Kev's Snack Reviews

Another weird snack and this time it’s Salted Egg Flavour Pringles! These are apparently popular in other parts of the word so maybe not as weird as they may seem to us Brits... and they’re actually not so bad! Not as eggy as I expected - I had visions of an awful gaseous pong coming from the tub, haha! - but just a slight salty egg flavour.   If you’re curious, find them from www.gbgifts.co.uk (gifted).

A while back I reviewed these M&M's Biscuits over on Instagram - they were a German import - and now they're avaialable in the UK from Tesco!  They're classic crunchy biscuits with a chocolate topping and mini M&M's on top - a simple combination, but one that's very fun and tasty! The biscuits have a good wheaty taste, quality milk chocolate and the M&M's add some crunch. Lovely! If this sounds like your thing check them out at Tesco now - they're a bit pricey at £2.50 but will very likely be on special offer at some point soon.  Apologies for the briefer review - I've been busy over on my Instagram and new Facebook page (follow here:  https://www.facebook.com/snacksnews ) which has eaten up most of my spare time. For those still reading this blog - thankyou, it's much appreciated! 

  Percy Pig is having a party...a rather psychedelic one at that! It's Percy Pigs Birthday year and he's been celebrating with these new flavours which seem to be various fruits. Very tasty and flavoursome and great as always. Has Percy ever had a bad sweet? Find these in stores now! Apologies for the briefer review - I've been busy over on my Instagram and new Facebook page (follow here:  https://www.facebook.com/snacksnews ) which has eaten up most of my spare time. For those still reading this blog - thankyou, it's much appreciated!

Cadbury have brought back their Vote To Keep Me competition for Dairy Milk with three new bars; Out of the Blueberry, Coconutty and Crunchy Honeycomb.  You can vote for your favourites online at:  https://www.cadburyinventor.com/ I was kindly #gifted some to try from Cadbury PR and below are my thoughts on each variety; Out of the Blueberry - this is a mixture of fruity blueberry pieces and white chocolate crispy pieces, and it’s honestly a nice inspired combination. Like a fruit and nut but with a blueberry edge instead. Could have been more exciting, I guess, but I liked it!  Crunchy Honeycomb - honeycomb with fudge and hazelnuts, now it sounds boring but I rather enjoyed it! It’s very sweet but the honeycomb and fudge blend nicely with the hazelnut for several different tastes.  Coconutty - this is coconut crumble with white chocolate crispy pearls, and it’s very nice indeed, but maybe not exciting enough for a competition like this. I think D...

Last year we got several new M&M bars launched in the U.K. and this year they have gone and blessed us with another; a Crunchy Caramel Bar, and not only that they have also brought back Crunchy Caramel M&Ms! I really enjoy the M&M bars as the chocolate is great tasting and the additions plentiful, so this new one was very welcome. I was kindly #gifted a sample bar from Mars PR. This bar includes mini M&Ms and crunchy caramel pieces mixed into the bar and it’s a great combo! There’s the creamy milk chocolate, which is almost like Galaxy and the crunchy mini M&Ms and plentiful crunchy caramel. It’s very crunchy and tasty and brings a nice mix of everything. It’s maybe a stretch to theme it on M&Ms but the M&Ms character on the block looks super cool so I’ll let them off with that! Overall, another delicious addition to the range which should be available in Tesco stores very soon. Let me know if you try these!

I recently spotted some new funky looking bars in Lidl, and instantly they reminded me of Tony’s Chocolonely bars, the ethical brand that launched last year donating money to helping end slavery in cocoa production. I’ve always loved the Tony’s brand and I think in 2020, more than ever, we need more ethically produced products - it should be expected, let’s be honest! So it’s always nice to see another brand like this even if it’s essentially copying Tony’s. I got the dark chocolate version to try as I was curious how it would be compared to other dark chocolates. In hindsight this was a mistake, as the actual chocolate is nothing extraordinary. It’s nice enough and good quality don’t get me wrong but it has no particular distinct flavour to make me buy it again. I’ll certainly try the other two flavours which are Milk Chocolate and Almond and Sea Salt, and I do like the chunky haphazard block design that mimics Tony’s Chocolonely. It’s a shame through that Lidl don’t just stock...

I've tried the regular version of Jim Jams No Added Sugar spread before and really enjoyed it, so was excited to try these new vegan varieties they launched recently to see how they compared. They come in both Hazelnut and Orange dark chocolate flavour, with no added sugar. Instead they contain maltitol which is a sweetener many may be aware of.  Whilst I have always been wary of maltitol due to its "unintended effects" I realise like anything it's a case of moderation. So I tried not to go overboard eating this! The Dark chocolate orange variety is pretty good with a nice chocolate orange flavour. A bit like the dark version of Terrys Chocolate Orange in spread form, perhaps! Although it was nice it didn't wow me enough with the flavour to purchase again. It needs a bit more zing for my liking. The Hazelnut one is an absolute winner though, it's every bit as rich as Nutella and perhaps even more nutty, it lacks the same level of intense sw...

There's a new range of Doritos in town to steal Pringles crunchy crown...Doritos Stax! These are available now from most supermarkets, and this Spicy Chicken Wings flavour is exclusive to Tesco. The prices vary between £1.50 - £2.50 depending on where you buy them. They are unusual in that they contain dried black beans in the ingredients. I was expecting them to be similar to Pingles but they're a bit different in that they contain little bubbles in the crisps. They have a nice strong spicy chicken flavour and as always with Doritos  are well seasoned. They'd go particularly nicely with a dip. I liked that they seem a bit more wholesome than regular Doritos somehow, maybe due to the black beans. Overall, these are a nice addition to the Doritos range and are a bit different from regular Doritos, but I'm not sure we really needed them? They don't give you the same moreish crunchy factor that Pringles do so I'm not likely to get them very often. Nice novel...

I'm a big fan of Brothers cider, and really enjoyed the Parma Violet variety from last year so was super excited when they launched two new flavours this year - Marshmallow and Tutti Frutti! These are available Online and from B&M stores, and the Marshmallow variety is available in a slightly larger bottle than Tutti Frutti. I was kindly gifted both flavours to sample. The Marshallow flavour is nice, very sweet and with a strong vanilla like marshmallow-ish flavour...I mean, it tastes as much of marshmallow as is likely possible in drink form. It blends nicely with the cider and the overall result is very sweet, and comforting. If you like this or not will depend on your sweet tooth and whether you like drinks to taste more like pop. I fall into the latter category so I really enjoyed it - perfect for the end of a pretty dull lockdown week! The Tutti Frutti flavour however was my absolute favourite. It has the right balance of sweetness and tart fruit flavours, remind...

Recently, Home Bargains started selling these bags of Pringles Minis in Original and Sour Cream and Onion flavours. They’re only 39p a bag so I had to stock up on a few packs. A quick google reveals that these were launched into the Vending Machine trade earlier this year, but presumably the pandemic has put a halt on that. Unfortunately they were not as great as anticipated. They tasted somewhat stale and not as flavoursome as normal Pringles, and also felt less satisfying to eat. Overall these were a miss. Such a shame because they had potential! p

It’s hard to get healthy snacks nowadays that are truly healthy and live up to their credentials, whether it’s free from, additive free or whatever. I’ve tried various ones and many seem to come with downsides. But with Chum Fruit Bites I can say they’ve actually achieved their goal of being additive free, non GMO, refined sugar free, vegan, gluten free and nut free. They’re literally made with non GMO fruit purée and that’s it! The fruit is squished into little triangles to make a cool snack and comes in handy snacking sachets. They’re ideal for a mid morning or mid afternoon snack. And they don’t give you a sugar crash as they’re not full of white sugar but natural fruit sugar, which releases energy more slowly. They also donate 15% of profits to Wild Aid, which is currently working to end live animal markets - a worthy cause, considering!  There’s several flavours and my favourite is the Peach, which has a lovely natural sweet peach flavour followed by Strawberry which is v...

I’ve always been a big fan of Fry’s Cream bars, the Orange ones in particular are a favourite so I was overjoyed when they launched this new Limited Edition Strawberry variety recently! Available from discount stores like B&M Bargains and Iceland Foods for £1, these are vegan friendly and are classic Fry’s Cream dark chocolate with a soft fondant filling. Fry’s launched a Raspberry Cream last year and although it’s nice, I preferred this one as it just has all the nostalgic flavours of Strawberry Creams which I love! I’ve always enjoyed strawberry cream chocolate from Quality Street and Roses (yes I know everyone else hates them haha!) so I felt like this was made for me! It’s sickly sweet of course but that’s what you expect from a Fry’s Cream bar. The dark chocolate is rich and sweet, likely Bournville chocolate and a nice carrier for the filling. I felt like it balanced the proportion of cream to chocolate better than that of a Quality Street strawberry cream for ex...

Salted Caramel is such an obvious flavour it’s a wonder that Twix haven’t done it before now, but what’s more surprising is how wrong they managed to get it!  These bars are available in multipacks from various stores now and recently launched in Tesco. Even though they’re called salted caramel, the salt is actually in the biscuit base, which is a bit odd isn’t it?!  They just taste weird and wrong. There’s crunchy bits of salt in the biscuit but it’s unevenly dispersed so some bits taste salty and other bits taste like normal Twix. Odd! And it doesn’t make for a great snacking experience! Overall, these are a failure in my opinion - after posting about them on Instagram the comments were mixed, some people loved them and some hated them. So maybe they’re the marmite of new snacks! 3/10

Ever wondered what the filling of a Kinder Bueno tastes like solo? Well it’s amazing, and better than Nutella too in my humble opinion! This spread based on Kinder Bueno is made by Black Milk Cereal who have fantastic cafes in Manchester and London, serving waffles, pancakes and other goodies drenched with their signature Kinder Cream creation. You can now get it in jars from their online store (and the code Kevs10 will get a 10% discount). As well as Kinder Cream they do dessert sauces, salted caramel, and lots of biscoff products! (Like Biscoff Ice Cream Topping!) This stuff is highly popular with homemade bakers with good reason! I’m not much of a cake or cookie maker unfortunately, I prefer to eat this stuff right from the spoon! It’s like a smoother spreadable form of Kinder Bueno filling, and like a milkier version of Nutella. I honestly prefer it! So indulgent and creamy. When I’m feeling fancy I will mix it with things like Lotus Biscoff cookies or just slather it on toa...

Recently Asda has relaunched Cadbury White Chocolate, and although it's not the Cadbury Dream in the blue wrappers like we remember, it's pretty tasty. They recently took it a step further, and stuffed it with an Oreo cookie and cream style filling, and it's an amazing creation! Available only in multipacks currently, these are around £1.50 in Asda and consist of curved chunks of white chocolate, with a creamy filling and Oreo pieces. They're extremely sweet, but quite moreish. The white chocolate is standard milky, creamy stuff with the cream filling working well with it and the Oreo cookies balancing out the flavour with some slightly savoury, cocoa biscuit crunch. They're great with a cuppa when you need a sweet snack. But like I said they are very sweet so might not be for everyone unless you have a very sweet tooth! 8.5/10. 

I have to say I'm surprised the Cadbury Darkmilk brand has stayed around, not because it's bad but I didn't think there was a demand for darker milk chocolate. However we now have an array of new Cadbury Darkmilk flavours, Easter eggs and now Buttons, so they must be doing something right! I'm pleased I have to say because I do enjoy the richer taste of Darkmilk, it feels a bit more grown up than Dairy Milk which seems too sweet these days. Let's not mention the abominable Galaxy Darker Milk from last year...what on earth was THAT?! These Buttons are simply large Buttons of Darkmilk, and capture all the moreishness of Cadbury Buttons but in a richer form. Cadbury Buttons have always been more addictive than the bars, I don't know how they manage it, but it's like some alchemy occurs when you put them in a round shape! The buttons are moreish, but yet more satisfying to eat than Dairy Milk, there's less of the sickly milk flavour and more rich coc...