With an ongoing cost of living crisis in full effect, people are thinking of new ways to save on costs and make their money stretch further by the day.
Many will have took the respectable decision to avoid eating out, as it's cheaper to have your breakfast, lunch and dinner at home more often than not. But by sacrificing this luxury, they also lose the joyful experience of sampling tasty treats only found in high-street retailers.
However, a number of franchised restaurants and eateries have teamed up with Iceland's Food Warehouse, to offer cook at home products said to be identical in taste and presentation to the ones you buy in store for a much cheaper price. For example, Chiquito's, Harry Ramsden and TGI Fridays are just a number of retailers you may spot in the freezers at your local Iceland.
Read more: I visited all 31 Greggs in Newcastle in a single day and it took nearly 11 hours
A big hitter especially in the North East is that of Greggs, who have also teamed up with the supermarket giant to offer punter bake at home goods at a fraction of the usual retail price. But the question begs - are they as good as the ones you can cop fresh in store?
I decided to put them to the test.
Here's what I found:
I was greeted by the premium brand retailers section at my local Iceland almost as soon as I got through the doors. On the left hand side, there were just back-to-back freezers containing goods from Greggs, Chiquito's, Harry Ramsdens, Cathedral City, Yo Sushi...the list goes on and on.
The range of the Greggs freezer in particular is a spectacle to behold. They have all of the classics - your sausage rolls, cheese and onion pasties, sausage and bean melts - but they also have a couple of oddball products you would never expect in a million years, such as Scotch Pies and Nacho Chilli Cheese Bakes.
They've also recently added their gooey melt in the middle cookies to the mix too, available in milk choc-chip and triple chocolate flavours for those with a bit of a sweet tooth.
As a self-confessed lover of Greggs - you show me a Geordie, Mackem or Sand Dancer who isn't and I'll show you an outright liar - I could have bought everything in sight, but I restricted myself to a handful of different items as my fridge-freezer at home wouldn't thank me if I returned with more food for it. It was already at capacity as it was.
In the end, I left with a pack of sausage rolls, sausage and bean melts, vegan steak bakes and triple choc-chip cookies - spending a grand total of £9.75 thanks to a multibuy deal on the rolls and melts, before heading home and banging them in the oven.
Sausage rolls (4 pack) - £2.50 usually but bought as part of the two for £4 deal
Honestly, I had my doubts going into this little experiment as to whether of not the product would be the same or completely naff, and for a true taste teste I needed to try a staple product. Enter the humble sausage roll.
If you buy these in store you'll have to pay £1.20 per roll, or you can get a cold multipack of four for £3. If you purchase the bake at home version from Iceland you'll pay around 63p per item which is half of that. In terms of appearance once baked, there is a slightly noticeable difference between the two products, with the Iceland version coming across as far fatter.
Taste-wise, the two are completely identical though - regardless of if you consume it hot or cold. Flaky pastry, encompassing a large sausage with that signature Greggs taste...it's a winner.
Sausage and bean melts (2 pack) - £2.50 usually but bought as part of the two for £4 deal
Starting off once more with the price point, you'll easily pay around £1.80 for one sausage and bean melt in your local Greggs store, but you get two for an extra 70p from Iceland when left with the pleasure of self-cooking. Again, in my honest opinion, its a bargain from a price point perspective.
It makes no sense to pay 55p more for a product you can have a better experience with elsewhere. By that I mean that you can guarantee your sausage and bean melt is hot when you consume it.
These have been my 'go to' from Greggs for many years, but I have to complain that sometimes (especially towards the end of the day) you'll be left with the unpleasant task of eating one that's freezing cold. The beans congeal, the pastry gets a little soggy...it's just not nice.
If you bake it at home however, you can guarantee that your pasty will be hot and equally as pleasant as a fresh one from your local shop - and the taste is identical.
Another winner in my books.
Vegan Steak Bake (2 pack) - £2.50
The only loser from my Greggs bake at home experience has to be that of the vegan steak bake. I'm not one of these fussy eaters who thinks the normal ones in store are rank - I actually quite enjoy them from time to time, but would always prefer proper beef rather than the Quorn substitute.
But there's something about the pastry that simply doesn't translate in terms of frozen foods.
Appearance-wise, it looks a little paler than the product you would get in store, and taste wise the outer crust is foul.
The filling is also less than desirable - and tastes nothing anywhere near the same as the store-bought version. In this instance, I would much rather pop to my local Greggs to pay a little extra for the real McCoy.
Triple Chocolate Cookies (6 Pack) - £3
I'm fairly certain that cookies are the latest addition to the Greggs x Iceland collaboration, and what a game changer they are.
Wholeheartedly, the best in terms of value of my whole food haul - you get six lumps of cookie dough for £3 which make larger than in-store products when baked. If you were to buy just one of these from your local shop, you would pay somewhere in the region of 80p.
However, with the six pack - you can make your own Greggs cookies for as little as 50p per sweet treat.
In a nutshell, when baked to perfection these come out much larger and fatter that the sometimes stingy store bought goods, but the taste is completely on the same level. Crunchy on the outer core and gooey in the middle, nothing really compares to a good old Greggs cookie - and you'll get the same taste and texture no matter if you head to your local retail outlet or do them yourself through Iceland's offerings.
My only qualm is that they take a little while to set, so you may want to bake them well in advance to avoid disappointment!
Have you tried the Greggs and Iceland products yet? What did you make of them?
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