Kev's Snack Reviews

Today's review is part two of the snacks I was sent to review by Real Handful, makers of deliciously nutritious snacks with "unruly flavours". I've already reviewed their Sea Salt Caremello and Choc Orange bars, but another addition to their range are these new varieties of Fruit & Nut mixes, in both Strawberry and Mint Choc Chip varieties. I started with " Strawberry Stomp ", which contains a mix of almonds, strawberry flavour raisins, juice infused strawberries and sunflower seeds. It's an interesting mix because you don't often find dried strawberries in bagged snacks. Opening the pack there was certainly a strong strawberry "jammy" aroma...it was very fruity! At first I was a bit unsure as I've never had a bag of fruit and nuts like this, my tastebuds were a little confused because raisins shouldn't taste of strawberry! But after tucking in I really started to enjoy them, it's a different taste from the norm and ...

It's been a while now since I first reviewed Real Handful snacks , and since then they have rebranded a little bit. They now produce "unruly" flavours, and are sick of snacks that are "good" or "bad", so instead their snacks are "better". This might sound confusing but I get what they're aiming for - the healthy snacks market can tend to be a bit black and white, but in reality people have so many differing dietary needs it's never that clear cut. They recently offered me some snacks from their new range to review and of course I couldn't say no to that! As well as bagged fruit and nut mixes they've diversified into snack bars, with flavours like Choc Orange and Sea Salt Caramello which I'm reviewing today. The bars are made with a mix of nuts, coconut sugar, rice syrup, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed protein and more. They're a little similar to Nine Bars and are gluten free and vegan, although produced in a factory t...

Today it's Part 2 of my Kind bar reviews, and this time it's their new Pomegranate, Blueberry & Pistachio Bar (click here for the Dark Chocolate Almond & Mint Review ). Consisting of 55% nuts, this bar is gluten and dairy free, although not vegan since it contains honey. It's described as a "40g Pistachio, Blueberry & Pomegranates Bar" and contains cashews as well as almonds, dried fruit and rice crisps. I have to say the combination of blueberries, cranberries and pomegranates works really well! This is a very fruity bar indeed, perfectly suited to the Summer weather. The pistachios go well with the berries, mingling to create an exotic taste. As much as I enjoyed the Dark Almond Mint variety I would say this one was even nicer - the fruits really steal the show! A delicious bar that also happens to be healthy, who'd have thought it? Overall, this is another win from Kind Snacks, who really are shaping up to be masters in the healthy sna...

A big thankyou to the team at Kind Snacks who recently sent me a couple of their bars to review with updated packaging. The particular varieties are Coconut and Almond and Mocha Almond - two of my faves from the previous lot they sent to me! Kind Almond & Coconut: Containing a mixture of almonds, coconut, honey and rice flour, this bar was full of chunky almonds which made it very satisfying to crunch. The coconut gives it that nice mellow tropical flavour, with the honey bringing a light natural sweetness. Overall, a very satisfying and tasty bar! Compared to the previous packaging for this one I do prefer this updated version a lot more - it stands out nicely with the blue colours. 8.5 out of 10. Kind Dark Chocolate Mocha Almond: This is one I didn't get around to reviewing from the last batch that Kind sent me, so here it is! With funky updated purple packaging, the colours certainly fit the flavours on offer. This contains 58% almonds, 18% dark chocolate coating, c...

A big thankyou to the team at Kind for sending me their range of Fruit and Nut and Nuts and Spice bars to review recently...the range is now widely available in UK stores and consists of bars with all natural ingredients, that are dairy free, vegetarian as well as gluten free. There's a lot of varieties in the range, and below are my thoughts on a few that I was sent. Almond & Coconut Fruit & Nut Bar: Containing a mixture of almonds, coconut, honey and rice flour, this bar was full of chunky almonds which made it very satisfying to crunch. The coconut gives it that nice mellow tropical flavour, with the honey bringing a light natural sweetness. Overall, a very satisfying and tasty bar! 8.5 out of 10. Caramel, Almond & Sea Salt Nuts & Spices Bar: This is one I've reviewed already, so be sure to check out my review HERE ! Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt Bar: Containing 60% mixed nuts, honey and a dark chocolate flavour coating (dairy free), this wa...

Recently there's been a glut of reduced price Ritter Sport bars in my local shops and market stalls, I'm not sure why but it's certainly nice to be able to buy cheap and great quality chocolate! One product I've been eager to try for a while and finally got the chance to was this Macadamia bar, part of the "Nut Perfection" range from Ritter, with the "queen of nuts" in apline milk chocolate. I'm a bit funny with macadamia nuts, they have been known to make The Hand swell in the past, so needless to say I was a bit wary of trying this bar! Like all Ritter Sport bars it comes in a perfectly shaped square block with the logo imprinted on each piece. The macadamia nuts are abundant throughout; there's fairly large chunks of them amongst the blocks.  And they really dominated the bar! This is a good thing because you have the buttery flavour of the macadamias complimented by the creamy milk chocolate, rather than the other way ...

Proper Corn have launched a new innovation onto the snacking market...this time it's not popcorn as we know it, but "Crunchcorn", a half-popped corn snack that is "a bit like nuts". These are unlike regular fully popped corn as they still have some of the corn kernel intact, making them denser and crunchier than regular popcorn. There were a few varieties when I spotted these in Tesco, like  Sweet & Smoky Chilli , Salt & Vinegar  and  Rock Salt but I chose the simple but tasty Salt and Pepper variety. These are vegan, gluten free, GM free and unsurprisingly, nut free...so even nut allergy sufferers can enjoy them. Result! When I opened the bag I poured most of it into my fancy new steel snacks bowl that was a...steal (only 39p!) from Home Bargains: Initially I was worried that the half-popped kernels would be hard and nasty like the bits of un-popped corn that you get in every bag of popcorn, but they tasted totally different; they're...

I do love a Ritter Sport bar, and thankfully, they're now becoming more widely available in the UK. I've seen them everywhere recently from the likes of Poundland, Poundworld, WH Smiths, The Co Op, and most main supermarkets too. But on the downside, it seems that Lidl UK have decided to stop stocking large Ritter Sport bars (they confirmed this to me via Twitter), so please go shout at them about it...who knows they may change their mind and start selling them again! Anyway, I found this Ritter Sport Hazelnuts bar in The Co Op for a very reasonable £1. It's one I've seen before but not tried...I've always gone for the whole hazelnuts bars instead. However after reviewing the new Dairy Milk Chopped Nut last week I thought it'd be interesting to see what this one is like in comparison. Like all of the smaller Ritter Sport bars it's a 100g perfectly square block, which is what makes it unique amongst chocolate bars. It's the signature Ritter Spor...

Apparently, the Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut Chopped from last year was a resounding success with the general public and has become the number one selling tablet after Dairy Milk for Cadbury's ...at least according to this press release . It's been so successful that Cadbury's want to repeat that success with a chopped version of the classic Dairy Milk Wholenut. Good idea or not? Let's find out! I have to say I've never been a fan of Cadbury Wholenut in its original form, I do love me some hazelnutty chocolate but I prefer the likes of Ritter Sport for such things, the quality is second to none. So I went in not knowing what to compare this bar to since it could never live up to Ritter. Then it hit me: Milka chopped hazelnut! That's clearly what Cadbury's are going for with this bar, obsessed as they are with making clones of every single Milka bar in Dairy Milk form. Even the mould and blocks of the bar are thinner, meaning this weighs in at ...

So, I'm back on the sugar-free train again, but that doesn't mean I don't have lots of sugar-coated reviews to keep everyone happy in the meantime! As my snacking pal Lucy so helpfully pointed out on Instgram, these Nut Clusters do indeed have the word SUGAR printed in capitals, just in case anyone should mistake them for a healthy snack. Thanks for making it so clear, M&S! I've wanted to try these since I first saw them, but the £2.50 price tag kept putting me off. Eventually I caved, as I so often do with snack products I'm curious about! For £2.50 you get 120g, which doesn't seem like much. The description reads "Roasted almonds, peanuts and cashew nuts in glucose syrup, sugar and sea salt". The clusters have clearly been cut into squares, but as you can see in the pics one has stayed as a rectangle...the [machinery] force was not strong with this one! ;)  The clusters are very crunchy, with the perfect balance of sweet and s...