NOW CLOSED Chedds from Cathedral City product test - feedback thread

[AnnMumsnet]

This thread is for the 50 MNers who have been trying Chedds - the new 100% real Cheddar kids snacking range from Cathedral City. "Chedds is available in three fun formats: Cheese and Toasties - mini slices of real Cheddar and melba toast, Nibbles - a mini bag of bite sized Cheddar cubes that kids will love to share and Bricks - mini blocks of Cheddar that are perfect for kids on the go."

So please tell us...

(do state the age of your child in your feedback)

Q1 What your overall impressions were of the products?

Q2 What did you think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks

Q3 When do you think you'd buy or use this product? Would you eat it youself or keep it for the children?

Q4 What did your children think about Chedds?

Q5 What did they think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks - which did they like the best? Which was the worst and why? How would they rate the taste of the product?

Q6 What did your children think about the charater, facts and the jokes on the packets?

Q7 Lastly do you think you'd be likely to buy Chedds again? Why? Why not?

Many thanks - remember - all testers who add their feedback here will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will win a £100 SpaceNK voucher.

MNHQ

I haven't read anyone else's feedback,so apologies if i'm repeating. testers were 9,8 and 7.

Q1 What your overall impressions were of the products? Overpackaged, but a quality 'proper' cheese product as compared to others on the market.

Q2 What did you think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks. DC liked the toasties. I thought the nibbles would be fun, but probably for younger children. Bricks were ignored.

Q3 When do you think you'd buy or use this product? Would you eat it youself or keep it for the children? Might buy toasties for a holiday outing snack.

Q4 What did your children think about Chedds? Overall they were under-whelmed.

Q5 What did they think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks - which did they like the best? Which was the worst and why? How would they rate the taste of the product? One hated the toasties, one like the toast but wasn't bothered about the cheese. They did like the real cheddar, as opposed to the processed alternatives.

Q6 What did your children think about the charater, facts and the jokes on the packets? They ignored them. I wonder if the colours obscured the graphics to a certain extent, as they didn;t notice them, and usually do on eg yoghurts, penguin bars etc.

Q7 Lastly do you think you'd be likely to buy Chedds again? Why? Why not? probably not. Too much packaging, had to open, toasties were very dry tasting, children were not excited to have them.

Overall, I think there's potential but a lot of tweaking is needed on the toastie, and the packaging.

Testers: 3 yrs and 20 months

Q1 What your overall impressions were of the products?

They looked appealing and tasted good and more like proper cheese than other products on the market but I found the Bricks hard to open.

Q2 What did you think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks

The Cheese and Toasties went down best, Nibbles were handy for my 20 month old and the bricks were ok but not so exciting to the kids. I quite liked them though!

Q3 When do you think you'd buy or use this product? Would you eat it youself or keep it for the children?

I'd use the Cheese and Toasties for use when we are out and about, same goes for the Nibbles but I would also consider using these at home for my 20 month old as she prefers small bits of cheese to chunks and it would save the hassle of cutting it up myself. I would only really eat the Bricks myself but as these were not as popular with the kids it's unlikely I would buy these.

Q4 What did your children think about Chedds?

They were both excited about a new cheese product and they enjoyed them all (except my 20 month old and the Bricks). My 20 month old now gets very excited when she sees the bag of Nibbles in the fridge/changing bag and wants to have them straightaway!

Q5 What did they think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks - which did they like the best? Which was the worst and why? How would they rate the taste of the product?

Both my children liked the Cheese and Toasties best. My 20 month old liked the Nibbles but not the Bricks and my 3 year old liked both but says he prefers the Nibbles too. I think the Bricks were just a bit more boring to him. They liked the taste of all of them.

Q6 What did your children think about the charater, facts and the jokes on the packets?

They didn't take any notice of the packaging - just wanted to get to the cheese but this is probably down to their age and not being old enough to be interested in the facts and jokes.

Q7 Lastly do you think you'd be likely to buy Chedds again? Why? Why not?

If the price is right I would certainly consider buying the Cheese and Toasties as part of an occasional lunch on the go and the Nibbles too. Not so much the Bricks as these were not as popular with my children and they were hard to open.

My daughter was very excited - she saw an advert on television for Chedds.

Forgot to mention that the toasts were a bit sweet. As we are in France at the moment, I bought a packet of their breakfast toasts to compare, and they had no sweetness. Even so, the DC are wolfing them down.

DS 5yo

Q1 What your overall impressions were of the products?

I thought the packaging was instantly identifyable as being from Cathedral City. The mouse character wasn't either too babyish, or trying to hard to be cool (like the Cheesestrings one iyswim).

The cheese was a nice texture and flavour (although it would be good to have maybe a mature version of the products too?)

The packaging was very difficult for DS to get into (we lost one pack of Nibbles to the carpet, as it exploded all over the place), so a tear here strip or something would be great.

The Toasties seemed very over packaged to me.

Q2 What did you think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks

The bricks were my favourite format, followed by the Toasties. The Nibble were ok, but fiddly.

Q3 When do you think you'd buy or use this product? Would you eat it youself or keep it for the children?

I would buy the bricks as a lunchbox item, followed by the Toasties to just have at home (DS spent a lot of time 'constructing' them into sandwiches etc so better for a snack at home when it isn't time contrained)

I would eat them if they were there but it would be primarily for DS.

Q4 What did your children think about Chedds?

DS loved them all

The bricks were his favourite, and he said that all the cheese was 'very creamy and yummy, but I need some more please'. He liked the toasts but said without any butter or spead they were a bit dry with just the cheese.

He asked if the Nibbles were for smaller children (no clarification there when asked why he thought that - I'm guessing it's because they were small?)

Q5 What did they think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks - which did they like the best? Which was the worst and why? How would they rate the taste of the product?

See above

Q6 What did your children think about the charater, facts and the jokes on the packets?

To be honest DS wasn't overtly bothered by the character and jokes. It was all about the cheese.

Q7 Lastly do you think you'd be likely to buy Chedds again? Why? Why not?

Dependent on RRP (which I'd love to know) I would buy the Bricks again, and the Toasties if the packaging was slightly lessened.

I agree with whoever above said sell them in packs of 5 or ten for lunchboxes etc :)

Thanks for the opportuinity to take part and thank you for the cool bag it came in as well!

www.cathedralcity.co.uk/chedds/

though as yet none seem to be hitting the shelves. Nothing online, at any rate, so no pricing.

Q1 What your overall impressions were of the products?
We - me Ds aged 6 and 4 - the youngest a cheese afficionado

I liked them all, but then I literally hoover any kind of cheese that comes my way. They were tricky to open and I wasn't particularly taken with the packaging - bit boring - kids didn't even stop to look...

Q2 What did you think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks
I didn't like the toasties - dry and not very toast like at all! I loved the nibbles, and my boys did too. The 4 year old was fonder of the bricks, think the nibbles were just too small for him, but I thought they were a clever idea, would definitely put in a lunch box ( if the packet could be opened more easily.)

Q3 When do you think you'd buy or use this product? Would you eat it youself or keep it for the children?
Er - yes I would snaffle them as I do the children's babybels.... But of what was left - lunchboxes - after school car snacks ( a slightly untapped market i always think - what can they eat bus/car/ other people's car which doesn't go everywhere going home from school!

Q4 What did your children think about Chedds?

They liked. NOt wildly, I will admit ( but I loved being sent them thank you.) I don't think the packaging helped TBF.

Q5 What did they think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks - which did they like the best? Which was the worst and why? How would they rate the taste of the product?
Best nibbles. Worst cheese and toasties. Taste of cheese was nice - the toasties were dull.

Q6 What did your children think about the charater, facts and the jokes on the packets?
I am afraid it passed them by. They didn't pause to look although I did try to draw their attention to it. We didn't notice any jokes??
Q7 Lastly do you think you'd be likely to buy Chedds again? Why? Why not?
Yes I would with more interesting and kid friendly and eco friendly packaging ? POssible. THank you for sending them. It was fun.

Many thanks - remember - all testers who add their feedback here will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will win a £100 SpaceNK voucher.

Ok so I have just seen that Chedds have been launched and there is an ad on MN......so did they take on board the comments about the packaging being a problem? I would go out and buy some if it had been fixed.

Oh and RRP, is £1.99 which seems ok to me

Thanks for adding your feedback everyone! The winner of the prize draw is...

Energumene

Congratulations - you've won a £100 Space NK voucher! I'll email you to get your address details.

Sorry, I'm probably too late with my feedback, but thought as you'd sent me the products it would be rude not to! We've been on holiday for two weeks and I thought I'd have time to fill in my feedback before I went. Bit ambitious!!

My children are daughters aged 10 and 5, and a son aged 7.

Q1 What your overall impressions were of the products?

We were all excited to receive the products in the fab coolbox - very useful for the numerous picnics we'll be having in the next few weeks! The packaging looked fun and different and I liked the colour.

Q2 What did you think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks. / Q4 What did your children think about Chedds? / Q5 What did they think about the formats available? eg Cheese and Toasties, Nibbles and Bricks - which did they like the best? Which was the worst and why? How would they rate the taste of the product?

They all loved the taste of the cheese, finding it tasty and creamy.

The girls both loved the Cheese and Toasties and had lots of fun making sandwiches with all them. My son wasn't so bothered about the toasts and neither was I - they tasted a bit stale, but maybe this is what Melba toast tastes like? The packaging on these seemed a bit excessive.

They all, including me, loved the Nibbles. I probably wouldn't give them a whole bag each, maybe share two bags between the three of them, as there was quite a lot in each bag. I could easily eat a bag! My younger daughter (5) especially liked the size of these as she prefers her food small and easy to eat.

The Bricks were fine. The children liked the cheese, but these are no different to the own-brand cheese portions you can get in Tesco for example. We all found these nearly impossible to get into without scissors, even my husband.

Q3 When do you think you'd buy or use this product? Would you eat it youself or keep it for the children? / Q7 Lastly do you think you'd be likely to buy Chedds again? Why? Why not?

I'd definitely buy the Cheese and Toasties as an occasional treat for my daughters. The Nibbles I will be looking out for and buying straight away, for me and the children. I'll have to wait and see how much the Bricks will be selling for before I'd decide whether to buy them or not.

Q6 What did your children think about the charater, facts and the jokes on the packets?

They all enjoyed the facts and the jokes, although I needed to point them out to them first.

I know that the feedback is finished, but I just wanted to say that I bought some CHedds today. I noticed them on the shelves in Sainsbos, on offer at £1.50 a pack.

They haven't paid any attention to the feedback at all. The packaging is just as hard to open at it was before. Do we have any way of getting any info on whether they are going to change this?

I bought some chedd bricks the other day. Dd loves cathedral city and I often buy her a bag of mini cathedral city cheese and put one a day in her pickup. So I thought these were the same in different packaging. Dd says not, she says they're vile and refused to eat any more after the first one.

.

Here's a response from Chedds to your queries about packaging:

"Chedds has taken your feedback on board and has improved their packaging to make it easier for little hands to open. Improvements have been made to the Bricks individual packs and the Cheese & Toasties foil wrapper. You?ll start to see the new easy-to-open packaging introduced to Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury?s, Morrisons and Co-op soon. Please bear with us as these things take time to implement."