Kev's Snack Reviews

Another quick Spotted In Shops, and it seems that it's not just the weather that's getting colder this week - so are the new snacks! There's been a lot of ice cream releases lately, from the Ben and Jerrys Birthday Cake and Topped Pretzel Palooza , to some new Haagen Dazs Peanut Butter Crunch sticks, as well as a Peanut Butter Crunch Tub. Both are available in Asda but unfortunately mine has none of the tubs in yet - boo! They feature peanut butter ice cream, swirls of peanut butter sauce, crunchy caramel and milk chocolate. Magnum White Chocolate Honeycomb & Almond: Featuring Honeycomb flavour Ice Cream with White Chocolate and Almonds, these new sticks from Magnum sound potentially dangerous! Available at Asda in boxes of 4. Rowntree's Fruit Blaster Lollies: Also new at Asda are these Rowntree's Fruit Blaster ice lollies - a variation on Rowntree's traditional fruit lollies. Asda Hand Cooked Thai Green Curry Crisps: An interesting new limited

When I'm trying to eat healthy (#thestruggleisreal!) I do like a nice refined sugar, gluten and dairy free snack to munch on. There's always the trusty, tasty Nakd bars on hand in most shops, but a lesser-known brand is The Primal Pantry, who make Paleo and Vegan approved bars with ingredients like nuts, dried fruit, coconut sugar etc. I've tried their stuff before and really enjoyed it. So when I spotted this caffeine infused Espresso variety in the Co Op recently I got very excited indeed - probably too excited, must have been the thought of that shake-inducing caffeine! Described as simply a "Double Espresso Protein Bar" it contains real coffee beans and seemed to be promising an energy boost in bar form - protein AND coffee all at once?! Can't get more #fitfam than that ey? Unfortunately, the bar turned out to be a bit pants. Overlooking the fact it looked like something you'd find in your pants, the texture was my first point of contention: it

Another quick edition of Spotted In Shops today, this time for something always worthy of shouting about: New Ben & Jerry's flavours! It seems they've been busy again and released two new flavours onto the U.K market: Birthday Cake, containing Vanilla Cake Batter Ice Cream with Pink Frosting, Strawberry Swirls and Cake Pieces. It comes in lovely packaging that enables you to gift the tub to someone on their birthday - such a nice touch! I would actually do this if it wouldn't melt in the post! Currently available at Sainsbury's for £4. As if that wasn't exciting enough they've only gone and bloomin' launched another variety, this time in their "Topped" range called Pretzel Palooza. This one contains Vanilla malt ice cream with a chocolatey hazelnut swirl (11%), chocolatey covered pretzel chunks (7%), chocolatey chunks (2%) and chocolatey topping (9%), and it's currently £3 in Sainsbury's. What are you waiting for? Get yourself down

A quick post today with some interesting snacks news: Nestle are going to relaunch their axed Kitkat Senses brand in a miniature version, which will come boxed and contains Kitkat wafers with three different fillings: Salted Caramel, Hazelnut and Double Chocolate. The boxes will retail at £3.99, containing 20 bars and will be available in Tesco in the next week, and other supermarkets in March. This is intended to be a permanent release and not limited edition. The Salted Caramel variety will contain a layer of caramel and crunchy sugar shards, the hazelnut a layer of praline and crunchy pieces of nut, and the double chocolate will have a layer of ganache and cocoa nibs. The bars are being launched in box format to meet the demand for sharing products and will be situated next to products like Ferrero Rocher and Maltesers. A hazelnut only version will also be launched. Are you excited? Do you remember the original Kitkat Senses bars? Which flavour takes your fancy the most? Let m

Whilst buying the delicious Swiss Blond Chocolate bar from M&S recently I thought I'd also try one of their new smaller "treat" bars with "healthy" additions. I went for this White Chocolate with Matcha tea and raspberry added because it sounded pretty unusual if not delicious. It's in the same range as the Latte Coffee Kick and Turmeric Coconut treat bars and costs 60p for 25g. Described as a "matcha green tea flavoured white chocolate bar with freeze-dried raspberries" it's split it into two chunks - one for the AM and one for the PM. Really, M&S?! This may not be just any chocolate, but I certainly ain't saving half for later! The dried raspberries were clearly visible on the underside of the bar. I can't say it looked all that appetizing to be honest. Starting with the AM square (it was actually in the PM - so I had a good excuse to eat both pieces!) I took a bite, and thankfully it tasted a lot better than it loo

As well as the Nestle L'Atelier Salted Caramel bar I reviewed the other day, I also picked up this 100g bar of Milk Chocolate with Cranberries, Almonds & Hazelnuts in Sainsbury's Express recently. It was on offer for £1.50 - usually it's £2. It comes foil wrapped which I love, since most chocolates are plastic wrapped nowadays and I'm sure it makes a difference in the taste. It's described as "Smooth milk chocolate with dried sweteened cranberries and whole hazelnuts and almonds", and the chocolate contains 30% minimum cocoa solids and 18% milk solids. Like the other bars in the range, the cranberries and nuts are clearly visible in each block which is nice as it means you know exactly what you're getting. Breaking a piece off, it had a nice chunky feel and reminded me a little of the Nestle Double Cream bars from many many years ago. Anyone remember them? The chocolate tastes pretty creamy and melts in the mouth nicely, but definitely

Recently, Nestle launched their range of premium chocolated Les Recettes De L'Atelier into Sainsbury's stores. This range has proven very popular in Europe so they are testing the waters in the UK it seems. There's some interesting flavours in the range, most notably L'atelier Blonde Chocolate with Roasted Almonds and Hazelnuts , although at £3.50 per large bar I have been put off trying it. A bit more reasonably priced is this thinner Dark Chocolate Sharing Bar with Salted Caramel pieces, usually £2 but reduced to £1.50 per 115g bar recently. Most of the bars in the range have the added ingredients clearly visible on top, with the salted caramel pieces clearly visible on this one: The bar can be broken into 5 pieces, although it's a bit difficult to get a clean split. The underside has an unusual pattern on it, presumably due to how it is moulded: Unfortunately, despite being dark chocolate this bar isn't suitable for vegans as it contains butterfat

With two new Blond chocolates to choose from in shops I feel we are being spoilt here in the UK. There's the Nestle Les Recettes De l'Atelier Blonde with Whole Roasted Almonds & Hazelnuts  available from Sainsbury's (currently on offer for £3 - still too pricey for me!) and this more affordable, and probably better quality Marks & Spencer Swiss Blond Chocolate that costs £1.50 for 100g. Described as "A unique recipe with aromas of caramel, shortbread and fresh toasted notes - which stands it apart from milk and white chocolate" this sounded very tempting indeed. It's basically a white chocolate made with caramelised sugar to give it the "Blond" effect. Now the first thing that springs to mind when trying this was always going to be Caramac - because it's a bar that many of us in the UK grew up on and has been available forever. It's always had a special place in my heart, despite the poor quality and use of cheap ingredients ov

When I bought the New Diet Coke Mango flavour the other day I didn't realize that there was also a Peach variety, in the Coca Cola Zero Sugar range and exclusively available from Tesco. When someone informed me via Instagram I had to go and look for some, and luckily found this bottle in the same Tesco Express as the Diet Coke Mango. This cost £1.25, quite a lot for a small bottle! Described as "Sparkling Low Calorie Peach Flavour Soft Drink with Vegetable Extracts with Sweeteners" these come in both 500ml small bottles and also larger bottles. Like all Coca Cola products this contains caffeine as well as the sweeteners aspartame and acesulfame k. I waited until I got home to try it, as with the Mango variety I had to drink it using my authentic Coca Cola glass! I took a sip...unlike the Mango variety the flavour here is a lot tamer, you get an initial peach taste that is very refreshing but it quickly gives way to the stronger cola flavour. It's very

It's not often that Coca Cola bring out a new flavour, so when they do it's always an occasion worth shouting about. The last one was when Vanilla Coke was brought back  (wayyyy back in 2013 - it feels like only yesterday!). More recently we had a Pepsi Max Ginger variety, which is about as exotic as the cola world gets these days. So it's quite exciting indeed that Coca Cola have gone for such a bold, fruity flavour to pair with Diet Coke - Mango! I was super surprised to find this in Tesco Express recently, I had heard rumours about it on Instagram but thought it would take a while to make it here up North. I immediately bought a bottle, not really caring about the price (turns out it was £1.10). I waited until I got home to try this just so I could drink it from my bona fide special Coca Cola glass: It's described as "sparkling low calorie mango flavour soft drink with vegetable extracts and sweeteners" and the ingredients are pretty much fizz

It's nearly time for the day of luuuuurve, so I thought I'd do a round-up of some special Valentine's Day treats I've seen in the shops recently. Enjoy! First up is the latest limited edition from The Chocolate Smiths, "Love is Bizarre" , a milk chocolate bar containing strawberry and caramel. Potentially sweetness overkill? Available from Fenwicks. Hotel Chocolat Raspberry Heart Lolly: This white chocolate and raspberry lolly looks super special, and is one of the more affordable items from HC's range this Valentine's Day. Available from Hotel Chocolat stores, online and John Lewis. Hotel Chocolat Melting Hearts: Also on the more affordable end of the scale, these Hotel Chocolat Melting Hearts sound scrummy. Spotted in John Lewis. Hotel Chocolat So Good Together Slab: A blend of rich milk chocolate and caramel chocolate with a melting pink strawberry heart in the middle...this sounds delicious! Spotted at John Lewis, also availa