Kev's Snack Reviews

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 ...

Another quick Spotted In Shops, and it seems that it's not just the weather that's getting colder this week - so are the new snacks! There's been a lot of ice cream releases lately, from the Ben and Jerrys Birthday Cake and Topped Pretzel Palooza , to some new Haagen Dazs Peanut Butter Crunch sticks, as well as a Peanut Butter Crunch Tub. Both are available in Asda but unfortunately mine has none of the tubs in yet - boo! They feature peanut butter ice cream, swirls of peanut butter sauce, crunchy caramel and milk chocolate. Magnum White Chocolate Honeycomb & Almond: Featuring Honeycomb flavour Ice Cream with White Chocolate and Almonds, these new sticks from Magnum sound potentially dangerous! Available at Asda in boxes of 4. Rowntree's Fruit Blaster Lollies: Also new at Asda are these Rowntree's Fruit Blaster ice lollies - a variation on Rowntree's traditional fruit lollies. Asda Hand Cooked Thai Green Curry Crisps: An interesting new limited ...

You can't beat M&S for peanutty treats. Yes they do get some of their confectionery range wrong but when they get it right, they get it oh so right...the Nutty Surprise Easter Egg was glorious, for example. Now they've only gone and created some delicious peanutty caramel chocolate treats in their bagged range, which judging by the amount of times are out of stock must be selling like hot cakes! I had put off trying these for ages, firstly due to my low sugar diet over Summer and secondly as I prefer to avoid dairy. But recently I thought what the heck, why not try them! Described as "milk and dark chocolate bars with a layer of soft caramel (19%) and a peanut butter (11%) and roasted peanut pieces (9%) centre", these are certainly not for anyone with nut allergies! They cost £2 for a 130g bag and are suitable for vegetarians. I ate these whilst on the go, as I often do. The bars are quite chunky, which certainly makes for a more satisfying eat. Biting i...

What have we here, a new variety of M&M's that is actually a UK exclusive for once? You're spoiling us, Mars! After all we have been deprived of the Peanut Butter M&M's for what seems like forever now, import stores notwithstanding. Yes, Mars are gracing us with this new Peanut and Hazelnut Limited Edition which can be found in Poundland, and no doubt other stores to follow soon. Described as "an assortment of milk chocolate with peanut and hazelnut in a sugar shell", these come in 128g bags. The M&M's are different sizes and it was hard to tell which were hazelnut and peanut, because despite the wider ones looking like hazelnuts - some weren't! I ate a few of the fatter ones and was met with the regular peanut variety...so disappointing! Eventually I found a hazelnut one - at last, what I've been waiting for all this time! It tasted good, very good in fact, and was every bit as nice as you can imagine a hazelnut M&M to be. ...

A big thankyou to Marks & Spencer who kindly sent me one of their Nutty Surprise Easter Eggs to review recently. I know - I'm a jammy so-and-so! I was super excited, moreso than anything I've ever been sent to review before. This is part of the new M&S Easter range for 2017, which includes some very cool products such as Chocolate Ganache Salted Caramel Eggs , White Chocolate Laid Back Lamb , and even an Egg made of Fudge ! You can't fault M&S for their efforts considering no other supermarket has such an interesting range (and really, nothing says Easter quite like this Shimmered Teardrop Egg , right?) This beauty is described as a "hollow milk chocolate egg with honey caramelised salted peanut pieces". It comes with its own stand, should you wish to show it off and admire it: Opening the foil, the two halves split apart to reveal the glorious peanut studded centre. It looked amazing! And now for the close-up... I snapped a piece of t...

I may not be The Peanut Butter Queen - that title goes to Nibbles & Scribbles - but I certainly had to try these new Dessert Menu Belgian Milk Chocolate and Peanut Ice Creams when they appeared in Marks & Spencer recently, along with other varieties such as Milk Chocolate & Cappuccino and Stem Ginger . They're suitable for vegetarians and described as "Roasted peanut ice cream with a toffee ripple coated in Belgian milk chocolate and roasted peanut pieces". They cost £2.80 for a box of three. You can also buy them in single sticks if your M&S is lucky enough to have them in. They look pretty similar to a Magnum in size and appearance, with the roasted peanut pieces visibly embedded in the chocolate. Taking a bite, there's a nice savoury flavour from the peanut ice cream, with a thin layer of toffee ripple running through it. The chocolate is top quality, rich yet creamy and far better than anything most supermarkets make. The peanut piec...

I was quite excited when this Snickers Ice Cream tub popped up in Asda recently, along with Mars and Twix Ice Cream tubs. I can't eat the latter two as both contain gluten, but this one is gluten free - huzzah! I am sure they used to make these many moons ago, back in the 90's. I distinctly remember eating the Mars variety as a child. So they are perhaps a recycled idea rather than something completely new. Regardless, it's always good to have more peanutty products on UK shelves! This cost £3 in Asda and is described as "Peanut dairy ice cream with milk chocolate coated peanuts, caramel and milk chocolate flavour sauce". When I opened the tub a lot of the ice cream had melted, which meant only one thing: eat as much as possible to stop it spilling out of the tub! ( Any excuse). The ice cream is lovely, you can definitely taste the peanut flavour as it has that salty savoury taste going on. The caramel is a nice addition and provides some sweet goo...

A new Dairy Milk variety is out, and true to formula Cadbury's have rebranded one of their existing European Milka bars as Dairy Milk. This one is based on Milka Peanut Caramel, and contains "Dairy Milk chocolate filled with peanuts, caramel and a peanut filling, with chopped peanuts and rice crisps". It's currently available from Sainsbury's for £3 per 278g slab, although should be in other supermarkets soon. I was extremely excited to find this; I'm a big fan of all things peanut and peanut butter so I was expecting a peanut overload with all the peanutty ingredients crammed in. And for once, it was every bit as tasty as I'd hoped! The bar is just as sweet and sickly as Big Taste Toffee Whole Nut , but a lot more moreish thanks to the savoury flavour of the peanuts. I couldn't stop scoffing it! The peanut filling, crunchy rice pieces, caramel and peanuts all combine together to create something very indulgent...crunchy, creamy, crispy, sw...

I've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins in stores this Halloween; I've never had a chance to try them before and I do love a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, so I reasoned they must be extra special in a Pumpkin shape...right?? It's a potato! No...it's a bat! Well I couldn't have been more wronger than wrong! What greeted me upon ripping off the wrapper of this particular Reese's Pumpkin was this...lump/potato/blob that looks nothing like any pumpkin I've ever seen before. It's ridiculous! "Surely Reese's are having a laugh?", I thought... Thankfully the peanut butter filling tasted the same as the stuff in a regular Peanut Butter Cup, albeit in a slightly thicker ratio. The chocolate as always was super sweet, but complimented the filling perfectly. Overall, what can I say...my Reese's Pumpkin tasted the part but it sure as heck didn't look it. I'm thinking that perhaps...

Following on from my review of Pop Works Apple Pie Flavour Popcorn , today we have the Peanut Butter and Caramel variety. My blogger chum Nibbles & Scribbles wasn't too fond of this one, but to my surprise I found I rather enjoyed it... Like the Apple Pie Flavour, this one is vegetarian, and appears to be gluten free although is made in a factory that handles barley. They aren't vegan as they contain milk. It cost me £1.50 in Tesco although I've since seen it for only £1 at Asda and The Co Op...stock up on it while you can! As before, I poured this into my new steel snacks bowl. It had an odd aroma, not particularly nutty, but almost...cheesy...kind of savoury. I wasn't sure what to expect. Popcorn Poodle! When I first took a bite, it tasted a little odd. I was expecting sweet peanut butter but it tasted of something else entirely...again, kind of cheesy. Determined to taste the peanut butter flavour that was promised, I kept munching...and after a ...

Nakd Wholefoods have released three new bars onto the healthy snacks market, one being the Carrot Cake Limited Edition I reviewed yesterday, and the others being Apricot Crunch (I'm yet to find one...boo!) and this, Peanut Delight. Like all Nakd bars it's vegan and paleo friendly, as well as gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, raw and vegetarian. This bar contains 149 calories, 7.5g fat and 14.6g carbs (13.6g of which is sugars). The bars cost 75p in Asda's Free From sections. Unlike most Nakd bars, this doesn't contain cashew nuts as one of the main ingredients...instead it contains...can you guess?...go on, try! Peanuts of course! Yes, surprisingly this Peanut Delight bar contains peanuts as the only nut ingredient (which technically isn't actually a nut...but let's not go there!) as well as dates, sea salt and a hint of mysterious, unspecified natural flavouring. Now I'm a big lover of all things peanutty, so I had high expectations of t...

My local Tesco Express recently reduced some of their American snacks to clear, one of them being this Nestle Oh Henry! bar...it's one I've never tried before so I thought I should (in the name of snacks science, of course). I'm always wary of some American chocolate bars, especially the Nestle ones as they're often lacklustre. I don't know why...maybe it's the fake chocolate, or reliance on corn syrup, but they're never as exciting as they sound on paper. This one was described as peanutty caramel fudge bars in milk chocolate. Sounds yum, right! Opening the pack, there were two pieces, with a faintly chocolatey and peanutty aroma. I took a bite, and was met with super sweet caramel fudge, not the buttery sort but the "corn syrup" caramel found in a lot of American snacks. It's not really true fudge but more of a very sweet nougat. The peanuts rounded things off and added a nice savory flavour to the whole thing. It reminded m...

Many thanks to Bring Back Banjo Bar for alerting me to this Meridian Peanut & Banana bar on Instagram recently, after seeing her pic of this I decided I had to give it a try...I'm a fan of all things peanutty, but the combination of both Peanut and Banana together sounded fantastic.  I found this bar in Holland and Barrett...I can't remember the cost exactly but it was just shy of a pound. The ingredients consist of peanuts, rice syrup, rice protein, and of course...bananas! The bars are gluten free, dairy free, high protein and suitable for vegetarians and vegans.  The texture is chewy and fudgey, similar to Nakd bars but with a more robust bite. The peanuts bring that unmistakable savoury nuttiness, with the banana bringing a delicious sweet creamy flavour. I have to say, this is the perfect combination of flavours, they work perfectly together! I felt very satisfied and happy after eating this, it's filling but not overly sweet or sickly, yet yo...