Kev's Snack Reviews

Today's review is rather special, because M&M's are one of those products that when they do a new flavour...well, it's always an occasion! And these ones are all the way from Australia - I was kindly sent a pack to try as part of a snacks haul recently, and am ever so greatful. It seems that Australia are getting many different varieties of M&M's recently - from these to Hot Cross Bun and now they're even getting Strawberries & Cream too! WHY do we never get such flavours in the UK? It's a travesty! Moving on, these M&Ms come in three colours and flavours, they're green, white and yellow with the white being coconut flavoured, the yellow being pineapple and the green? I'm not sure actually - it was rather difficult to detect. Apparently according to Twitter it's regular milk chocolate. They certainly have a strong pina colada type aroma, and the wrapper suggests this also. I tried them all individually before mixing them to...

I was pleasantly surprised by the new Cadbury Darkmilk bar when I reviewed it last year - it's both sweet and creamy whilst retaining the richness of a darker chocolate - so I was very excited to try this Salted Caramel version when it launched recently. It contains crunchy salted caramel pieces with 40% cocoa milk chocolate, and can be found in the likes of WH Smiths currently for around £1 or so. It also contains real sea salt, none of your regular pedestrian salt! I ate it on the go, as I often have to, and it has the same square style block design as the Original version. I much prefer it over the curvy shaped blocks that Cadbury introduced to Dairy Milk bars. Taste wise, the caramel chips are a bit like pieces of Daim, although of course more salty and without the almond bits in. They definitely make for an interesting flavour combined with the Darkmilk chocolate, but in all honesty I don't think the combination quite works somehow. I think it's the saltiness...

Walkers have done some interesting varieties over the years... who can forget the Brussels Sprout Crisps from last year? This Spring they're going for something supposedly more "on trend" with this Trending Tastes Limited Edition 10 pack, available now for £2 from Sainsbury's. It includes 3 packs of Spicy Sriracha flavour (is that really trending? hmmm), 3 BBQ Pulled Pork (ok that's a little more trendy...I think?), and 4 of that classic British staple...Cheese and Onion. Really, Walkers? How on earth can you justify classing such an old flavour as trending? I suspect they'd say something like "a classic never dies"...but let's be real here this is just lazy and cheap. We wanted a NEW flavour, dammit! Disappointment aside, at least the new flavours are good. My favourite was the Spicy Sriracha, which is very strong, potently spicy, with a strong onion flavour and is slightly sweet. A great mix of flavours in one crisp! I enjoyed th...

Berries seem to be the in thing to add to Cola at the moment, what with the new Diet Coke Twisted Strawberry and Coca Cola Zero Raspberry I reviewed last month. Pepsi are getting in on it too with a new flavour - Pepsi Max Raspberry (in other cola news there's also going to be a Coca Cola Vanilla Orange launched in the US!).  It wasn't easy to get one of these. I first had to go through a few rounds of messaging Tesco's customer support to find out if there was any stock...then when I went to Tesco there was none on shelf...and eventually, after asking a member of staff who tried to fob me off and then went to look for me...I had one! After all that effort, I was hoping it'd be worth it!  The ingredients are pretty much the same as any Pepsi Max, an array of flavourings and sweeteners, but whatever. I popped the bottle in the fridge and waited for it to become nice and chilled.  Using my fancy Root 7 glass ( available here for anyone interested) I poured some ou...

After hearing about this new Ruby Chocolate with Raspberries from the Nestle L'Atelier range it was one I just had to hunt down. I enjoyed the Prestat Ruby bar from last year and was hoping this might be just as good. In addition to Ruby Chocolate it also contains raspberries to take the fruitiness up an extra notch! These are currently only available from select Sainsbury's stores, luckily for me one of those was nearby. This isn't cheap at £3.50 but I was hoping it would be worth it. Although I was told that it's going to be on a half price offer this week - so keep an eye out in your local stores! (and do check with them via Instagram if your local stores stock it) Described as "couverture chocolate with freeze dried raspberry pieces" it contains 48% cocoa solids, and comes in a 100g slab. There's sections that can be broken off as shown above. The bar is quite thin, but the raspberry pieces are still clearly visible within the chocolate. ...

Valentines Day is just around the corner, and to celebrate it (early) I thought I'd treat myself to a bag of these White Cheesecake M&M's, which are available on various sites like Amazon, but I bought them off ebay as it was a few pound cheaper. Gotta love yourself! In true Valentine's fashion I poured them onto this heart-shaped dish that is a pretty reasonable £1 from Poundland. There's no description on the pack apart from "white cheesecake artificial flavours"...you gotta love how they're not ashamed to admit it! They come in white, beige and pink colours - pretty fitting for Valentines! They have a nice milky and slightly cheesecakey aroma. I'm sure the shells are a little different to UK M&M's, they don't seem quite as shiny or glossy, although maybe this is a change just for the Valentines edition. I wasn't quite sure what to expect but I am happy to say these did not let me down one bit - they are every bit as swe...

It's nearly Valentines Day and things are heating up...at least they are with Tyrrell's, makers of Hand Cooked English crisps! They're doing a special limited edition Honey and Chilli Aphrodisiac variety, which they kindly sent me some samples of to review just in time for the day of luuurve. From the pack: "Spice up your Valentine's and tantalise your taste buds with this sumptuous duo. When the mellow sweet and sticky honey met the fiery spice of chilli...it was love at first bite!" Ooh-er missus! I tipped the crisps onto my special heart-shaped plate (bought from Poundland!) and they had a fiery reddish hue to them. The spicy aroma of chilli was very apparent. I like to think the crisp above has a heart in the middle...but it was probably a lucky accident! So do the crisps live up to their aphrodisiac name? Well, yes kind of! The first flavour that hits you is a gentle sweetness followed by a stronger spicy chilli flavour, and then the mell...

After reviewing the delicious Salted Caramel Nakd bars , I was overjoyed to find that there was another new variety in their range - Coffee and Walnut! I love my coffee so this wasn't a want, it was a need, and special thanks to Nakd Foods I now have a whole box of them! They're certainly keeping me powered through these long, cold February days.. Made with a mixture of  dates, raisins, walnuts, almonds, cashews, coconut and coffee, these are an interesting one for sure. They used to make a Caffe Mocha bar (not sure if they still do), but this flavour is more focused on the coffee rather than cocoa. Opening the wrapper, it has an earthy aroma and a distinct whiff of coffee. It tastes nice enough, with a pleasant, earthy, nutty texture and the coffee flavour neither too strong nor weak, but somehow it doesn't work and I can't put my finger on why. Maybe the walnuts are just the wrong type of nut to go with it, maybe the addition of coconut in the ingredients dr...

A big thankyou to The Real Coconut by Daniella Hunter for today's review. Daniella's recipes, products and restaurants are dedicated to digestive well-being and as such, these tortillas are grain free, suitable for vegans and gluten free. I was very excited to try them because these are such a unique product, they're like a healthier equivalent of Doritos, so if you have digestive issues or are following a paleo or autoimmune style diet, these might be the thing for you! Isn't it nice to include everyone? :) The chips are made from organic ingredients, and cooked in coconut oil rather than sunflower oil, so there's less of the unhealthier omega 6 fats. They're also made with non GMO ingredients. Of course all that's irrelevant if they don't taste the part, and luckily they're pretty darn addictive! I started with the Himalayan Pink Salt variety which is made with coconut flour, cassava starch, coconut oil, xanthan gum, kosher salt and Himalayan...

Oh, the drama that receiving a Maltesers cake causes. You have to laugh. I was kindly sent this by PR to post about on Instagram, causing much joy as well as kerfuffle, and understandably so. Isn't it just a work of art?! Looking like one giant Malteser from the top, it's a Smash Cake with a shell of milk chocolate to break through to reveal the treats below.  Doesn't it look amazing?! This is available from Asda stores now for £14 (stock might not be in all stores just yet). Breaking the top open was like finding hidden pearls...ooh!  The cake is topped with chocolate frosting, drizzled with malt and so has a malty flavour. And finished off with real Maltesers. Basically it's a malt-extravaganza! Now, as some know I can't do gluten, so this was shared around with friends to get a handful of opinions.  The feedback was that it's very rich, with a nice malty flavour, but there's maybe too much of the chocolate frosting. One...