Kev's Snack Reviews

You may have seen my Instgaram post on these last week so I won't bore you with too many details. They were kindly gifted to me by a PR company and are now available in the chiller cabinets of Sainsbury's stores (not all stores may have them so be sure to check with staff if they don't). They cost £2 per box of 4 and consist of a chocolate sponge cake base, topped with a coconut flavour mousse, and coated in milk chocolate. If you love all things coconut you're bound to love these, they combine cake with creamy sweet coconut mousse - what's not to like?! Unless you hate coconut of course haha. In fact I'd say they're a tad more interesting than actual Bounty bars since they're not as dry, and the different tastes and textures make for more of an “experience”. They reminded me somewhat of those coconut mallow biscuits, but much nicer. If you like coconut cakey sorts of things, check these out in the chiller aisles! I'll keep you updated if othe...

The vegan and dairy free food market has literally exploded this year, on the back of veganuary and ever more people choosing plant based alternatives. Which is a good thing for those who have allergies too - there's so many choices now! In the chiller cabinets they've been a little slower to take off for some reason, but things are definitely improving - there's now Dairy Free Halo Top varieties, and a soon-to-be-launched Coconut Ice Cream brand I must keep hush about for now! Today's review are these sticks I picked up on special offer in a large Waitrose store. I've reviewed various Coconut Collaborative products before and it seems they've dropped that name on these ice creams and opted for "Coco Nutters", which is a fun name I have to say and one I have called my snacks pal Reaching For Refreshment in the past, as she is very much a coco-nutter! Anyway, these sticks are of course vegan, gluten free, dairy free, and also nut free...

Many thanks to Nomo “No Missing Out” Chocolates for gifting me samples of their new vegan free from chocolate range, which has recently been launched into Holland and Barrett and Tesco stores. I was very intrigued by these as they sounded a little different from standard dairy free products, and come in a few interesting flavours too. They are Dairy Free, Egg Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free and most of the bars are also Soya Free (with the exception being the dark chocolate bar). I was most interested in the Caramel and Sea Salt and Fruit & Crunch bars, and they actually turned out to be my favourites too. Starting with the Fruit and Crunch bar, I really loved this one! Think a vegan version of a Raisin and Biscuit Yorkie - if you've ever had Raisin and Biscuit Yorkie you'll know just how nice the combination of raisins and biscuit is! Now of course there's no biscuit here, just crunchy crisped rice, and plenty of it too. There's a good amount of raisins ...

I was recently sent this new Ion 8 Leak Proof Flask to review. Now I don’t usually feature such products but as this was described as being leak proof I couldn’t say no, since I am so often disappointed with cheap flasks that end up leaking in my bag. This Ion 8 bottle promises to solve that issue with a lid that is completely sealed, with a one touch spring-open top. I have to say I do like the design, it’s sleek and quite sexy, haha! As promised the lid flips open easily and has a button on the side to do so. No unscrewing or pressing the top down like some flasks that inevitably end up leaking. The top screws off so you can fill it with your drink of choice. It’s BPA Free so will leave no odours or bad tastes in your drink, and keeps drinks chilled at the same temperature when filled. I used it as a flask for coffee, which it’s not specifically advertised for but after reading the instructions they state it’s safe for both hot and cold drinks. And I can confirm that ther...

It's been a few years now since Nestle added a new variety to their Quality Street boxes, which was Honeycomb Crunch - do check out my review of it from 2016. They're at it again however and this time have even admitted it's a ploy to get folks attention - they've removed the Toffee Deluxe from boxes and replaced it with a "Chocolate Caramel Brownie". Does it contain brownie? Of course not, and maybe that's all part of the controversy plan...it's simply a chocolate flavoured caramel. Now don't get me wrong, it tastes very good! Chocolate flavour caramel is always a nice variation of regular caramel, giving it an extra oomph of cocoa flavour, and somewhat toning down the sweetness of the caramel. But it ain't no brownie - a brownie is a fudgey cake! Since when did it become shorthand for companies to do an "extra chocolatey" version of whatever? The rest of the chocolates are all as you'd expect, full of sweet, cheap fa...

Thankyou to Graham’s Family Dairy for sending me some of their new ice creams to review recently. The range is available now from Lidl stores and consists of the ones I’ve previosuly reviewed - Espresso Caramel and White Chocolate & Raspberry , plus this; Salted Caramel! Ahh you can’t beat Salted caramel and ice cream together, am I right?! These ice creams are lower in calories and sugar and higher in protein than most regular varieties and somewhat similar to Halo Top, although I think they’re a lot tastier and richer. They use a mix of sweetener and real sugar, thus reducing the sugar content but not totally removing the flavour. The ice cream has a nice rippled effect that looks lovely on opening the tub... And it tastes lovely too! These ice creams are just so creamy for a lower calorie version; with the sauce being plentiful and tasting authentic too. It’s a great combination and I thoroughly enjoyed this, and didn’t even think about it being lower calorie as it’s s...

Many thanks to Treat Kitchen for sending me some bars of their new “Radioactive Sours” White chocolates to review recently. They are known for their sour sweets but have now created the worlds first sour chocolate, which is laced with malic acid and contains popping candy, and they’re super sour indeed! They come in 4 flavours; Blue Raspberry and Lemon (today’s review) as well as Strawberry and Apple.  So as you can see they’re both very brightly coloured! Which is a little off putting to be honest, but at the same time I guess half the fun of products like this is the bright colours. They have strong fruity sweet and sour aromas. The lemon flavour was my favourite - the white chocolate is super sweet, not high end stuff but it’s decent, with the lemon flavour tasting somewhat like sherbet lemons in chocolate form. It’s very sour, a bit artificial, with the popping candy giving a gentle crackling sensation. And it’s quite fun to be honest!  Now blue...

If you haven't heard by now, Tesco are selling Rhubarb and Custard creams, hurrah! I first posted about these on Instagram over the weekend and it seems it's quite newsworthy indeed...even the Daily Mail mentioned them ;) It is of course very exciting news, and it's rather baffling how no company ever thought of trying such a flavour before now? I mean it just makes logical sense...custard cream, rhubarb and custard...perfect marriage right? Well we now live in age where every mashup possible seems to exist, so it seems like the right time for them to be introduced. Of course, Hill Biscuits have been making various flavoured biscuit creams for years now, from Digestive Creams to Orange, Strawberry and even Chocolate Orange...but that's another story. These Rhubarb and Custard Creams cost 40p for 150g in Tesco and are described as a "Sandwich biscuit with a rhubarb flavour filling. Rhubarb and Custard creams are Crunchy and Fruity, carefully baked to a classi...

A big thankyou to Panda333 for kindly sending me some Australian treats over to the UK to try a while back - there were some great gems in there, including the Tropical M&M's I've previously reviewed, and another one I was very excited to try - Cadbury Twirl Caramel flavour! This was a limited edition in Australia, I believe, and consists of the classic Cadbury Twirl flaky chocolate but with a caramel flavour twist.  Opening the wrapper it certainly had a caramel aroma and a whiff of the distinctive Cadbury chocolate we are all familiar with.  It tastes...nice, but not quite as amazing as I had built up in my mind. The chocolate actually tastes slightly different to UK Cadbury chocolate, it's perhaps a tad creamier. The caramel flavour is there and it adds a nice twist but it's not quite as strong or realistic tasting as I'd hoped. The ingredients list has "flavourings" on it, so there you go. If they'd have used caramelised chocolate or suga...

When I heard about these new Watermelon Fruit Crisps on Instagram recently I knew they were something I had to try. One because I love melon - it may be my favourite fruit - and two because, they’re crisps! Now I’ve tried Nim’s Fruit Crisps before and wasn’t so keen on the pear ones, however other varieties I’ve tried since have been more to my taste. So I was optimistic these might be in the latter category. Like all of Nim’s range they’re gluten free and vegan, with no added sugar and these ones are air dried with no oil or flavourings added. They’re just pure air dried watermelon! I found them in Tesco for £1, near the fruit & veg aisle, and there’s 64 calories and 0g fat per bag if that sort of thing matters to you. Opening the bag, they looked like...well, dried watermelon! There’s even some little seeds in there! Since I love watermelon I was maybe more excited to try these than I should have been. But after trekking around Tesco I really needed a sweet little...

Many thanks to Halo Top for sending me some of their new ice cream sticks to review. They have recently launched into Tesco and seem to be very popular indeed. I've reviewed their Salted Caramel Non Dairy tub previously, and really enjoyed it so was curious how the dairy version of the stick lollies would taste. These contain 100 calories per stick and are a source of protein. The peanut butter sauce is swirled into the lollies, creating a nice effect and they certainly look the part! The ice cream is peanut butter flavoured. They taste superb! The ice cream itself is quite light which is to be expected since it's lower calorie, but the  sauce elevates it with a lovely salty peanut butter flavour. It blends perfectly with the ice cream and makes for a very moreish snack. Now, I’m not really into calorie counting personally so...I went ahead and ate another stick right after! If you have more willpower than me though, I imagine these are a great little dessert for when yo...

As I wrote about in my review of A Taste Of The States, they’ve been sending me a selection of snacks each month, which I get to choose with a budget based on referrals. A big thankyou to everyone who used my code KEV20! You can still use it for 20% off all orders from https://atasteofthestates.com/ . Some snacks from my most recent order were these Haribo Berries and Frogs which are made by the US arm of Haribo. I really enjoyed their Fruit Salad sweets so was excited to try more varieties. These are blackberry and raspberry flavoured and have bobbly sugar pieces over a jelly centre. They’re super duper sweet, but pretty tasty and unique. I loved the contrast between the crunchy outer layer and the gummy inner layer. I couldn’t  eat too many due to the sweetness but they’re certainly a lot of fun! The Frogs consist of a white foam layer on the bottom and green apple flavoured gummy on top. I ordered these as they reminded me of the frog sweets I used to get i...