Kev's Snack Reviews

Boo! Today is the big day...no not Christmas, Halloween! Let's take a brief look at some of the ghastly Halloween snacks available at M&S! There is of course the Percy Pumpkins I reviewed last week... Plus the Witches Fingers ... As well as a variety of lollies and chocolate pumpkins... Plus Veggie Count Colin the Caterpillar sweets! And a Count Colin The Caterpillar Cake! Ghostly Mini Bites... There's also Choc Shock Beans - like mini bags of spooky-coloured Smarties. They're super tasty! Have a Happy Halloween everyone! Here's hoping for plenty of treats and not too many tricks!

It wouldn't be nearly Winter without an assortment of weird new products on shelves, and this year is no exception - there's oddities like Christmas Tree flavour Crisps , Prosecco and Gin flavour crisps and even  Pigs in Blankets and Brussels Sprouts tea...so what's left? Brussels Sprouts crisps of course! I knew these were coming out, so they weren't much of a surprise when I spotted a multipack in Sainsbury's over the weekend...and straight into my basket it went. What a lovely shade of green! The multipacks cost £1 and are called "Christmas Dinner for Sprout Lovers", with two other flavours: Pigs in Blankets and Turkey & Stuffing (speaking of Pigs In Blankets - Asda are selling a huge " Pig in Blanket " for £5 - check out my Instagram page for pics!) I'll focus on the most unusual flavour from the multipack today - brussels sprouts! My most hated and feared vegetable, yet one I still keep trying in all its weird ...

So All Hallows Eve, or Halloween is nearly upon us...what better way to celebrate than with a Percy Pig review? Not just any Percy Pig of course, but Percy Pig with a spooky makeover! Yep, the "soft gums made with real fruit juice" are now pretty terrifying - the famous pig has been transformed into a bizarre pig-pumpkin hybrid! There's three colours: orange, pink and green. The green ones taste of apple whilst the others are orange and strawberry. As you can see all three are pretty scary - certainly not pigs you'd like to meet on a dark night! Luckily that's where the "tricks" end...the "treat" is in the taste - they are as fruity, juicy and downright delicious as you'd expect from Percy Pigs. The addition of the apple flavoured ones makes for a very welcome change and I enjoyed them a lot. The strawberry ones are classic pink Percy Pigs whilst the orange are very fruity. If you need some special sweets for Haloween this year, th...

So recently I set myself the challenge of taking one for the team and doing a review of these new novelty Christmas teas from Sainsbury's. Both are available for £1 a box with 20 teabags in each. As well as these I saw some Chocolate Orange, Christmas Spice and Fizzy teas that sounded more appealing and hopefully I'll also review those at some point. I also bought some Teapigs Christmas Tea... but more on that later! The Pigs In Blankets tea is described as "Lapsang souchong teabags with sage and rosemary", which made be shudder immediately. I absolutely loathe lapsang souchong tea, it's the one tea I could never drink more than a mouthful of, and even then I had to spit it out! If you've never tried Lapsang Souchong  before it's basically smoked tea (click link for more info). Now I presume they decided to use such a horrible tea because the smoky flavour is like smoky bacon? The only other ingredients in the tea are sage, rosemary, apple pieces an...

A big thanks to Marks and Spencer Food PR for today's review; they're doing a pretty impressive range of Halloween treats to get your claws into this year (even a a Halloween edition of Percy Pig !), and kindly sent me these Witches Fingers biscuits. They've been around a few years now I think, and are basically tasty biscuit fingers made with golden syrup, with fondant icing fingernails. They may be simple, but they definitely look ghastly! Very fitting for any Halloween party. As we all know looks can of course be deceiving and thankfully they tasted delicious. The crunchy biscuit has a nice golden buttery flavour, owing to the golden syrup and real butter used in the recipe. The fondant icing finishes it off nicely with a little sweet vanilla flavour. It might seem a bit weird biting off fingernails and breaking fingers, but hey ho it's Halloween so such weirdness is OK! Overall, bravo M&S these are a fantastic product for Halloween and a lot of fun inde...

A big thanks to Mars' PR for sending me these new Mars Milk Snacks recently; I was promised a "surprise" new product and that it certainly was! It seems Mars have gone into new product frenzy recently, what with the M&M's Cake Bars I reviewed previously as well as a new Skittles Birthday Cake. These are a chilled take on the Mars bar, featuring soft sponge cake topped with a malted chocolate mousse, finished with a layer of caramel and fully coated in thick milk chocolate. Each pack contains 6 individually wrapped bars, "the ideal treat for sharing when chilling out with your best mates. So clear some space in your fridge immediately!" These are available from Asda stores now with an RRP of £3.00. Opening the box, I was struck by how dinky the bars looked. But sometimes good things come in small packages, as they say! The chocolate had the classic creamy Mars chocolate aroma, but with a more malty edge than usual. I cut it in half to...

A big thankyou to Pro2Go for sending me a variety of their protein snacks to review recently. There's the Liquid Filled High Protein Bars , as well as these Protein Bakes - high protein, gluten free snacks that contain 50% less fat than crisps and 6g of plant-based protein per pack. Ideal for anyone on a vegan or gluten-free diet needing a protein boost after the gym! I was sent two flavours: Salt & Balsamic and Chilli, each generously seasoned. The bakes have a wavy shape and smelled very flavoursome indeed. I started with the chilli flavour first. The ingredients are a mix of rice flour, rice protein, potato flakes, tapioca and chilli seasoning. They're made in a dedicated gluten free facility, which also handles milk products, so be wary if you have a milk allergy. The bakes were super crunchy and the generous seasoning made them very flavoursome. The spices are just right - they're not too hot, just a nice mild spiciness with more of a tomato and onio...

So it was only announced last week that we'd be getting a Cinnamon festive limited edition Coca Cola Zero Sugar in the UK, and already it's in shops...hurrah! Right? This is now available from both Tesco and Sainsburys, for £1.25 for a 1.25l bottle. If your locals aren't stocking it yet though do be patient - it's sure to turn up soon. Is it worth the excitement, is it as festive and christmassy as we are all hoping, I hear you ask...? I was certainly very hyped to try this when I first heard about it - I've always liked cinnamon and spice flavoured drinks in Autumn, and pairing the flavour with Coca Cola sounded like a potentially great idea. It could have been a nice mixer for alcoholic drinks. But sadly it was a bit of a letdown. It doesn't taste bad at all, it's a typically sweet, refreshing and pleasant Coca Cola drink that we are all familiar with, it's just that the cinnamon flavour is only barely there. At first I couldn't taste it, ...

Just a quick run down of some recent Spotted In Shops finds this week...there's so many new products out it's hard to keep track, but rest assured I'll be doing the yearly Christmas & Halloween In Shops roundups soon! Firstly (above), this  made the rounds in the News  recently, it is of course Christmas Tree flavour crisps, available at Iceland! Would you try them? I haven't. Secondly - the fantastic sounding new Bailey's Chocolate Yule Log, available at Tesco. Yummo! In other weird crisp flavours, Gin has found its way onto crisps too. Waitrose are doing Pink Peppercorn Gin Hand Cooked Crisps! Bailey's Pumpkin Spice is back! Available at Tesco for £12. Or if you want a cheaper version, Aldi are now doing Specially Selected Pumpkin Spice Irish Cream Liquer for £6.99. Nestle Smarties Limited Edition Rudolph's Noses - red-only Smarties, exclusive to Asda for £1. Ed's Easy Diner is now in the freez...