Kev's Snack Reviews

Quality Street have recently expanded their range by branching out into Lindor territory...with truffles! But they've given their own unique spin on them and these have crunchy coatings to fit with some of their classic Quality Street Chocolates. There's Orange which is a bit like the Crunchy Orange chocolate, Salted Caramel which is apparently based on the toffees, and Praline which is of course based on the Green Triangle. Sounds a bit gimmicky but they actually do fit with the Quality Street chocolates rather well. Consisting of a smooth, almost gooey truffle centre, coated in chocolate and with various crunchy coatings. The Orange was a favourite - a smooth orange flavour centre with some crunchy orange bits on top. It tastes like the orange chocolate from quality street but the truffle adds an extra dimension to it, replacing boring crunchy inner chocolate with a smooth ganache. I think I liked this better to be honest. The crunchy bits still give you the crun...

Amongst the treats Prestat sent me recently, such as the Ruby Chocolate Bar and Ruby Chocolate Thins they also sent me this box of truffles named The Red Box. Originally conceived of in the 1950s, "this delightful box adorned the drawing rooms and ballrooms of the stateliest of Britain’s homes and could be found in the green rooms of London’s famous West End Theatres". Prestat truffles were also "adored" by Roald Dahl, creator of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Beautifully presented, the chocolates come in three types: dark, milk and of course white. The flavours are Sweet Clementine, Earl Grey and London Gin & Lemon. I started off by trying the Earl Grey since I'm a big fan of earl grey tea. Encased in milk chocolate, the truffle contains milk chocolate ganache infused with earl grey tea, and you can just about see the specks of tea in it. It tastes delicious! The chocolate is high quality whilst the creamy ganache is very comforting with ...

Today's review is for some lovely truffles I was kindly sent by Monty Bojangles recently. I've already reviewed their Scofflets Truffles which were delicious, so how does this Choccy Scoffy boxed variety compare? The box is delightful and very well presented, and even gives you an indulgent recipe to try at home that includes butter. Naughty! The truffles may look plain, but they taste delightful. They melt in the mouth like butter, with a creamy and smooth melt. They're very rich so you only need a few for a chocolatey hit, but they're oh so satisfying. Overall, these truffles from Monty Bojangles taste great and would make the perfect birthday or Christmas gift, or more likely a cheeky treat all to yourself (I certainly didn't share them!) 8.5 out of 10. 

Recently, the lovely Monty from Monty Bojangles sent me a fantastic truffle hamper to review. I felt like Christmas had come early! There were truffles of every kind, but the ones I'm going to review first are the Scofflets, which are bitesize truffles available in 100g sharing bags from Waitrose stores. There's three varieties which include a Caramel & Cookie version, but today I'm only reviewing the Sea Salt and Maple & Hazelnut due to my gluten allergy (boo!). Hint of Sea Salt: So lets start with the Sea Salt variety. I wasn't expecting much, because these aren't salted caramel just salt. Salt can either enhance or spoil a chocolate, so how does it blend with Monty's truffley delights? Quite well as it turns out! They're creamy, chocolatey, smooth, melt in the mouth, with the lick of salt adding a moreish edge that enhances the flavour further. They're certainly nicer than your average chocolate truffle, and quite easy to scoff a lo...

I've been enjoying exploring the world of vegan and dairy free products recently, although I do still eat dairy I actually prefer some dairy free stuff as it sits more lightly on my stomach, so it's always nice to find new Dairy Free chocolates. They're usually hard to find and generally only available in health food stores, but one product I've always wanted to try but could never really afford were Booja Booja truffles. As many vegans or anyone avoiding dairy knows, they're a little pricey to put it mildly! This particular box usually costs £10-£15 in shops, sometimes more! But I was lucky enough to find it reduced on a local market stall to only £2.85 - what a bargain (I know, I'm a jammy so-and-so!) This was my first experience of Booja Booja chocolates and I have to say I was extremely impressed with the beautiful, hand-painted artists box they come in. They feel truly special and unlike any ordinary box of chocolates...I can see why the price is usual...

Phew, two M&S reviews in just over a week and I still have more in the archives! I don't actually shop at M&S regularly, but when I do I keep my eye out for those reduced price yellow stickers, you never know what products are going to get the yellow sticker treatment! One of the latest to catch my eye was this box of After Dinner Coffee chocolates, which were reduced to £1.35. It's a box of white, milk and dark chocolates with coffee truffle fillings. I love coffee and chocolate so I was very excited to see how these would taste... I started off with the white chocolate one, because white chocolate and coffee is usually a winning combination. It tasted okay, the white chocolate was a bit basic but the filling had a strong coffee flavour, but somehow it didn't work as well as I'd hoped, maybe because these were close to the sell by date...I'm not sure, but it seemed a little unexciting fot a coffee chocolate. The milk chocolate one was a bi...

As well as Magnum Chocolate Thins, WH Smiths are also selling these new "Chocolate Almond" Magnum bars, which consist of milk chocolate, white chocolate and a chocolate almond truffle filling. I spotted them near the tills and one bar cost me 75p which isn't that cheap, but still, I wanted to try them in the name of Snacks Science! It seems that the Snacks Warrior isn't the only one attracted to my hands...look at that Pidgie eyeing me up! Taking a bite (of the chocolate, not the pidgie!), I found it wasn't quite as I expected. There's an outer milk chocolate layer with almond pieces, followed by a white chocolate inner layer, and a filling of almond chocolate truffle. It tasted very pleasant and creamy, but it wasn't particularly "almondy". I can't help but think a hazelnut praline would have worked better, but I suppose that's been done a thousand times before (although "a classic never dies", as they say!) Over...