Kev's Snack Reviews

One of the perks of being a food blogger is not just the naughty foods you get to eat, but doing unspeakable things like opening advent calendars before December...the horror! We've all done it before though, right? Luckily on this occasion the calendar in question was more guilt free than eating an entire chocolate filled calendar...that's because it's full of healthy-plant based protein, is gluten and refined sugar free and suitable for vegans. Hurrah! But doesn't that defeat the point of an advent calendar...aren't they meant to be a daily dose of naughtiness leading up to Christmas Day? I'm not sure the answer to that but calendars are certainly getting more fancy these days...you can get Gin, Wine and Beer calendars for around £40 from Iceland, or a large Wine Advent Calendar at Aldi for £50. Because why not spend the festive season sozzled?! Thankfully there's saner options for those of us looking after our health, such as the very dull soun...

A big thankyou to Elizabeth Shaw for sending me this Christmas "Luxuriously Tempting" Biscuit Selection pack to review recently. This is a box containing three packs of unique biscuit varieties; Mint and Cocoa, Coconut and Hazelnut and the very festive...White Chocolate and Cranberry! These are available for £5 from Sainsbury's stores in the Christmas gifts aisle. The White Chocolate and Cranberry biscuits certainly looked the part and are described as "chocolate biscuit with cranberry flavour caramel, cranberry flavour pieces and rice crisps in white chocolate". Cutting it open, you can see the chocolate biscuit layer and red coloured caramel sat above. It's an interesting combination, mixing creamy white chocolate with the more bourbon-like cookie base, and the tartness of the cranberries makes it feel almost like a blackforest flavour? This is offset by the sweet caramel, and the rice crisps bring a nice crunchy element that works well with t...

It took a while but I've finally gotten around to trying the New Cadbury Darkmilk. This is available now from most supermarkets in an Original and Almond variety, and I found this Original one for £1.50 at Tesco Express - a bit more than I'd like to pay for Cadbury chocolate but hey, it's supposedly better quality so maybe it's worth it?! The bar has been billed as a richer alternative for those who like chocolate that's both creamy and dark - a tough challenge it seems. The bar weighs in at 85g and contains a minimum of 40% cocoa solids, substantially more than Dairy Milk but less than a semi-sweet dark chocolate. The presence of milk is of course what sets this apart, hence the name Darkmilk! I really wasn't too excited at the prospect of trying this; I was assuming it might be like the Milka Dark bars  that Mondelez produce in other countries, which although aren't bad they're not what I really want from a bar like this. But it took me by su...

A big thankyou to McVitie's Cakes who sent me this Galaxy Cake Bar Selection Cracker to review recently. It just turned up one morning unexpectedly...always a nice surprise to receive snacks! The Cracker is especially designed for the festive season, containing 11 mini Galaxy cake bars and is available from B&M and Tesco stores. The selection consists of Galaxy Salted Caramel cakes, Galaxy Caramel cakes, Orange cakes and Chocolate cakes. The salted caramel variety contains chocolate sponge cake with a layer salted caramel sat above it - what a delicious combination! Definitely the best from this box, with a nice balance of buttery, salty caramel, moist cake and smooth chocolate. The Caramel cake bar contains smooth caramel and is just as delicious as the salted caramel variety, with sweeter caramel if you prefer that over salted. It's just as delicious and a classic treat. The Chocolate cake bars contains chocolate cake and chocolate cream, which is...

A big thanks to Retrocorn for sending me a variety of new popcorn flavours from their range to review recently. Their popcorn is "popped in Great Britain with traditional British sweets", with classic retro flavours such as Sherbet Lemon, Cola Cubes etc added to it. The popcorn is gluten free and suitable for vegans, and contains 85 calories per half a bag. I do like the bag design - it's colourful and funky whilst also showing off its British credentials. Nice! I was sent a fair few flavours to try but today I'll focus on the Cherry Pips and Cola Cube varieties - both quite novel and different, and not flavours you'd usually see mixed with popcorn! The Cherry Pips flavour is of course combined with crushed Cherry sweets, making for an interesting sweet and sour combination. They have a purple colour and I like that they have been properly incorporated with the popcorn rather than just using a flavoured powder coating. The popcorn tastes great; it...

So M&S recently launched a range of Non Alcoholic drinks perfect for the festive season, from "G and Tee Total" to "Peach & Cranberry Cosmo" and several more. I believe there's also alcohol free bucks fizz and mulled wine too! I thought I'd try one of the flavours - the G and Tee Total Juice. This cost £1.80 and is described as "A refreshing combination of lemon & cucumber. Delicious on its own or add gin for a thirst quenching cocktail". Notice the last bit...add gin?! I thought these were being advertised as Alcohol Free and Tee Total. Make your mind up which marketing angle you're going for. The juice is made from water, pasteurized lemon and yuzu, with some added cucumber extract and sugar. I took a sip whilst out shopping, in much need of refreshment. And very refreshing it is! The yuzu brings a certain sour sharpness that is nicer than lemon or lime alone, whilst the cucumber flavour is faint but adds to the refreshing ...

So as well as the Brussels Sprouts crisps I reviewed the other day, there were two other flavours in the "Christmas Dinner for Sprout Lovers" multipack from Walkers: Pigs in Blankets and Turkey & Stuffing. Both tasty, festive and pretty normal considering! The multipacks are £1 in Sainsbury's, and there's also another Christmas Dinner edition for " Sprout Haters " - with Glazed Ham, Cheese and Cranberry and also Turkey and Stuffing, available from Ocado. The cheese and cranberry ones sound like something I'd try! Back to today's flavours then; the Pigs in Blankets is pretty much smoky bacon, but perhaps with a stronger bacon flavour than the regular variety. It was hard to tell, but they're certainly very tasty and a welcome change after the vegetable-centric (that gets it's green from chlorphyl) Sprout Crisps! As someone mentioned in the comments of the last review, though...the bacon flavour does tend to repeat on you afterwards....