Chicco Biscuits...A Quality Product at a Quality Price

I do a lot of snacking these days. This is probably a combination of the early morning breakfasts which leave a long time till the late lunches, the long bike rides, and the desire to be as full as possible before settling into a lunch of dried fish or kapenta (or achieving an alternate taste in my mouth afterwards). I often try and get some fritters (a deep-fried dough product; it is sort of a cousin to a doughnut) but, if there aren't any fresh fritters around my next choice is a package of Chicco biscuits.

Chiccos are square cookies and come in packs of two. In Lusaka one pack costs K500 ($0.12ish) so they certainly fit the budget. Every little shop sells them and since there is a little shop every 10 metres along the road they are very easy to get a hold of.

Here are the Chicco flavours in my order of preference:

1. Malt 'n Milk: The creme de la creme of Chiccos.
2. Chocolate: this was the first flavour I had and it remains a favourite.
3. Banana: this is a brand new flavour (exciting stuff!) and is surprisingly good. I thought it would taste like the banana medicine that I'm sure every North American child has had some exposure to, but they actually taste alright.
4. Coconut: this is one of the "original" flavours and I thought it was pretty good. That was, at least, until I discovered Malt 'n Milk.
5. Strawberry: another new flavour. Think of a strawberry wafer except with no icing, just wafer. Then make it significantly thicker. The result is not all that great.
6. Orange: These last two are a toss up because they both taste downright horrible. I have never been a fan of orange cookies, and Chiccos didn't even come up with a reasonable facsimile of something that might taste good. One time a student had some in class (not allowed) and I confiscated it. To make my point I thought I would take a bite or two, but found that one was more than enough for me.
7. Butter: Think of sinking your teeth into a bar of margarine, except one that is hard and is shaped like a cookie. Blech!

So that is my brief introduction to a Zambian product that both tastes good and comes and at a very reasonable price.