Kev's Snack Reviews

So I thought it about time I do a Free From version of Spotted In Shops (with a side dose of Vegan Snacks News), featuring some of the latest Gluten/Dairy/Egg Free & Vegan products, since the demand for these foods is ever-growing. Without further ado, let's take a look at what's come out in recent months... First up - Freaks of Nature, makers of Dairy Free desserts, have launched into the Dairy Free Yoghurt market with Blueberry and Strawberry flavours. These are made with Cashew nuts and are currently available from Sainsbury's for £1.50 a pot. It's not available in the UK yet (Sweden and Finland will get them in September), but a Vegan Magnum now exists in both Classic and Almond varieties! No doubt these will be on sale here soon if they're popular - I personally reckon they'll be on shelves by next year. The Coconut Collaborative are still going strong with their Dairy Free desserts, and have added a Mango and Passionfruit Panna Cotta to...

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'...

Following my reviews of Perfect World Caramel and Pecan and Raspberry Ripple Ice Creams today's is another from their newly revamped vegan, sugar free and gluten free range in a rather delicious flavour indeed...Pistachio! Containing only 5.2g of natural sugars and 390 calories per tub this also boasts 12 vitamins and minerals too. Not bad for an indulgent treat! The ice cream is made with a blend of coconut milk, almond, cashew and pistachio nut paste as well as the sweeteners xylitol, erythritol and stevia. Opening the lid, it had a lovely green hue and inviting pistachio aroma. There's little pistachio pieces mixed into the ice cream. Taste wise it was lovely, a super creamy and inviting pistachio flavour that melted in the mouth beautifully. The crunchy pieces add a nice bit of bite without it being too much. This is most definitely one for pistachio lovers, it's so nutty and moreish! I liked the fact that it's not sickly sweet like some dairy-based ice crea...

I was ridiculously excited when I spotted these new varieties of Beloved Date Fruit Hearts in Asda recently...I was a huge fan of the originals and so "Cocoa and Berry" & "Rich Cocoa" sounded very enticing. These were on offer of two packs for £1 so I got one of each new flavour. They're vegan, gluten free and nut free. I started off with Cocoa and Berry. The hearts come in a little plastic tray containing 5 pieces. Unlike the regular Date Fruit Hearts they of course had a darker colour due to the addition of cocoa. This variety also contains freeze-dried raspberry powder to give it the berry flavour. The dates were very tasty, as expected, with the rich sticky date flavour complimented nicely with a hint of cocoa. But I didn't really notice the berry flavour at all, it was overpowered by the strong date flavour. These are nice but they do need to up the berry content! The Rich Cocoa were pretty similar in taste; a strong date flavour...

Being gluten free, it's always difficult to find good biscuits that taste like the ones I used to remember. Thankfully there's new companies springing up all the time with gluten-free options, and one that you can find in many discount stores now is Gullon. They appear to be a Spanish company that produce dairy, egg and gluten free biscuits, cookies and crackers. They even do some sugar free ones too. As well as being gluten free, these Digestives are also suitable for vegans and anyone with dairy and egg allergies. They're nut-free too...that's quite impressive!  They're basically like a gluten-free version of McVitie's Digestives, with a similar shape, and are made with high oleic sunflower oil and corn starch. So they're even healthier than regular biscuits too (oleic oil is a healthy monounsaturated fat).  Taste-wise, they were very crunchy and reminded me more of Rich Tea biscuits than Digestives, this isn't a bad thing though, they...

When I heard that Asda have brought out a new Chocolate Orange Chosen By You cream cheese via their Facebook page yesterday I just had to seek it out. I'm a huge fan of Chocolate and Orange combinations, especially at this time of year, plus I was in the mood to make a creamy dessert...so off to my local Asda I went! I found it in the chilled section along with a Chocolate Fudge variety, which came as a nice surprise. I popped one of each flavour in my basket which came to £1.50 on a multibuy offer. Choc Orange Soft Cheese: The Choc Orange cheese is described as "Full fat soft cheese with orange flavoured chocolate and cocoa powder" and weighs 200g. It tasted delicious; chocolatey, creamy and orangey, pretty much as you'd expect really! It could've done with a stronger orange flavour if I'm being honest, but I'm guessing it had got lost in the tangy flavour of the cream cheese. There was a recipe on the lid for making Chocolate Orange Bread Pudd...