Coles Mini Monkey Biscuits | Chewsday Review
This week I'm checking out Coles Mini Monkey Biscuits to see how they compare to the classic favourite, Tiny Teddies. It's the battle of the little animal biscuits apparently... Let's see if they are appealing or ape-solutely just another sweet biscuit.
- Wheat Flour, Sugar, Palm Oil, Butter (6%) [Pasteurised Cream (Milk)], Gluten Free-Icing Mix [Corn Starch, Caster Sugar, Tapioca Starch], Cornflour, Milk Powder, Egg, Natural Butter Flavour, Salt, Ammonium Carbonates, Sodium Bicarbonates.
- Allergens: wheat, gluten, egg and milk
- May contain: cashew, pecan, sesame, soy, Brazil nut, macadamia, pistachio, lupin, sulphites, walnut, almond, hazelnut, peanut, pine nut
- You’ll pay $2.50 for an 8 pack, so they’re more cost effective than branded Tiny Teddies ($5 for an 8 pack) but slightly more expensive than Aldi’s Teddy Biscuits ($3 for a 10 pack).
- They’re pretty darn cute, but arguably so are teddies so you can probably disregard this.
- Sodium is above recommendations at 510g (128mg per packet). This is nearly double Tiny Teddies Choc Chip flavour, which are only 265mg per 100g (the lowest I found) and more than all of the Aldi Teddy Biscuit flavours (290-370mg per 100g).
- It’s no surprise these are high in added sugar, but at 17.1g per 100g this is less than Tiny Teddies and Aldi Teddy Biscuits (which are 25-30g of sugar per 100g depending on the flavour).
- The fibre content is <1g per packet, so not close to our 3g per serve target. Keeping in mind the serving size is small (only 25g), but a homemade oat biscuit would probably contribute more.
- Saturated fat is 9.7g per 100g, which is well above the <3g per 100g target. The same can be said for Tiny Teddies and Aldi’s Teddy Biscuits.
- Individual packets are convenient but not great for the environment. I’d like to know when Tiny Teddies stopped coming in a share pack? It seems you can only buy the gluten-free or choc coated in the bigger 200g box.
- “No artificial colours or flavours.” This is true but more common than you might think.
- These have a 1.5 star health rating, but are we really surprised?
- Coles are certainly relying on the monkey shape to help sell these.
- Overall nothing in this review is really that surprising. They’re a monkey shaped biscuit and contain sugar and saturated fat like other sweet biscuits.
- They are fairly salty for a sweet biscuit, so you could opt for Tiny Teddies or Aldi’s Teddy Biscuits if you’re looking to reduce your family’s sodium intake.
- For a lower sugar, higher fibre, sweet snack, I’d tend to recommend a muesli bar (typically from the Carman’s or Uncle Tobys range), but if your child enjoys these (or other biscuits) you can still include them as part of a healthy diet. If offering biscuits makes you feel a little uncomfortable, I’d love to support you in my Mealtimes membership.
The composition of food products changes regularly. The nutritional values of the products in this Chewsday Review were correct at the time of publishing.
