Kev's Snack Reviews

Recently, the lovely Monty from Monty Bojangles sent me a fantastic truffle hamper to review. I felt like Christmas had come early! There were truffles of every kind, but the ones I'm going to review first are the Scofflets, which are bitesize truffles available in 100g sharing bags from Waitrose stores. There's three varieties which include a Caramel & Cookie version, but today I'm only reviewing the Sea Salt and Maple & Hazelnut due to my gluten allergy (boo!). Hint of Sea Salt: So lets start with the Sea Salt variety. I wasn't expecting much, because these aren't salted caramel just salt. Salt can either enhance or spoil a chocolate, so how does it blend with Monty's truffley delights? Quite well as it turns out! They're creamy, chocolatey, smooth, melt in the mouth, with the lick of salt adding a moreish edge that enhances the flavour further. They're certainly nicer than your average chocolate truffle, and quite easy to scoff a lo...

I've been trying a lot of dairy free chocolates lately, it's always nice to find more vegan and dairy free options in shops. One brand I've been buying quite a bit of is Seed and Bean, who make a variety of Organic Vegan chocolates in many different flavours. This particular variety contains 70% cocoa solids, and smoked cornish sea salt. It costs around £2.49 in various health food stores as well as some WH Smiths stores, where I bought this one. I do like the blocks on Seed and Bean bars, they're a lot more interesting than your average bar and the cocoa pods are a nice touch. The chocolate is very rich and flavoursome, with a nice melt in the mouth texture. The smoked sea salt gave it a tasty edge, lifting it from average dark chocolate to something a bit more special. I was skeptical initially that the combination would work, but it's actually really nice! I soon demolished a hefty portion of the bar. Overall, if you're vegan, dairy free or jus...

I always love trying a new chocolate bar, if it's new then chances are it's going in my basket...and when I saw this new J.D Gross Sea Salt Dark Chocolate in Lidl it was no exception. This costs £1.29, contains 56% cocoa solids and is dairy free, so is suitable for those who are vegan, although it may contain traces of milk, nuts and soya. I do love the blocks on J.D Gross bars, they're so stylish and look extra special. Opening the foil wrapper, the chocolate had a pleasant semisweet aroma. And it tasted lovely! I almost mistook it for milk chocolate as it's so sweet, but this isn't a bad thing at all...it's quite smooth and somehow the addition of the 0.5% sea salt brings out the smoothness more. It compliments the sweetness and lifts what otherwise might have been an average dark chocolate bar. Overall, this is a surprisingly tasty new bar from J.D Gross/Lidl and one I would buy again if I'm passing by. It's always nice to get more variety of...

I must be honest, I've never much seen the point of this THIN range from Green & Blacks. Their chocolate is already rather thin anyway, all they have done here is made the blocks thinner and flatter, so they're similar to Lindt bars. Maybe that's the idea. Either way, I rarely buy them, although the Salted Caramel variety is pretty tasty I must say. However I'm always game to try a new product, so when I saw this new Anglesey Sea Salt Dark Chocolate variety recently in Sainsbury's, straight into my basket it went! This contains "organic crunchy dark chocolate with sea salt from the Anglesey Coast", contains 60% cocoa solids and is suitable for vegetarians. It also appears to be gluten free and suitable for vegans although it "may contain milk". I'm not sure what I was expecting from this, but I don't think the flavours worked that well. I normally like a lick of salt when it's paired with intense sweetness, such as w...

It was only a few days back that I reviewed Posh Bits Cocoa Raspberry and hoped to find the Sea Salt variety, well it seems Tesco answered my prayers straightaway because the next day I found these in their Free From Section. Hurrah! Tesco now stock these as well as Cocoa Raspberry and Cocoa Mandarin . They cost £2.75 and of course are raw, vegan, gluten free and dairy free. Here's the ingredients...it's quite a simple list, like all Nakd products. I'm not sure what I was expecting from these, really...I know what salted caramel tastes like so was half expecting something similar. Maybe it's a subconscious thing since salted caramel is becoming so ubiquitous as a flavour these days. There were little flecks of the sea salt just visible on the Bits. Like the other varieties they come in heart, diamond and dome shapes. And they tasted lovely! I was a bit wary initially they might taste weird with the added salt, but if anything it enhanced the sweet flavour ...

There's a lot of competition in the "healthy" snack bar market these days, from Nakd, Primal Pantry, Eat Natural, Meridian, etc., but one new brand that caught my eye recently is "Kind Snacks Nuts & Spices". They're a US company that were recently involved in a dispute with the FDA over using the word "healthy" on their products. According to the FDA this is because the bars contain high amounts of fat, even though it's the heathy type of fat from nuts and seeds. Personally I think this is ridiculous, fat isn't unhealthy by itself but rather it's the added sugars that make it unhealthy...still, we must follow these silly "powers that be" I suppose! Although these bars do contain sugars, they're a heck of a lot less than any chocolate bar and even most fruit based snack bars. This "Caramel, Almond & Sea Salt" variety is gluten free, high fibre, contains 63% nuts and is bound together with honey a...

Many thanks to Beech's Fine Chocolates who recently sent me some bars from their new bar range to review. I was excited to receive them as I've been curious about Beech's Chocolates for ages now...I always see them in local department stores and wonder what they're like. Seems I was missing out! Beech's Fine Chocolates have been making quality Traditional British Chocolates from their factory in the centre of Preston, Lancashire since 1920. Their chocolates are made using only natural colours and flavours, all are suitable for vegetarians, and their dark chocolates are suitable for vegans too. As well as that, all Beech's products are gluten-free! To receive a 15% discount from Beech's Chocolates this month enter code ‘BFC11J1415’ at checkout.  Their bar range consists of Lime & Chilli Dark Chocolate, Natural Ginger Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and Anglesey Sea Salt Milk Chocolate. Each 60g bar costs £1.5...