Kev's Snack Reviews

Another review of The Protein Works today, following on from the  Salted Caramel Protein Cookies  today it's the turn of their Protein "Crunkies", which are not only gluten free but vegan. Hurrah! They're made with a mix of oats, sucralose, corn fibre, apple, sultanas, rice crispies and soy protein. So why are they called Crunkies? Beats me - they're pretty much cereal bars! There's a dark chocolate flavour coating on one side and the other side has raisins clearly visible. And they taste pretty good! The apple and cinnamon flavour is unmistakable, and gave me that warm feeling of autumn when cinnamon flavours are more common. Of course it goes perfectly with the raisins, as well as the rice crispies and oats. The dark chocolate coating adds a nice touch although I didn't feel it was necessary - the bar is nice enough as is.  All in all, this is a sweet and satisfying bar and the perfect snack for after a workout (if that's your thing!). It'...

Recently, I was sent a batch of snacks to review including some of the new Nakd bars with a "New Recipe", so I thought I'd start with some of the more interesting flavours from the selection: Apple Danish and Banana Bread! The Apple Danish replaces the previous Apple Pie Nakd bar and I wasn't sure what the difference was so I looked it up...seems that this Apple Danish contains cashews rather than peanuts and almonds, and it also contains "fruit extract and concentrate" which consists of apple and carob. Nakd Apple Danish: This one tasted lovely with a subtle apple flavour and nice chewy texture. The natural spices are gentle and comforting and give it that authentic Apple Danish flavour. Although you could still pretend it's Apple Pie too! I really enjoyed this.  8 out of 10. Nakd Banana Bread: The Banana Bread one was perhaps even more exciting, replicating the classic banana cakey treat in bar form. It contains real bananas as well as walnuts...

There's a new popcorn company on the block and they want Butterkist's popcorn crown...they are Pop Works, a brand from the guys who brought you Pepsi. They have created a new range of unusually flavoured popcorn to shake up the popcorn market...one that promises "over the top" varieties. I'm not sure I think Apple Pie is that out of the ordinary as a popcorn flavour, after all Butterkist once did a Toffee Apple Popcorn . Regardless, when I spotted these in Tesco I decided I had to give them a try. I also bought the Peanut Butter & Caramel variety...but that's a review for another day. As well as these two there's also a Sticky Toffee Pudding flavour and Sweet and Salty. These cost £1.50 a bag and are suitable for vegetarians. They appear to be vegan and gluten-free but are made in an environment that handles milk and barley. Opening the bag, they did have an unusual cooked apple aroma...I poured a generous amount into my new steel snacks bowl:...

Thorntons have brought out some new limited edition chocolates, available directly from their stores or Wh Smiths. I highly recommend only buying them from WH Smiths though as they're much cheaper there! The flavours include Candyfloss Truffles (which I reviewed yesterday), Toasted Marshmallow Truffles and these Toffee Apple Caramels. You can vote for the flavour you want to remain on shelves via Thorntons website: www.thorntons.co.uk/vote. These are described as "soft gooey caramels flavoured with apple juice and wrapped in milk chocolate", and as you can see in my pics, they seem to have attracted the attention of the local pigeons! I can see why the pigeons were so interested...these are some tasty caramels! I wasn't a fan of the Candyfloss truffles in this range as they were so sweet, however these were perfect. They're runny, gooey soft caramels which is always the best type in my opinion, with a lovely refreshing apple tang. The flavour actually work...

Recently, Cadbury's PR sent me a huge box of the new Cadbury Milk Tray flavours to review, I wasn't too excited about the prospect to be honest because as we all know Cadbury's stuff just isn't what it used to be. The new flavours are Salted Caramel Charm, Apple Crunch and Chocolate Truffle. Not the most inspiring flavours, but at least Apple is a flavour not often used in chocolate! Unfortunately all three were pretty rubbish. The Apple Crunch is described as "Apple flavour white chocolate truffle with a cinnamon crunch" and has been "specially crafted to celebrate 100 years of delicious Milk Tray moments". Cutting into it didn't excite me much...no crunch to speak of, it just looked like a pale cream filling. And that's how it tasted...very mild, not much flavour, pretty boring really. It's unfortunate because it did have potential to be nice, what flavour there is was quite mild and subtly pleasant, you can taste the c...

Whilst in 99p Stores over Christmas (god, that feels like a lifetime ago!) I came across these "Cboze" bars, produced by Kraft Foods. I've reviewed Cboze before, back in the early days of the blog and that variety was a Cherry flavoured fondant. See the review HERE . They seem to be a Bulgarian brand, and I must thank Katherine from Grocery Gems for helping me solve that mystery! The flavours on offer were Salted Almond, Crunchy Corn, Pineapple and Apple & Cinnamon. At 2 bars for 99p I decided to try the whole range! First up I tried Salted Almond . Curiously, it didn't taste very "almondy" or even salty! The flavour was muted and tame, with the almond giving a little crunch here and there but nothing outstanding...it tasted a little stale, in fact. Next I dived right into the Pineapple flavour...such a rarity in chocolate! The bar contained a milk cream filling with a layer of gooey pineapple "jam" oozing above it. It was very f...