Kev's Snack Reviews

Last year we got several new M&M bars launched in the U.K. and this year they have gone and blessed us with another; a Crunchy Caramel Bar, and not only that they have also brought back Crunchy Caramel M&Ms! I really enjoy the M&M bars as the chocolate is great tasting and the additions plentiful, so this new one was very welcome. I was kindly #gifted a sample bar from Mars PR. This bar includes mini M&Ms and crunchy caramel pieces mixed into the bar and it’s a great combo! There’s the creamy milk chocolate, which is almost like Galaxy and the crunchy mini M&Ms and plentiful crunchy caramel. It’s very crunchy and tasty and brings a nice mix of everything. It’s maybe a stretch to theme it on M&Ms but the M&Ms character on the block looks super cool so I’ll let them off with that! Overall, another delicious addition to the range which should be available in Tesco stores very soon. Let me know if you try these!

Recently, Mars UK launched their M&M's bars range as well as Salted Caramel M&M's - what a treat! They're finally giving us more interesting products than they have in previous years. And these bad boys are extremely tasty; in fact I think I liked them more than regular M&Ms for a few reasons. Today's review is for the US version I got from A Taste Of The States - which I presume is the same as the UK one. Look at the block design - isn't it cool! The milk chocolate is smooth and has mini chocolate M&M's and peanuts embedded within, and the M logo on each block plus the M&M character smirking at you! The bar doesn't contain actual Peanut M&M's unfortunately, as I imagine they'd be a bit too big to cram into the block and still have it look all glossy. Instead it has milk chocolate mini M&M's plus roasted peanuts. The chocolate tastes pretty good quality, it's smooth and with a good cocoa flavour,...

For once, it seems that Mars UK are giving British consumers a new M&M's variety we actually want (since they're denying us lovely treats such as White Chocolate M&M's, Peanut Butter Snickers, White Chocolate Galaxy and more - boo!) They've gone and replaced last years Crunchy Caramel M&M's with a Salted Caramel variety, which is very wise and does beg the question: why didn't they do this, like, 5 years ago when the salted caramel trend was at its peak? I guess things move slowly in the confectionery labs! (coming in three years time - Unicorn M&M's!) They've taken the smart step of using a chewy caramel in these, much like the Caramel M&M's available in the US, but with a salty twist. And they're honestly delicious! Better than the US variety, which although were good were not exactly what they'd been hyped up to be. The shells are classic colourful M&M's, with the chocolate being a little richer than ...

Since the Cadbury Darkmilk surprised me with how nice it was, I thought I'd review one of its new competitiors in the form of this Galaxy Darker Milk. The name itself amuses me - it's almost a sly implication that it's darker and thus better than Darkmilk. But is it? Firstly, it contains very different ingredients to Cadbury Darkmilk. The cocoa solids are 33% (much less than Darkmilk's 40%) and the ingredients contain lactose and whey protein, as well as palm fat. The Cadbury Darkmilk is already ahead of the game in that respect since it doesn't contain palm fat. Firstly I have to say I like the block design of this bar - it's sleek and curved and a lot nicer than the Darkmilk. The 110g bars are available from Tesco and Asda now for around £1.50, and there's also a Hazelnut variety. Unfortunately it has a very odd taste. When I first bit into it I was taken aback a little...it tasted smoky?! I thought I must have gotten a bad bar. This odd...

A big thanks to Mars' PR for sending me these new Mars Milk Snacks recently; I was promised a "surprise" new product and that it certainly was! It seems Mars have gone into new product frenzy recently, what with the M&M's Cake Bars I reviewed previously as well as a new Skittles Birthday Cake. These are a chilled take on the Mars bar, featuring soft sponge cake topped with a malted chocolate mousse, finished with a layer of caramel and fully coated in thick milk chocolate. Each pack contains 6 individually wrapped bars, "the ideal treat for sharing when chilling out with your best mates. So clear some space in your fridge immediately!" These are available from Asda stores now with an RRP of £3.00. Opening the box, I was struck by how dinky the bars looked. But sometimes good things come in small packages, as they say! The chocolate had the classic creamy Mars chocolate aroma, but with a more malty edge than usual. I cut it in half to...

I was recently contacted about a new super secret product, that would be sent to me on the launch day without knowing what it might be. Of course, I was super intrigued! Imagine my surprise when a MASSIVE Skittles Cake and a few packs of M&M's Cake bars turned up! Now unfortunately DPD messed up the Skittles Cake in typical fashion - it ended up squashed - but luckily these M&M's Cake Bars were fine - hurrah! The packs contain 5 individually wrapped bars that are a pretty standard affair, with a layer of soft sponge on the bottom, a layer of cream on top and all coated in milk chocolate. The surprise? The cream layer contains pieces of mini M&M's! Opening the wrapper the cakes smelled delicious, with a malty chocolate aroma. I cut a piece off, expecting to see M&M's...where were they? I cut more pieces off and still couldn't see any, so eventually ended up dissecting the whole cake bar to find some. They had to be in there, surely?! Lu...

Without warning, Mars UK have only gone and launched Limited Edition Crunchy Caramel M&M's upon the nation! Yes, these fantastic new treats are out now and available from Poundland in 109g bags. Naturally I had to pick a bag (or two!) up for sampling and reviewing purposes. They're described as "Milk Chocolate (51%) with a caramel center (21%) in a sugar shell". I tipped the bag out onto a fancy plate as soon as I got home...the M&M's looked somewhat like balls on a pool table. I believe caramel M&M's are an absolute first for the UK, although other countries have done the combination already. America are even lucky enough to get chewy caramel M&M 's! But this is the UK and we're lucky to get any new M&M flavour, so we mustn't grumble too much. How do they taste then I hear you ask?! Well, the caramel is a bit like toffee brittle or the innards of a Daim bar, with a buttery flavour that is delicious! I was seriously...

I don't really know where to start with my thoughts about these new Limited Edition White Skittles Fruits. You wouldn't think there'd be much to say about sweets that have simply removed the colourings, but apparently there is. They've been launched to support Gay Pride this Summer, stating "only one rainbow matters this Pride. Give the rainbow, taste the rainbow". The implication is that they've removed their traditional rainbow colours so that the Pride rainbow can shine instead. Oh, thanks for your kindness, Skittles! #onerainbow This is supporting a great cause, but couldn't they have thought of a better way to do it?! Making Skittles all white to support gay pride is just silly. Surely we should be celebrating the rainbow in all of its colourful glory? How does making them all white create any sense of pride? The fact they need a convoluted explanation for it just shows what a silly idea it is.  That aside, I will admit that it wa...

Today's post is all thanks to my wonderful blogger pal and part time snacks-dealer Reaching For Refreshment . She kindly sent me some of the new Limited Edition White Chocolate Snickers bars recently, which only seem to be available in a handful of Premier stores in the UK. There was no English writing on the wrapper; just Polish and Romanian, so presumably they're imported from one of those two countries. I have no idea if they're suitable for vegetarians or what ingredients they have - safe to say they contain nuts and milk, though! Removing the wrapper, I was surprised how dinky the Snickers looked. I don't often eat Snickers bars so I keep forgetting that like most other chocolate bars these days, the size has shrunk somewhat. This one weighs in at 49 grams. I didn't waste any time and split the bar in half. Plenty of golden caramel oozed out... There were plenty of peanuts visible within the caramel and the nougat too. I prepared myself for what was b...

When these new Trail Mixes containing Bounty, Galaxy and M&M's first came out I was eager to try them...until I saw the price. For 25g of fruit, nuts and chocolate they cost nearly 80p in The Co Op which is just too much. Luckily, one of my local stores had them all reduced to just under 20p recently on clearance, so I nabbed a few packs. The Bounty variety contains a mix of golden raisins, dried pineapple, milk chocolate, tropical flavour sultanas and sweetened coconut. A bit of a tenuous link to Bounty bars...but I'll let them off. They're suitable for vegetarians. The mixture was quite pleasant, it definitely had a nice tropical fruity vibe and all the fruits mixed well with the chocolate. The problem was, there just wasn't enough chocolate! I know these are meant to be healthy but c'mon...if it's labelled as Bounty you expect a decent amount of chocolate. There were just a few small drops, like the ones you can buy for making cookies with. Nice...

There's been some exciting new products appearing in shops since the last edition, what with the Christmas and Halloween seasons approaching...so let's take a look! Celebrations Cake Bar Selection: This festive cracker-shaped box contains all the various cake bars produced by Mars Foods to fit with the Celebrations theme. There's Galaxy Caramel, Mars, Bounty, Galaxy & Milky Way cake bars and Snickers Flapjacks. Curiously, nothing with Maltesers in. Spotted in Tesco. New Cadbury Layers of Joy Winterful Edition: A Winter edition of Cadbury Layers of Joy, containing layers of chocolate dessert and gingerbread biscuit. Spotted in Asda. Reese's Rounds: Reese's Peanut Butter meets biscuit...are they as good as they sound ? Available in B&M. Nestle Pick & Mix Caramel Edition: Nestle already brought out a Pick & Mix sharing bag earlier in the year, but this new one contains only caramel chocolates: Rolo, Munchies, Toffee Crisp and...