Kev's Snack Reviews

There's so much festive stuff in the shops right now it's hard to keep track of it all, but luckily I'm here to save the day with some of the best chocolates, sweets and novelty gift ideas! Only 2 weeks left until the big day so let's get cracking... Reese's Giant Peanut Butter Cups: First up, this is a must for any peanut butter addict! Scoff them all to yourself... or you could share them. Available from Debenhams and other department stores. Lindt Excellence Classic Assortment: If you know someone with a taste for the darker side of chocolate you can't go wrong with this Lindt Excellence assortment...it contains their best dark chocolate bars plus a Creamy Milk bar. Available from Debenhams. Sweet Shop Giant Gummy Cola Bottle: If you've always had a hankering for a giant version of everyone's favourite childhood sweets aka cola bottles, now is your chance! Available from Debenhams/online. Giant Gummy Rat: I don't know why a...

I'm not the biggest fan of Terry's Chocolate Orange these days, it tastes a bit greasy and waxy - no doubt Mondelez have changed the recipe like they have with Dairy Milk. However I do like chocolate with a bit of crunchy toffee in, and the Orange Daim Minis were pretty tasty so I was curious what a Terry's Chocolate Orange version might be like. You can get these for around £1 in most shops, they're suitable for vegetarians and gluten free, and contain vegetable fats in addition to cocoa butter. Like previous editions of Chocolate Orange Minis, the chocolates have a rather scuffed appearance which isn't that appetizing to be frank! Still, they tasted pretty good - the chocolate has that familiar fresh orangey taste, is very milky but definitely quite waxy in texture. I really, really don't like that waxy texture! The crunchy toffee pieces distracted from it though, providing a crunchy, moreish edge - they were quite similar to Daim, although ...

It can be rather hard to find Dairy Free milk chocolates, even more so the Christmassy variety, but luckily Moo Free have come to the rescue this Christmas! Not only do they make a Moo Free Advent Calendar , they're also doing this Mini Moos Organic Santa bar which costs 81p in Morrisons (also available in other stores like Holland & Barrett). It's dairy free, vegan, vegetarian and gluten free, as well as being organic. The ingredients consist of cocoa, sugar and rice powder as well as sunflower lecithin. I didn't know what to expect from this as the wrapper gave no indication, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this shiny, well-moulded santa figure. Compared to some chocolates around this time of year he positively looks like the Real Deal! I felt bad taking a bite, but it had to be done! The chocolate is surprisingly creamy for a dairy free bar, with a nice rich cocoa flavour backing it up. As dairy free chocolate goes it's pretty much perfect; s...

We've had quite a few Christmassy snacks from M&S and Tesco so far for Kev's Christmassy reviews, so I thought I'd break the cycle and try something a bit more classic that everyone will recognise. It's a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, only shaped like a Christmas tree! Or at least it is in theory...this is what the reality looks like: Not very Christmas tree like is it? I can't say I'm surprised because the Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkin from Halloween didn't look much like a pumpkin either, so it's a given that Reese's are pretty terrible at moulding their chocolates. What's left then? Well the classic peanut butter taste of course... Thankfully it tastes just as good as any Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, maybe better thanks to the larger amount of filing. There was less chocolate to spoil it with (which, lets be honest isn't the best quality chocolate around), and it ended up being quite a delightful peanut buttery hi...

No Christmas snacking selection would be complete without a Terry's Chocolate Orange, but what about their ice creams? Should we be indulging in those over the festive season too? Let's find out! These are out for a limited period for the Winter. Tesco and Morrisons sell them, but I'm not sure about other supermarkets. I got these from Morrisons on special offer: £1.50 for 3 ice creams, working out at 50p each. Not too bad! They're gluten free and suitable for vegetarians, and described as "vanilla flavour ice cream with chocolate orange sauce covered in milk chocolate with orange oil". I like that they've shaped them after the traditional Chocolate Orange segments, it's a bit different from your regular Magnum-shaped ice cream sticks. I wasn't expecting a lot from them, but they're actually very tasty! There's small ripples of sauce running through, which bring some sweet chocolate orange flavours to the party, combining well wit...

There's some pretty "out there" Christmas snacks this year, from various alcoholic crisps (like Marks & Spencer Bucks Fizz Crisps ) to Salted Caramel Pretzels, Dark Chocolate Chilli Tortillas , and now joining the table are these: Tesco Finest Limited Edition Cocoa & Spiced Rum hand cooked potato crisps. These cost £1 in Tesco's Christmas aisle, are suitable for vegetarians and gluten free, but contain milk. I was expecting these to taste awful, if I'm honest. I only bought them because they're so unusual! Turns out they're actually weirdly quite yummy! There's a definite chocolatey cocoa flavour coating the crisps, with only a slight hint of rum in the background - blink and you'll miss it. The crisps are quite sweet and have that moreish "sweet and salty" thing going on, that will keep you reaching for more. These may not taste much of rum (which is probably a good thing!) but they're unusual enough to become a ...

M&S have really upped their game this festive season, and one on-trend food item their Christmas range wouldn't be complete without is salted caramel. When I spotted this "Liquid gold salted caramel sauce" there was no way I could pass on trying it...it contains edible glitter. You can't get more festive than that! I must admit, on reading the instructions I was a bit puzzled what to actually use it for. They advise that it's not suitable for heating, which is a bit odd for a sauce. On the plus side, it's gluten free and vegetarian friendly. Opening the lid, it had a lovely buttery aroma and the edible glitter was clearly visible giving it a lovely gold shimmer. The texture was rather thick, so I dug in with a spoon and tried some straight away...it would've been rude not to! It tasted heavenly, the perfect sweet, buttery and slightly salty combination that makes salted caramel the best of all worlds. I felt a bit naughty eating it by th...