Kev's Snack Reviews

Whilst in Asda recently I spotted these new Choco Caramels from Mentos and thought they sounded rather odd, since Mentos are usually known for chewy mints and fruity sweets. It seems they want to expand into toffees now. They're actually very similar to something I reviewed briefly in one of my Pick & Mix reviews ...Meller toffees, by Perfetti Van Melle. Perfetti make both Mentos and Meller so it seems they've just re-branded them. Clever!  They reminded me of Toffo (which, according to Nestlé, are never coming back - boo!) I used to love those as a kid! ( Here's a Facebook petition for their return ) Back to the Mentos...I was surprised to find I enjoyed the "Choco & Mint" version the most. The caramel was buttery, with a nice firm chewiness, and the chocolate centre had a nice rich minty flavour. I haven't eaten minty toffees in ages (probably since Toffo were axed, in fact) so it was a nostalgic experience. The ingredients list is ...

I've had a lot of snacks reviews building up for a while now - things that get left by the wayside as newer, more interesting snacks get released. In light of Grocery Gem's fantastic Random Reviews posts I thought I'd do something similar, so here's introducing Kev's Pick & Mix: an assortment of mini snacks and drinks reviews! Barratt British Mix: I don't think these are available in shops anymore, I found them several months ago in Discount UK and they were a month out of date at the time. They tasted slightly stale but came in some interesting "British themed" shapes, such as teapots, red telephone boxes, Queen's guards, Bulldogs and Big Bens: They appear to have been a limited edition release to co-incide with the olympics and Royal Wedding last year. Bloc Candy Jelly Bean Lovehearts: "Bloc" branded sweets are available from Asda stores, but I've also seen a lot of their range in discount stores such as B...

Whilst in Home Bargains recently I came across 16g sachets of these Fruittella Pixels for the very low price of 12p (or thereabouts). Like lots of cheap stuff sold at Home Bargains I thought "why not?" and added them to my basket. The name intrigued me too, because Pixels seems a bit of an old-school kind of name for a sweet product. Nowadays it's all " LOL Drinks ", " iGums ", " Jellicons " and whatnot. The sweets are little block-shaped fruity chews to fit with the name, which is a nice idea. There's a picture on the wrapper showing an X made from them so I had a go at making one myself: I'm not sure how it ended up looking like a cross...maybe divine intervention was at work! They tasted a bit similar to Skittles, with similar flavours and a similar chewy texture, but much weaker in flavour. And because of their tiny size they were kinda annoying because you have to eat more to feel like you're eating something...

After reading this article about Fruittella Magics I was intrigued. Apparently they have been out before, although I was never aware of them the first time so I decided I had to try them this time around. They've been brought out to cash-in on the trend for "flavour changing" sweets, such as Skittles Crazy Cores ( reviewed here by Grocery Gems), Starburst Flavour Morphs etc. The first thing to note is the packaging. It looks a bit...outdated. If Fruittella are trying to appeal to a modern audience I think they made a mistake here, as the packaging is nowhere near as eye-catching as Starburst or Skittles. Packaging aside it's the taste that counts, and luckily they tasted very nice. They were very fruity and chewy and the texture was just perfect. As promised the orange turned to strawberry and the raspberry turned to lemon. It was quite a subtle change but definitely noticeable, and made for a pleasant flavour experience. They're far nicer than Skit...