Kev's Snack Reviews

Following on from my review of the new Doisy and Dam D&D's and Ballers chocolates, I thought I'd review their new take on Mini Eggs - a vegan friendly, lower sugar dark chocolate version! You can find these in Holland and Barrett stores for £1.79 or so for 80g. They're clearly positioning themselves as a vegan alternative to Cadbury Mini Eggs, and contain 70% cocoa dark chocolate which has 30% less sugar than the leading market product (Cadbury's). It all sounds good, and thankfully even though I was very disappointed in their D&D's and Ballers range, these surprised me! They have classic Mini Egg style crunchy pastel shells, and the dark chocolate within is quite rich in taste. They're much better than the D&D's which I was surprised by, perhaps the higher ratio of chocolate to shell works in their favour. These are highly nommable, easy to eat one after the other but they do leave you feeling satisfied faster than something more sugary. ...

Easter is a while off yet, but you wouldn't think it to look in most supermarkets. I've lost count of how many times I've heard people say "Easter stuff already?!!" in the Tesco Seasonal aisle! If only they knew that a lot of it was already out even before Christmas... One of the newbies I did pick up before Christmas were these M&M's Mini Eggs, a new addition to the Mini Eggs world, king of which is of course Cadbury Mini Eggs, followed by Orange Smarties and Milkybar Mini Eggs (in my opinion anyway). How would these compare to the greats? You can find these for around £1 in most stores, and there's larger "egg hunt" bags of them in Tesco for £3.50, plus small packets, and there's even a version with a hollow egg. Opening the bag they certainly looked the part - the shells have a nice pastel colour and actually looked better than Cadbury Mini Eggs. Sadly they're a bit disappointing. The chocolate tastes pretty non-...

Just a heads up...Orange Smarties are back in small tubes for a limited period! Stock up while you can! (I spotted these in McColls) And in the meantime, take a gander at my review of Orange Smarties Mini Eggs . Easter is nearly over but you may still be able to find some of these in shops! (try Tesco Express stores where they seem to still have a lot in).

Phew, the Easter treats have been flowing thick and fast this week, with this being my third review in a row of Easter eggs. What can I say - avoiding the sweets during January has made me go a little crazy! As well as Reese's Creme Eggs , Milkybar Mini Eggs  and  Marks & Spencer Jazzie Eggs , another one I had to include on my list to try was this mixed bag of Milkybar and Smarties Mini Eggs, notably available from Tesco but I've also seen it in B&M Bargains. This bag is actually better value than purchasing a bag of Milkybar Mini Eggs and a bag of Smarties Mini Eggs from Tesco for £1 each, as they only contain 90g per bag, whereas for £2 this contains 300g! You really can't argue with that when it comes to sugar. The best thing about this bag is that not only does it contain the lovely Milkybar Mini Eggs, it contains regular Smarties Mini Eggs AND Orange Smarties Mini Eggs , so you're getting the best of all three worlds! And to top it off they're al...

After my excitement over the new Nestle Orange Smarties Mini Eggs being #glutenfree (hurrah!) I further discovered that not only are the regular Smarties Mini Eggs gluten free, but so are their Milkybar Mini Eggs counterparts. Exciting times! I don't know why they needed to put wheat gluten in the originals in the first place - but there you go - it's an odd world we live in. They now contain rice starch, presumably as a bulking agent. These cost £1 and are available from various supermarkets, although I found them in Tesco. They're your typical Milkybar white chocolate encased in a white crisp sugar shell. A simple, sugary and tasty combination! They may not be all that exciting to look at but they sure were very tasty. Sugar is of course the most prominent flavour, followed by milk. The crunchy texture makes them more interesting than just eating plain Milkybar and keeps you reaching for one after the other, making for a very moreish snack. These may not win award...

I never thought the day would come but at last, Smarties have not only made their mini eggs gluten free for this Easter, they have also launched their much-loved Orange Smarties in mini egg form. Hurrah!!! I had vowed not to touch any sweets after New Year's but I just couldn't resist the temptation of these, everyone knows the orange Smarties were the best (hence why Nestle did an Orange Smarties Sharing Tube last Christmas). The eggs are described as "milk chocolate mini eggs in a crisp orange flavoured sugar shell" and the bag weighs in at 90g. I found them for £1 in WH Smiths. Opening the bag, the eggs looked all shiny and glossy with a sweet orangey aroma. Crunching into one I was met with the orange shell, which was strongly flavoured and very yummy indeed. It seemed more prominent than in regular Orange Smarties, probably because of the different proportions, but I'm sure regular Orange Smarties have orange flavoured chocolate rather than shell? A...

Whilst visiting the cinema recently, and in need of a cheap Easter-themed snacks fix, I decided to try these Poundland Mini Chocolate Eggs, their answer to the ubiquitous Cadbury Mini Eggs. I should've known better considering their Chocolate Choccers were abysmal, but curiosity got the better of me... Surpringly, they weren't quite as bad as Choccers, but they were no Cadbury Mini Eggs either. They tasted cheap and sugar laden - the chocolate was of course like calendar chocolate, whilst the shells were just super sweet and pure sugar. They were kind of addictive to munch on mindlessly whilst watching a film, but I could feel my teeth decaying with every bite. Overall, I would recommend just getting a bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs instead. They're not great these days but they're certainly better than these sugar bombs. 5 out of 10.

I spotted these new Black Magic mini eggs in Wilkinsons recently, and for the sake of trying a mini egg that's hopefully a bit richer than the sickly sweet stuff Cadbury's put out I thought I'd give them a whirl. They're £1.50 a bag, and contain foil-wrapped plain chocolate mini eggs with a softer dark chocolate truffle centre. They're pretty bland to be honest. The dark chocolate tastes kinda awful, almost stale and woody as Nestle's dark chocolate tends to be, whilst the filling is just a waxier variation of the same thing. These aren't true "dark" chocolates of course, I forget the exact percentage but I'm sure it was below 50%. The only redeeming feature is that these aren't a sickly sweet sugar overload like Mini Eggs or Creme Eggs. Overall, these are a bit pointless really in my opinion, there's Lindt 70% cocoa mini eggs out there (Tesco sell them) so I'd say stick with those instead if you famcy a dark chocolat...

As many of you may know (well those of us who review snacks as a hobby anyway) Cadbury's Easter products are a bit rubbish now. Creme Eggs no longer use Dairy Milk chocolate (and sales have fallen as a result), sizes have shrunk, vegetable fats have been added, and their Mini Eggs are now a code word for sugar bombs. Nevertheless they're still the gold standard for crunchy coated chocolate mini eggs, they've somehow managed to perfect this Easter treat. I still keep searching for something better quality though. I've tried the Chicky Choccy Mini Eggs from Marks and Spencer ( reviewed by Mrs One Treat here ), which were good quality but still lacked the "it" factor that makes Cadbury Mini Eggs so special. So the search has continued, and has led me to Aldi! These Dairyfine Mini Eggs are one of Aldi's "clones" of famous brands; Dairyfine is clearly supposed to be their version Dairy Milk, so I thought it'd be interesting to see how these...

It seems the Golden Hen has become a bit broody recently and decided to lay some eggs! Yes, it's not even Christmas Day yet but Easter eggs are already in the shops...crazy. Despite the madness of eating Easter eggs in December, I have to say I was rather excited when I found these in WH Smiths over the weekend. For £1 you get 80g of Galaxy mini eggs containing pieces of crunchy caramel, all rolled in a gold coloured coating. The eggs looked very cool indeed, the gold coating creates a nice effect and makes them look more special than your average mini egg. They tasted a bit plainer than they looked however. It's basically creamy Galaxy milk chocolate with some crunchy sugar pieces added...they reminded me of the Galaxy Honeycomb bar that's now been discontinued. They were pleasant, I enjoyed them, but I couldn't help think they're more style over substance. Overall, these are pleasant enough chocolates and I'm sure they'll be very popular thanks to...