Kev's Snack Reviews

I was quite intrigued when Doisy and Dam announced some new snack products for Veganuary recently, the dairy free, gluten free vegan Ballers, D&D’s and Buttons range that you can now find in Holland and Barrett stores (99p per 30g bag, £1.99 per 75g bag). There’s also some Dark Chocolate Vegan Mini Eggs joining the trio in time for Easter. Unfortunate names aside (Ballers? They must have seen the jokes coming with that one - I’m sure it’s not unintentional!), these are a great idea in theory as they’re meant to be like Free From versions of Maltesers and Smarties for vegans. But there’s a catch...they’re made with dark chocolate rather than a vegan “milk” alternative so are inherently a more marmite product to start with - not everyone is a fan of dark chocolate, and I imagine that doesn’t suddenly change if you’re vegan. And that’s why these products fail. Now personally I enjoy dark chocolate, especially the more flavoursome varieties, so I assumed I would like these. But ...

As usual, Australia get all the best new snack releases and that’s no exception with these Cadbury Caramilk Twirls, which luckily you can get from Gb Gifts website (code Kevs10 gets 10% off). I’ve tried the regular Aussie Caramilk bar already and enjoyed it but this Twirl takes it to the next level...it’s delicious! It’s folds of swirly caramelised white chocolate, that tastes a bit like Caramac but creamier with a good coating of Cadbury milk chocolate to balance out the sweetness. It’s reminiscent of Cadbury Snowflake, if you remember those. Perhaps even better! A delicious concoction which of course means we won’t be getting it in the U.K, but let’s hope import companies are able to keep a steady stream coming into the country! For now keep your eyes on GB Gifts for incoming stock plus lots more Aussie and European limited editions. 9/10.

It's only January but Easter treats are now appearing in shops in abunadance...everything from Hot Cross Buns, Crème Egg Ice Creams and a variety of new Mini eggs. One that I just had to try (a few days after Christmas Day no less!) were these Hershey Cookies & Crème Eggs. They're a new addition to Tesco Express stores for Easter alongside the popular Reese's Crème Eggs , and perhaps one of the best new addition in recent years in my opinion. The white chocolate shell is studded with pieces of bourbon cookie (a bit like Oreo cookie) and the filling is a cream that also contains cookie pieces. It's a bit like that found in Cadbury Egg N Spoons , but creamier and a lot nicer. These are 50p per egg or you can get 3 for £1.20 mix and match with the Reese's eggs. They taste sublime! Now I've always enjoyed Hershey's Cookies & Crème , despite not liking Hershey chocolate in general, but they're taken to the next level in this egg form. The cream...

Not content with just being a sweet, Percy Pig wants to change...into sauce! Equal rights for everyone and all that - who are we to stop Percy if this is what he dreams of? My initial reaction to this sauce was that it sounds a little bit weird, but nevertheless I had to purchase a bottle when I spotted them for £2 at Marks and Spencer. It’s based on apple sauce with the unmistakable Percy pig sweet flavour blended in. Now when you factor that Percy Pig is predominantly a mix of various fruit anyway, it doesn’t actually seem that weird. I had also bought some Fibre One Birthday Cake squares to review, so thought “why not combine them?!” I like to live wild like that! The sauce is pretty syrupy and really does taste like Percy Pig, albeit with more of an apple-y tang. It’s actually not too bad once you get over the weirdness factor. It jazzed up the Fibre One square nicely as it was a little dry and dull by itself - but I’m sure it would work much better on ice cream or pancake...

This is a bit of an oldie from Cadbury, albeit one that has come and gone in various formats over the years. With the success of their Bournville with Orange bar , and Veganuary in full swing, they've relaunched their classic Old Jamaica Rum and Raisin chocolate. I last remember seeing this around 2011 or so, when it was launched along with the Orange variety as a limited edition. Here's an old pic from chocablog : Before that I've been told it used to be available in thinner bars, a bit like Lindt bars. I certainly don't remember that version! I found this in Wh Smiths near the tills for £1, which is standard for a 100g bar like this. Opening the wrapper it has the newer Bournville block design - somewhat square with half of the block having grooves on. I'm not too keen on the design to be honest, it doesn't break off very cleanly. Nevermind though. It has a strong albeit artificial rum aroma. Which is what you expect from something like this ...