Otis Spunkmeyer Blueberry Muffin

The fourth and final Otis Spunkmeyer muffin is Blueberry. As I said before chocolate has always been my choice of muffin but blueberry is one of the most popular flavours around the world and one that you'll find without fail wherever muffins are sold so it must be a good pairing! 

The now familiar buttery scent was all I could immediately smell once I'd opened the wrapper. Unlike with the Lemon and White Chocolate Muffin I soon smelt the blueberry too, it wasn't as strong as the muffin itself but it was clear that this wasn't a plain muffin - if it wasn't obvious enough from the huge blueberry chunks on the top and dotted throughout! 

Chances are you've read my previous Otis Spunkmeyer muffin reviews so I'll keep the description of the muffin itself to a minimum; moist, light, soft and buttery and despite actually having quite a solid feel isn't stodgy at all. 

Not only were there lots of blueberries but they were huge too. They were lovely and fresh tasting with a real juicy, fruity, natural blueberry flavour. Not only did they really add a delicious flavour to the rest of the muffin but the size of the pieces meant I really noticed the texture change, the slightly chewy chunks shone through the melt in the mouth muffin and I really looked forward to finding the bigger chunks hidden in each mouthful. 

I've really been missing out sticking to just chocolate!! 

Rating 8/10 

Otis Spunkmeyer Lemon & White Chocolate Muffin

Onto the third of the four flavours of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins taking up the top half of my freezer - Lemon & White Chocolate. 

I normally avoid fruity muffins, they sound too much like something that's good for you - if I'm going to eat one I'm after a big, sugary, probably give me diabetes, more chocolate than cake muffin. I know the reality probably couldn't be any further from the truth but the naughtier it seems the better! 

So the Lemon & White Chocolate is another I've always passed on. It's hard to see in the photo (I had to use the flash on my camera, I had a late night muffin craving and the whole house was pitch black!) but there is a scattering of sugar crystals all over the top of the muffin and although they don't stand out against the light muffin a number of large white chocolate chunks too. 

The muffin was lovely and soft, firm but still squidgy and smelt buttery almost like a monster fairy cake. I wasn't looking forward to an overwhelming lemon but it's not too strong at all. The muffins themselves are made with buttermilk and lemon zest so they have that lovely thick, creamy flavour with a delicious subtle lemon that crept up with each mouthful. It made for a good pairing with the white chocolate chunks, again they are nice and big and I really enjoyed the texture change between the soft dough and the smooth chocolate, the large chunks were literally melting on my tounge.  Of the three chocolates used the white is the sweetest by far so while this muffin had less amount wise than the others, it's the right choice combined with the sweet lemon and sugar crystals. The sugar crystals (called Sugar Pearls on the ingredients ooer!) don't add much flavour wise, they're just sugar after all, but add another layer to the texture. A nice, sweet, satisfying crunch on top of everything else and I was pretty impressed. 

I didn't expect myself to rate this too highly but in truth it was very good. It was very moreish and seemed almost light to eat. In my head this is the muffin I'd have for breakfast or a sweet treat during the day whereas Triple Chocolate will always be my filthy, chocolatey, woops I've eaten four, not so guilty pleasure. They're both delicious in their own rights but really can't be compared. 

Rating 8/10 

Otis Spunkmeyer Chocolate Chip Muffin

I posted on Wednesday about how Otis Spunkmeyer very generously sent me 25 muffins, they say it was to make up for the delay in getting back to me regarding stockists close to me, I think it was to shut up my incessant bugging them about my love of the Triple Chocolate muffin. The amazing box they sent me not only contained 10 of my beloved but a mixture of all the other flavour muffins they sell. 

Now I'll be honest, I've never tried any of the other Otis Spunkmeyer muffins - my love of the Triple Chocolate meant I picked that flavour always. So today is my first try of the Chocolate Chip Muffin. I wasn't too worried that I wouldn't enjoy it, the muffin itself more than proved itself previously but I did wonder how the flavour would stand up against my favourite. 

It's another very decently sized treat, no mini muffins here and again it's packed with large chocolate chunks. I've actually gone back to the bag since and this is the muffin with the least amount of chunks in it - some of them have close to double! With the amount of chocolate chunks, I thought that this would smell chocolatey but out of the packet it smelt extremely buttery. As expected the muffin itself had a lovely moist, soft texture though whilst eating, it had a slightly firmer chew and felt denser to hold. 

The muffin had a lovely buttery flavour that was so moreish and again was just right on the richness. I thought this would be a typical chocolate muffin - milk chocolate chips, but this has milk chocolate chunks and dark chocolate chips. I wondered what the difference between chunk and chip was but it became evident once I'd started eating. The milk chocolate chunks are the larger ones on the top - massive,sweet and milky. The dark chocolate chips are around half the size and for good reason, the chocolate used is of a good quality and is a rich, deep dark chocolate, if they were the same size as the milk they'd be too much. It really improves the muffin that decent chocolates are used, rather than just having an overall chocolate flavour it's easy to pick out the two different tastes and the sweet milk and rich dark taste so good with the buttery muffin. 

On the one hand I'm pleased I never tried these first as I'd probably have never got round to trying the Triple Chocolate, but on the other hand I've been missing out and now I've only got three of these left! Eek! 

Rating 9/10.

Otis Spunkmeyer & Triple Chocolate Muffins

Once upon a time there was a girl who was the pickiest eater of all time. There was no breakfast in all the land she liked and so everyday around 11am she became ravenous. So for all of her secondary school years (11-15 years old), everyday, she would have a packet of Nik Naks, a Dr Pepper and an Otis Spunkmeyer triple chocolate muffin from the vending machine. The pickiest eater alive didn't realise and took for granted that when she left school at 15 she wouldn't eat or even see another Otis Spunkmeyer muffin for 10 years. 

Well fast forward 10 years and that fussy eater has grown up into me - I'll eat anything once and have tried some of the tastiest and not so tastiest food the world has to offer but I'm still searching for those triple chocolate muffins. I stumbled across a press release probably about a year ago now, saying that Otis Spunkmeyer (an American company) had teamed up with a company over here in the UK to release their products on general sale - I think they were more catering/schools before. I tried to find them myself to much frustration but I couldn't find them anywhere so I had the bright idea of tweeting Otis Spunkmeyer to find out where I could buy them. There's a reason I'm waffling on - I promise! 

After a few emails and tweets we've come to the conclusion there isn't anywhere near me, but - and this is the reason for the essay - Otis's customer service is absolutely outstanding. You're probably reading this thinking "oh you have a blog it's because you'll write about them" but I was emailing the company under my personal details, my name, address etc. I received an email asking me if anyone would be at home on a certain date and I was completely gobsmacked when a huge refrigerated lorry pulled across my drive on the day and a man appeared with TWENTY FIVE muffins (frozen so they'd last!), ten of which are triple chocolate (as noted "because they're my favourite") "as compensation and to apologise in the delay in getting back to me". Seriously. The 'delay' was around a week and when you've been waiting ten years for something I didn't mind too much at waiting that week. 

Honestly, if this is the American way for customer service they need to bring that over to the UK everywhere. And before there's any confusion, I wasn't sent anything in exchange for a review - there was no mention of the word anywhere, it was purely to make up for me waiting a week for a reply to an email! Amazing. 

Now enough of the praise, on to the long awaited muffin! 

I'll only be reviewing one at a time, I expected after ten years and after the example of other companies (coughCadburycough) that these would be smaller than in my memories, but they might even be bigger! My mum worked somewhere that sold these too and (after stealing a Blueberry muffin for herself) also said "good to see they haven't shrunk them". 

It's a beast! This is a muffin for chocoholics for sure, not only is the muffin itself chocolate but it has milk, dark and white chocolate chunks. There are no chips here - the chunks are huge too. 

They smelt delicious and exactly as I remembered, chocolate heaven. I struggled removing it from the plastic wrapping as it was so moist and soft - they're very squidgy and I ended up with chocolate fingers before I'd even taken a bite. I'm not going to lie, I was scared - I'd built them up so much in my head that I was worried they'd changed the recipe or my tastebuds had changed or I was just remembering wrong, but I needn't have. 

It was perfect. Light, fluffy, airy, moist - you give me a positive adjective and I'll add it to the list! It wasn't dry or stodgy at all and unlike some other cake products I've had recently I didn't reach for a drink at all let alone half way through. The chocolate muffin itself was just rich enough to taste luxurious without being too much for the large size (I'm not going to only eat half!) the huge chunks stay firm, crunchy and really stand out against the soft muffin, the chocolate is a decent enough quality that you can really tell the difference between each one without looking - especially the white chocolate chunks. 

Really this was everything I remembered and more. I'm going to have to try and limit myself so my stash doesn't run out too soon. 

Rating 10/10 

Blueberry, Chocolate Chip and Lemon and White Chocolate reviews to come soon!