It’s close to Christmas, we are all about to consume 3 zillion calories in the space of 2 days so I thought I would set you all on the path of righteousness or not as the case will prove.
What was this review about again, oh yes, doughnuts, I mean milkshakes. In particular Frijj fresh thick ... Read review
Advantages: Less than 1% fat Disadvantages: Less fresh than you might think
It’s close to Christmas, we are all about to consume 3 zillion calories in the space of 2 days so I thought I would set you all on the path of righteousness or not as the case will prove.
What was this review about again, oh yes, doughnuts, I mean milkshakes. In particular Frijj fresh thick strawberry flavour milkshake as quoted on the packaging. Before dedicating the rest of this review to the strawberry flavoured milkshake in the ... ...other flavours in the standard range:
Chocolate (yummy)
Banana (too sickly for me)
Vanilla (too boring)
White chocolate (never tried as I’m not too keen on white chocolate)
According to the Dairy Crest website Frijj is now the number one selling flavoured milk drink. Primarily bought by parents who want to get their children to drink milk unknowingly (sounds familiar!) and young men that are on the ... more
It’s close to Christmas, we are all about to consume 3 zillion calories in the space of 2 days so I thought I would set you all on the path of righteousness or not as the case will prove.
What was this review about again, oh yes, doughnuts, I mean milkshakes. In particular Frijj fresh thick strawberry flavour milkshake as quoted on the packaging. Before dedicating the rest of this review to the strawberry flavoured milkshake in the Frijj range it is worth mentioning that there are 4 other flavours in the standard range:
Chocolate (yummy) Banana (too sickly for me) Vanilla (too boring) White chocolate (never tried as I’m not too keen on white chocolate)
According to the Dairy Crest website Frijj is now the number one selling flavoured milk drink. Primarily bought by parents who want to get their children to drink milk unknowingly (sounds familiar!) and young men that are on the go. That means I am either immature or need to have a sex change to fit the demographics!
The company also does limited edition Simpson milkshakes. In 2004 this included Crusty the Clown’s banoffee pie (scrumptious), Homer’s raspberry doughnuts and Mr Burns chocolate mint (sounds disgusting, but I haven’t tried it).
The Packaging
This milkshake, like all others in the Frijj range comes in a plastic bottle, a similar size to the old fashioned milk bottles delivered by the milkman. The plastic is squeezable but is fairly sturdy so is unlikely to get damaged on the way home from the shops. The top also has a safety feature in that you have to break the plastic around the outside of the bottle top before you can get to the milkshake inside.
Before venturing inside the bottle I will tell you more about the packaging. The plastic bottle is covered with a plastic label so this isn’t exactly an environmentally friendly product although it does have the recycle label on the bottom of the bottle. Frijj milkshakes are fairly easy to spot in that the labels are white and colour splodges.
The strawberry milkshake label is white and bright pink with the Frijj logo and a description of the product clearly on the front. Turning to the back of the label there is a wealth of information.
Starting at the top, the use by is clearly stated in a white box with a blue border. I bought mine on 19 December 2004 and the use by date is 31 December 2004, so the milkshakes don’t have a long shelf life. However they do contain milk so you wouldn’t expect them to keep long.
Further down the label we find out more about the product. Frijj state:
- made with fresh milk - less than 1% fat - rich in calcium - suitable for vegetarians - no artificial colours - good source of vitamin B2 - Gluten free
The bottom half of the label tells us about the nutritional content of the milkshake, the ingredients and the consumer guarantee, all of which I shall talk about later.
The Product
The label states that the milkshake should be shaken before use. On opening without shaking there is a definite layer of watery liquid so the instruction should definitely be adhered to.
Opening the top for the first time I breathed in the smell of strawberry, but it is definitely of the strawberry cream or strawberry bootlace variety, rather than the real thing. If you love McDonald’s strawberry milkshakes you will love the smell of this.
The candy pink milkshake pours easily from the bottle into my glass. Although the liquid is fairly thick, this should not be confused with ice cream thick shakes as this is a milk based, rather than ice cream based milkshake. To be perfectly honest it does not look very appetising in the glass, but this may be because I don’t actually like milk (not on its own anyway). I usually drink straight from the bottle so as to avoid the reminder that once in a glass the milkshake really does look like thick milk. It sticks to the side of the glass in the same way and moves around the glass in the same way.
So, hiding the glass and going back to the bottle …. It is really easy to drink straight from the bottle. The plastic opening means there are no sharp edges left from foil sealed tops and the bottle opening isn’t too large.
Taking my first sip, the milkshake has a creamy consistency similar to that of melted ice cream. It is very sweet when first tasted but that soon disappears to leave a faint strawberry taste. The reason for not being keen on milk is that I normally get an after taste which I can’t get rid of, but after a few minutes the only after taste is a faint sweetness in my mouth.
Nutrition and the Ingredients
The reason that the milkshake contains very little fat is that it is made with 69% skimmed fat and only 16% whole fat. Presumably the whole fat milk is used to add to the creamy consistency. The milkshake also contains reconstituted skimmed milk powder and skimmed milk powder which, again, will add to the creamy texture.
I contacted Diary Crest as I wasn't sure why the milkshake needed skimmed milk powder and reconstituted milk powder. Their response was that:
"In the process of making FRijj, we reconstitute some of the skimmed milk powder to its original state using water. But we also add some additional skimmed milk powder to give FRijj its creamy flavour and texture. This is why we list both in the ingredients."
The other ingredients are sugar (what a surprise!), modified maize starch, flavouring, colouring and stabilisers. The colouring is beetroot red, sticking firmly to the natural colouring.
The reason for my earlier sarcasm is that my biggest pet hate is products that say they have less than 1% fat but then have lots of sugar in them to make up for the low fat content. This is misleading advertising as far as I am concerned. I don’t drink these as a healthy alternative to other drinks, I drink water if I want to be healthy, however a lot of people would believe that they were getting a fairly healthy product when they are not.
Per 100ml, and bearing in mind that the smallest bottle you get is 500ml, there are 0.8g of fat and carbohydrates make up a further 10.1g. On the plus side there is 3.4g of protein and 100ml’s of the milkshake will give you the 15% of the recommended daily dose of calcium and 11% of riboflavin (B2).
Consumer Guarantee
What I like about the Frijj packaging is that it is very clear where any complaints should be sent. The company states that it is proud of their products and if we are unhappy with the product in anyway we should contact them:
Consumer Care Department Dairy Crest Limited Crudginton Telford Shropshire TF6 6HY
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend the strawberry and chocolate milkshakes in the range, but please don’t buy these thinking they are healthy. The range isn’t unhealthy as you get calcium, there aren’t any artificial colourings and the product does contain milk, but watch out for that sugar.
At £0.85 per bottle they aren’t exactly cheap but nor are cans of fizzy drink these days. I would say that a 500 ml bottle would last at least two drinks as they are a little too sweet to drink all in one go. If you aren’t going to drink the milkshake straight away make sure it is refrigerated as milk goes off quickly and it doesn’t taste nice warm.
Final recommendation: 4/5
One point lost for the sneakiness of leading us to believe that this is very healthy when in fact it is loaded with sugar. Although it is impossible to tell how much, it is 4th on the list of ingredients out of 9 items.
Whoops, missed out the calorie count. Only 61 per 100ml!!! Thanks Jaycee :o)
Advantages: Smooth and creamy taste, Fresh Milk, Less than 1% fat Disadvantages: Vanilla flavour can be hard to find
Once upon a time in a far off country, there lived a little girl called collingwood21. One day, she was sitting at her computer and you would have thought she would have been as happy as can be, and quite contented to stay where she was instead of wanting to run about the world meddling with other people’s property. But as it was, she was a mischievous little girl and could not resist going out into the woods at the back of her house. It was such ... ...until she came to a part of the wood she had never seen before.
Now, in this part of the woods there stood a house, and in this house there lived three bears. There was the Papa bear, who was very big, the mama bear who was middling sized, and the baby bear, who was teeny tiny. But little collingwood21 did not know this, as when she stopped to see who lived in the house, it was empty. All three bears had gone out for their morning walk before coming ...
Collingwood21 21.05.2003 (17.05.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frijj: American Classic Flavoured Milk Shake
Now I have to say I am a bit of a fan of milkshakes and happen to adore MacDonald’s Strawberry Milkshake, so when I seen Frijj (pronounced Fridge) Fresh Thick Milkshakes on BOGOF(Buy One Get One Free) at the BP Garage the other night the temptation was too great, well you know me, put a BOGOF in front of me and it’s almost a cert I’ll buy.
Normally milkshakes are way too fattening but these are a bit of an exception with promises ... ...further I found 0.8g of fat and 61 calories per 100g, good enough for me then.
I bought the banana version and the strawberry version, there was also chocolate variety available but I’m not really a fan of chocolate tasting things, normally a bit too rich for my palette.
Each milkshake comes in a rather odd shaped white 500ml plastic bottle, almost like a silhouette of a woman from the hips to the neck with the waist of course being slimmer, ...
herby30 22.01.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frijj: American Classic Flavoured Milk Shake
Advantages: lovely and thick and creamy Disadvantages: quite a lot of calories ( I think)
Frijj Banana Milkshake
Do you think there are special cows that give banana, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla milk? Well! Some people thought the advert with the cows playing football was real! No it wasn’t me but, it was somebody I know and I’m not saying whom because she will feel really daft!
I was in Alloa Tesco today and you’ve guessed it I bought more BOGOF’s
They are usually about 84p each but I got two for that. Well! Four really as two ... ...trolley You are supposed to save money with BOGOF’s but I always seem to end up buying more as I love a bargain. Can anybody tell me what Frijj means and is it pronounced Fridge (just curious)
Ross (my son drinks this all the time) and I never thought of doing an opinion but it was here in the wastepaper bin in front of me so I thought (as we all do on ciao) Ah! Another opinion!
What does it look like?
It is like a small curvy, hourglass bottle ...
weemam 12.09.2003 (13.09.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frijj: American Classic Flavoured Milk Shake
Advantages: tastes great and many flavours Disadvantages: expensive
Introducing to you... its fresh, its thick... its FRijj. So why has become the UK's favourite milkshake? Here are my thoughts.
Taste
-----
Perhaps the biggest selling point of the drink. If I had to describe it, I would say it was somewhere in between, the sickly ice-cream milkshake from McDonald's and the powder rubbish from Nesquik.
The liquid is thick but smooth, which slides down your throat just slow enough to ensure a strong aftertaste- ... ...milkshakes is that when you vary from flavour to flavour, I find very little distinction between each (am I weird?). However, the differences between the flavours of FRijj are incredibly defining. So what flavours do they produce. They have the usual five, which are
Chocolate, the most popular in Britain
Banana, Strawberry,
Milk Chocolate Extreme, ] Twice the thickness of White Chocolate Extreme. ] normal FRijj.
They also sell limited editions, ...
ChrisCooper 19.01.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frijj: American Classic Flavoured Milk Shake
Advantages: low fat, great taste Disadvantages: none that I can think of
Since joining ciao I have turned into a consumer junkie. No longer content with filling my shopping trolley with the same thing day in, day out, I am now constantly searching for new products and brands to review in search of those elusive VHs. And so when I made a quick visit to sainsbury’s to get some paracetemol on my way to work, I was delighted to find Frijj milkshake and I picked up 2 bottles to treat myself and share the experience with you ... ...planned to be naughty when I picked up not one but two bottles of ‘fresh thick banana flavoured milkshake.’ I’m a big milkshake fan and surprisingly my favourite flavour is – you’ve guessed it – banana! So imagine the pleasant surprise when I read the small print and noticed that infact frijj milkshake is low fat. In fact there’s less than 1% fat. And the bottle goes on to boast that it is made with fresh milk and rich in calcium. My heart sank – ...
nicolemorgan 07.03.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frijj: American Classic Flavoured Milk Shake
