Kev's Snack Reviews

A big thankyou to The Real Coconut by Daniella Hunter for today's review. Daniella's recipes, products and restaurants are dedicated to digestive well-being and as such, these tortillas are grain free, suitable for vegans and gluten free. I was very excited to try them because these are such a unique product, they're like a healthier equivalent of Doritos, so if you have digestive issues or are following a paleo or autoimmune style diet, these might be the thing for you! Isn't it nice to include everyone? :) The chips are made from organic ingredients, and cooked in coconut oil rather than sunflower oil, so there's less of the unhealthier omega 6 fats. They're also made with non GMO ingredients. Of course all that's irrelevant if they don't taste the part, and luckily they're pretty darn addictive! I started with the Himalayan Pink Salt variety which is made with coconut flour, cassava starch, coconut oil, xanthan gum, kosher salt and Himalayan...

Following my review of Ape Vegan Cheese Coconut & Rice Puffs , I thought I'd review their Thai Chilli and Lightly Salted varieties. All are super tasty, but which flavour would I recommend the most? Read on to see my thoughts... Like the other varieties the Thai Chilli is sugar free, vegan, not fried, gluten free and contains coconut oil, as well as coconut flour and rice flour. It also contains spices like chilli, onion, bell peppers and apple powder to give it a natural sweetness. They've definitely nailed the Thai Chilli flavour with this; it tastes authentic and flavoursome, and not sickly sweet like some thai chilli flavoured snacks can. It's subtle and the perfect seasoning for the light crunchy puffs. Taste-wise I would rate this equal to the Vegan Cheese flavour, although I might just prefer these a little more! 8.5 out of 10.  The Lightly Salted variety is also vegan, gluten free, sugar free and not fried. The only added flavouring is Sea Salt, so natu...

A big thankyou to Ape Snacks for today's review, they kindly reached out and offered me some samples from their new range of Coconut & Rice Puffs to try, and as a big fan of their snacks I certainly wasn't going to say no! The last new product they launched were the Chocolate Crunchy Coconut Bites I reviewed over Summer, but I had no idea they had plans to further expand their range. So it was a lovely surprise to see these new Coconut & Rice puffs appear recently! They're like a healthy, vegan, gluten free version of puffed maize snacks without added sugar, vegetable oils, dairy or artificial flavourings - just clean ingredients! You can buy them from Ape Snacks website , plus they're available from Sainsbury's, Ocado.com and WH Smiths. I thought I'd start with the Cheese Flavour, which is special because it's actually dairy free and vegan friendly! How is that possible I hear you ask?! Well, like many cheesy flavoured crisps it uses yeast extr...

A bit of a different review today; something super healthy and suitable for most allergies but still a snack nonetheless, and a very tasty one too! Who knew butternut squash could be turned into crunchy snacks, but apparently it can thanks to Innate "Food In Tune", whose Squares range is now available in Sainsbury's, currently on special offer for £1.35 a pack. As well as Butternut Squash Squares there's a Beetroot variety. They're described as "A well-rounded concerto of heavenly flavours featuring Butternut as the star performer. Butter-nut miss this performance!" - ooh, theatrical snacks! Made with a mix of butternut squash, onion, yellow pepper, almonds, coconut, garlic, lemon juice, salt, turmeric and herbs and spices these snacks are vegan and gluten free, but definitely not for those with nut allergies. They're also Vegetarian Society approved. Opening the pack reveals yellow squares with a curry-like aroma. I took a bite, and w...

Today's review is for a rather special chocolate maker, one I have loved for a long time now but is rather difficult to find in UK shops. A handful of health food stores sometimes sell their bars, and you can also buy direct from Zotter's Austrian website and have bars delivered to the UK. Zotter are an Austrian company making an extensive variety of unique bars, from their famous "hand scooped" range (see my review of their Coconut & Raspberry ) with various fillings, to their Mitzi Blue discs that remind me of UFO's. I was kindly sent a variety of bars to try recently, so a big thankyou to Zotter for the opportunity! I chose varieties from their dairy free vegan varieties, which they make a rather large number of. They even do vegan white and milk chocolates - check out the range if that's your kind of thing! Today's review is for their Xocitto Choco Espresso kit. The box contained several chunky bars of 100% cocoa fine chocolate that a...

Last week I reviewed the Orange and Mint bars from Pana Cacao, but wait...there's more! A big thankyou to the UK importers for sending me samples of the range recently - there's flavours such as Cherry, Strawberry & Pistachio as well as today's review: Fig & Wild Orange and Raw Cacao. Pana Cacao is an Australian company producing raw, organic and handmade chocolates using minimal ingredients and sustainable materials. They're suitable for vegans, dairy free, soy free and use coconut nectar and agarve syrup instead of white sugar. You can find them in the UK in various health food stores, as well as Pana's UK webstore: https://panachocolate.com/uk/shop/ The bars each comes in boxes containing 45g in paper wrappers. Each has an individual design, which I think is a nice touch and makes it feel more special (see above). Starting with the Fig & Wild Orange variety, this contains 14% figs as well as wild orange essential oil, plus spices like car...

As well as the new Dairy Free Peanut Butter Cup Halo Top I reviewed recently, I picked up the Sea Salt Caramel variety as part of the special offer at Tesco (2 tubs for £7). I was tempted by the Toasted Coconut one and will probably try that at some point too, but let's crack on with today's review... The ice cream is soy free, vegan and gluten free, although has been processed in a factory that uses nuts, milk, egg and wheat - so beware if you are sensitive to any of those. It's described as "Sea salt caramel flavour ice cream with sugar and sweeteners". Opening the lid, there seemed to be some nice pockets of caramel tucked into the ice cream. I scooped some into a bowl. It tasted lovely! I preferred this one a lot more to the Peanut Butter Cup variety, it tastes exactly of salted caramel and is the perfect creamy consistency. The texture is nice and light, and the pea and rice protein in the ingredients didn't seem to be as noticeable as in the...

I was recently sent a selection of chocolates from the UK importers of Pana Cacao, an Australian company that produces raw, vegan, organic and handmade chocolate bars without the use of dairy or sugar. Instead they use agave and coconut syrup, cacao butter and raw cacao. Today I'm reviewing the mint and orange bars, which are some of the simpler flavours in the range but very tasty ones indeed. The bars come in recyclable boxes printed with vegetables ink, and each contains a 45g bar with a paper inner wrapper. The chunks have messages printed on, such as "Love your insides" on the orange variety... And "Love the earth" on the mint one: I've tried a few Pana bars previously, and was a big fan so I was super excited to try these flavours... The Orange variety contains raw cacao, dark agave nectar, tangerine and orange oil and spices like cinnamon and carob. The first thing I noticed biting into it was just how fudgey and soft it was, it was more li...

Recently, Tesco Express stores have been selling a range of snacks from Emily Crisps, and one that caught my eye were these Sweet Potato Sticks. They cost £1.10 for a 35g bag. The bag contains both purple and yellow sweet potato chips, sprinkled with sea salt and fried in sustainable palm oil. I opened the bag, and was a little disappointed there didn't seem to be much in it - little more than a handful. I wanted to like them, I really did but they were just somehow lacking. They tasted too greasy, and seemed like they had been overcooked, spoiling any natural flavour of sweet potato. I think they made a mistake in using palm oil rather than a lighter oil like sunflower, and it really shows in the taste. Overall, these were a let down for me and not something I would buy again. I feel they're overpriced for what they are - the larger bags are over £2.50. Have you tried Emily Veg Crisps? Are you a fan? Let me know in the comments! 5 out of 10.

I reviewed Vita Coco Original Coconut Milk last year when they launched it, and am quite a big fan of it now. I buy it whenever it's on special offer and prefer it to most nut or rice based milks, as the taste is fresh and the consistency pretty similar to regular milk. However Vita Coco have brought out a new "Light" version, meaning it is lower in fat. It seems a bit unneccesary to me, but I know people are still concerned about fat even in natural products, so I can see there's a demand for it. I picked up this bottle for £2 on special offer in Waitrose recently. There is half the fat in this version compared to the Original, so the consistency is of course thinner and the taste is not as creamy. I found it very refreshing, just like the original version, but I still much prefer the original. And there's not really much to say about it other than that...it's good for those watching their fat intake I suppose, although IMO I don't think there's ...

When I'm avoiding sugar I do like a good 100% cocoa dark chocolate bar. They're hard to find in most shops, but luckily thanks to Sainsbury's the Montezuma's Absolute Black is becoming widely available - handy for anyone on a low carb diet. But now M&S are here to challenge it with their own version of 100% cocoa chocolate, a Single Origin Fairtrade bar made in Peru. This bar costs £2 for 100g and is available in most of their larger stores. There's a Taste Profile inside the case, which mentions notes of red fruits and honey, as well as a whisky that pairs well this chocolate. Steady on M&S, are you trying to get me drunk?! Make no mistake about it, this is a very, very dark chocolate and one that I imagine is just too much for most folks. It's intense, and has that fruity acidic flavour that is common with unsweetened chocolate. The description of red berry flavours is quite accurate; this does indeed taste strongly of berries, and is quite com...

Today's review is somewhat more healthy than usual, since I've been on a bit of a health kick again recently. I'm a fan of toasted coconut chips to help  stay away from chocolate bars, however my major gripe is usually the price - they almost always cost a lot for a small amount! That was no exception with this new variety from M&S, which costs £1.20 for a little pot. Still I thought I'd give it a try to see how it compares to the likes of Ape Coconut Curls and Urban Fruit Coconut Chips . Unlike most toasted coconut chips these ones still have some of the shell on them, which may be a good thing or not depending on you. I suppose if you're looking for extra fibre it's a plus, but it certainly doesn't make them tastier. They were a bit tasteless to be honest. They were very fresh, I'll give them that, but there was no real toasty flavour. It's almost like they were too scared to toast them too much so they ended up somewhere in between regu...

I'm a big fan of Ape Snacks Crunchy Coconut Bites . When I tried them initally I was a bit iffy but since then I've bought a fair few packs, in fact they're my go-to snack now when I'm looking for something healthy and low in sugar. So I was excited when I saw this new Chocolate variety appear in Sainsbury's Express stores recenelty. It's pretty much the same recipe as the original plain bites, but with the addition of coconut nectar and cocoa powder. Like the original bites these are £1.50 and suitable for vegans, gluten free and the packs says "no added sugar", which I don't really agree with since they contain coconut nectar, which is pretty much a sugar. But hey ho, they're still healthy and lower sugar than most snacks of this nature. They tasted pretty good, with a nice cocoa flavour and a subtle sweetness from the coconut nectar. I wouldn't say they were better than the original variety but they're a nice change and certain...

Recently I read an article in The Grocer about Nim's Fruit Crisps and how they've become so popular they're now being sold in Tesco stores. After spotting some in my local Tesco Express I thought I'd give them a whirl to see what all the fuss is about. They're described as 100% natural, with no added sugar or sweetener, air dried rather than fried and are made in the UK. They're gluten free, dairy free, suitable for vegans, and certified as one of your portions of fruit and veg per day. I can't remember the exact price these were, but it was around £1 or so which is quite a bit for 22g of crisps, so I was hoping they'd be worth it! Opening the bag, I tipped them into a bowl. They looked a bit like fried courgettes, or maybe it's just me?  It was obvious these were 100% natural going by appearances - honestly, they didn't look so great haha! I've tried things like this before - such as Morrisons Carrot Crisps - so with these being fruit...

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 huge thanks to Kind Snacks UK for sending me some of their new bars to review recently, which includes a Pomegrante, Blueberry & Pistachio bar plus today's review: Dark Chocolate Almond & Mint, a bit of a different flavour for a healthy snack bar! Kind bars are all gluten free, dairy free and made with ingredients you can see and pronounce. This particular bar contains a whopping 60% nuts, a lot more than the dried fruits that most healthy snack bars are based on. Described as a "40g Almond & Mint bar with dark chocolate mint flavoured coating", this contains cashews, almonds and honey as well as rice crisp pieces. The bar is chunky, with the nuts looking very plentiful. The honey and glucose syrup binding it make it slightly sticky, and it's easy to split in half. I really enjoyed the refreshing taste of the mint chocolate on this bar, it's very different but very lovely and works well with the savoury nuts. This felt like quite a treat i...