Kev's Snack Reviews

I love trying new chocolate bars, especially if they are white chocolate, so I couldn't resist buying this Doisy & Dam "lemon, poppyseed and baobab" bar when I spotted it in a mini M&S recently. The only downside? It was around £2 for a 40g bar! One day my curiosity will make me a very broke man... Perhaps explaining the price is the fact that all Doisy & Dam bars are handmade in Norfolk using all organic ingredients. Respect for that. This one in particularly is gluten free and suitable for vegetarians. I love a good quality white chocolate, moreso when it has lemon in it, but I haven't had one with poppy seeds in since trying Seed & Bean's Lemon & Poppyseed White Chocolate many years ago. So I was rather excited at the prospect of trying it once again! The bar is small and chunky, with the aroma of a good quality white chocolate and hints of lemon. I took a bite; it melts in the mouth at the perfect rate, it's smooth an

I must be honest, I've never much seen the point of this THIN range from Green & Blacks. Their chocolate is already rather thin anyway, all they have done here is made the blocks thinner and flatter, so they're similar to Lindt bars. Maybe that's the idea. Either way, I rarely buy them, although the Salted Caramel variety is pretty tasty I must say. However I'm always game to try a new product, so when I saw this new Anglesey Sea Salt Dark Chocolate variety recently in Sainsbury's, straight into my basket it went! This contains "organic crunchy dark chocolate with sea salt from the Anglesey Coast", contains 60% cocoa solids and is suitable for vegetarians. It also appears to be gluten free and suitable for vegans although it "may contain milk". I'm not sure what I was expecting from this, but I don't think the flavours worked that well. I normally like a lick of salt when it's paired with intense sweetness, such as w

It's been a while since I tried the Deliciously Ella Ginger Energy Balls , which were nice enough, so I thought I'd try the Hazelnut and Raisin variety next. These are available from Waitrose for a hefty £1.89, although they do sometimes get reduced to half that. They're raw, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free, but not nut free. The ingredients consist of dates, hazelnuts, raisins, cacao, cinnamon and cardamom. Opening the wrapper revealed a hefty...er...mound, on a cardboard sleeve. It looked somewhat like Christmas pudding, which is quite fitting since it also tastes like it. The ball was dense and chewy, firmer than a Nakd Bar, with crunchy hazelnuts studded throughout. And it tasted delicious! The hazelnut flavour was very noticeable as was the cinnamon and cardamom, making it taste a lot like Christmas Pudding indeed. More so than Nakd's Christmas Pudding bars, in fact. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I like that it's a bit different

These Haribo Little Cupcakes have been sat there on the shelf in Tesco for a while now, annoyingly calling me to try them. Don't they know I already consume enough sugar to feed a small army?! I finally plopped them in my basket, in need of some weekend sweets. They cost 98p or so, are not suitable for vegetarians and implore you to "create your own delicious cupcake creations with a caramel or lemon biscuit base, finishing it off with either a blueberry, orange, lemon, cherry, vanilla or strawberry topping". Annoyingly, there were no strawberry toppings in my bag, boo! There also seemed to be an over-abundance of biscuit bases to toppings. I do love the idea of these I have to say. It's a lot of fun creating your own flavour combinations, and how cute do they look? The caramel biscuit bases had a strong sweet caramel flavour, with definite hints of biscuit, and they went perfectly with all the toppings I tried. The blueberry in particular was very

Sweet Potato is one of the latest health trends to become mainstream, there's sweet potato versions of many classic potato products now, from baked sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, sweet potato mash, and a lot more besides. But now they're also invading the crisps world, with Tyrrell's launching their version called "my sweet potato". Cute! I chose the Lightly Salted variety in Morrisons recently, which cost £1.50 on special offer and is free from additives, gluten free and suitable for vegans and vegetarians. In fact unless you're allergic to sweet potato, sunflower oil or sea salt there's no allergens at all! These are for you my sweet potato... To fit the "my sweet potato" theme, there's some comedic messages on the pack from a husband to his wife: Hope you're not saying I'm a knobbly old thing... There's even a poem: "My darling, my sweet, with your striking orange complexion, like sunshine through Aut

Whilst in Poundstretcher recently I couldn't help but notice a plethora of imported chocolates, from the likes of Marabou with Oreo , Marabou with Saltlakrits (Salty Liquorice) and these...Limited Edition Orange flavour Daim Minis. They were £2.99 a bag which I felt was a bit pricey, but I caved in and got them anyway. I had to...they're a limited edition! Mondelez have had a track record for messing up some of our beloved UK products, but thankfully it seems their meddling hasn't extended to their classic Swedish brand Daim (yet!). These bars contain 30% cocoa chocolate, and are described as "smooth orange flavoured milk chocolates with a surprisingly crunchy almond centre". They're suitable for vegetarians and gluten free. They tasted like the offspring of a Terry's Chocolate Orange and a Daim Bar...which is a good thing! The chocolate is pretty much the exact same sweet, orangey flavour as Chocolate Orange (before they made the recipe waxy

I was recently sent a snacks hamper from Candyland, who now make Fruit Salad and Black Jacks sweets, amongst others. There were too many goodies to review all at once so I'm starting with some newbies on the gummy sweet scene; Refreshers and Fruit Salad Softies. Both of these sweets as well as Black Jacks were favorites of mine as a child, so I was very interested to see what they would taste like in gummy form. Fruit Salad Softies: Starting with the ones I was most excited about, these are described as "Raspberry and Pineapple, Apple and Blackcurrant soft gums". Not suitable for vegetarians. They tasted pretty darn good! The chewy texture was spot on, not too sticky or too hard, they were somewhere in between mallow like and gummy like. They had the classic Fruit Salad flavour we all remember from childhood, which was very comforting and unmistakable even in this different form. I would most definitely buy these again! 9 out of 10. Refreshers Softies:

When I was informed via Instagram about this new variety of Tyrrell's Poshcorn recently, I just had to try it (I'm like that with new snacks haha!) so I hotfooted it down to WH Smiths. It costs £1 a bag and is gluten free, and also suitable for vegetarians and vegans. Alcoholic flavoured snacks seem to be the "in thing" at the moment, what with M&S doing Bucks Fizz flavoured crisps (review due shortly!), Aldi doing Gin & Tonic crisps, and not to mention the various mojito inspired popcorn varieties. So how does Tyrrell's fare? The popcorn is described as tasting of "peachy fizz", which is what a Bellini Cocktail tastes like. Apparently. I wouldn't know as I'm not really a cocktail man! I poured the whole bag into a bowl, knowing that most of the flavour usually resides at the bottom. The popcorn definitely had a fizzy taste, almost like sherbet, but there was also an odd vinegary tang to it. I have no idea if this is what

These "limited edition" Freddo Faces desserts have been out for quite some time now, so I'm not sure what makes them so limited, but nevertheless I thought I'd give one a try whilst in my local Tesco express recently. It's basically like a muller corner, but with chocolate dessert on one side and some Cadbury Freddo faces on the other. Mixing them in, they looked like frogs that had got stuck in mud! I think pigs would have been a more appropriate shape...maybe Cadbury should create a new product called Piggies? Or Buttys? Just a thought! The dessert was pretty decent; creamy and chocolatey, whilst the Freddos were quite chunky and didn't really mix well with it to be honest. This is a nice idea on paper but it doesn't quite work so well in practice. I think caramel Freddos would be a better option, although I guess Cadbury don't make caramel Freddo Faces. Overall, this is a bit of an uninspired dessert and Cadbury's make others

When offered to try this new #fitfam friendly gluten free snacks box from Nutri Bombz recently, I really couldn't say no. It's a favourite of premiership footballers, professional athletes and celebrity trainers, so I felt very special indeed receiving this! The boxes are designed to fit neatly through your letterbox, are biodegradable and can even be sent to your workplace - handy for keeping on the clean eating train! The box inbcludes healthy gluten-free snacks that provide energy and protein, whether you need a post-workout snack or an energy boost in general. Salted Caramel Protein Bombz - these are the ones I went for immediately, because who doesn't love something caramel flavoured? They're made with a mixture of dates, whey, coconut oil, cacao and chia seeds. They were pretty chewy and dense but with a gorgeous salted caramel flavour that made them very moreish! The chia seeds added a little bit of crunch but otherwise this was a pretty dense and

Now that Summer is over, Kettle Chips are here to save the day with warming earthy flavours perfect for autumn snacking, with their revamped Veg Chips range. Joining the existing flavour "Lightly Salted" is "Honey and Black Pepper" and "Sea Salt and Balsamic Vinegar", all made with crunchy parsnip, sweet potato and beetroot chips. All varieties are suitable for vegetarians and free of artificial ingredients. As I've never tried any of these before I began with the original variety: Lightly Salted. These turned out to be some very moreish and flavoursome crisps, with definite warming earthy flavours from the parsnip and beetroot. They were very addictive but felt more satisfying than regular potato chips, thanks to the more wholesome flavours on offer. The Honey and Black Pepper variety were similar but with a honey twist, this enhanced the earthy flavours perfectly with the pepper bringing a nice warming spicy kick. Very moreish! The

Since joining the gym (not that I'm bragging) I've found myself in need of more #fitfam friendly snacks, and one that caught my eye whilst in Asda recently were these Good 4U Super Bites that I've never tried before. My blogger pal Reaching For Refreshment reviewed the Orange & Cocoa and Coconut ones way back and wasn't a fan, but I've never been one to let that stop me...so into my basket they went! These cost 85p for 40g which isn't too bad compared to similar products like this. They're raw, vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and contain no added sugars. They're also nut and legume free, and are made with a mixture of sunflower seeds, dates, raisins, chia seeds, cocoa powder, inulin, banana, rice flour and bizarrely, red algae seaweed (?!) Must be the super food aspect! Opening the bag they had a lovely fruity banana aroma, that for some reason reminded me of bubblegum. I was intrigued! The bites are a nice size to nibble on and I didn