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...

Today's review is rather festive since we are fast entering the Christmas holiday period, it's for a brand I've always loved but don't buy unless it's a special occasion due to the price. Teapigs! Teapigs are well known for their "biodegradable tea temples" and have won Great Taste awards for their range - this particular flavour has won a 2016 Great Taste award. Costing £4.15 for 15 tea temples these contain a mixture of red rooibos tea, natural flavourings, orange peel, ginkgo leaves, orange blossom, cinnamon, ginseng, cloves and safflower petals. They're made in a factory that handles nuts. The instructions advise brewing for 3-5 minutes with water at 100c. But as usual I didn't really pay attention to this and left the bag in my cup for a much stronger drink! The tea is very nice and warming, and not too strongly spicy but gentle and subtle. Almost too subtle for my liking actually. Most of the spicy flavours are in the aftertaste which...

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...

Taking a break from the indulgent foods this festive season, today we have a healthier product, Twinings Cranberry & Blood Orange Herbal tea. This is the perfect drink for the festive season, and a nice way to warm up without loads of calories. I found these teabags in Poundland but most supermarkets stock them I believe. They taste as you would exspect, warming tart cranberry with the sweeter, punchy blood orange, making for a great combination. I added some stevia to mine as I always do with hot drinks, for a hint of sweetness without the calories. I'm constantly sipping on this stuff in these Winter months, it's such a treat in the mornings especially! Also good when trying to watch your caffeine intake before bedtime. Overall, I would highly recommend this Twinings tea, they do a great range in general but this one is particularly suited to the Winter months! 8 out of 10.

I've been curious about this chai tea latte for a while now. I've seen it in tesco for ages, so when it was reduced to 50p recently I decided it was about time I gave it a try! It's a basic milky chai tea, but cold of course. And to be honest it doesn't work very well as a latte drink. Chai tea should be warm and comforting, the spices just aren't as tasty with cold milk. There was a notable lack of tea flavour too. Overall, a pleasant milky drink but a bit lacking in the chai department. I would recommend spending your money on a Costa or Caffe Nero chai instead! RATING : 7 out of 10.

Hello there, it's William here and I'm finally back with a new guest review. Moving away from chocolate (just a tiny bit), I've been wanting to review more teas and other healthier food and drink. Teapigs is a premium British tea brand that offers a range of different teas that us Brits may not have even heard of before, like their oolong tea and today I have a review for you on one of their most recent new releases. Around Autumn last year, Teapigs launched a new range of “naturally caffeine free” teas in a range of new and exciting flavours. This particular tea caught my eye whilst shopping in Waitrose so I bought a box of these (and I also bought the Chocolate Flake tea, which I might review soon). Like the Chocolate Flake tea, this tea has real chocolate pieces in the tea “temples” which make the cuppa taste so much better. Each box contains 15 biodegradable “tea temples” which are mesh bags instead of the traditional paper teabag yet they retain the traditio...