Kev's Snack Reviews

Another quick Spotted In Shops today as a heads up: M&S are NOW DOING CARAMEL AND TOASTED POPCORN SAUCE! Described as "A sweet, buttery and indulgent sauce made with BRITISH condensed milk, cream and butter" - how great does it sound?! Price is £2. They're also doing a Lemon, Gin and Tonic sauce described as "A tart and tangy sauce full of classic, punchy flavour and made with 4% gin". Cheers to that! Price: £2. In other innovations they're also doing Rhubarb and Custard Curd, made specifically with BRITISH rhubarb juice. Hmm I'm sensing a patriotic theme here! They're also doing Rhubarb, Raspberry and Rose Conserve, made with ENGLISH rhubarb and SCOTTISH raspberries, with a hint of rose. I'm not sure I fancy rose in my jam, personally! Something a bit more traditional with a twist, it's Blackberry Bramble and Gin Conserve made with British blackberries and London dry gin. They're also doing 50% lower fat Skinny mousse...

Usually it's random companies that go balls to the wall with weird and wacky new flavours, but this time it's good old "British" institution M&S that have brought out a range of not just any new treats, but a "Taste of the British Isles" range, sure to make any Brexiteer dance with joy. It includes products like the  Sea Salt and Vinegar Caramels shown above. Wrong, just wrong! What next, fish and chip truffles? (they probably do exist somewhere!) In more weirdness, they're also selling not just any nuts but British Beer Coated Peanuts ! Plus they're doing a variety of alcoholic sweets, such as Milk Chocolate Truffles made with Somerset Matured Vintage Cider . Plus a Gin Chocolate Collection for the gin lovers... As well as Craft Beer Fudge ! Plus, Fruity Summer Punch Mallows ... And Rum and Raisin Toffees . Now these sound more up my street! There's also Mocktail Jellies ... And the non-alcoholic and pure Unicorn...

One minute you're talking about a new mini product you'd like to see, the next minute it's in shops...that seems to be how Cadbury's roll these days, since a mini version of everything they make is inevitable now. Yes, Cadbury's iconic Curly Wurly bar is the latest to get the miniature treatment, although they actually did these in 2007 too. Looks more like fishing bait than a tasty snack, right? Not one to let that stop me, I decided to pull the head apart, as helpfully depicted on the wrapper. Hey, I'm just copying Cadbury's example, don't have a go at me! Trying to forget images of crawling bugs in my mind, I took a bite. And they tasted as you'd expect: chewy toffee coated in Cadbury's milk chocolate. They were kind of addictive, I have to admit, although they didn't have much actual flavour, since Cadbury's chocolate isn't great quality these days. I can't help thinking that an actual Curly Wurly would be infinitely ...

There's been a few new coffee varieties from Nescafe recently, from the limited edition Coconut Latte brought out last year to the latest, perhaps more sensible flavour, Toffee Nut Latte. Toffee Nut is a staple flavour of coffee shops so it makes sense Nescafe would do a version too. But is it any good though? It's labeled as a Special Edition, so presumably won't be around forever. There's 8 sachets per box and they're suitable for vegetarians. I made it as directed, producing a very frothy drink. It tasted pretty good; a nice mild coffee kick with plenty of creamy sweet froth. At first I couldn't detect the nut, but eventually there it was - a slight hazelnut flavour with a hint of toffee. It wasn't too bad although was a little on the artificial side, which I guess is no surprise. I later made another cup but this time doubled up on sachets, which produced a far nicer drink...who cares about the extra calories?! Overall, this isn't a b...