Kev's Snack Reviews

Whilst shopping in Morrisons recently I found these Sour Patch Kids Soda Popz on an Introductory Offer for £1.50. Being a fan of the original Maynards Sour Patch Kids (and a lifelong fan of Maynards sweets in general), I had to give them a try. The concept of these is simple but exciting - they're different "pop" flavoured gums which start off sour and turn sweet. The sourness presumably comes from the malic acid sugar coating. The flavours are Cola, Orangeade, Cherryade, Tropical and Apple Fizz and they're all made with natural colours. Taste-wise they were all very nice, starting off sour as promised and then gradually revealing a fruitier, sweeter side. The Cola flavour tasted just like fizzy cola bottles - those famous sweets we all remember from childhood. Infact there seemed to be a surplus of Cola as well as Orangeade flavours in the bag. I'm not complaining, but it would've been nice to have more of the other flavours! The Orangeade flav...

Whilst browsing my Sainsbury's Local I noticed these Haribo Tangastics with Watermelon Slices on special offer, and since they're limited edition I just  had to try them. They're basically regular Haribo Tangfastics with the addition of watermelon flavour jelly slices. For anyone worried they've replaced the sour cherries with watermelon, do not fear, there's still plenty of cherries! The watermelon slices look oddly similar to the cherries though...kind of like a cherry that came out of the machine wrong and ended up stuck together. Taste-wise they were very nice and had a lovely refreshing sour watermelon flavour. The other Tangfastics flavours were all the same as usual, with cola bottles, jelly dinosaurs, rings, gummy bears and cherries. All of them were very addictive and tasty, although I'm not a big fan of the jelly dinosaurs as I think the white foam part spoils them a bit. Overall I think these Tangastics with Watermelon Slices are a fantas...

Just a quick review for these Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Belgian Salted Caramels Selection, as I'm not sure they are even available to buy anymore. I bought these a while ago when I saw them discounted, and wish I had stocked up because they were absolutely delicious! I'm always wary of salted caramel as it can sometimes be too salty, but luckily these weren't, they had just the right balance of sweet and salty, and were very delicious. Left to right: White choc, Dark choc, Milk choc. The dark chocolate ones provided a rich chocolate taste which went wonderfully with the sweet and salty caramel; they tasted very luxurious. The milk chocolate ones were also very nice but perhaps not as good as the dark chocolate. And the white chocolate ones were perfect - there was something about the creaminess from the white chocolate which just worked perfectly with the salted caramel. Overall, these Salted Caramels were amazing and I'm disappointed that they s...

Here we have the Nestlé Orion Studentská Pecet Dark Blackcurrant. I found this Limited Edition in my local European import store, and there weren't many bars left so I quickly snapped one up . From what I can gather online this bar was only produced for a limited period during 2012, and for 2013 Nestlé are doing a different batch of limited edition Studentská varieties (which I'll be reviewing later). Orion is a Czech Nestlé brand that apparently has a lot of history behind it. Studentská bars are part of that brand and they come in Milk, Dark, Cherry, and White Chocolate versions (I've reviewed the White Chocolate Studentská here ).  This Limited Edition version consists of dark chocolate, blackcurrant jelly pieces, peanuts and raisins. The blocks are very chunky, and several have the Nestlé "heart" logo going across them: I like that it was wrapped in foil and paper rather than plastic like most chocolate bars are these days. It...

A hat-tip to Marcus who does the fantastic Choc It Out! video series on Youtube for alerting me to this bar. He found one in Sainsbury's and ever since he mentioned it on Twitter I've been on the lookout for one. Alas, my local Sainsbury's didn't seem to stock them but luckily I found some in the world food's section of Tesco instead. Ion is a Greek chocolate brand with a range of different bars , but the ones available at Tesco were this Milk Chocolate with raisins, almonds and hazelnuts, as well as a plain Milk Chocolate bar. This bar comes in a square block similar to Ritter Sport bars, and each chunk has the word "Ion" printed on it. The chocolate smelled very nice when I opened the wrapper - sweet and milky. Taste-wise it was nice but nothing groundbreaking. The chocolate was milky and rich but also quite sweet. The raisins were tangy, and the almonds and hazelnuts added a nice crunch. But to be honest I didn't think the chocol...

A big thankyou to Monster Sweets who sent me these M&M's recently. You can get most of the M&M's range as well as many American and European snacks from their site here: http://www.monstersweets.co.uk/ I've tried Peanut Butter M&M's in the past, but haven't bought them much since because of the high prices. I wish they were widely available in the UK because I think they taste  amazing , the best M&M's I've ever eaten infact. Why these aren't widely available is a big mystery to me. I guess the UK still isn't ready to accept peanut butter as a mainstream flavour like they do in America. Sigh. These M&M's contain a peanut butter centre coated in milk chocolate and a crunchy coloured shell. Taste-wise they were chocolatey, salty, peanutty, crunchy...and very very moreish! The textures and flavours all work perfectly together and I was left wanting more once I had finished the packet. Overall, these are a great...

When I spotted bags of these Tango Blue Balls sweets in Discount UK, I was intrigued. I'm sure most people have heard of the term "blue balls" before so I needn't explain anything! The picture on the wrapper is supposed to be of two blue raspberries, but considering the name of this product I think they're meant to resemble something else..? The sweets are described as "Blue raspberry flavour chewy bonbons", and are basically hard chewy sugar bonbons with flavourings and colours. The wrapper says "No pain - no gain!" which had me thinking they would be extremely sour. It also describes them as "Tongue painters" as they turn your tongue bright blue, and I can confirm they did indeed have this effect. However they weren't very sour at all so I'm not sure where the "pain" aspect comes in. They tasted slightly of raspberries, but the overriding flavour was of chemicals and sugar. They weren't very pleasan...

It's been a busy few months in new chocolate news. We've had the new Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations bars from Cadbury, Magnum extended their ice cream brand into chocolate bars , and even Nestlé made a bid for extra sales with their 5 finger version of Kitkat . Mars have also gotten in on the act and released this new Maltesers Teasers bar, which is basically the Malteser chocolate from Celebrations in bar form. I've always said Mars should make a Maltesers chocolate bar and I'm surprised it took them this long to be honest! As you can see in this pic the bar is split into weird "bubble sections". I'm not sure what that's all about but it's certainly a unique look for a chocolate bar! It reminded me of the new Aero "bubble shaped" bars. Taste-wise, this bar was very different from regular Maltesers, and actually much nicer in my opinion. As good as Maltesers are I find their crunchiness a little bit annoying, especially whe...

Whilst browsing a local Turkish store I came across this bar of "Ülker Ҫikolata Findikli", which is a milk chocolate bar containing chopped hazelnuts. I'm always interested in foreign brands I've never heard of before so decided to give it a try. Unfortunately I hadn't checked the date and it turned out that it was very close to the sell-by date. It also cost £1.49, which considering the small size of the bar is a lot of money for something that's stale! I seem to be cursed with buying out of date chocolate bars, when will I learn?! Anyway, when I opened the wrapper the chocolate at least smelled very nice. And it looked pretty attractive too with it's gold foil wrapper and interesting shaped blocks: Unfortunately it tasted horrible. The chopped hazelnuts were stale and tasted rancid, completely ruining the bar. I had to throw it in the bin after a few bites. Overall I was very disappointed with this bar, it's such a shame it wasn...

I'm not usually a big fan of chewing gum apart from the fruity ones like Hubba Bubba (technically bubble gum, but I still see it as the same thing!), but when I spotted this Watermelon flavour from Wrigley's 5 I thought it unique enough to try. Wrigley's 5 is a chewing gum range with stronger and more intense flavours than regular chewing gums; I've tried some of their range in the past and thought they were very successful as far as gum goes. This Watermelon flavour was just as good as the others in the range, it had a strong and realistic watermelon taste which was very refreshing. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a nice way to get a breath freshening hit. The flavour is more intense and lasts longer than regular gums, which is exactly what you want if you're buying gum in my opinion. Nothing annoys me more than gum which tastes nice for the first few bites and then loses it's flavour! Overall, I can only recommend this gum, it gives a re...

A big thankyou to  Monster Sweets  who kindly sent me this Ritter Sport Weiss + Crisp (White chocolate and Cornflakes) bar to review recently. Monster Sweets are a company specializing in European and American snacks, and have one of the largest Ritter Sport ranges available in the UK, plus cheap postage to boot! For more info check out their banner on the side of this blog or visit their website here: http://www.monstersweets.co.uk/ I'm a big fan of Ritter Sport's white chocolate - their White Whole Hazelnuts Bar  is perfection - so I had high hopes for this Weiss + Crisp. And it far surpassed them, it was even  better than the White Whole Hazelnuts! Opening the wrapper the chocolate looked and smelled great, with a lovely vanilla hinted aroma (apologies for my dark-looking picture but there was a serious lack of light at the time!). Biting into a piece I was first met with a vanilla hit from the white chocolate - it tasted superbly creamy and...

"Oh no, they've turned them into sweets now!" was my first thought when I saw these Meerkats Jellies in B&M bargains. If you're from the UK I'm sure you'll know what I mean. Meerkats have become a "thing" here thanks to those annoying "Compare the meerkat" adverts (there's even a wikipedia page for them:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compare_the_Meerkat) . As if the adverts weren't enough, they've branched out into soft toys, t-shirts, posters, books and other such rubbish. And now sweets! Despite hating the adverts I grudgingly bought these just to see if they tasted any good. I wish I hadn't bothered because they turned out to be as bad as the adverts! Opening the pack I knew something was wrong because they smelled very chemically. Which is odd, because on the front of the pack it says they contain natural colours and flavours. Yet the ingredients lists several different E-numbers. I never realized E-numbers ...

After reading Grocery Gems review of these new Pots of Joy I've been on the hunt for them ever since. I found the twin packs in the Co-Op, but for some odd reason they didn't have any of the white chocolate buttons variety - the ones I wanted to try the most! So I bided my time, and it's just as well I did because I found them on offer in Asda a few days later at £1 for a 4 pack! Bargain! I bought these and the caramel variety. One thing I wasn't quite expecting, despite reading Grocery Gems' reviews, was just how  small  they would be. There wasn't much more than two spoonfuls in a pot! Before I knew it I'd eaten it all and had to break into a second pot to feel like I'd eaten something (I'm sure this is a trick to get people to consume more!). Taste-wise they were very creamy and smooth, and being white chocolate flavoured they were also quite sweet. A little bit too sweet for me, infact. The white chocolate flavour was nice but I tho...

A big thankyou to Butlers Chocolates who kindly sent me some bars from their extensive range to review back in February. It's taken me a while to get round to reviewing them but they were definitely worth the wait! For those who have never heard of Butlers they are a family-owned luxury chocolatier based in Ireland, and they have 15  "Butlers Chocolate Cafes" in Ireland and 1 in the UK. Their tagline is "purveyors of happiness", and after sampling some of their range I can certainly agree with that statement! Butlers are relatively unheard of here in Britain, although they have a selection box available in Waitrose. They really should be more well-known because their chocolates are all delicious in my opinion! For today's review I'm starting with one of my favourite bars from their range, the Mixed Berry White Chocolate. This bar came packaged in a simple, stylish paper wrapper and the chocolate itself was foil-wrapped. Opening it up I was met...

Yes, you read the title right, these After Eights are mint AND orange flavoured. As in, both flavours in the same chocolate! This odd limited edition flavour is the brainchild of Nestlé Deutschland, and has somehow ended up in B&M Bargains stores in the UK. Opening the box, the After Eights smelled very lovely; they had a familiar dark chocolate and orange aroma. They were in little paper cases like regular After Eight and looked very well presented: The taste was as odd as you would expect. When I bit into one I was first met with a strong zingy orange flavour, which was very pleasant. Then the taste of mint made its presence known, which dominated and ruined the orange flavour. Then the orange taste came back once again. It was almost like it couldn't decide which flavour it wanted to be! The two competing flavours made for a very odd taste experience to say the least. To be honest I didn't really enjoy these After Eights, yet after eating one ...

Here we have the Vanini Bianco. I'm completely new to the Vanini chocolate brand, having only seen a handful of their bars in Tk Maxx, but so far my experience has been disappointing (see my review of the Vanini Cherry ). Luckily that seems to have been an isolated incident and this Vanini Bianco was much better. Vanini describe this chocolate as "...a taste experience worthy of the attention even of the most demanding chocolate lovers. This chocolate is irresistable because of the creamy richness of its ingredients: cocoa butter and premium quality milk, to which is added very little sugar, and the delicate perfumed flavour of Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar". Like the Vanini Cherry, the Bianco comes in a stylish looking box. Opening the wrapper, I was met with a delicious creamy vanilla hit. It smelled amazing! The chocolate looked great too; clean, glossy and with little speckles of vanilla seed in it. The Vanini logo is imprinted onto each block. Taste-w...

Whilst browsing Tk Maxx a while ago this Vanini bar caught my eye, mainly because of the stylish packaging as well as the picture of the cherries. I'm always a sucker for fruity chocolates so I had to give it a try. The chocolate contains 49% cocoa solids and is described as "Fine milk chocolate with black cherries". It's made by Vanini, who are a relatively new Italian brand. They describe themselves thus: "Only the best cocoa bought directly from selected plantations. Long term partnership with the cocoa growers. Direct control of the whole process from cocoa beans to chocolate. Total commitment to excellence". Opening the wrapper, the chocolate looked very impressive - clean, smooth and with the Vanini logo imprinted onto each block. There were some strong cocoa scents coming from the chocolate with a faint hint of cherries. I want to say I enjoyed the taste of this bar, I really do... but I can't. That's because the dried cherries...