CATEGORY

Packaged Muffins

2007 CHEFSBEST® AWARD FOR BEST TASTE WINNER

Otis Spunkmeyer

What Makes a Great Muffin?

Muffins can be served as part of an elaborate breakfast feast, or they can be heated, spread with butter and served as a nice treat all by themselves. Keep a package of blueberry or chocolate chip muffins in the breadbox with your bagels and English muffins. They’re an excellent on-the-go breakfast for commuters, bringing a soft sweetness that perfectly complements morning coffee, tea, hot chai or hot cocoa. 

Our chefs define high-quality packaged chocolate chip or blueberry muffins as having a golden brown color, a moist appearance and a ratio of 75 percent muffin to 25 percent blueberries (for blueberry muffins) or 80 percent muffin to 20 percent chocolate chips (for chocolate chip muffins). Both types of muffin should have a moderate level of aroma with a complex aroma character that features vanilla, toasted, baked dough, egg, sugar and blueberry or semi-sweet chocolate notes. There should be no off notes detracting from the overall aroma.

Packaged muffins are in taste balance when sweetness is the leading basic taste. Sourness should be low in blueberry muffins and completely absent in chocolate chip muffins. There will be a low level of bitterness that comes from the chocolate in chocolate chip muffins, but none should be discernible in blueberry muffins. Saltiness should be minimal in both muffins.

In the flavor profile for blueberry muffins, blueberry flavor should be the leading flavor with low levels of muffin flavor closely following. For chocolate chip muffins, muffin flavor should lead, followed by chocolate chip flavor. These flavors—at their particular intensity levels—should work together to create flavor-balanced muffins. The muffin flavor character should be complex, yielding toasted, vanilla, buttery, egg and baked dough notes. The blueberry and chocolate chip flavor characters should be moderately complex: The blueberries should seem fresh as opposed to artificial or candied, and the chocolate chips should reflect the complexity of semi-sweet chocolate.

High-quality packaged muffins should have some moisture, but not as much as pound cake. There will be both cohesiveness (when the muffin balls together slightly while being eaten) and adhesiveness (when the muffin sticks to the upper palate and gums), but this is expected only at low levels. The blueberry texture should fall midway between dried and fresh, but the blueberries should not be tough and leathery when chewed. The chocolate chips should have a smooth and creamy texture that is never gritty or sandy. The dissolve should also be moderately long, taking up to 30 seconds to clear the palate after the initial bite and chew.

Product Category Definition

The category judged was defined as blueberry and chocolate chip packaged muffins for the consumer market, not including fresh, low carb, low fat or better-for-you muffins, muffin mixes or other breakfast foods. 

Other Leading Brands:

Hostess, Entenmann’s, Weight Watchers (Blueberry only)