Kev's Snack Reviews

Nestle recently announced that their Rowntree's range would be getting a refresh; they've stopped making Tooty Frooties (say what?!) and added some new varieties to the Randoms range. One of them is Foamies and the other is today’s review: Squish'ems, which are available currently from Poundland. (side note: who remembers Randoms Tandems , Squidgy Speak and Rip'ems ? Check out my reviews of those!) These are a mix of squishy jellies in various fruity flavours and shapes to make them "random": Most of these are easy to tell but some are a little mysterious - I'm not sure what the square "tombstone" shape one is supposed to be...any guesses, leave a comment! According to the pack there's so many combinations that you'll never get the same bag twice. The sweets are so sticky that they almost bonded to the plate, haha! So they definitely deliver on the promised "squishy" front, and they have that kind of texture too...

One product a lot of people have been highly anticipating since their announcement this year has been these new Bournville Giant Buttons from Cadbury. Why you ask? Simply because they’re suitable for vegans and dairy free and the first widely available chocolate buttons of this type. Disclaimer: although dairy free they’re made in an environment with dairy so may not be suitable if you have a dairy allergy. There’s no warning about containing nuts so they appear to be safe for those with Nut allergies. These cost £1.50 a bag, currently only available in Sainsbury’s but I’m sure more stores will sell them soon (I’ll keep you updated). I think they’re a bit overpriced for 110g of chocolate but I guess people will pay it since they’re dairy free. Described as “smooth dark chocolate Giant Buttons with a distinctively chocolatey Bournville taste”, they have a somewhat dusty and scuffed appearance as chocolate buttons tend to. I tried making little stacks of them (channeling Eat Exp...

Many thanks to Karma Bites for sending me some of their “popped lotus seeds” snacks to review recently. I’ve tried some of their range before but this time they sent the Coconut, Vanilla & Cinnamon, Wasabi and Peri Peri varieties. I was very excited! The packaging has had a refresh and looks very nice indeed, and the health credentials are highlighted on the front- these snacks are high protein, low fat, gluten free, and vegan. They’re also nut free, so they’re covering all main allergy bases, hurrah! I’ve said it before but lotus seeds have a unique taste that you’ll either like or you won’t. It’s hard to describe exactly. They remind me of a healthier version of popcorn in texture. The coconut flavour were my favourites, they have a nice creamy taste thanks to the coconut milk powder used on them, and are pleasingly sweet. I didn’t notice the cinnamon but the vanilla flavour blended well with the creamy coconut.They’re highly moreish too and I ended up munching ...

Low fat high protein products are all the rage right now, and to that end Ilchester (makers of that famous Cheese Advent Calendar!) have brought out a Light Cheese Selection net, with 30% less fat and 66 calories per serving. There's three individually wrapped snack sized portions of Creamy Ilchester Light Cheese, Smoky Applewood Light Cheese and Fiery Mexicana Light Cheese in the net. They're available from Morrisons, Waitrose and Asda stores.  From the press release: “Perfect for popping in the office fridge, just grab a delicious morsel when an afternoon pick me up is needed, satisfying those pre dinner hunger pangs, or even pairing with a picnic, the Ilchester Light snacking Net is great for any snacking occasion - grab an apple and cheesy portion and steer clear of the treat cupboard”. From Left to Right: Creamy Light, Smoky Applewood and Fiery Mexicana. Starting with the creamy light, this is a soft mild cheese that is pretty much as described - creamy and light ...

Following my review of the Graham’s Dairy Espresso Caramel Low calorie ice cream today’s is for their White Chocolate and Raspberry Ripple tub, another low calorie high protein variety now available at Lidl stores for £2.99. This is White chocolate ice cream with a raspberry ripple sauce and contains 350 calories in the whole tub, with 20g of protein. It’s also a source of fibre. Even though this is a lower calorie ice cream I didn’t really think about that while eating it. It looks and tastes like a regular creamy tub of ice cream and has no thin consistency like some others do. This tastes fantastic and is probably my second favourite after the Espresso Caramel tub. It’s super creamy with a strong taste of white chocolate, and with a light texture that isn’t quite as heavy as ice cream like Haagen Dazs, but still tastes luxurious. I’m not sure how they do it...the ingredients do have added fibre and sweeteners to lower the sugar content so I’m guessing that must be it. T...

The supermarkets have gone into a frenzy recently and started doing their own versions of low calorie high protein ice creams, with Aldi now doing a version, Morrisons , Asda and even Lidl! They've just started selling a 4 variety range from Graham's Family Dairy, which is lower in sugar and higher in protein than most regular ice creams. I was lucky enough to be sent the range to sample from Graham's - thanks so much guys! These are available from Lidl stores now for £2.99 a tub. There's White Chocolate and Rasperry and Salted Caramel available now and also Mint Choc Chip and this Espresso Caramel Ice Cream in the range. I'm starting with this because it was my absolute favourite and is a pretty unique ice cream too. The whole tub contains 310 Calories and 21g Protein. Now I don't know how this compares to the calorie and protein contents of other ice creams (I'm not one of those who care - ice cream is ice cream as far as I'm concerned and it...

I do love it when a new Milka variety is brought to the UK, and luckily Home Bargains recently brought out a whole new range in their stores. It includes large "Mmax" bars with Hazelnuts, as well as the smaller Caramel, Noisette and White Chocolate bars (do check out my reviews of the latter two). Since I've never tried it before I had to give the Confetti variety a go - it's Milka chocolate with basically mini Smarties embedded in it - a simple, but often tasty combination. I have to say the bar certainly looks the part - with the cross sections showing the colourful candies embedded within. How does it taste though, is the most important question right? Well I don't know what went wrong with these bars but unfortunately this was pretty lacklustre. The milk chocolate tastes a little cheap and dare I say, waxy, with the mini Smarties candies adding virtually nothing to enhance the bar. They're mildly crunchy but not particularly so, and just seem ra...

I do love some of the unique and quirky things Marks and Spencer come up with for their seasonal ranges. This Easter they’re doing everything from a rather rude looking Yoga Chocolate Bunny , a Prosecco Egg , a Jazzie Egg , a Blonde Egg , and now they’ve just added a Ruby Chocolate Egg to the list too! Something on the more affordable end that caught my eye in there recently though were these Milk Chocolate Hot Cross Caramels which are £1.75 a pack. They’re classic good quality marks and Spencer milk chocolates filled with a gooey spiced caramel, with flavours of citrus and raisin to replicate the authentic hot cross bun flavour. And they have pretty much nailed it! If you like hot cross buns and chocolate it’s safe to safe you’ll probably like these - they’re delicious! The caramel tastes luxurious; buttery and gooey and is just the right texture with hints of citrus and spices, and does indeed taste very much like hot cross bun! (As much a something can without actually havi...

I'm not usually one for Protein bars, as I do find the taste off-putting at times, but one newbie that piqued my interest recently was this Grenade Carb Killa Salted Peanut White Chocolate Protein bar. People were going mad for it on Instagram and Grenade kindly offered me some to review so I couldn't say no to that! The bars contain 20g Protein and 2g Sugars per 60g bar. To reduce the sugar content a mix of sweeteners is used. I'm not usually a fan of such sweeteners but on this occasion I let it slide because these sounded so nice. The bars contain a protein blend of whey and beef gelatine, and to my surprise didn't have the off-putting taste that some protein bars do. Hurrah! This was actually delicious, chewy and soft with a lovely creamy taste. The mixture of caramel, chewy filling and peanuts all blends together perfectly to make a super tasty bar indeed. It reminded me of a White Snickers , but I actually enjoyed this more because it isn't quite...

As plain as they may be, I do often find myself munching on rice cakes as a quick “healthy” snack when on the go. My favourite ones are Kallo Dark Chocolate Coated Square rice cakes, and I’ve rarely ventured into trying the more fancy flavours now being made such as yogurt, berry etc., but one newbie to the rice cake world that caught my eye recently were these Marks and Spencer Salted Caramel Rice cakes. They’re priced at £1.30 for 6 and described as “whole grain rice cakes with a white chocolate and caramel coating sprinkled with crispy salted caramel flavoured pieces”. With that description I was hoping for something a bit like a Caramac/Blonde chocolate coating, but that’s not exactly what I got. It’s pretty much regular white chocolate with caramel flavouring and colouring added. Not to worry though because these are still very tasty! Most of the flavour comes from the crunchy pieces which are very flavoursome indeed, nicely balanced between caramel toffee like flav...

I recently joined the A Taste of The States program where they send out American snacks from their range to bloggers and influencers, in exchange for posts on the products. It's basically an advertising thing that helps both them and bloggers out, and I think it's a really cool scheme because it's a win-win for all. Bloggers get unique discount codes that give buyers 20% off purchases and each purchase counts towards the budget for new snacks the next month. My code is KEV20 which will get you 20% off all orders on the site - please do use it if you're interested in ordering as it means more cool snacks to review! :) https://atasteofthestates.com/ They have quite an extensive range indeed, there's everything from limited edition M&Ms varieties, limited edition Snickers and Mars bars, and a vast range of American Fanta varieties not seen in the UK. There's also limited edition American Oreos such as Peppermint, Carrot Cake etc. My latest haul ...