Kev's Snack Reviews

Sainsbury's sure do like to create some interesting seasonal teas don't they? Who can forget the Pigs in Blankets and Brussels Sprouts Christmas teas from a few years back? Now they have opted for something that sounds a bit more pleasing to the palate, combining the flavours of Rooibos tea, orange, lemon and spice to give that Hot Cross Bun flavour. These cost £1 a box. I'm glad they used Rooibos tea for this as it's a milder, less harsh tea that works well with fruit and spices. I was actually very surprised by this - beyond the novelty aspect it's very nice! There's a strong flavour of citrus, which is the most dominant taste and there's the gentle flavour of spices in there too. It's as close to hot cross bun in tea form as you're going to get, I suspect. Not bad at all! I've tried it both with and without milk and although it's better with milk, it's lovely without it too. Overall, a nice refreshing tea that will be very wel...

You may have seen my Instgaram post on these last week so I won't bore you with too many details. They were kindly gifted to me by a PR company and are now available in the chiller cabinets of Sainsbury's stores (not all stores may have them so be sure to check with staff if they don't). They cost £2 per box of 4 and consist of a chocolate sponge cake base, topped with a coconut flavour mousse, and coated in milk chocolate. If you love all things coconut you're bound to love these, they combine cake with creamy sweet coconut mousse - what's not to like?! Unless you hate coconut of course haha. In fact I'd say they're a tad more interesting than actual Bounty bars since they're not as dry, and the different tastes and textures make for more of an “experience”. They reminded me somewhat of those coconut mallow biscuits, but much nicer. If you like coconut cakey sorts of things, check these out in the chiller aisles! I'll keep you updated if othe...

So recently I set myself the challenge of taking one for the team and doing a review of these new novelty Christmas teas from Sainsbury's. Both are available for £1 a box with 20 teabags in each. As well as these I saw some Chocolate Orange, Christmas Spice and Fizzy teas that sounded more appealing and hopefully I'll also review those at some point. I also bought some Teapigs Christmas Tea... but more on that later! The Pigs In Blankets tea is described as "Lapsang souchong teabags with sage and rosemary", which made be shudder immediately. I absolutely loathe lapsang souchong tea, it's the one tea I could never drink more than a mouthful of, and even then I had to spit it out! If you've never tried Lapsang Souchong  before it's basically smoked tea (click link for more info). Now I presume they decided to use such a horrible tea because the smoky flavour is like smoky bacon? The only other ingredients in the tea are sage, rosemary, apple pieces an...

The Montezuma's range seems to be steadily expanding in Sainsbury's stores recently, from the likes of the Absolute Black bar and the Geranium and Orange , and now they're also stocking these Great British Pudding Bars. I picked up the Black Forest Gateau variety recently to see if it lives up to the classic cakey treat. Described as "Dark chocolate with cherry" this cost £1.50 and is currently on special offer. The bar comes foil wrapped, with the classic Montezuma's design of segmented blocks on the upper half and a thicker chunk at the bottom with the Montezuma's symbol on. I like the design, it's a bit different! Taste wise it was a nice fruity rich dark chocolate, with earthy tones. Sweet enough to be palatable (70% cocoa solids) but strong enough to give a good flavour. The cherry pieces enhanced the flavour with a gentle tartness, which complimented the chocolate perfectly. I did feel there could have been more of them, and there were...

All of the major supermarkets now have their own Gluten Free Mince Pies every Christmas, well apart from Morrisons who stock some made by another company, so they won't be included in my Minc Pie-off. Today's battle will be between two supermarkets who are supposedly posher than most, and both of which have an extensive range of Free From products. M&S Made Without Wheat Gluten Free Mince Pies: First up, these are not just any mince pies, they're Marks and Spencer's mince pies and they have pastry stars for lids instead of a regular lid. M&S certainly know how to do it with style! The pies looked very attractive when I pulled the tray out, and the box looks pretty nifty too. These ones aren't dairy free, in fact they're all butter and to be honest this was the main factor that made them so tasty. I did feel a bit shortchanged not having a full pastry lid, but they looked so nice I don't really mind. The pastry tasted lovely; buttery a...

There's a lot of unusual products out this Christmas, from Tesco's Cocoa & Rum Crisps to Marks and Spencers Bucks Fizz crisps ...The Co Op are even doing Christmas Dinner Crisps complete with sprout flavouring! But surely this "Candied bacon and Brussels sprout soup" from Sainsbury's takes the mince pie?! This limited edition will set you back £1.45, is gluten free and described as "A soup with Brussels sprouts, potato, smoked bacon and smoked ham". Sounds delightful doesn't it? I heated it up on the hob as instructed, but you can pop it in the microwave too. It looked kinda horrible to be honest, and didn't smell much better either. I don't know what possessed me to buy this in all honesty as I loathe sprouts - there's no vegetable I despise as much as them. I think I was intoxicated by the novelty value. Of course, it tasted pretty horrible, sprouts in soup form was never going to be very pleasant. The candied ...

A big thank you to One Treat aka Marmey for alerting me to these new Free From Iced Desserts at Sainsbury's recently! I've reviewed quite a few dairy free desserts now and am always on the lookout for more, I do much prefer dairy free stuff for its lightness in taste so I was looking forward to these! They're part of Sainsbury's new rebranded free from range, with new packaging and healthier products. They're gluten, dairy and soya free, suitable for vegans and vegetarians... and pretty much everyone! There's three flavours of Iced Desserts, Strawbery, Chocolate & Vanilla, they didn't have the Vanilla ones when I was there so I'm just reviewing Strawberry & Chocolate for now. The strawberry one is made with water, coconut milk, strawberries, sugar, inulin, coconut cream, dextrose and guar gum. It had a nice, fresh and fruity flavour, but tasted more like a sorbet than an ice cream. The coconut milk gives it an odd taste that's...

Whilst in Sainsbury's recently I noticed they had a few new interesting bars in their own brand range, amongst them this White Chocolate Strawberry Creme bar. As a long time fan of white chocolate I just couldn't say no! The bar cost £1.29 which is very reasonable for a large 180g slab of chocolate. It's also fair trade which means it's good for the old conscience too...double win! The white chocolate contains a sticky strawberry fondant center with 0.7% strawberry...not a lot, but enough to give it an authentic strawberry flavour. The blocks were rather chunky and thick, each one giving a satisfying mouthful of creamy chocolate. I really enjoyed this bar, the white chocolate is comforting and creamy but of course, very very sweet! It's not the best quality white chocolate around but it's pretty decent for the price. The strawberry fondant just adds to the sweetness of course but brings it a refreshing fruity edge, making the bar very sweet over...

Whilst in Sainsbury's recently I noticed they had their own chocolate selection to rival Cadbury Roses and Quality Street. This is a bold move, since they're in the same price range; in fact, they actually cost £1 more. So naturally I expected them to taste just as good or even better in quality... which shouldn't have been too difficult, since both Roses and Quality Street are not good quality any more! Unfortunately they turned out to be very poor. The plain box design set the tone, and the wrappers were all shiny and gauche - the sort of thing you would serve up at a cheap Christmas party. I knew these were going to be disappointing as soon as I set eyes on them! Below are my thoughts on each flavour... Honeycomb Truffle: A bland, overly sweet truffle with poor quality chocolate. Not much else to say about it really! Strawberry Creme: This chocolate was okay and gave a very sweet, artificial strawberry hit. It has a thin layer of strawberry ...

Many thanks to the makers of Peanut Hottie for sending me this jar of their new peanut butter-flavour hot drink to review! Peanut Hottie is aiming to "make a storm in the nation's tea cups" with this drink, which is available exclusively from Sainsbury's. Apparently it's the first peanut butter hot drink on the market, which is surprising to me as I would've thought someone would have tried making one before now! Even more surprising is that it's made in the UK by a British company (not many of those left these days!) using American peanuts. Peanut Hottie is also caffeine-free, suitable for vegetarians, contains no artificial additives or colours, and is under 100 calories per cup. Impressive stuff! I made a cup as directed but added a little milk to make it creamier. This produced a brown, nutty-coloured drink with a slight froth on top as you can see in the pic above. It tasted slightly salty and intensely nutty, but also surprisingly ...

Whilst in Sainsbury's Local recently I spotted a stand bearing these new goodies from Lindt. They're part of a range called "Hello My Name Is..."  that are already available in Germany and from the UK Lindt online store. They're also now exclusively available at Sainsbury's, apparently, and come in 4 different varieties: Caramel Brownie, Strawberry Cheesecake, Cookies & Cream and Nougat Crunch. Each bar comes in a 39g stick format. I chose Caramel Brownie and Strawberry Cheesecake as my first two to sample although will surely return to Sainsbury's soon to try the others! Each bar carries the tagline "Nice to sweet you". Yes, these Lindt bars talk to you! Of course the only thing they would be "sweeting" was my belly, so how did they taste? Hello My Name Is...Caramel Brownie Caramel Brownie: This bar is described as "Filled milk chocolate with caramel and brownie cream with dark biscuit pieces". It taste...