Kev's Snack Reviews

A few months back, Nakd launched several new editions in their bar range: Carrot Cake , Peanut Delight and these; Apricot Crunch. They've proven rather difficult for me to find, in fact I've only seen them once and that was in Waitrose! Like all Nakd products, they are of course raw, vegan, dairy free, vegetarian, GM free and gluten free. As well as apricots, dates and cashews, these contain soya protein "crunchies"...something I've never tried before! Opening the wrapper, the bar certainly had a very strong apricot aroma... But the taste was...weird. Now I like apricots but this bar just tasted odd to me, it tasted almost like it had artificial flavouring which is weird since Nakd only use natural ingredients. The protein crunchies provided some nice texture but I can't say they tasted that nice, in fact they tasted somewhat stale - why didn't they use rice crispies instead? Overall, I really wasn't a fan of this at all, it just tasted ...

It's been a while since I reviewed The Primal Pantry range , but they're back again with some new "Paleo Protein Bars" that are not only Paleo Diet friendly, but vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and #fitfam & #macro friendly too! Yes, Primal Pantry are now doing bars made from plant-based hemp protein. I was excited when I saw these because I'm always looking for healthy snack bars with added protein; I'm not a fan of whey protein bars, but I've experimented with hemp and pea protein. These don't contain pea protein though, which is good as it also makes them suitable for the legume allergic amongst us. I found this Cocoa Orange Bar for over £2 - yes you read that right - over £2 for a 55g bar (!) in my local Tesco Express. There's also a Mixed Berries variety which I'll be reviewing later. Opening the wrapper, it looked similar to the regular Primal Pantry bars although with a stodgier, firmer texture. Taking a bite, it...

After trying the new Alpro Dessert Moments: Hazelnut Chocolate I was excited to try the other varieties in the range; rumour has it there's a Coconut one which I haven't been able to find yet, but luckily I did spot this Almond Vanilla version in Tesco over the weekend. It was part of Tesco's revamped chilled Free From section. Like the Hazelnut Chocolate variety, these cost £2 for 4 pots and are vegan, vegetarian, dairy free and gluten free. They contain 30% less sugar than similar chilled dairy-based desserts. The desserts contain 1.7% almond as well as hulled soya beans, natural vanilla flavour and various thickeners in the ingredients. Opening the lid, they looked a bit like cold custard, with a gloopy thick texture. I can't say that's a bad thing! These tasted a bit different from the Hazelnut Chocolate variety, the flavour of the soya beans is more noticeable here and has a slightly odd taste. The vanilla is nice, and the almonds bring a f...

I was ridiculously excited when I spotted these new varieties of Beloved Date Fruit Hearts in Asda recently...I was a huge fan of the originals and so "Cocoa and Berry" & "Rich Cocoa" sounded very enticing. These were on offer of two packs for £1 so I got one of each new flavour. They're vegan, gluten free and nut free. I started off with Cocoa and Berry. The hearts come in a little plastic tray containing 5 pieces. Unlike the regular Date Fruit Hearts they of course had a darker colour due to the addition of cocoa. This variety also contains freeze-dried raspberry powder to give it the berry flavour. The dates were very tasty, as expected, with the rich sticky date flavour complimented nicely with a hint of cocoa. But I didn't really notice the berry flavour at all, it was overpowered by the strong date flavour. These are nice but they do need to up the berry content! The Rich Cocoa were pretty similar in taste; a strong date flavour...

Recently I was offered some samples of the new range of "Triple Toasted" Coconut Chips from Urban Fruit to review, and as a lover of all things coconut I really couldn't say no! These come in two flavours: Sriracha Chilli and Straight Up (aka plain). The Straight Up variety simply contains toasted coconut, coconut nectar & sea salt whilst the Sriracha Chilli contains chilli seasoning, coconut nectar and sea salt. They're vegan and vegetarian friendly, gluten free and contain less than 130 calories a bag. I started off with trying the sriracha chilli, which has a strong flavoursome chilli kick. The chips were very moreish and crunchy; you can certainly tell they're triple baked. For a small amount they certainly packed a nice flavour punch. I really enjoyed these! I was lucky enough to get an extra large piece of coconut in one of the bags...see above! The Straight Up version was nice although I didn't enjoy it as much as the Sriracha ...

Whilst in Aldi over the weekend I spotted a new range of festive chocolate coated almonds...there's some rather unique flavours like Mascarpone White Chocolate, Spiced Chocolate and these: Salted Caramel White Chocolate. I'll be reviewing the latter two shortly but I just had to start with these because although salted caramel is becoming too ubiquitous now, these taste amazing! They cost 99p at Aldi and are described as "Almonds covered in white chocolate blended caramel powder and salt". The fact that these are white chocolate as well as salted caramel is what really sets them apart from your average salted caramel product. The almonds were nice and chunky with a thick layer of the salted caramel white chocolate on each. Taking a bite, I was in heaven...it tastes like Caramac, or rather Salted Caramac, but much better quality! The flavour is creamy, sweet and caramelly with just the right hint of salt. It's like if Caramac bars tasted as good a...

Haribo are back again with another new variety...this follows hot on the heels of Haribo Minions with Banana & Icecream , and Haribo Fairyland  and is a seasonal edition with Christmas flavours. I found a bag for 95p in the Christmas section of Wilkinsons recently. There's some very interesting new varieties: Apple Strudel & Custard Rings, Eggnog Fried Eggs, Cherry Trifle Hearts... As well as Gingerbread Gummy Bears, Apple Strudel Bottles, and Cherry Crumble Rings. Now a few of those do sound a little gimmicky, after all Cherry Crumble is hardly a traditional Christmas dessert...but how do they taste? There were a lot of Cherry Trifle hearts in my bag, so it's just as well that it's a pretty tasty flavour! The "trifle" part presumably is the foam backing, which is nice and pleasant with a creamy vanilla edge, whilst the main part has a nice strong cherry flavour. I have no idea if these Eggnog Eggs actually taste of Eggnog...bec...

When I saw these new Haribo Fairyland I will admit the kid in me let out a squeal of excitement. Not only are they candyfloss flavoured, they come in wonderfully magical unicorn and fairy shapes. They're also for believers only...so put on your best unicorn hat, say a prayer to the fairies and believe...(Unicorns are real!) I found these in Tesco for just under £1 and they contain strawberry candyfloss and strawberry and cream flavour jellies, in unicorn and fairy shapes. Opening the bag they certainly had a magical, sweet aroma... The shapes are brilliant...the unicorn ones especially. There's 4 different ones in total. The candyfloss sweets had a definite candyfloss flavour with a hint of strawberry...it's hard to describe but it's very sweet and kind of comforting. The strawberries and cream ones were also very nice, again, sweet and comforting. After a few sweets I did find myself wanting something a bit sharper and citrusy to break up the f...

When I saw this pack of "Choccers" in Poundland recently I must admit I had to do a double take...at first I thought they were a new variety of M&Ms: the packaging is practically identical. Then after reading the packet I realized they're not associated with Mars at all - they're made by a Spanish company for Sweet Heaven. I'm not sure how Poundland can get away with selling such a blatant copycat product, especially considering the dispute between Mars and Mondelez in Sweden recently (Mars are blocked from selling M&Ms in Sweden, as Mondelez sell a similar product called Marabou M's ). But they're selling these regardless, costing £1 as you might guess, and they're described as "couverture chocolate in a crisp colored shell". Opening the pack, they all looked the same as M&Ms with their bright colours. I poured them into my fancy new star dish from Home Bargains. Taste-wise they were...a bit eh. Super sugary becau...

Chocologic are back with some new products...yay! This time with No Added Sugar Giant Milk Chocolate Buttons, which is good news for anyone avoiding sugar or on a low carb diet. The sugar has been replaced with "alimentary fibres"; dextrin, inulin and oligofructose, as well as the sweeteners erythritol and stevia. As well as these, the buttons of course contain milk. These cost £1.20 for a bag in Tesco which is pretty reasaonable since you get a decent amount (75g) and the buttons are nice and chunky. In fact they reminded me of Yorkie Giant Buttons. Thankfully, they tasted a lot better! When I tried the Chocologic Milk Chocolate Bar last year I felt it had a slight Calender Chocolate taste...well somehow that doesn't seem to be the case here. I don't know if they've changed the recipe, but these buttons were rather creamy and tasty, I certainly scoffed more than a handful! They're a lot less sweet than regular milk chocolate buttons, and a...

Somehow, Haribo Minions are a thing that have passed me by, but I'm aiming to correct that now. What lured me in with these was the promise of banana and ice cream flavours; something a bit different for jelly sweets. I found these in Tesco recently for just under a pound, along with a few other new Haribo sweets I'll be reviewing shortly. What makes these even more special is that one of the new flavours shares the same name as me! Yes, Kevin from Minions has the honour of being banana flavoured! The others are Blueberry Bob, Apple Stuart, Raspberry Dave and Cherry Jerry. Genius naming if ever there was. Some of the flavours also contain an ice cream flavour foam backing...yum! I tried the Banana Kevin flavour first, of course! It had a subtle banana flavour that complimented the ice cream foam quite nicely. It wasn't artificial tasting, thankfully. The Blueberry Bob flavour was also very nice, with a subtle blueberry flavour. Again, no artificial ...