21 May 2012

Party Puffs Cereal (Limited Edition by Sugar Puffs)


There are lots of products available at the moment which are cashing in, I mean celebrating, the Queens Diamond Jubilee and Olympics. Usually this means the Union Jack and other patriotic imagery added to existing products. In other cases, some companies have gone the extra mile and created special editions of their best sellers which makes it a great time to be looking out for limited edition products.

I loved the look of these Party Puffs. It is not just a box of regular Sugar Puffs with a Union Jack flag on it, oh no, this has got added red, white and blue coloured meringue balls. The Honey Monster is also dressed up as a Queen's Guard, which is just too cute. When it comes to cereal I must admit that I love cereals that are full of colourful candy pieces, such as those US cereals like Lucky Charms. I know it's not healthy but it's just so FUN.

So far so good, but this is where this review comes to a crashing disappointing finale. I shook the box as instructed, no doubt to ensure those pesky meringue balls have not all sunk to the bottom of the bag. I poured out a serving. No colourful meringue balls, just a bowl of normal sugar puffs. I took the inner bag out. No meringue balls were visible inside the bag. I poured the bag into a bigger bowl and sifted through. Still no meringue balls! After much searching I found 9, yes a total of 9, meringue balls. In the entire bag! This is what 9 meringue balls looks like in a bowl.


It would have been better if I had not found any meringue balls in the bag, as it could be explained by a mix up at the factory, giving me a regular bag of  Sugar Puffs instead of the Party Puffs. I even checked the description on the box to see whether I had been mistaken about this cereal even containing colourful meringue pieces. Perhaps they had changed the design on the box but not the contents? But no, the front clearly says 'Sugar Puffs with balls of crunchy meringue'. The ingredients lists the meringue as 10% of the ingredients, so in a 320g box that should be at least 32g worth.

I thought I would give Sugar Puffs a call to find out if this was a one-off bad batch, but surprisingly they lack any kind of customer careline information on the packet. The only option you have is to return the product by post if you are dissatisfied and Sugar Puffs will then send you a refund. I was not prepared to package the box up and make a trip to the post office. Instead I returned the packet to Tesco, where I had bought them for £1.99. The customer services lady was excellent, very apologetic and agreed that it was terrible. I received a full refund thanks to Tesco.

I'm sure there is a gag here somewhere about the Honey Monster having no balls, but I certainly won't be buying these again to see whether the next packet is any better!

Let me know if you have had a similar experience with this or any other product.

19 comments:

  1. Just bought a pack of these, poured myself a bowl, and got the same result! Googled 'Sugar puffs meringue review' and found this. What a con!

    DOWN WITH THE HONEY MONSTER! Take note manufacturers...an angry mob is forming.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for letting me know how you found my blog and for taking the time to comment.

    I hope you managed to get a refund for your packet of Party Puffs. I have tweeted the Honey Monster but unsurprisingly I didn't get a response. I am sure that Sugar Puffs will soon be aware of this problem if they are not already.

    DISGRUNTLED CEREAL EATERS UNITE!

    P.S. Love your username :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi there
    I too have been disappointed by the lack of meringue balls in a box of Party Puffs! I found you by googling 'sugar puffs party puffs' and you were the first result.
    I have contacted then via the Sugar Puffs website and shall let you know the response!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, thank you for leaving a comment.

      It's interesting to hear that you have also had the same experience with this cereal. Did you find any meringue balls at all in your box or was it just a very small amount?

      Please do let me know if you get a response from Sugar Puffs. They must realise by now that there is a problem with these Party Puffs and I hope they acknowledge that.

      Good luck :)

      Delete
    2. Well, here we are 8 days later, and still no response from them!
      They obviously don't read their emails!

      I did find some meringue balls in my box, but not many, probably about 15 pieces or so. :-)

      Delete
    3. Hi, thanks for the update. It's awful that they have such limited contact information. I have never had a response from them either.

      Sounds like your box was the same as mine!

      Delete
  4. ha! I'm another one with the exact same issue. I have more than 9 meringue balls, but not many more. Maybe 20? I took photos, I'm going to complain. I'll let you know if I get any response.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 20 balls is still awful in such a big box. I hope you get a reply from them, let us know. I'm still waiting...

      BTW I love your blog! :)

      Delete
    2. Thank you! I will do - I thought it was pathetic. I put all 20 in one bowl of cereal. That was quite tasty, but now all my other bowls will be very dull. Apparently Sugar Puffs have changed a bit since I last had any. BOooo!

      I'm looking through yours now - it's cool!

      Delete
  5. I didnt have any?! The box states that it has a higher calorie content and more sugar than regular sugar puffs but how when they are the same!? i vote we assassinate the honey monster! down with his lies!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, did you tip out the contents and sift through it? That was how I finally found some meringue balls, otherwise I thought it had none too. It doesn't matter anyway, because it's not what we paid for and clearly not what the box is advertising.

      Seriously how long before Sugar Puffs realise that the Honey Monster's balls are missing?!

      Delete
  6. I had the same thing! I don't think my bag has any although I haven't tipped the bag out. I thought they had put the normal sugar puffs in the wrong box. I'll be going back to tescos with them tomorrow! Very disappointing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought there were none in there either, it was only when I tipped it out and sifted through it that I saw the measly 9 meringue balls. The only reason I did this was to make sure it wasn't just the wrong sugar puffs in the wrong box as you say.

      It's not worth the effort though, they are obviously not what you had paid for. I found Tesco's to be excellent when I returned this box, they were very apologetic and couldn't believe it either. The more people that return it the better, maybe then Sugar Puffs will realise.

      Did you buy the Party Puffs recently? I wrote this blog post about two months ago, it's about time that they withdrew this product from the shelves!!

      Delete
  7. I found this site because I was looking to see if they were still available!!
    We LOVED them!!!
    And - must have had at least 100 meringue balls in the box - at least 2 in every spoonful.
    I think I know what's happened though - they are heavier than the sugar puffs, so if your pack is filled from the top of the batch you won't get any balls, if it's towards the bottom of the batch you'll get loads. You might think they'd have worked out how to mix each batch evenly, but I'd say, as it's a temporary product, they haven't quite got the hang of the technology!!
    But don't dispair - if you didn't get any first time round try and get another pack, as I can assure you they are there - and really yummy (in a very sugary way!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, glad to hear that there are some correctly filled boxes out there! I'm sure you are right with your batch theory.

      I don't think these Party Puffs will be available for much longer. There is a similar product available, also made by Sugar Puffs, called "Snowy Puffs". It has the same meringue balls but only white ones. I find them quite often in pound shops.
      Hope that helps, thanks for leaving a comment :)

      Delete
  8. I had 1 in my box. Thats right. One! I too thought they had messed up when packaging with the usual sugar puffs, bu t after reading this site used the seive method. My son said the taste was amazing and we could only dream of what a proper amount could taste like.

    So annoying, especially after we returned the first box due to the bag being open in the box and all the sugar puffs now hardened into a giant block of sugar.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Dan, I think you win for having the least amount in your pack! That is truly dismal. I'd advise you to complain but it seem that the Honey Monster is ignoring us all!
    Thanks for leaving a comment :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I got 3!
    What a disgrace.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!

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