Kev's Snack Reviews

Following on from my review of the Coco Nutters Salted Caramel Sticks , I thought I'd do another Dairy Free Vegan ice cream product I picked up in Waitrose. Yorica ice creams seem to only be available in large Waitrose stores as well as Ocado.com (thus far) so I had to take the opportunity to try one. They cost £4.99 a tub which is equivalent to the similar Halo Top Non Dairy ice cream tubs. Described as "Rice drink and coconut based frozen vanilla dessert" this comes in a 340g tub and is also available in a Chocolate and Salted Caramel flavour. Yorica ice creams are free from 14 major allergens including nuts, eggs, gluten, dairy and soy and of course are suitable for vegans. I picked up this vanilla variety rather than the chocolate as it didn't have as many binders in the ingredients. It contains fructose rather than white sugar, if that sort of thing matters to you. There's also real Madagascan "spent vanilla seeds" in the ingredients - which I...

Thankyou to Graham’s Family Dairy for sending me some of their new ice creams to review recently. The range is available now from Lidl stores and consists of the ones I’ve previosuly reviewed - Espresso Caramel and White Chocolate & Raspberry , plus this; Salted Caramel! Ahh you can’t beat Salted caramel and ice cream together, am I right?! These ice creams are lower in calories and sugar and higher in protein than most regular varieties and somewhat similar to Halo Top, although I think they’re a lot tastier and richer. They use a mix of sweetener and real sugar, thus reducing the sugar content but not totally removing the flavour. The ice cream has a nice rippled effect that looks lovely on opening the tub... And it tastes lovely too! These ice creams are just so creamy for a lower calorie version; with the sauce being plentiful and tasting authentic too. It’s a great combination and I thoroughly enjoyed this, and didn’t even think about it being lower calorie as it’s s...

Many thanks to Halo Top for sending me some of their new ice cream sticks to review. They have recently launched into Tesco and seem to be very popular indeed. I've reviewed their Salted Caramel Non Dairy tub previously, and really enjoyed it so was curious how the dairy version of the stick lollies would taste. These contain 100 calories per stick and are a source of protein. The peanut butter sauce is swirled into the lollies, creating a nice effect and they certainly look the part! The ice cream is peanut butter flavoured. They taste superb! The ice cream itself is quite light which is to be expected since it's lower calorie, but the  sauce elevates it with a lovely salty peanut butter flavour. It blends perfectly with the ice cream and makes for a very moreish snack. Now, I’m not really into calorie counting personally so...I went ahead and ate another stick right after! If you have more willpower than me though, I imagine these are a great little dessert for when yo...

Following my review of the Graham’s Dairy Espresso Caramel Low calorie ice cream today’s is for their White Chocolate and Raspberry Ripple tub, another low calorie high protein variety now available at Lidl stores for £2.99. This is White chocolate ice cream with a raspberry ripple sauce and contains 350 calories in the whole tub, with 20g of protein. It’s also a source of fibre. Even though this is a lower calorie ice cream I didn’t really think about that while eating it. It looks and tastes like a regular creamy tub of ice cream and has no thin consistency like some others do. This tastes fantastic and is probably my second favourite after the Espresso Caramel tub. It’s super creamy with a strong taste of white chocolate, and with a light texture that isn’t quite as heavy as ice cream like Haagen Dazs, but still tastes luxurious. I’m not sure how they do it...the ingredients do have added fibre and sweeteners to lower the sugar content so I’m guessing that must be it. T...

The supermarkets have gone into a frenzy recently and started doing their own versions of low calorie high protein ice creams, with Aldi now doing a version, Morrisons , Asda and even Lidl! They've just started selling a 4 variety range from Graham's Family Dairy, which is lower in sugar and higher in protein than most regular ice creams. I was lucky enough to be sent the range to sample from Graham's - thanks so much guys! These are available from Lidl stores now for £2.99 a tub. There's White Chocolate and Rasperry and Salted Caramel available now and also Mint Choc Chip and this Espresso Caramel Ice Cream in the range. I'm starting with this because it was my absolute favourite and is a pretty unique ice cream too. The whole tub contains 310 Calories and 21g Protein. Now I don't know how this compares to the calorie and protein contents of other ice creams (I'm not one of those who care - ice cream is ice cream as far as I'm concerned and it...

I must admit when I first heard about these new Skittles Cooler ice creams being launched I was a little skeptical. They sounded a bit sickly and I just couldn’t imagine Skittles of all sweets working as an ice cream. Boy was I proven wrong! I spotted these for £3 for three sticks whilst in Tesco - who have loads of new ice creams in at the moment such as Tesco Rainbow Cones and Kinder Bueno Cones - and straight in my basket they went. They’re fruit flavoured ice creams with crunchy skittle pieces mixed in, covered in a strawberry coating. They look a bit like a Solero and that’s the general idea of the coating - a sorbet like fruit pulp mixture. It’s pretty tasty and a good start to the fruity sweetness that lies below... Yes, not only is the actual ice cream fruit flavoured but also it contains little crunchy Skittle pieces! They were in different colours of course and look super cool embedded in the ice cream. And they really make it something unique - the ice cream itself h...

A big thankyou to Baboo Gelato for today's review, they kindly sent me some of their Gelato range recently and it's been quite a delightful experience to say the least! Baboo Gelato is handmade award winning ice cream, from Bridport, Dorset and is available from Delis in the Bridport area, although will gradually be expanding as other stores stock them. If you're interested in seeing these please do let local stores know! Baboo use organic milk from a local farm and a lot of the fruit comes from their own rambling garden. It's lower in fat content than traditional ice cream, and more intensely flavoured. The range I was sent had some lovey varieties, there's the super moreish Bah Humbug, based on butter mint sweets, Brandy Gelato which is appropriately boozy, Crystallized Ginger Gelato, Pear Sorbet which has won a Great Taste Award, and an alcoholic Gin and Tonic sorbet. Starting with my absolute favourite from the range - Bah Humbug! This has a festive d...

Today's review is for something a bit different, a new type of healthy ice cream featuring ingredient of the moment: avocado! Not just avocado, but that other superfood of the moment  - coconut! Yes they've only gone and mixed the two together to make a healthy, vegan, gluten free, nut free and soya free ice cream! It comes in two varieties: Original and Raw Cacao and is available from ocado.com and Waitrose. Fravocado kindly sent me some samples to review and below are my thoughts on each variety. I'll start with the Raw Cacao because this was the one that divided my opinion most. It's made with Coconut Milk, 15% Avocadoes, Agave Syrup, Coconut Oil, Cacao Powder, Lime Juice, Vanilla Extract, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum and Salt. Opening the lid, it was super solid; practically a block of ice and even after waiting over half an hour it took a while to become scoopable. Eventually I decided to shave bits off with a spoon and eat it that way - hence the appearance in ...

As well as the new Dairy Free Peanut Butter Cup Halo Top I reviewed recently, I picked up the Sea Salt Caramel variety as part of the special offer at Tesco (2 tubs for £7). I was tempted by the Toasted Coconut one and will probably try that at some point too, but let's crack on with today's review... The ice cream is soy free, vegan and gluten free, although has been processed in a factory that uses nuts, milk, egg and wheat - so beware if you are sensitive to any of those. It's described as "Sea salt caramel flavour ice cream with sugar and sweeteners". Opening the lid, there seemed to be some nice pockets of caramel tucked into the ice cream. I scooped some into a bowl. It tasted lovely! I preferred this one a lot more to the Peanut Butter Cup variety, it tastes exactly of salted caramel and is the perfect creamy consistency. The texture is nice and light, and the pea and rice protein in the ingredients didn't seem to be as noticeable as in the...

This week Tesco have introduced a variety of new Halo Top flavours, from the likes of Birthday Cake , Oatmeal Cookie , and Red Velvet , as well as a trio of Dairy Free varieties: Toasted Coconut , Sea Salted Caramel and this Peanut Butter Cup. I was super excited by this, since I've been trying to avoid dairy for a while now. How would it compare to the likes of Perfect World or Booja Booja vegan ice creams? Described as "Peanut butter cup ice cream with sugar and sweeteners", this costs £5 in Tesco or you can get two tubs for £7. The ice cream is suitable for vegans, as well as being gluten free and soy free, however it is made in a factory that processes wheat, milk, eggs and nuts. I must admit I did chuckle at the lid! (see above) By the time I got the tub home it was somewhat melted and soft, and the perfect temperature to eat. It had a nice peanutty aroma. I scooped some into a bowl and took a bite... It tasted pretty good! The ice cream is quite light ...

It's the last of my Perfect World Ice Cream reviews today (boo!) and it's for Double Choc Chip, a combination of chocolate flavoured sugar free icecream and sugar free chocolate chips. It's also vegan and dairy free, and contains only 4.1g natural sugars and 396 calories per tub. It's made with a blend of coconut milk, cashew and almond paste, and the sweeteners xylitol, erythritol and stevia. Opening the lid it looked like a classic chocolate ice cream and smelled very chocolatey indeed. I was super excited to get stuck in! It tasted very good indeed! It was a lot more chocolatey than I was expecting and had a deep rich flavour, with the chocolate chips adding a nice crunch. It felt somewhat indulgent despite being sugar free, and the texture was perfect - it melts in the mouth nicely whilst also being quite light. Overall, this is another great variety from Perfect World, and perhaps one of the best - I like the simple combination of chocolate and chocolate ...

The hot weather continues, and with it my ice cream reviews for Perfect World's sugar free treats. So far we've had Caramel and Pecan , Raspberry Ripple , Sweet Espresso and Pistachio , all of them tasty in their own right, but today's is for a more simple, classic flavour that is always a favourite during the Summer months - Mint Choc Chip! Unlike your regular dairy and sugar filled versions, this one contains only 4.2g natural sugars and 396 calories per tub. It's made with a blend of coconut milk, cashew nuts and almonds, and the sweeteners xylitol, erythritol and stevia. Opening the lid things looked promising right away, it has the classic minty green colour plus there were some cheeky dark choc chips poking their way through. I scooped some into a bowl and allowed it to soften a little. Like the other flavours the texture is perfectly creamy; it's light and melts nicely without feeling too heavy. The taste is spot on! There's the subtle, gentle...