Kev's Snack Reviews

There's been a big coconut water trend over the last few years, loads of different brands are available now, but I've never been a huge fan of the stuff. It has an odd, earthy taste that isn't that pleasant. I'm always looking for something hydrating though because I don't much like fizzy drinks, so when I spotted this True Nopal Cactus Water in Boots it sounded perfect... it's billed as "100% Natural hydration, low in sugars, refreshing fruit taste". It ticked all my boxes! As well as being hydrating, this drink supposedly helps lower inflammation, contains antioxidants and is gluten free and vegan. Basically it has a very light, crisp taste, with a hint of refreshing sweet fruit flavour. It's quite watery and not as earthy as coconut water, so is much easier to drink. I liked it but didn't love it. It's a bit pricey (over £1 for a 330ml carton), so I'm not sure I'd buy it often, but I definitely preferred it to the o

Since these Free From Choc Sticks are on offer at Tesco for £1.50 for a box of three, I thought it about time I review them. I've tried them a few times now, and as much as I love a Magnum I also often enjoy the lighter taste of dairy free ice cream. Like the Toffee Vanilla Cones I reviewed previously, these contain lupin protein so they aren't suitable for anyone with a legume allergy, but they're free of all other allergens including soya and gluten.  Theyre basically a dairy free chocolate Magnum, albeit smaller in size. Theyre coated in "chocolate flavoured coating" rather than real chocolate, which consists of a mixture of coconut fat, sugar and cocoa mass. The ice cream filling is a mixture of lupin protein, maltodextron and coconut fat. They're very yummy. The ice cream is creamy, yet much lighter than dairy ice cream, and feels less heavy on thee stomach. I would go as far to say I prefer them over a Magnum because of the lightness

I've gone off Quality Street the last few years, they're ironically not very quality chocolates anymore and they're sold all year round so they're not that special either, but one thing I used to like about them was that they'd introduce a new variety every few years. My favorite was the Forest Fruits cream they once did, and since then they've had a few others such as Malt Toffees, Chocolate Toffees etc. Gone are the Coffee Creams and Peanut Cracknells that many used to love, replaced with a Milk Choc Block, and now this new, exciting, exotic variety...Honeycomb Crunch. As well as this new variety, they've also updated the packaging design, it looks a little more traditional than the previous incarnation. I suppose I can see why they went with such a pedestrian flavour for a new chocolate, after all Quality Street is a traditional brand and I don't think most older people who used to love it would appreciate anything too fancy. Still, I felt a

I'm not usually one to eat Yogurt, but when I saw this Limited Edition Turkish Delight Flavour Muller Light in Tesco the other day I was intrigued enough to give it a try. It cost 55p and is described as "Turkish delight flavour fat free yogurt sprinkled with dark chocolate with sugars and sweeteners". Quite why it needs both sugar AND sweeteners is a mystery to me... Unfortunately this isn't suitable for vegetarians as it contains gelatin, but if you're following a slimming world plan it apparently contains zero syns. Opening the lid, it certainly had a strong Rose-scented Turkish Delight aroma. There were little specks of dark chocolate dotted through the yogurt, although once I dug in with a spoon I couldn't really taste them at all. I was initially quite taken aback by just how sweet this yogurt was, I haven't really eaten yogurt in years so this may be partly why, and I don't eat many products with artificial sweeteners either. It was

Recently, the Co Op introduced some interesting new varieties into their own-brand ice cream range, there's a few I want to try such as the Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream , but I decided to first try these Cappuccino Ice Creams, or "Luxuries" instead. I just looove coffee and am yet to find a good coffee ice cream so I had high hopes for them! They cost £1.69 for 3 ice creams and are described as "coffee ice cream swirled with Colombian coffee sauce, encased in Belgian white chocolate with cocoa nibs". They're suitable for vegetarians and gluten free, but may contain nuts. Taking a bite I could first taste the sweet white chocolate, it's pleasant enough but not as outstanding as the white chocolate on a Magnum. The cocoa nibs added a nice cocoa crunch, whilst the ice cream has a pleasant coffee flavour, it's not particularly strong but it's nice. The coffee sauce added a further coffee kick, but I do wish there was more of it.

When I posted a pic this new Alpro Cashew Milk on Instagram the other day it caused quite a stir...so much so that my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a try. It cost £1.80 in Tesco which isn't all that cheap, but I'm sure it'll be on a £1 offer in the near future. This milk is of course dairy free and suitable for vegans and vegetarians alike, as well as gluten and soya free. It contains 3.1% cashew nut, as well as sugar, stabilisers and emulsifiers, which is typical for most nut milks. It has 2g sugars and 23 calories per 100ml, and contains vitamins B12, B2, E and calcium. I poured some into a glass to find it had a rather heavy, creamy texture, almost like full fat cows milk. I wasn't expecting this since other dairy free milks are often thin and watery. Taking a sip, I found it to be pleasantly sweet and quite silky, with a distinctive cashew flavour. It's probably the only nut milk I've tried that tastes similar to cows milk

Cadbury have extended their "Marvellous Creations" brand into everything now from pot desserts to ice cream, so it was only a matter of time before they did an ice cream stick too. The first (and only) variety in the range is this Jelly Popping Candy stick, and so far it only seems to be available in The Co Op. I paid £1.60 for it recently and it's described as a "Vanilla flavoured ice cream swirled with raspberry sauce, candy coated milk chocolate pieces and strawberry jelly pieces, covered in milk chocolate with popping candy". Phew, what a mouthful! It looks like a nobbly Magnum gone wrong... Biting into it I could taste the popping candy, it's nice and crackly, not tame like some popping candy chocolates can be. The sauce, jelly pieces and candy pieces add some interesting flavones and textures, although because the ice cream was still quite solid they lost their flavour a little. Still, it's an interesting and fun combination regardless. O

I love Jack Fultons Frozen Food stores, they always have import products you're not likely to see in any other UK shops; I've had a lot of interesting stuff from there over the years! One such product I found there recently was this Galaxy Double Chocolate Indulgence icecream, which comes in small pots that were 4 for £1.  The pots come with a small plastic spoon beneath the lid, which is very handy! The ice cream is a basic chocolate flavour ice cream with swirls of chocolate sauce through it. It looked very inviting! It tasted okay, but it wasn't particularly chocolatey and certainly didn't taste of Galaxy chocolate. I was a bit disappointed to be honest, after all you expect Galaxy to be in there somewhere! It tasted like a regular basic supermarket chocolate icecream, it's the sort of thing Asda would sell in large tubs for a low price. Overall, as novel as it is to see Galaxy in ice cream form, don't be fooled by this, it's very

After finding the new Yorkie Crack It desserts the other day, it didn't take me very long to find this Rolo variety...they were just in a different Tesco! They cost £1.30 for two 90g pots, and I'm sure they'll be on special offer at some point. Like the Yorkie Crack It pots, these contain a layer of solid chocolate, but unlike those they contain a rather more inviting caramel dessert beneath. When I opened the lid, the caramel was actually oozing out from underneath the chocolate topping. I promptly cracked through it with a spoon... It wasn't quite as fun this time around since I'd already experienced the same thing with the Yorkie desserts, but the thought of the caramel dessert beneath was exciting... I'm pleased to say this dessert was a lot tastier than the Yorkie version, the caramel is the perfect gooey consistency, sweet and buttery, and the texture contrasts nicely with the "cracked" chocolate. However, it became obvi

Nestle have recently launched more of their chocolate bars into dessert form, this time with a layer of chunky chocolate above the dessert so you can "get stuck in to the delicious chocolate dessert beneath". Sounds fun doesn't it?! There's two varieties so far, Rolo and Yorkie, but strangely my local Tesco only had the Yorkie variety in the other day. Hopefully the Rolo one is coming soon. They cost £1.30 for two pots of 90g of dessert, although I'm sure they will be on special offer at some point. It's basically chocolate dessert with a layer of set chocolate above it...there were a few grooves in it so I stuck my spoon into them. I must admit it was somewhat fun smashing through the chocolate. Unfortunately, that was where the fun ended. The actual chocolate dessert is quite bland, it's not particularly creamy or chocolatey, just a standard chocolate dessert. I couldn't help but wish I had the Rolo variety instead! Overall, these

Putting chocolate bars into hot chocolate form is standard practice these days...and rarely do they taste like what they're supposed to, so I don't often buy them. However one that did catch my eye was this Bounty Coconut Hot Chocolate with Chocolate Pieces. I wasn't expecting it to taste of an actual Bounty bar of course, but coconut and hot chocolate sounded like a lovely pairing! I found this in Poundland of all places, which is just as well because this stuff usually costs around £1.99 in other shops. You can make the hot chocolate with hot milk or water, milk is of course more indulgent, but I'm not a big milk drinker so I made it with hot water. I used about 5 teaspoons so it was nice and rich. There's milk chocolate button pieces in with the powder, which I don't see the point of since they just melted with the rest of the powder anyway. This is a very nice hot chocolate, it definitely has a slightly tropical coconut flavour which is q

Amongst the recent glut of clearance stuff in M&S I spotted this "The Crazy One" chocolate bar, reduced to 35p. It's one I've wanted to try for a while now, but not at the usual M&S prices (70p or so). It's described as "A milk chocolate bar bursting with butterscotch pieces, toffee popcorn and popping candy". Sounds like a "crazy" combination, right? Like all the bars in M&S singles chocolate range it was s bit on the smallish side...but that doesn't matter if it's tasty! The inner filling was truffle-like in consistency, with pieces of popcorn, butterscotch and popping candy dispersed throughout. I think the outer chocolate had butterscotch pieces embedded in it too. It was hard to tell what was what to be honest because this bar was very sweet and crunchy, but I couldn't really detect the individual flavours. The popping candy was more of a gentle fizzing aftertaste, nice but not too obvious.  Ov

This Caramel Filled Milk Chocolate bar has been around for a while now in M&S, since they brought out the Milk, Dark & White Chocolate bar in fact, but I've never had a chance to give it a try. However last week it was reduced to 75p on a clearance offer so I couldn't not buy a bar! I'm not sure why so much M&S stuff is on clearance right now...maybe people are only buying their Spirit of Summer range (it wouldn't surprise me since it's all they seem to sell now!) Like the other bars in this range it comes with an interesting block design, with grooves as well as blocks. I don't know if it's because it was close to the sell by date, but I didn't I didn't much like this bar at all. The caramel was very grainy, almost as though the sugar in it had crystallized. It didn't taste like normal gooey caramel at all. The milk chocolate was ok, it's the standard milky stuff M&S use on their own label chocolates (wh

I've been eating a lot of chocolate spread recently, which is unusual for me, but I guess I got sucked in by the craze started with the newly launched Cadbury Caramel & Crunchie Chocolate Spreads . After posting about the Cadbury spreads I was contacted by Jim Jams, a company producing spreads with no added sugars, and was asked if I'd like to review their No Added Sugar Chocolate Hazelnut Spread. I'm notoriously moaning about quitting or reducing sugar, so I couldn't refuse to give it a try! Rather than sugar this is instead sweetened with maltitol, which is a type of sugar alcohol that can have "unintended effects" if consumed in excess (and those who've tried it know what I mean!) This may be a blessing in disguise, as it's a further reason not to over-indulge. As well as maltitol, the spread contains 13% hazelnuts, cocoa, milk powder, whey powder and a mixture of palm and rapeseed oil. It's gluten free and contains 494 calories per 100g

Bugles have been around for a while now, sold by different companies in different countries, it seems. They used to be sold by Golden Wonder in the UK in the early 2000's, but disappeared off shelves when the company went bust. However it seems that Walkers now have rights to the brand and have re-launched them with flavours such as Cheese, BBQ and Sour Cream & Black Pepper. I found a large bag of the latter in Asda for £1 recently, and they also had the Cheese variety, plus a multipack of the BBQ ones in a smaller pack format. These are basically horn shaped crunchy corn snacks with a sour cream and pepper coating, and they're verrrrrrry moreish! When I opened the pack I wasn't expecting a lot, but once I started eating I found I couldn't stop, they're so addictive. They're light, crunchy, and with just the right amount of sour cream and pepper flavouring to make them tasty, but without the usual nasty additives like yeast extract or MSG, that corn