Kev's Snack Reviews

You may all remember the Charlene's Chocolate Factory's Bubblegum Blonde bar I reviewed last year, a very unique and BLUE bar of chocolate - these guys certainly don't do things by halves! So I was super excited when they reached out again to offer me to review more bars from the range, including the Caramel Salt & Smoke Bar, aka one of the tastiest bars around!  The name Charlene's Chocolate Factory is based on Charlie and The Chocolate Factory as the founders are big fans of the film. To this end they produce a range of unique bars in an array of interesting flavours, like Hazelnut & Pretzel White Chocolate, Rhubarb & Custard White Chocolate (this looks amazing!) and a fun looking Unicorn Bar. Check them all out here: https://www.charleneschocolatefactory.co.uk/shop-1 . Starting with the Caramel Smoke Sea Salt bar, this is essentially a variation on Blonde Chocolate with smoked sea salt added. And it tastes pretty darn amazing! Think a...

I first ranted about Christmas coming early several years back, and it seems that Christmas products seem to appear in shops earlier and earlier every year. We've now reached a point where they're apparently necessary whilst still basking in the Summer heat! I must admit I was a little surprised to see these tubs of Cadbury Heroes and Mars Celebrations on Friday. It's become the norm to get them in September but I don't think they've ever been out this early before? If you're desperate to get your hands on some of the sugary goodness, they're £5 a tub in Tesco which is pretty reasonable (that said, they may be rather melted depending on the heat where you are!) As well as the tubs, B&M have started stocking...stocking fillers! Such as Nestle Jelly Tots: Caramac Buttons: And Swizzel's Lovehearts tubes, now with Emojis: As well as those, in Tesco Express I've seen tubs of Quality Street: Plus Cadbury Roses: There's also...

Another Spotted In Shops quick post - this time for some new Nestle products gracing UK supermarkets! First up, following on from the success of the Peanut Butter and Coconut Butterfinger Cups , Nestle have launched a Hazelnut version. So far they've only available in Asda. Nestle Les Recettes de L'Atelier Blonde Roasted Almonds & Hazelnuts: Nestle have launched their premium L'Atelier range exclusively into Sainsbiury's stores. This range has been very popular in various European countries so it seems Nestle are testing the waters over here. This blonde chocolate sure does sound tasty - but at £3.50 a block it ain't cheap! (though I have been told it's worth the price). There's also this L'Atelier Blueberries, Almonds & Hazelnuts Dark Chocolate, available in smaller bars for £2: Plus L'Atelier Orange Zest & Cacao Nibs Dark Chocolate : As well as L'Atelier   Raisins, Almonds & Hazelnuts Milk Chocolate ... Plus L...

Whilst in Aldi over the weekend I spotted a new range of festive chocolate coated almonds...there's some rather unique flavours like Mascarpone White Chocolate, Spiced Chocolate and these: Salted Caramel White Chocolate. I'll be reviewing the latter two shortly but I just had to start with these because although salted caramel is becoming too ubiquitous now, these taste amazing! They cost 99p at Aldi and are described as "Almonds covered in white chocolate blended caramel powder and salt". The fact that these are white chocolate as well as salted caramel is what really sets them apart from your average salted caramel product. The almonds were nice and chunky with a thick layer of the salted caramel white chocolate on each. Taking a bite, I was in heaven...it tastes like Caramac, or rather Salted Caramac, but much better quality! The flavour is creamy, sweet and caramelly with just the right hint of salt. It's like if Caramac bars tasted as good a...

When I saw these "White chocolate caramel" coated rice cakes in Tesco's Free From section recently I got rather excited...not only are they gluten-free, but it sounded like they were topped with a potentially Caramac-like chocolate coating! Yay! Sadly it tasted nothing like Caramac. The rice cakes were tasty enough and the coating did liven them up a bit compared to regular rice cakes, but it wasn't quite the caramel hit I was hoping for. I tried eating the topping in isolation which was difficult, I had to nibble bits off the rice cake, and it just tasted of regular sweet white chocolate with a vague hint of caramel. Nice enough, but nothing majorly different from the regular white chocolate rice cakes from Nature's Store. Overall, if you're looking for something gluten-free, healthy but slightly naughty, these are worth a try but I'd recommend the White or Milk chocolate versions instead. 7 out of 10. 

When I first read about these new Asda Giant Pinwheel Buttons on One Treats blog, they were something I really wanted to try. I was a big fan of the Caramac Giant Buttons that Nestle recently introduced, but these sounded even better...they consist of a mixture of white and milk chocolate buttons in a swirled effect, containing a centre of sticky caramel. They're somewhat similar to Cadbury Caramel Nibbles. And they tasted a lot nicer than Cadbury Caramel Nibbles, despite being much cheaper - I paid only 80p for my bag! The chocolate is a lot creamier thanks to the addition of white chocolate, and doesn't have that weird waxy texture that Cadbury's chocolate now has. The addition of the caramel makes them very moreish, but also a little sickly if you eat too many. The caramel itself is runny and sweet, not the best quality in the world but about what you'd expect from a supermarket own brand really. Overall, I have to say I'm impressed with these, they...

Last week, Nestlé UK announced the launch of new Caramac Giant Buttons, apparently the first product extension in the brands history (although they've strangely glossed over the fact that they produced a Kitkat Caramac in the mid 2000's, as well as a Caramac Breakaway). The Caramac name apparently comes from an amalgamation of the word caramel and Mackintosh - the company that originally produced Caramac before being taken over by Nestlé. The bar has been a staple of newsagents for a long time indeed, and as many will know it has a buttery, almost fudgey caramel flavour, although unfortunately it's gotten a lot sweeter over the years. The original bar actually used to contain butter, treacle and condensed milk, but unfortunately these new giant buttons don't contain any of those ingredients...boo! :( Apparently 10 buttons equals one serving, which doesn't seem too bad an amount compared to some products (*cough* half a tiny Aero Mousse! *cough*) ...