Kev's Snack Reviews

Last week I reviewed the new Cadbury Caramel Chocolate spread and it was pretty awesome, so once I'd finished it off I thought why not try this Crunchie variety too. Like the Caramel version it cost £2.25 which isn't too cheap, but it's a special spread so I'll forgive them. This one is a milk chocolate spread with Crunchie bits mixed in. They only seem to be available at Tesco currently but I'm sure other supermarkets will have them in soon enough. Opening the lid I got a strong waft of honeycomb and chocolate, it definitely smelled very...honeycomb-ey! Scooping some out, the Crunchie bits are just about visible mixed in with the spread.  There was only one way to do this...spoon straight into mouth!  Unlike the Caramel spread, this one has a more purer chocolate flavour. There's a lot of Crunchie bits crammed in, they're very crunchy as you'd expect and with a strong honeycomb flavour, making this a very sweet but moreish spread. I tried add...

I tried the Marks & Spencer Salted Caramel Whips way back when, but this Chocolate Fudge variety somehow passed me by since there's been so many other new treats out. However, these were reduced to just £1 a box the other day in M&S so I couldn't resist giving them a try! There's three whips per box with a layer of soft mallow and chocolate fudge above it, coated in milk chocolate and dark chocolate, with a little white chocolate coated fudge piece on top. Like the Salted Caramel Whips, these have an unusual shape and are a bit different to a regular walnut whip. I do like the shape, it's quite fun but it does make the whip difficult to bite into. Taste wise, the mallow is nice and chewy but there was more of the fudge layer overpowering it. The chocolate fudge was nice, with a good fudgey texture and deep chocolatey flavour, and combined with the thick chocolate shell it gives you quite an intense chocolatey hit. The dark chocolate part of the she...

As ridiculous as it's been to have this Spirit of Summer range from Marks and Spencer out wayyyy before Summer even begins, Summer is almost around the corner...and I know of a certain chopsy pal who might even start buying some stuff from them soon...but I thought I'd start early, and get myself in the mood. After all the weather has been pretty pants (at least it has where I am), so what better way to lighten the mood than fudge?! This isn't just any fudge...this is of course M&S Spirit of Summer Cocoa & Pecan "soft Penuche fudge". Penuche is a new word on me, so I googled it to find that it means fudge made with brown sugar rather than white sugar. Here's a more in-depth article about it for anyone interested. For £2 you get 132g of  "a mix of brown sugar fudge with pecan nuts and cocoa", some of the chunks are cocoa flavoured and the others are regular fudge with pecan nuts added. It all smelled very inviting!  Both ...

Fizzy drinks 3 days in a week, blimey I must be setting a new KSR record here! Yes, after trying the new sugar free varieties from Lucozade this week I've also found the time to try this new 7Up Free Mojito, which I found in WH Smiths of all places for £1.79. Not cheap, but then WH Smiths never is! The "Free" part means it's free of sugar, colours and caffeine, and low in calories, but thankfully not flavour... Like all 7Up this is lemon and lime flavoured, but with an added twist of mint to make it Mojito-like.  What can I say, this tastes pretty much like you'd expect from a Mojito 7Up: lemon and lime pop with a refreshing cool minty flavour. It was very nice indeed, I didn't expect mint to work in a fizzy drink but it was actually lovely. I'll happily buy this in big bottles if they ever decide to do them, but I doubt I'd pay this much for such a small bottle again... Overall, a nice refreshing summer limited edition from 7Up, de...

I've been on the lookout for this new Cadbury Caramel Spread for the grand sum of a few days now, ever since my Snacks Warrior pal blogged about it . It seems that new products are a bit slow at making their way up North (probably due to horse and carriages or something like that) but my local Tesco is now stocking this and the Cadbury Crunchie Spread - hurrah! Since these were £2.25 a jar I declined the Crunchie for a date with Caramel...because who doesn't love a bit of caramel?! Described simply as "Chocolate and caramel spread", twisting the lid off I was met with a gorgeous, strong caramel aroma. It smelled divine! The spread is basically swirled in two layers, one is caramel and one is chocolate, although I'm sure the chocolate part was also caramel flavoured.  I scooped some out with a spoon and promptly took a mouthful, no messing about for me! It tasted every bit as buttery gorgeous as I'd imagined...it had a strong butterscotch/toffee like f...

Following on from my review of the new Lucozade Zero Pink Lemonade yesterday, today we have Lucozade Zero Orange. I never thought I'd be so interested in these new zero calorie drinks from Lucozade, after all Lucozade is a high sugar energy drink but the Pink Lemonade surprised me in being so nice that I had to give this one a try too! I haven't had a regular orange Lucozade for years now despite loving them as a child, so how does this sugar free version stack up? Well, it tastes surprisingly similar to regular orange Luzozade to be honest, despite the lack of glucose. Maybe I'm just used to lower sugar food and drinks now but the flavour was spot on, it has that intense zingy orange flavour and somehow feels "heavier" than a regular orangey fizzy drink. It contains orange juice concentrate as well as artificial sweeteners, and has 3.8 calories per 100ml which means it's allowed to be labelled as calorie free (hey, I don't make the rules!) Over...

Apparently this is the year that sugar-free drinks become trendy...who would have guessed that cutting out sugar could become a trend?! Of course, I've been trying to cut back on it for ages now, and according to surveys lots of Brits want more reduced sugar products, so Lucozade have come to the rescue with this new Lucozade Zero. It isn't strictly "sugar free" as it contains naturally occuring fruit sugars, but there's no extra added and it isn't loaded with glucose syrup like regular ol' Lucozade. So what makes it Lucozade then, since the selling point of Lucozade is glucose? To be honest, I'm not sure and I don't really care...this is a mighty refreshing drink! I haven't had pink lemonade in ages as I usually avoid sweetened fizzy drinks, but this doesn't taste like any pink lemonade I've had before, it's actually nicer. It has a lovely refreshing fruity flavour, it's sweet enough but not too sweet. The sweetnes...

I used to bemoan the lack of interesting flavours in UK confectionery, but since I started this blog there's been an ever-increasing range of new, unique and interesting bars finding their way into shops. You have to seek them out, but they are there! The Chocolate Smiths are one company that spring to mind with their endless limited edition wacky flavours (see a review of The Bacon Bizarre here from my SW pal), but one company I never expected to do something so unusual is Montezuma's. I've tried a few of their bars before but I was never too impressed, the quality of the chocolate is good but it didn't quite justify the higher price tags in my opinion. However when I saw this Geranium & Orange dark chocolate bar on offer in Sainsbury's recently I thought this is something I have to try, even though pairing flower oil with chocolate is weird it might also...be nice? After all, Earl Grey tea works like a charm even though it really shouldn't! The da...

So today's review is for something I don't think I've ever featured on the blog before...pizza! The Gluten Free sort, obviously! Pizza is something I've missed very sorely since going gluten free, there's not many good brands of it around and although Pizza Hut and Pizza Express do some respectable options, sometimes you just want one you can pop in the oven at home! So when I found this new Gluten Free pizza from Goodfella's I was very pleased indeed. I bought this on offer from Tesco in the Free From section, I believe it was around £2 at the time. It contains pepperoni, mushroom and ham on a gluten free pizza base with tomato and cheese. Above is what it looked like frozen before cooking... And here's the end result: not too shabby for a frozen pizza! It tasted pretty good, there was a nice amount of mushroom, pepperoni and ham although I did feel it could have done with a touch more mozzarella. In hindsight I wish I'd bought some extra...

There's always something new and interesting in the World Foods section of Tesco, usually the prices are far too high but one that caught my eye that was affordable recently was this Klik Choco Kid bar. When I posted a pic of this on Instagram there was a lot of interest, I didn't realize this bar was so popular, so I thought I'd see what the fuss is about! I love the shape of the bar, removing it from the wrapper revealed a bubbled design, a little similar to the now discontinued Dairy Milk Bubbly bars. The bar contains a milk creme filling, which is presumably what makes it for kids. The actual chocolate was very sweet and like any standard milk chocolate, but the milk creme was even sweeter and overpowered everything else. It didnt really taste of much and wasn't a fine milk filling like what you get in Lindt Milk Creme, but clearly a cheaper recipe. It was ok but not one of the most enbjoyable chocolate bars around. Shame, because it looked so cool! ...

There's a lot of new Free From products coming out in the supermarkets at the moment; Tesco, M&S & Morrisons have all stepped up their game, and as well as gluten free products there's been a lot of new Dairy Free stuff too. Which is handy if you're lactose intolerant or vegan! So bravo to good old Tesco for bringing our this new Dairy Free White Chocolate bar...surely it's the vegan answer to that classic white bar known as Nestle Milkybar?! Opening the wrapper it was certainly remiscent of a Milkybar, with its thin shape and breakable pieces, and a creamy sweet aroma. The chocolate contains maize flour in place of milk solids as well as inulin, maltodextrin, coconut oil and of course cocoa butter. It cost 45p for a 35g bar which is decent value. Taste-wise, well it's not quite the same level of creaminess as a Milkybar but it's a still nice creamy bar in its own right, the cocoa butter makes it very melt in the mouth and it's quite smo...

There's a lot of competition in the "healthy" snack bar market these days, from Nakd, Primal Pantry, Eat Natural, Meridian, etc., but one new brand that caught my eye recently is "Kind Snacks Nuts & Spices". They're a US company that were recently involved in a dispute with the FDA over using the word "healthy" on their products. According to the FDA this is because the bars contain high amounts of fat, even though it's the heathy type of fat from nuts and seeds. Personally I think this is ridiculous, fat isn't unhealthy by itself but rather it's the added sugars that make it unhealthy...still, we must follow these silly "powers that be" I suppose! Although these bars do contain sugars, they're a heck of a lot less than any chocolate bar and even most fruit based snack bars. This "Caramel, Almond & Sea Salt" variety is gluten free, high fibre, contains 63% nuts and is bound together with honey a...

Last year Fox's launched a new range of gluten free gummy sweets under the "Candy Bear" name. I was really excited by these since regular gummy sweets can use glucose syrup derived from wheat (boo!) but these are assured to be completely gluten free (the glucose syrup is instead derived from corn). They Candy Bear range has been in Home Bargains for a mere 50p a bag recently, which is a great bargain but it does suggest that maybe the range is being axed from mainstream stores. I do hope not! I've tried a few varieties including the cool "Ice Burgers" where you can create your own gummy burgers, but sadly there's so pics (I ate them pretty quickly) so these Polar Bears will have to do! They're basically gummy sweets containing extra fruit juice, making them a lot fruiter than your average gummy sweet. They're a bit softer than Haribo, and much more flavoursome and fruity. I really enjoyed them and ate a few too many at once...they'...

I'm a huge fan of anything coconutty, from chocolate to ice cream to coconut milk...but one new trend I'm a little unsure of is coconut "savoury" snacks. I've previously reviewed Ape Coconut Curls which were flavoured with salt and pepper, and although they were ok they were indeed a little odd as a savoury snack. So how does this Itsu version compare?  For £1.10 at Waitrose I got a box containing 17g of lightly salted coconut chips, which really isn't very good value for money. I was hoping they'd be very tasty and good quality for paying so much for so little.  Thankfully they were indeed very tasty. There's 0.5% sea salt which is just enough to give them a nice savoury edge, and they were very crunchy and moreish, but I have to be honest it did feel weird eating something that's supposed to be sweet as a savoury snack. I still think the Crisp Coconut chips from Holland and Barrett are the best around, they're excellent...

After all the gluten free goodness of Coeliac Awareness week I thought I'd start this week with a good old chocolate review...what else?! I'm a huge fan of Ritter Sport chocolate, even though it's hard to source some of the more interesting bars from the range here in the UK. Lidl is the best supplier; they do huge Ritter Sport slabs at a very reasonable price (I'd highly recommend the Praline bar!), but some of the smaller bars are a bit harder to find. By chance, I spotted a load of them in Heron Foods, a discount frozen food store, and they were on offer of two for a pound. This is a ridiculous bargain, so naturally I snapped up a load! One that I'd never heard of before was this 73% Fine Dark bar "with fine cocoa from Ecuador". I do love me some fine dark chocolate so I was excited to try it!  The blocks on this one are very interesting, they're a lot smaller and quite pointy compared to the blocks on an average Ritter sport bar,...

So Coeliac Awareness Week is drawing to a close, but don't worry there's still plenty more Gluten Free reviews to come! Today's treat is this "Made Without Wheat Gluten Free Strawberry Trifle" from Marks & Spencer. It's one of the many gluten free goodies added to their "Made Without Wheat" range recently. I haven't eaten Trifle in years, but it used to be a staple in our household every Christmas. Since I've been gluten free I've gradually started craving it more and more, but alas no supermarkets made a Gluten Free trifle...until now. Thanks, M&S! Please keep up the good work :) This trifle contains all the usual stuff, fresh cream, a layer of creamy custard, strawberry compote, and soft sponge pieces...but gluten free, of course! I scooped out a nice portion into a bowl, I'm not sure how many it's meant to serve, but just over a quarter seemed fair to me... Taking a mouthful, I have to say it tastes jus...

Coeliac Awareness week has nearly come to a close, but you can still expect the Gluten Free reviews to keep on coming...I've got a big stash in the archives! Today's treat is not only Gluten Free, but Dairy Free too and also suitable for vegans. I love Tesco's Strawberry & Vanilla Free From Ice Cream cones , and I always buy them when I'm in the mood for cone ice creams, and recently I spotted a new variety in my local Tesco...Toffee and Vanilla. Straight into my basket they went! Like the Strawberry variety these cost £2 a box, and contain 4 gluten free cones filled with dairy free vanilla and caramel ice creams, a caramel flavour sauce and a topping of toffee pieces. The ice cream is made with lupin protein , which is derived from a type of legume. I'd never heard of it before so did a quick google...apparently it can cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals, so please be wary of these if you're sensitive to legumes and peanuts (click her...

It's Coeliac Awareness Week right now, and although I'm not diagnosed as Coeliac myself I am very sensitive to gluten, so I've been trying out a lot of the fantastic new Made Without Wheat products from Marks & Spencer recently. M&S really are the best at Gluten Free stuff, I find them much better than most other supermarket ranges. They have a great choice of gluten free cakes, muffins, slices, pies, puddings...and more besides. I'm yet to see them do a gluten free pizza though...*hint hint* M&S!  One thing I've really missed since going gluten free, and that you can't find in any supermarket for love nor money is Gluten Free Cheesecake. It's such a simple thing to make, yet no one but M&S has produced one (hopefully that will change!) So I was ridiculously  excited when I found this! It's a baked vanilla "New York Style" Cheesecake with a gluten free biscuit base.  I popped the cheesecake out of its plastic tr...