Kev's Snack Reviews

For Christmas Eve we're back with the battle of the Gluten Free Mince Pies and this time it's Tesco vs Asda. Both of these are Dairy Free and Gluten Free so they make a good point of comparison. Neither are egg free unfortunately, so these aren't suitable for vegans, but they are suitable for vegetarians. Starting off with the Tesco Free From Deep Filled mince pies, these cost £2 and had a decent thick pastry lid. The pastry is light and crumbly, and very tasty considering it's dairy free. The filling was plentiful, and neither too weak in flavour nor too heavy, it was just about right. They're perfect with a cuppa. Definitely one of the better mince pies around at this time of year! 8 out of 10. Asda Free From Mince Pies:  These Asda Free From Christmas Mince Pies are considerably cheaper per box at £1.50, and this year they're boasting an "improved recipe" to boot. The packaging seems a little plain and uninspiring compared

I'm not a big coffee drinker any more; it was making me too shaky, however when I spotted this new Gingerbread flavour Jimmys Iced Coffee in Tesco recently I just had to give it a try. Gingerbread coffees are commonplace in cafes, but this is the first one I've ever seen in a shop before. The ingredients are pretty simple and clean; British semi skimmed milk, Arabica coffee, demerera sugar, acidity regulator and natural flavouring. It's suitable for vegetarians and gluten free. I poured the coffee into my special latte glass to make it feel extra special. It tasted alright; there's a nice balance of milk versus coffee, with a subtle ginger flavour in there too, but it wasn't quite the warming spicy kick I was hoping for. The fact that it's iced coffee rather than latte is the problem really - it's neither warm and comforting nor frothy and creamy. If they'd have made this a latte I think I'd have preferred it a lot more. 7 out of 10.  N

Today we are back with M&S again, who seem to have got Christmas covered this year with their interesting range of snacks. They always bring out their own versions of Maltesers Reindeers ; usually Bubbly Santas and the like, but this year they've added something new and a bit more exciting to the range; a White & Milk Chocolate Polar Bear! Typical to M&S, this is not just any chocolate Polar Bear, but a "white chocolate polar bear with a chocolate flavoured truffle filling". So, sort of like a Cadbury Mousse Snowman but reversed and with white chocolate. Woo! He may be a bear but luckily he is vegetarian friendly, as well as being gluten free. The white chocolate was rather thick and very milky, whilst the filling was a standard soft milk chocolate truffle. The whole thing was very sweet and creamy, but thanks to the good quality white chocolate it was very delicious. This is a bit of a sugar rush but it is a perfect little Christmassy snack, and

It's been a while since I bought the Choceur Salted Caramel Almonds , but when I got them I also bought a pack of these Spiced Chocolate Almonds. Ive been saving them until Christmas to review since they're more fitting for the festive season! The almonds are roasted and coated in a spiced milk chocolate, with a dusting of icing sugar. As you can see it's a bit messy and got all over The Hand...it wasn't best pleased! After all that mess you'd hope these would be worth it, right? Well unfortunately they weren't that great, at least to my tastebuds - the cardamon and cinnamon flavours just didn't go very well with milk chocolate, I feel they would have been far better suited to white chocolate. These were okay but the combination of spice and milk chocolate just doesn't mix at all. If you spot these in Aldi, I wouldn't bother with them - go for the Salted Caramel or Mascarpone White Chocolate Almonds instead, theyre far nicer! 6.5 ou

All the festive crisps are out in shops right now, and there's everything from the unusual such as Rum & Cocoa flavour to the more ordinary Salt & Vinegar, then there's Christmas staples turned into crisp form, such as these Succulent Pigs in Blankets crisps. I picked these up in Tesco Express over the weekend for £1, in need of a meaty snacks fix to cope with the busy Christmas crowds. I'm not sure what I was expecting; I suppose just bacon flavour crisps, but they did actually have a taste that was somewhere between bacon and sausage, albeit in artificial form. It was neither one thing nor the other and confused my tastebuds a bit. The crisps were very tasty and moreish, but I couldn't help but wish they were just full on bacon or sausage flavour rather than in-between. I'd also bought some Tesco Finest Beef Steak crisps as well as these, which by comparison were a lot nicer. Overall, these aren't a bad effort and it's nice to see an att

What would Christmas be without a festive themed popcorn? There's classic flavours like Orange and Mint Chocolate from Joe & Seph's , as well as the more out there Mince Pie variety, but one that's a bit more easier to find is this Butterkist Gingerbread flavour, available from WH Smith for £1. It's suitable for vegetarians and gluten free, and described as "Popcorn coated with a cinnamon and ginger flavour toffee". I poured it out into my festive star dish, and it certainly had a nice strong ginger aroma. The taste was very inconsistent; some of the popcorn pieces were just sweet and others had a stronger ginger and cinnamon flavour, the ginger was quite powerful, too much for me in fact. Usually I would complain that it isn't strong enough but in this case it wasn't pleasant. The inconsistency also means you don't know whether you're going to get a sweet popcorn or super spicy piece. Overall, as nice as it is to have a s

I'm not one to buy Chocolate Orange these days since it tastes so waxy, but one variation I've always enjoyed are Segsations, since they contain some of the most interesting Chocolate Orange flavours (well apart from the sorely missed White Chocolate Orange - boo!) Amongst them are Milk Chocolate, Milk & Dark Chocolate, Toffee Crunch, Milk Crunch and Exploding Candy. All are suitable for vegetarians. There's various messages printed on the segments, like "Yummy", "Taste me" etc. Quite frankly I'm disappointed they didn't have hashtags in front of them. The milk chocolate segment tasted like the typical chocolate orange we all know and love, no surprises there. The Exploding Candy had a subtle crackling sensation but nothing too noticeable, this is definitely one that won't upset granny this Christmas! The Toffee Crunch tastes the same as the Minis Toffee Crunch, very sweet but with some crunchy moreish toffee

Today we're back with the gluten free treats, and today's review is this Tesco Finest Gluten Free Luxury Shortbread Selection which is currently available from most Tesco and Tesco Express stores for £4.50 a box. It contains 3 packs of gluten free shortbread biscuits, all of which are suitable for vegetarians. There's clementine flavoured shortbread, which contains mixed peel and spices and has a nice festive flavour going on. The biscuits are a little powdery but the butter stops them from being too dry. 7 out of 10. The cranberry ones contain dried cranberries which give them a nice chewiness, enhanced by the festive spices. I enjoyed these a lot more than the clementine as the sharpness of the cranberry works a lot better with the buttery shortbread. 8 out of 10. The chocolate chip ones were hands down the best of the bunch, containing chunks of creamy milk chocolate that complimented the buttery biscuits beautifully. These were the ones I kept com

Salted Caramel is the "on trend" flavour for Christmas this year, so it's only fitting we get a gluten free version of it too, in pudding form no less! This makes a lovely change because usually you can only get chocolate gluten free puddings. This Tesco Finest Gluten & Wheat Free Salted Caramel pudding costs £3 and is vegetarian friendly. It supposedly serves two but who are they kidding? This was only going to serve me! I heated it in the microwave as instructed which resulted in a lovely sponge slathered in a glossy, golden salted caramel sauce. It looked and smelled delightful. I took a spoonful... And it tasted amazing! Seriously, seriously good. The salted caramel sauce was spot on; just creamy, sweet and salty enough to not be sickly. The sponge was light and moist and without any hint of dryness. I honestly couldn't tell that it was gluten free. It didn't take long to eat the whole thing, so I have no idea how this should serve two. M

All of the major supermarkets now have their own Gluten Free Mince Pies every Christmas, well apart from Morrisons who stock some made by another company, so they won't be included in my Minc Pie-off. Today's battle will be between two supermarkets who are supposedly posher than most, and both of which have an extensive range of Free From products. M&S Made Without Wheat Gluten Free Mince Pies: First up, these are not just any mince pies, they're Marks and Spencer's mince pies and they have pastry stars for lids instead of a regular lid. M&S certainly know how to do it with style! The pies looked very attractive when I pulled the tray out, and the box looks pretty nifty too. These ones aren't dairy free, in fact they're all butter and to be honest this was the main factor that made them so tasty. I did feel a bit shortchanged not having a full pastry lid, but they looked so nice I don't really mind. The pastry tasted lovely; buttery a

There's a lot of unusual products out this Christmas, from Tesco's Cocoa & Rum Crisps to Marks and Spencers Bucks Fizz crisps ...The Co Op are even doing Christmas Dinner Crisps complete with sprout flavouring! But surely this "Candied bacon and Brussels sprout soup" from Sainsbury's takes the mince pie?! This limited edition will set you back £1.45, is gluten free and described as "A soup with Brussels sprouts, potato, smoked bacon and smoked ham". Sounds delightful doesn't it? I heated it up on the hob as instructed, but you can pop it in the microwave too. It looked kinda horrible to be honest, and didn't smell much better either. I don't know what possessed me to buy this in all honesty as I loathe sprouts - there's no vegetable I despise as much as them. I think I was intoxicated by the novelty value. Of course, it tasted pretty horrible, sprouts in soup form was never going to be very pleasant. The candied

I must admit, the Red Velvet Cake craze is something that passed me by. Not being able to eat gluten, I never had an opportunity to try it. Until now...because Asda are doing this special Free From Red Velvet Cake, just for Christmas. Thanks Asda! This cake cost me around £3 or so, and is suitable for vegetarians. It doesn't contain the buttermilk or vinegar that is supposed to make a "true" red velvet cake, however. I'd always assumed that Red Velvet Cake was just red colored chocolate cake with a cream cheese icing...and based on this I wasn't far from wrong. Not that that's a bad thing...this is an extremely delicious cake. Anything with cream cheese icing tends to taste amazing...even the driest of cakes can be lifted up by it! Icing aside, the actual cake was pretty good as far as gluten free cakes are concerned; chocolatey, vanilla hinted and fairly moist and light. I certainly wasn't complaining and easily demolished a fair fe