Kev's Snack Reviews

Many thanks to Bring Back Banjo Chocolate Bar for once again sending some lovely chocolates my way! I've been sitting on these for a while and unfortunately they melted somewhat. Not because of me sitting on them... but because of the heat-wave we had recently! So my apologies that I can't do these justice...they were definitely intact when I received them. First up is this Peanut Butter bar from Wawel ...that Polish company I'm not best friends with, since I've had a few duff chocolates from them in the past! Maybe they could woo me back with their peanut butter chocolate...? Opening the wrapper I wasn't too excited...not only because of the melted chocolate, but because it had that distinctly "cheap" aroma that Wawel chocolate is known for. Still, I was hoping the peanut butter filling might save it. Looking at the ingredients list didn't offer me much hope...the bar contains vegetable fat, sunflower oil and other nasties. Biting in...

Having tried a few different Wawel chocolates now, I'm starting to learn that they're not one of the best Polish chocolate manufacturers around. My experience with their Cranberry Filled Bar was disappointing, and it was also the case with this "Maciek Adwokat" bar. I bought this because it was very  cheap in Tesco; it was only 39p which is cheaper than a standard chocolate bar from most UK manufacturers. I should have known that cheap chocolate is usually a bad sign though. When I took it to the checkout I was actually asked for ID  because it contains a small amount of alcohol in it. How silly is that? Even the staff member who served me thought it was stupid! Taste-wise, the chocolate was very sugary and cheap tasting, similar to the Wawel Cranberry bar. The filling was also very sweet but had quite a strong alcoholic tang to it. If you like alcohol-filled chocolates you'll probably appreciate this bar, but I wasn't impressed. I don't know ...

Tk Maxx is an unusual store. Despite it's odd jumble-sale like way of storing clothes, it can be a treasure trove for imported and European snacks. When I spotted this Wawel Cranberry filled chocolate bar there recently, the maroon red packaging was tempting me to buy it, even though I've found some of Wawel's chocolates to be poor quality in the past. The bar is described as "Chocolate with cranberry-cocoa filling" and comes in a large 295g block. It cost £1.99. Opening up the wrapper it looked very damaged and was broken into several pieces: Not a good start, although I guess it's understandable since it was imported from Poland. Unfortunately it didn't taste very good at all. The chocolate was cheap and poor quality, with a slightly waxy texture. The cocoa filling was quite plain and tasteless, a characteristic of fillings that rely too much on vegetable fat. The Cranberry jam layer was the only real saving grace - it was nice and tangy, and...

Whilst browsing my local Polish store recently I noticed these Wawel chocolates near the till. For 20p each, I thought there was no harm in giving them a try. Looking at the pictures on the boxes they were in, I assumed the Tiki Taki was coconut flavoured and the Malaga Plum flavoured. I thought their shapes were a bit mismatched with the flavours. The Tiki Taki has an almost hazelnut-like shape, whilst the Malaga has an almost orange-segment-like shape. Left: Tiki Taki                                  Right: Malaga Cutting them open revealed two very different types of filling. The Tiki Taki had a creamy duel-layered praline and coconut truffle type filling: Tiki Taki Whilst the Malaga had some kind of gooey "jam" type filling, with little bits of dried fruit in: Malaga I had no idea what I was actually getting with these, so it was nice trying to guess. Biting into the Ti...