revealed a thicker coating on both sides of the bar. Taking a bite, this increase in chocolate translated to the taste buds beautifully with a more prominent wave of milky cocoa notes to sit alongside the biscuit layer and orange cream.

All in all, the taste is better and areas of the design I considered very weak have been improved on so, to that end, Jacob's should be congratulated. However, to consider this job done would be very wrong indeed as the product still has a long way to go before it meets the standards of its now decades old predecessors.

Have you considered...?

The bar contains no artificial colours or flavours and is free from hydrogenated fat. Also, it is suitable for vegetarians.

Related TGBD Articles:

Jacob's Club

Web Links:

United Biscuits (owner of Jacob's brand)

Jacob's Fruitfield (Irish manufacturer of the traditional Club Milk)