Kev's Snack Reviews

Gin flavouring is most certainly on trend at the moment, and like unicorns and salted caramel is infiltering all manner of snack products. I was pleasantly surprised to see a bar of Morrisons Lemon & Juniper Gin Chocolate last year, and now Divine have brought out a similar variety, which is Limited Edition, Organic, Vegan, Fairtrade and available from the likes of Oxfam stores and online. I really do love the Divine brand as they are yet another company at the forefront of ethically produced chocolate, and this is something we need more of! The cocoa beans used in this bar are sourced from family farmers in Ghana, and the bar contains zero palm oil or soya and is certified by the Vegan Society. The ingredients contain lemon oil and juniper berry oil to give it the "gin" like flavour without actual alcohol.  Like most 70% Dark Chocolate it has a rich fruity aroma so you know it's good quality right away (cheaper brands tend to just smell bitter). Taking a bite,...

I've reviewed a number of Ritter Sport bars over the years and I have to say, it never gets old, I always look forward to any new varieties they come out with, and today's review is no exception. This is their "Our First Harvest" bar, of which there is only a limited amount, but you can be in with a chance of winning one if you head over to Ritter Sport UK on Twitter or Instagram . Good luck! I'm so glad to try these and that Ritter Sport UK are making their range more widely available here. This is a particularly special bar because it's made with first harvest cocoa beans, from Ritter Sports very own farm that supports sustainable cocoa production.  In 2012 Ritter purchased land in the eastern part of Nicaragua and are now actively involved in the sustainable cultivation of cocoa, which is important because it supports biodiversity and good working conditions for farmers. As well as that, it means tasty chocolate! I didn't realise quite how lon...

A big thankyou to Poundshop.com for today's post, who sent me a box of goods of my choice from their online pound store so I could review their service. They're offering my followers a discount code for 5% off your first order which is KEVSSNACKS5, and it's valid until February. https://www.poundshop.com/ They have a wide range of goods on there from household stuff, kitchen, bathroom, DIY, toiletries, and of course...FOOD! This was the main category I was of course interested in :D The idea of an online pound shop is quite a dangerous one, it's so easy to be tempted to keep adding more items to your basket, whilst not having to go traipsing around an actual pound shop in person. Because let's face it, as good as the bargains can be sometimes, they're hectic places to shop in and are almost always crowded with buggies (this is my pet peeve!) So it's worth paying a little for the postage to save all that hassle in my opinion. It's £4.95 standard (...

It's still #veganuary, so just enough time to do a review of these Vegan Organic Raw Chocolates from The Raw Chocolate Co! They kindly sent me several from their range to try recently, which I was super excited about because I do love their Vanoffee Bar. It's the best "white" vegan chocolate out there, although is more akin to Blonde Chocolate. As well as a new "Salted Vanoffee Hazelnut" and "Silky Coconut" bar, they're also doing Vanoffee Chocolate coated cashew nuts! Their products are available from: https://www.therawchocolatecompany.com/ So if you're dairy free or vegan do check 'em out - they're only a small company and deserve a lot more success in my opinion! The Vanoffee chocolate is described as a "Cocoa confection with Lucuma and Vanilla". It's sort of a cross between Caramac and White Chocolate, but of course vegan. The cashew nuts are thickly coated in it with a dusting of organic cocoa powder...

Easter is a while off yet, but you wouldn't think it to look in most supermarkets. I've lost count of how many times I've heard people say "Easter stuff already?!!" in the Tesco Seasonal aisle! If only they knew that a lot of it was already out even before Christmas... One of the newbies I did pick up before Christmas were these M&M's Mini Eggs, a new addition to the Mini Eggs world, king of which is of course Cadbury Mini Eggs, followed by Orange Smarties and Milkybar Mini Eggs (in my opinion anyway). How would these compare to the greats? You can find these for around £1 in most stores, and there's larger "egg hunt" bags of them in Tesco for £3.50, plus small packets, and there's even a version with a hollow egg. Opening the bag they certainly looked the part - the shells have a nice pastel colour and actually looked better than Cadbury Mini Eggs. Sadly they're a bit disappointing. The chocolate tastes pretty non-...

Veganuary rolls on, and with it the many and varied new Meat, Dairy etc Free product launches. One in particular that had to go straight into my basket when I spotted them in Sainsbury's were these New Nakd Salted Caramel Bars. I do love Nakd, and have done for years now, from their Nibbles Range to the Posh Bits and all the various Limited editions like Carrot Cake , Lemon Drizzle , Blueberry Muffin and so on. It seems tradition for them to bring out a new flavour every year and at last it's the trendy Salted Caramel! They've done this before in the Nibbles range, but never in bar form so I was pretty excited. These cost £1.99 for a 4 pack in Sainsbury's and are gluten, dairy and refined sugar free. There's also a new Walnut and Coffee variety - but more on that later! The ingredients are pretty simple like all Nakd bars: dates, raisins, cashews, peanuts, Cornish sea salt and a hint of natural flavourings. I'm glad to say that these live up to ...

I'm not usually one to eat yoghurt, never mind light yoghurts, but on this occasion this new Muller Light flavour seemed so intriguing I had to give it a whirl. Carrot cake is one of the best types of cakes out there in my opinion, so how would it translate into yoghurt form? Fat Free and Low Calorie yoghurt form at that?! After all cake isn't a calorie free food (much to the distress of many!) Like all Muller Light's these are good if you're following a Weight Watchers or Slimming World type plan, and are meant as a lighter treat. The yoghurt is sweetened with aspartame and also contains maize starch, flavourings and cinnamon in the ingredients. It's been so long since I ate Muller Light (last time was probably the Muller Light Turkish Delight !) but on the first spoonful I was transported back to my days of eating this stuff when following a weight loss plan many years ago. It's super sweet and artificial, and honestly, the carrot cake flavour is prett...

The new snacks just keep on coming this year, and it's still only January! By now I imagine many who follow me will have fallen off their "New Year, New You" plans? Yes? If so read on... Ben & Jerry's UK have announced the release of a new Topped variety that will be available in February just in time for Valentine's Day. It's called "Love is..." and features Buttery brown sugar ice cream, salted caramel cups with a pink coloured coating, cookie swirl, a pink topping and pink hearts. And how amazing does it look?! Never mind your Valentine...you gotta love yourself before anyone else! (aka buy and eat one of these to yourself haha). This one will be music to the ears of anyone Lactose Intolerant or Vegan - Ben & Jerry's have launched a new Coconutterly Caramel'd Non Dairy Ice Cream. This will feature non dairy coconut flavoured ice cream, caramel and cookie swirls and chocolatey chunks. Available now (although I am yet to sp...

Today's review is a face-off between the new Diet Coke Twisted Strawberry and Coca Cola Zero Raspberry. Both are new for 2019 in the UK and presumably are replacing the Mango and Peach flavours from last year. The Twisted Strawberry seems to be exclusive to Tesco and is rather hard to find at the moment - it's been appearing in some Tesco Express stores so far but not larger ones. Raspberry seems to be an Asda exclusive currently. I'm not a huge fan of artificial sweeteners; I'd rather have full sugar coke, but still I had to try this for snacks research purposes. Ha! It costs £1.25 for a 1.25 L bottle and is described as "Sparkling low calorie strawberry flavour soft drink with vegetable extracts and sweeteners". I found this in a small Tesco Express store so if you're on the hunt, that's your best bet. Taking a swig, at first I was overwhelmed with a super strong strawberry flavour - wow this stuff is potent! Think strawberry laces or strawbe...

You may all remember the Charlene's Chocolate Factory's Bubblegum Blonde bar I reviewed last year, a very unique and BLUE bar of chocolate - these guys certainly don't do things by halves! So I was super excited when they reached out again to offer me to review more bars from the range, including the Caramel Salt & Smoke Bar, aka one of the tastiest bars around!  The name Charlene's Chocolate Factory is based on Charlie and The Chocolate Factory as the founders are big fans of the film. To this end they produce a range of unique bars in an array of interesting flavours, like Hazelnut & Pretzel White Chocolate, Rhubarb & Custard White Chocolate (this looks amazing!) and a fun looking Unicorn Bar. Check them all out here: https://www.charleneschocolatefactory.co.uk/shop-1 . Starting with the Caramel Smoke Sea Salt bar, this is essentially a variation on Blonde Chocolate with smoked sea salt added. And it tastes pretty darn amazing! Think a...

When this new "Oreo Crème Egg" was announced last year everyone got just a wee bit excited. It's not surprising, since the original Crème Egg still reigns supreme as the Number 1 Easter Egg in the UK (although the Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs available at Tesco could rival it!). So add to that another popular food item and you've got a winner, right? I was a bit sceptical about how this would work - surely the cookie pieces would get soggy inside the goo? Luckily it didn't take too long to find out - these were available in shops just before Christmas Day, along with a variety of other Easter treats. I swear it gets earlier every year... You can find these in most supermarkets now, and they're particularly prominent in Sainsbury's Express stores. Opening the wrapper, the egg has the classic Crème Egg design, but with a rather prominent section in the middle. I guess these are produced differently to regular Cadbury Crème Eggs. Cutting the top o...