Kev's Snack Reviews

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 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 ...

If you're into dairy free or vegan ice cream, good news, there's a new plant based alternative on the block: Coconuts Organic! Formerly called Coconuts Naturally they have rebranded and are now available in selected Tesco stores - do check out their website to see if they're available near you. You can find them in the Free From frozen food section for £5 a tub. This Choc Orange Swirl variety is described as "Organic, non-dairy chocolate orange ice cream, made with coconut cream, unrefined coconut sugar and laced with an indulgent chocolate sauce swirl". It contains no dairy, nuts or gluten and is free from major allergens. It's soil association certified organic and also approved by the vegan society. I couldn't wait to get this home to eat so cheekily ate some whilst in a Costa store right after buying it. There's a lovely orangey chocolate aroma on removing the lid. And the consistency is creamy, not too solid and was just beginning to get me...

Recently, I spotted a totally new vegetable/fruit (not sure which it actually is!) in Asda called Banana Blossom in a tin. It was next to the tins of Jackfruit which is a well known vegan meat alternative. I assumed it was a similar thing so happily bought some to try - it’s £1.50 a tin. The image on the wrapper looked innocent enough - battered fish pieces, only vegan! Surely this stuff must be good? Turns out that packaging was very misleading because nothing could prepare me for the horror that was lurking inside...when I opened the tin it was like opening something from a horror film, discovering the mouldy body of an ancient alien creature or other such evil. It looked hideous!! “Surely this is not meant for human consumption?!”, I thought. Heck it’s not even suitable for bird consumption....I think flies would even turn their nose up at this thing, which looked like rotten infested seaweed. When I posted this on my  Instagram  page the responses were pr...

The vegan and dairy free food market has literally exploded this year, on the back of veganuary and ever more people choosing plant based alternatives. Which is a good thing for those who have allergies too - there's so many choices now! In the chiller cabinets they've been a little slower to take off for some reason, but things are definitely improving - there's now Dairy Free Halo Top varieties, and a soon-to-be-launched Coconut Ice Cream brand I must keep hush about for now! Today's review are these sticks I picked up on special offer in a large Waitrose store. I've reviewed various Coconut Collaborative products before and it seems they've dropped that name on these ice creams and opted for "Coco Nutters", which is a fun name I have to say and one I have called my snacks pal Reaching For Refreshment in the past, as she is very much a coco-nutter! Anyway, these sticks are of course vegan, gluten free, dairy free, and also nut free...

Many thanks to Nomo “No Missing Out” Chocolates for gifting me samples of their new vegan free from chocolate range, which has recently been launched into Holland and Barrett and Tesco stores. I was very intrigued by these as they sounded a little different from standard dairy free products, and come in a few interesting flavours too. They are Dairy Free, Egg Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free and most of the bars are also Soya Free (with the exception being the dark chocolate bar). I was most interested in the Caramel and Sea Salt and Fruit & Crunch bars, and they actually turned out to be my favourites too. Starting with the Fruit and Crunch bar, I really loved this one! Think a vegan version of a Raisin and Biscuit Yorkie - if you've ever had Raisin and Biscuit Yorkie you'll know just how nice the combination of raisins and biscuit is! Now of course there's no biscuit here, just crunchy crisped rice, and plenty of it too. There's a good amount of raisins ...

When I heard about these new Watermelon Fruit Crisps on Instagram recently I knew they were something I had to try. One because I love melon - it may be my favourite fruit - and two because, they’re crisps! Now I’ve tried Nim’s Fruit Crisps before and wasn’t so keen on the pear ones, however other varieties I’ve tried since have been more to my taste. So I was optimistic these might be in the latter category. Like all of Nim’s range they’re gluten free and vegan, with no added sugar and these ones are air dried with no oil or flavourings added. They’re just pure air dried watermelon! I found them in Tesco for £1, near the fruit & veg aisle, and there’s 64 calories and 0g fat per bag if that sort of thing matters to you. Opening the bag, they looked like...well, dried watermelon! There’s even some little seeds in there! Since I love watermelon I was maybe more excited to try these than I should have been. But after trekking around Tesco I really needed a sweet little...

I was recently sent some of the new Freaks of Nature Cherry Bakewell puds to review by the creators - thanks so much guys, it's really appreciated! Freaks of Nature make vegan and gluten free desserts that are available from Waitrose and Ocado, without the use of allergens like soya, eggs, dairy etc, however they do contain nuts. These cost £2 and are apparently the worlds first free from and vegan cherry bakewell hot pudding. They consist of light almond frangipane sponge on top of a layer of sweet cherry sauce, and flaxseeds are used in place of egg as a binder. The desserts come in reusable glass ramekins, similar to GU puds, and contain 100g of dessert per pot. They can be heated in the oven or microwaved for a fast dessert. I loved these! The almond sponge is nice and light with a good nutty flavour, and the sprinkling of almond slivers adds some crunch. The cherry sauce underneath was a lovely surprise - it's sweet and flavoursome and really captures the essence ...

Many thanks to Karma Bites for sending me some of their “popped lotus seeds” snacks to review recently. I’ve tried some of their range before but this time they sent the Coconut, Vanilla & Cinnamon, Wasabi and Peri Peri varieties. I was very excited! The packaging has had a refresh and looks very nice indeed, and the health credentials are highlighted on the front- these snacks are high protein, low fat, gluten free, and vegan. They’re also nut free, so they’re covering all main allergy bases, hurrah! I’ve said it before but lotus seeds have a unique taste that you’ll either like or you won’t. It’s hard to describe exactly. They remind me of a healthier version of popcorn in texture. The coconut flavour were my favourites, they have a nice creamy taste thanks to the coconut milk powder used on them, and are pleasingly sweet. I didn’t notice the cinnamon but the vanilla flavour blended well with the creamy coconut.They’re highly moreish too and I ended up munching ...

Tesco are currently busy launching a raft of new ice cream products into their stores, and there's many gems among them - see this Instagram post of mine for a few as well as my Skittles Ice Creams review. There's also a new Haagen Dazs Brownie Macchiato , Ben and Jerry's Coconutterly Caramel Vegan Ice Cream, Low Fat Ben & Jerry's Moophoria tubs as well as new Halo Top lollies (which everyone is going crazy for)! I thought I'd try something a bit simpler to review, possibly healthier and also...vegan! Yes, the Solero brand has done something quite revolutionary and removed the dairy ice cream centre of a Solero, and replaced it with a soft juicy filling for these Peach Lollies. The ingredients are a simple mix of sugar, water, peach juice, peach, peach puree, lemon juice, pectin and other natural flavourings, as well as apple juice. Very fruity! The ingredients are also made by organic agriculture, which is always nice to know. Each stick has 60 calori...

With Veganuary and the Rise of the Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll (thanks Piers !) in full force, it's nice to see more options for Dairy Free and Vegan snacks in shops. If only for those avoiding dairy, which I try to do as much as I can. Amongst some of the newbies in stores recently I spotted these new bars from The Free From Kitchen, who I believe make dairy free chocolates exclusively for Tesco. There's a Rich Brownie Choc Slab and this Salted Caramel variety, which I chose because I do love salted caramel! The bars aren't cheap at £2.50 and I was a little apprehensive because I wasn't too impressed with the Original Chocolate variety in this range, but I thought I'd chance it since a few people told me on Instagram that the other bars in the range are nicer. This is described as a "Milk free choc sea salted caramel bar made with cocoa and rice flour". The caramel pieces are made with corn syrup rather than glucose syrup, making them safer for those a...

I'm a quite the fan of plantain chips, and often buy the various flavoured varieties now available from the likes of Tesco and Morrisons, such as spicy, garlic etc. They're usually found in the World Foods sections, so it's nice to see Tesco bringing them more into the mainstream under their Tesco Finest brand. I assumed these were part of their Christmas range but they're situated amongst the other "posh" bags of crisps rather than in the Christmas aisle, so I'm guessing they must be permanent. They cost £1.25 for a 125g bag, are hand cooked, suitable for vegans and made with plantain, sunflower oil and sea salt. Opening the bag, the crisps are in a range of shapes, from the more rounded part of a plantain - which looks like regular potato crisps - to the longer part, which looks like thin strips. They're pretty tasty, but I found them inferior to the other bands of plantain crisps on the market. They're a little oily, probably due to th...

One of the perks of being a food blogger is not just the naughty foods you get to eat, but doing unspeakable things like opening advent calendars before December...the horror! We've all done it before though, right? Luckily on this occasion the calendar in question was more guilt free than eating an entire chocolate filled calendar...that's because it's full of healthy-plant based protein, is gluten and refined sugar free and suitable for vegans. Hurrah! But doesn't that defeat the point of an advent calendar...aren't they meant to be a daily dose of naughtiness leading up to Christmas Day? I'm not sure the answer to that but calendars are certainly getting more fancy these days...you can get Gin, Wine and Beer calendars for around £40 from Iceland, or a large Wine Advent Calendar at Aldi for £50. Because why not spend the festive season sozzled?! Thankfully there's saner options for those of us looking after our health, such as the very dull soun...