Kev's Snack Reviews

I'm a quite the fan of plantain chips, and often buy the various flavoured varieties now available from the likes of Tesco and Morrisons, such as spicy, garlic etc. They're usually found in the World Foods sections, so it's nice to see Tesco bringing them more into the mainstream under their Tesco Finest brand. I assumed these were part of their Christmas range but they're situated amongst the other "posh" bags of crisps rather than in the Christmas aisle, so I'm guessing they must be permanent. They cost £1.25 for a 125g bag, are hand cooked, suitable for vegans and made with plantain, sunflower oil and sea salt. Opening the bag, the crisps are in a range of shapes, from the more rounded part of a plantain - which looks like regular potato crisps - to the longer part, which looks like thin strips. They're pretty tasty, but I found them inferior to the other bands of plantain crisps on the market. They're a little oily, probably due to th...

Tesco have quite a track record for unusual crisp flavours at Christmas. Last year they did the tasty Cocoa & Spiced Rum Crisps , this year the weird Candy Cane Crisps , and amongst the seasonal range I spotted this relatively more-normal-but-still-novel flavour, Creamy Brie and Cranberry. I wasn't sure about berries mixed with cheese as a crisp flavour so I went with my curiosity... For £1 a bag these are described simply as "Brie and cranberry flavour crinkle cut potato crisps". Opening the bag they certainly had a super strong cheesy aroma. They tasted super cheesy indeed, as you would expect from brie flavoured crisps! It was quite overpowering - these definitely aren't for the faint of heart and are clearly only for those who truly love their cheese. The cranberry flavor adds a slight sour tartness, it's subtle but you can (just) taste it amongst all the cheese. Overall, these are some cheesy crisps indeed, and I imagine you'll either love...

It's hard to find a good brownie when you're gluten free, but over time there's been an increase in the quality of gluten free products. Costa's Gluten Free Brownie is probably the best, and Aldi's Gluten Free Brownies  are also pretty great too. When I spotted these Tesco Finest Belgian Chocolate Free From Brownies I wondered if they'd be just as excellent - Tesco do have a reputation for some tasty products in their Finest range after all. Containing pieces of Belgian white chocolate, these come in hefty thick chunks and are perfectly stodgy when bitten into - the perfect texture in fact, not too gooey and not too firm. I loved them. Taste wise they were delicious, very rich with a lot of cocoa flavour, and the white chocolate breaking up the taste with hints of creaminess. I really enjoyed these; they felt like a luxurious treat especially for gluten free brownies! Overall, whilst these may not be quite as excellent as the Costa Gluten Free Brownie...

This Christmas it seems to be the year of sweet crisp flavours for some reason. There's the new Kettle Discoveries Salted Caramel & Double Cream - which is actually pretty awesome - as well as these Candy Cane flavour Tesco Finest crisps. Last year we got a Rum & Cocoa Limited Edition from Tesco , which was really nice so I don't know why they haven't kept it this year. Even more so after trying these which were pretty horrible... Described as "candy cane flavour potato crisps" and costing £1 these are available from most large Tesco stores, along with more savoury flavours like Pigs in Blankets and Pulled Pork. They're suitable for vegans, and 100% of the sales will be donated to Fareshare and The Trussell Trust. Opening the bag, they smelled as you would expect: vaguely of toothpaste and not very inviting! They tasted pretty horrible. The flavouring is just a sweet, sticky minty powder, not the sort of thing anyone wants on a crisp. I...

All the festive crisps are out in shops right now, and there's everything from the unusual such as Rum & Cocoa flavour to the more ordinary Salt & Vinegar, then there's Christmas staples turned into crisp form, such as these Succulent Pigs in Blankets crisps. I picked these up in Tesco Express over the weekend for £1, in need of a meaty snacks fix to cope with the busy Christmas crowds. I'm not sure what I was expecting; I suppose just bacon flavour crisps, but they did actually have a taste that was somewhere between bacon and sausage, albeit in artificial form. It was neither one thing nor the other and confused my tastebuds a bit. The crisps were very tasty and moreish, but I couldn't help but wish they were just full on bacon or sausage flavour rather than in-between. I'd also bought some Tesco Finest Beef Steak crisps as well as these, which by comparison were a lot nicer. Overall, these aren't a bad effort and it's nice to see an att...

Today we're back with the gluten free treats, and today's review is this Tesco Finest Gluten Free Luxury Shortbread Selection which is currently available from most Tesco and Tesco Express stores for £4.50 a box. It contains 3 packs of gluten free shortbread biscuits, all of which are suitable for vegetarians. There's clementine flavoured shortbread, which contains mixed peel and spices and has a nice festive flavour going on. The biscuits are a little powdery but the butter stops them from being too dry. 7 out of 10. The cranberry ones contain dried cranberries which give them a nice chewiness, enhanced by the festive spices. I enjoyed these a lot more than the clementine as the sharpness of the cranberry works a lot better with the buttery shortbread. 8 out of 10. The chocolate chip ones were hands down the best of the bunch, containing chunks of creamy milk chocolate that complimented the buttery biscuits beautifully. These were the ones I kept com...

Salted Caramel is the "on trend" flavour for Christmas this year, so it's only fitting we get a gluten free version of it too, in pudding form no less! This makes a lovely change because usually you can only get chocolate gluten free puddings. This Tesco Finest Gluten & Wheat Free Salted Caramel pudding costs £3 and is vegetarian friendly. It supposedly serves two but who are they kidding? This was only going to serve me! I heated it in the microwave as instructed which resulted in a lovely sponge slathered in a glossy, golden salted caramel sauce. It looked and smelled delightful. I took a spoonful... And it tasted amazing! Seriously, seriously good. The salted caramel sauce was spot on; just creamy, sweet and salty enough to not be sickly. The sponge was light and moist and without any hint of dryness. I honestly couldn't tell that it was gluten free. It didn't take long to eat the whole thing, so I have no idea how this should serve two. M...

There's some pretty "out there" Christmas snacks this year, from various alcoholic crisps (like Marks & Spencer Bucks Fizz Crisps ) to Salted Caramel Pretzels, Dark Chocolate Chilli Tortillas , and now joining the table are these: Tesco Finest Limited Edition Cocoa & Spiced Rum hand cooked potato crisps. These cost £1 in Tesco's Christmas aisle, are suitable for vegetarians and gluten free, but contain milk. I was expecting these to taste awful, if I'm honest. I only bought them because they're so unusual! Turns out they're actually weirdly quite yummy! There's a definite chocolatey cocoa flavour coating the crisps, with only a slight hint of rum in the background - blink and you'll miss it. The crisps are quite sweet and have that moreish "sweet and salty" thing going on, that will keep you reaching for more. These may not taste much of rum (which is probably a good thing!) but they're unusual enough to become a ...