Kev's Snack Reviews

After my disappointment over the lack of detail on the Cadbury Mousse Snowman, I was hoping this Maltesers Merryteaser would be an improvement. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten about the Malteaster Bunny from my Easter Bunny Beauty Contest earlier in the year. That guy didn't have a face...so it was no surprise to find his reindeer cousin didn't either! At least he has a nose, I guess:

Come on Mars, you can do better than this! He looks like he was made using a Poundland cookie cutter! (I have nothing against Poundland, but still...)

Luckily, he tasted a lot better than he looked. The chocolate was creamy as with most Mars branded chocolates, and the filling was super smooth. There were crunchy Malteser pieces embedded within the filling, similar to those in the new "Maltesers Teasers" bars. In other words, this is the Malteaster Bunny but disguised as a reindeer!

Overall, this is a delicious Christmas snack which you really can't go wrong with. In my opinion it's a lot nicer than some of the other offerings this year (*cough* Dairy Milk Snowman *cough*) and would make a great stocking filler.

Price: 65p at Tesco. Currently 2 for £1.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk and gluten. May contain egg.
Nutrition Information (per 29g): 156 Calories.

RATING: 8 out of 10.

This "Strawberry Sours" pop from Barr has been calling me for a while now. I kept seeing it in a local discount store and thinking "ooh, that looks interesting", but the cheap price made me think it would be a bit rubbish. After seeing Foodstuff Find's post on Barr's Limited Edition Bubblegum flavour pop though I decided to finally give it a go in the hope it would be as good.

Of course, the most famous pop Barr are known for is the Scottish delicacy Iron Brew, or "Irn Bru". Being a big Iron Brew fan I hoped this would be similarly as good.

Unfortunately it wasn't, but it was still a pretty tasty pop drink for 39p. It was strongly fizzy, moreso than a lot of carbonated drinks these days which have a rather weak fizz. The strawberry taste had a nice sour tang but it was quite artificial and certainly didn't taste anything much like a strawberry I've ever eaten. But I suppose that's the joy of pop isn't it - artificial flavours ahoy!

Overall, this is a nice enough fizzy drink for the price, and certainly worth trying once if you like interesting pop flavours.

Apparently this is a limited edition that was brought out last Summer, so I'm not sure if the can I bought is old stock or if it's one of those limited editions that lasts for ages. If you've tried this drink yourself please do get in touch via the comments!

Price: 39p from local discount store.

RATING: 6 out of 10.

New limited edition white and milk chocolate Dairy Milk bar for Christmas with tree shaped chunks

As well as the new "Dairy Milk Snowy Delight", I was pleased to find this limited edition Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland bar in Tesco recently. It's one of the few Christmas products I've been truly excited about and that's only because of the unique tree-shaped blocks! They look fanatstic; I don't think I've ever seen a chocolate bar that looks quite this cool before!

New limited edition milk and white chocolate Dairy Milk bar for Christmas with tree shaped chunks

The blocks break off fairly easily and cleanly, which is quite a feat considering their unique shape. They can be split into diagonal rows:

...or individual chunks:

...or even three-chunk triangles!

The bar comprises mostly of Dairy Milk, with the white pieces containing a layer of white on top of milk chocolate. The white chocolate amounts to 12% of the bar in total.

The chocolate tasted delicious; it was exactly as you'd expect from Dairy Milk, but with an extra hit of creaminess from the white chocolate. The flavours blended together perfectly for a creamy, sweet treat.

It reminded me of the somewhat similar Milka Happy Cows, which also contains white on milk chocolate, however I think this bar is far superior thanks to the tree-shaped chunks!

Overall, this is a fantastic limited edition from Cadbury and one I really can't fault. The tree-shaped chunks are a unique idea and really festive - they'd make a great decoration for cookies, cupcakes...or even mince pies!

Price: £1.40 for a 100g bar at Tesco. Also spotted for £1 at Sainsbury's and The Co-Op.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk and soya. May contain nuts and wheat.
Nutrition Information (per quarter of bar): 133 Calories, 7.7g Fat (4.8g Saturates), 14g Carbohydrates (14g Sugars).

RATING: 9 out of 10.

*Apologies for the overload of photos...I thought this bar looked so nice it really deserved showing off!

Options low calorie limited edition belgian chocolate butterscotch flavour

Just a quick review for this new Options flavour today as there's not really much to say about it!

I found this in Tesco along with the other Options varieties, but nearly passed it by as the packaging looks quite similar to the Toffee flavour that Options used to do (anyone know if they still make it?).

It tasted pretty much like regular Options hot chocolate but with an extra hit of butterscotch flavour. It was very pleasant and sweet, and of course low calorie which is the point of Options. It's a nice limited edition, but personally I think I'll stick with Options white hot chocolate which is my personal favourite!

I tried to make this without lumps by stirring the powder with a splash of milk before adding hot water, but unfortunately still ended up with some lumps as you can see here:

It's not the first time I've had lumpy hot chocolate from Options...anyone else have this problem?

Price: 32p per 11g sachet or 4 for £1.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Not stated on packaging.
Allergy Information: Contains milk, whey and soya. Gluten free. Contains artificial sweeteners.
Nutrition Information (per cup made with water): 39 Calories, 0.9g Fat.

RATING: 6 out of 10.

For a while now I've been experimenting with gluten and dairy-free products. I feel much better using them, and usually go for gluten or dairy free options if they're available in cafes. One product I've been buying regularly is Koko (formerly Kara) Dairy Free, so I thought it about time I give it the review treatment!

Koko is a dairy free alternative to milk, and I've found that it goes well with cereal in particular, but it's also good for drinking by itself or making smoothies with. It's good in tea and coffee although it can be a bit watery, so you need to use more of it to get the same effect as regular milk. It doesn't curdle though, unlike some milk substitutes.

I much prefer Koko over soya or rice milk, as the taste is "cleaner" and it actually tastes refreshing to drink. For anyone who's been put off coconut drinks by trying the likes of Vita Coco, Koko is very different as it doesn't have that weird sour taste that coconut water does.

According to the pack coconut has many health benefits, for example it is said to boost metabolism, and the fat is easily digested rather than being stored in the body like other fats. I'm not sure how true those claims are but I certainly feel much healthier drinking it.

Koko contains the same amount of calcium as cows milk, plus added Vitamin D2 and B12 and is sweetened with grape juice concentrate. It's made with freshly pressed coconut milk from Koko's farm in Indonesia, and is Vegan, Vegetarian Society Approved and is certified gluten-free.

Overall, this is a very healthy drink which I would recommend as a refreshing alternative to cow's milk or soya milk. It also makes a nice Bubble Smoothie when blended with mango and ice!:

Smoothie with Koko, mango, ice and tapioca pearls

Koko is also available in chocolate and strawberry flavour milk drinks, and comes in a chilled version which is available at Tesco.

Price: £1.39 at most supermarkets, plus Holland & Barrett.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes, and vegans.
Allergy Information: Dairy, Lactose, Soya and Gluten free.
Nutrition Information (per 100ml): 27 Calories, 1.9g Carbohydrates, 2g Fat.
For more info and recipes: http://www.kokodairyfree.com/

A tub of popcorn flavoured ice cream with popcorn and crunchy toffee pieces plus toffee sauce

I was really excited to find this new Butterkist Toffee Popcorn flavour ice cream in Tesco recently. I've never tried a popcorn flavoured ice cream before, despite always being curious about the Heston Blumenthal Salted Caramel Popcorn ice cream from Waitrose.

The description on the tub reads "Butterkist Productions are proud to present to you our delicious toffee popcorn flavour ice cream, made using our safely guarded popcorn recipe combined with soft ice cream, smooth toffee sauce and crunchy toffee pieces." It cost £3 - I'm not sure if this is an introductory price or the regular price, but I would recommend grabbing some ASAP regardless, because this is a fantastic ice cream flavour and just as good as anything from Ben and Jerry's or Haagen Daz!

The Butterkist logo really intrigued me - it says Butterkist Productions Estd 1914 Indianpolis. A little research (thanks, wikipedia!) revealed that the Butterkist name originates from a Kentucky-based popcorn machine business which started in 1914. The machines made their way into the UK via an unknown route and the brand went on to become established as the UK's most popular popcorn.

Interesting huh? Ok, history lesson over...onto the ice cream!

A tub of popcorn flavoured ice cream with toffee sauce, popcorn and crunchy caramel pieces

Opening the tub revealed a beige-coloured ice cream with some toffee sauce on one side:

A tub of popcorn flavoured ice cream with toffee sauce, popcorn and crunchy toffee pieces

Scooping some into a bowl revealed pieces of popcorn and toffee chips immersed in the icecream, as well as several swirls of toffee sauce. It was a bit melted from my trip home from Tesco but this didn't bother me, in fact I prefer icecream slightly melted as the flavour is better plus it avoids the horrible "brain freeze" phenomenom!

The ice cream tasted fantastic; it was very creamy and had a realistic buttery popcorn flavour. This surprised me because I wouldn't have imagined popcorn working as an ice cream flavouring, but Butterkist have recreated the flavour fantastically. It gave me all the warm happy feelings of cinema popcorn but with the added bonus of creamy ice cream. It's the best of both worlds really, and I certainly wouldn't hesitate to take a tub of this to the cinema instead of real popcorn!

The actual popcorn pieces were nice, although there weren't many of them and they were a bit soft, which I guess is inevitable since they're mixed with ice cream. The toffee pieces added a nice crunch which went well with the other components. The toffee sauce was sweet and buttery but there wasn't nearly enough of it for my liking...just a few swirls which kind of got lost in the ice cream.

A whole piece of popcorn!

Overall
Minor complaints aside, I thought this was a delicious ice cream that recreates the flavour of toffee popcorn surprisngly well. It brings you the best of both worlds - the comforting flavour of cinema popcorn combined with the creaminess of icecream. It does make me wonder though what Butterkist's "secret" recipe is if they can use their popcorn as a legitimate flavouring. Maybe we'll see a whole array of popcorn-flavoured goodies from them in the future? I certainly hope so!

RATING: 8.5 out of 10.

Other Butterkist reviews:
Butterkist Toffee Apple Flavour Popcorn (Limited Edition).

Price: £3 per 480ml tub at Tesco.
Suitable for vegeterians?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk, soya. May contain nuts.
Nutrition Information (per 100ml): 177 Calories, 8g Fat.
Made by: Fredericks Dairies under license from Butterkist.

I must admit, I don't really know what Hello Kitty is all about. It's a cultural thing that has completely passed me by, despite seeing the products in most shops. I know it's very popular though, so when I spotted this Hello Kitty milk chocolate bar for just 17p I thought I'd give it a try and see what all the fuss is about.

Turns out this wasn't the best introduction to a Hello Kitty product. It's just cheap-tasting calender milk chocolate with a Hello Kitty wrapper! I wasn't expecting much for 17p, but I still expected better than this. If Cadbury can produce Freddos for 20p then it can't be that hard to make a small bar of decent quality chocolate, surely? These are made by Kinnerton Confectionery who specialize in "Calender chocolate", though, so I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised!

Overall, this is a poor quality chocolate that I would recommend avoiding - even if you have kids. Go for a Freddo, Cadbury Fudge or Chomp instead!

Price: 17p per 11g bar at Asda.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Nutrition: 58 Calories, 3.1g Fat.

RATING: 3 out of 10.

After seeing sachets of these new Horlicks Cappuccino in supermarkets for the last few weeks my curiosity finally got the better of me and I decided to try one. I wasn't too interested in them initially due to the rather dull-looking packaging, but the idea of a Cappuccino Horlicks had me intrigued. "Aren't coffee and Horlicks polar opposites?", I thought. After all Horlicks is usually advertised as a drink to help you sleep.

It turns out that Horlicks have thought of this and created a cappuccino you can drink at bedtime, by using decaffeinated coffee. Genius! It's described on the sachet as "The perfect fusion of real coffee and smooth Horlicks goodness" and contains added Vitamin D, plus other vitamins.

It tasted pretty good - like a milky, coffee flavoured cup of Horlicks, basically. Because of the malt it almost felt like a meal in a cup and was very satisfying and filling, but with a milky coffee edge. An interesting hybrid for sure!

Overall, I'm not quite sure Horlicks have cracked the "bedtime cappuccino" market just yet, but this Horlicks Cappuccino is certainly a good idea and it'll be interesting to see if it takes off. I expect Nescafe to get in on the act next!

Price: Around 40p, although I can't actually remember now, sorry!
Suitable for vegetarians?: Doesn't state on sachet.
Allergy Information: Contains wheat, milk & gluten.
Nutrition Information (per serving): 77 Calories.

RATING: 7 out of 10.

There's a lot of new and limited edition Christmas products popping up in shops recently that I'd love to try, but there's no way I can buy them all to review so I thought I'd snap a few pics for an Xmas edition of Spotted in Shops instead! Here's what I found...

Lindt Lindor Limited Edition Dark Chocolate Orange:

I saw these Limited Edition Dark Orange Lindor in WH Smith. They cost £4.99 per box and are described as "Dark chocolate truffles with a smooth melting filling". They sound right up my street; I'll definitely be putting these on my Christmas wish-list!

Thorntons The Snowman & The Snowdog White Chocolate Snowman:

WH Smith also had this fantastic looking Thorntons White Chocolate Snowman, based on the popular animated film "The Snowman and the Snowdog". I think it looks super-cool and would love to get one of these for Christmas!

Maynards Christmas Jellies Santa:

I've seen these new Maynards Christmas Jellies appearing in lots of shops recently - they come in Elf, Santa and Snowman 100g jars. They contain different xmas jellies and sweets but don't specify exactly what type. If anyone tries these please let me know in the comments; I'm curious to know if they're any good! They look like they'd make great stocking fillers.

Mr Kipling Winter Whirls:

These new "exceedingly merry" Winter Whirls offer a different take on regular Viennese Whirls and contain buttercream and a mince pie flavour filling. Being a longtime fan of Viennese Whirls I'd love to try them! There's also a Black Forest version according to Tesco.com.

Mr Kipling Festive Bakewells:

These aren't new, they were also out last Christmas but their festive packaging really caught my eye! They contain plum and raspberry jam with almond sponge and soft icing, decorated with holly. They sound delicious!

Kinder Schoko-Bons Milky Bites:

These Kinder Schoko-Bons aren't actually a new product, they've just been put in christmas-themed packaging, but nevertheless they look very fitting for the festive season! I'm yet to try any but they sound lovely. They're produced by Ferrero and contain a milk creme and hazelnut filling.

Thorntons The Snowman and The Snowdog Milk Chocolate Characters:

I'm not sure what these are exactly, presumably just solid milk chocolate shapes. Which may sound boring, but hey it's Thorntons so the chocolate is bound to be good quality, plus The Snowman is a lovely theme for Christmas chocolates!

Kinder Surprise Christmas Santa and Egg:

This Santa is clutching a Kinder Surprise egg, which is a bit of an odd concept for a Christmas product - seems like Kinder have got their Easter and Christmas themes mixed up a bit! Nevertheless I'm sure many kids (and big kids!) will love them.

Kinder Fluffy Toys with Mini Chocolates - Reindeer & Penguin:

These Kinder fluffy toys look adorable and come complete with mini chocolates - what more could you ask for?!

Thorntons The Snowman & The Snowdog Christmas Selection Pack:

A Snowman and The Snowdog branded selection box from Thorntons...I'm not sure what varieties of chocolates this actually contains but I love the theme! This will surely be much better quality than the offerings from most other mainstream chocolate companies this year.

Well, that wraps up today's Spotted In Shops Xmas edition...have you spotted any of these new Christmas products? If so which ones are on your Xmas wish-list? Let me know in the comments :)

a mini bagged version of terrys chocolate orange

When I saw these Terry's Chocolate Orange Minis in Sainsbury's I wasn't all that excited to be honest. I like Terry's Chocolate Orange, don't get me wrong - I see it as a "Christmas staple", one of those products you just have to have in the house every Christmas whether you like it or not. Over the years though I feel like Chocolate Orange has gradually gotten sweeter and sweeter in taste, to the point where it's now just a sugar-bomb. Either that or my tastebuds have evolved...I'm not sure?!

So when I saw this Minis version I was a bit "meh", but since they were on a £1 introductory offer I thought I'd at least try some in the name of snacks research! I have to say I do like the packaging - it's very vibrant and has a matte feel to it, similar to Cadbury's bagged range (which makes sense since both Terry's and Cadbury's are owned by Mondelez). It's also reclosable so you can save some for later...not that many people will do that of course!

Opening the pack I was met with some very scuffed-looking chocolate orange segments, which didn't look very appetizing.

They smelled pretty good though, so I tried to overlook their appearance and popped one in my mouth. They tasted nice - chocolatey, orangey and creamy, as you would expect from Chocolate Orange. After eating a few pieces I suddenly found myself popping them in my mouth one after another...they were somehow incredibly moreish in mini segment form! Extremely sweet, of course, but that still didn't stop me from demolishing most of the bag.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about these Chocolate Orange Minis. They're a tasty, moreish snack and a good way of making Chocolate Orange portable (plus they solve the problem of having to "whack and unwrap" a Chocolate Orange in public!) However the scuffed looking appearance is quite off-putting, even though it's probably inevitable for a bagged product like this. Plus the RRP is about £2 depending on where you buy these, which is a bit pricey when you can get a regular Chocolate Orange for around £1 in most supermarkets (Morrisons recently did them for 99p, and Tesco had them for just over £1). Maybe I'm being pedantic though...I'm sure many people will love these, and they certainly make a nice alternative to regular bagged chocolates.

It's not Terry's, it's mine!

Price: Between £1.50 and £2 in most supermarkets.
Allergy Information: Contains milk and soya. May contain nuts & wheat.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Nutrition (per quarter bag): 180 Calories, 9.7g Fat (5.9g Saturates), 20.5g Carbs.

RATING: 6.5 out of 10.

Have you tried Chocolate Orange Minis? Let me know in the comments! :)

In other Chocolate Orange nostalgia, who remembers the Minty Dark version of Chocolate Orange? It contained mint-flavoured dark chocolate rather than orange and was very tasty! Here's a pic:

Also who can forget the many amusing Dawn French Chocolate Orange adverts from the 90's and beyond? Here's a few I found on youtube:

A big thankyou to Bring Back Banjo Chocolate for kindly sending me this cool-looking wafer bar as part of a snacks package recently!

Please take a moment to sign the petition to bring back the Banjo Wafer that was made by Mars Foods in the 80's. If you remember Banjo bars please do leave a comment! If not (shame on you!) see HERE for an introduction. Basically they were wafer bars similar to Kitkat that contained a hazelnut cream filling and were coated with chopped peanuts. There was also a coconut version, which sounds right up my street! I think there's definitely room in the UK snacks market for a return of such a unique retro chocolate bar...are you listening, Mars?!

Moving on...this Flame wafer has a really cool-looking triangular shape and is filled with chocolate cream. It reminded me of Kitkat Chunky, although it's much thicker in size. The texture is different from a Kitkat Chunky though; it's lighter and puffier, kind of like the wafer you get in Nestle Blue Riband wafers. It was light and tasty and made for a nice snack with a cup of tea. Overall, I think these are a good bargain - I believe they're currently available at Poundland in multipacks of 5, which is great value for such a unique looking wafer bar!

A big thankyou to Bring Back Banjo Bar for sending me this as well as some other goodies....do stay tuned to find out what they are!

Please take a moment to sign the Bring Back Banjo Bar Petition HERE :)

Bring Back Banjo Chocolate Bar on Facebook.
Bring Back Banjo Chocolate Bar on Twitter.

halloween themed sweets from nestle rowntree

Whilst in Tesco over the weekend I spotted these new Nestlé Halloween "Special Scary Editions". They're only available at Tesco and Tesco Express, so if you're a fan of stuff like this head there to stock up!

Rowntree's Randoms Phantom Mix:

halloween themed limited edition chewy sweets in spooky shapes

Opening these I was met with a variety of colours and shapes, but I was surprised by just how many white foam sweets there were - they seemed to take up quite a large proportion of the bag:

They were all in ghost shapes...boo!

Overall I found 8 different jelly shapes in an assortment of colours. The shapes included skulls, spiders, spiders webs, ghosts, monster claws, bats, witches hats and pumpkins. I'm not sure if there's supposed to be more, so if you've found any others please let me know in the comments!

They were very tasty - slightly tangy and with a delicious fruity flavour. I'm not sure how they compare to regular Rowntree's Randoms, because in all honesty I've never tried them! I liked the white ghosts in particular because of their chewy, foamy texture.

Overall, these are tasty jellies that come in a nice selection of fun Halloween shapes. I think it's great that Rowntree's have put some effort into making the shapes different, rather than just repackaging regular Rowntree's Randoms.

Price: £1 at Tesco.
Suitable for vegetarians?: No - contains gelatine.
Nutrition (per 7 sweets): 69 Calories, 16.1g Carbs (12.9g Sugars), Trace Fat.

RATING: 7.5 out of 10.

ScAero Bubbles:

bubbly chocolates halloween limited edition

When I first saw this bag of ScAero Bubbles I rolled my eyes. Companies are always making tenuous links with Halloween to sell their products, and this seemed like yet another "regular" product merely undergoing a packaging makeover. After photographing the bubbles though I realized they're actually quite appropriate for Halloween, as they almost look like little orange pumpkins!

halloween themed orange bubbly chocolates

I say almost because the layer of milk chocolate ruins this illusion. Why couldn't they have made them all orange, with little green stalks on top? That would've looked so cool!

Taste-wise they were very creamy and sweet tasting, with a nice orange flavour. They reminded me of Terry's Chocolate Orange, but with a creamier taste. It didn't take me long to eat most of the bag...they were terrifyingly moreish!

halloween themed bubbly orange flavour chocolates

Overall, although these are just regular Orange Aero Bubbles rebranded for Halloween, they fit the theme perfectly and vaguely resemble mini pumpkins, so they get a big thumbs up from me!

Price:£1 at Tesco.
Allergy Information: Contains milk.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Nutrition (per 9 Bubbles): 145 Calories, 8g Fat (4.9g Saturates), 16.9g Carbs (16.8g Sugars).

RATING: 7.5 out of 10.

Have you tried these spooky Halloween limited editions from Nestlé? Let me know in the comments! :)

I was delighted when Hotel Chocolat offered to send me a product from their Halloween range to review recently. I had trouble choosing as there were so many fanatastic chocolates to pick from, but I eventually decided on this "Trick or Treat" box with its cool-looking Halloween shapes in milk, white and dark chocolate. The box contains 64 individually-wrapped chocolates (690g) in total.

The dark chocolates contain 70% cocoa solids, whilst the milk contains 40%. The white contains 36% cocoa solids and 27% milk solids. All the chocolates are alcohol-free, gluten-free and suitable for vegetarians.

Firstly I have to say I loved the presentation - the chocolates come in a massive box filled with shreds of spooky black paper, with the "trick or treats" hidden underneath. It took me quite a while to find them all!

There were many different shapes including ghosts, skulls, monster claws, cats, bats...

...and these "death by chocolate" gravestones. I was a bit scared to eat one....would I still be alive afterwards?!

Of course, they all tasted as delicious as you would expect from Hotel Chocolat. The milk chocolates were smooth and creamy, with the higher percentage of cocoa solids really shining through - they tasted a lot richer and more intense than most mainstream milk chocolates.

The white chocolate was also very lovely; the high amount of cocoa butter and lower sugar content was obvious, and as a result it tasted less sickly sweet compared to most white chocolates. It was very creamy and had a nice comforting flavour. Kids will love this one especially with its many spooky shapes!

The 70% dark chocolates were the star of the show; Hotel Chocolat really excel at dark chocolate and it was very evident here! The chocolates tasted rich and flavoursome, with a surprisingly smooth melt. I say surprisingly because some dark chocolates can taste a bit chalky, but there was none of that here.

Overall, I have to say this is a fantastic quality box of chocolates from Hotel Chocolat. The shapes are cool-looking and perfect for Halloween, and will surely be loved by trick-or-treaters. However there lies the problem; who would buy an expensive box of chocolates like this to give to trick or treaters?! Unless you're very altruistic or have spare cash, I can't imagine anyone buying these other than to share with friends and family. That's what I did, and I'm very thankful to Hotel Chocolat for giving me the opportunity to do so!

If I could suggest one improvement I think it'd be nice if the box included some extra flavours for variety - perhaps Hotel Chocolat's signature caramel milk chocolate, or some minty dark chocolates...or even perhaps some chilli chocolates (just to make them that extra bit fiendish!)

Hotel Chocolat's Trick-or-Treat box is available in store or from their website for £37 HERE.

*I was kindly sent these chocolates for an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

After hearing about how good Aldi's chocolates supposedly are I thought I'd give one a go this weekend and see what all the fuss is about. I've tried their Moser Roth range before and really enjoyed it, but this time I was tempted by this Rum & Raisin bar from their Choceur range. It's described as "Smooth milk chocolate with rum, raisins and hazelnuts".

Rum and Raisin chocolates are quite hard to find these days - Cadbury's no longer make Old Jamaica, or at least I haven't seen it in years. I was hoping this would be a worthy replacement, but unfortunately it was pretty poor as rum flavoured chocolates go.

In a nutsehll, it tasted cheap and sugary. It comes in quite thick blocks (no pic I'm afraid), and after eating a piece I found myself eating a few more just to try and get a "taste" of something... anything! But it turned out there was no real taste to the bar at all...it just tasted of sugar and milk! There were some raisins and chopped nuts scattered throughout the chocolate adding a bit of texture, but no real flavour to speak of. There was only a slight artificial tang of rum, but it was very hard to detect.

Overall, an overly sweet and disappointing bar of chocolate. I won't be bothering with Aldi's Choceur range again after this...I'll stick to their Moser Roth stuff instead which is usually pretty good.

Price: £1.19 per 200g bar.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.

RATING: 4 out of 10.

Many thanks to the makers of Peanut Hottie for sending me this jar of their new peanut butter-flavour hot drink to review!

Peanut Hottie is aiming to "make a storm in the nation's tea cups" with this drink, which is available exclusively from Sainsbury's. Apparently it's the first peanut butter hot drink on the market, which is surprising to me as I would've thought someone would have tried making one before now! Even more surprising is that it's made in the UK by a British company (not many of those left these days!) using American peanuts.

Peanut Hottie is also caffeine-free, suitable for vegetarians, contains no artificial additives or colours, and is under 100 calories per cup. Impressive stuff!

I made a cup as directed but added a little milk to make it creamier. This produced a brown, nutty-coloured drink with a slight froth on top as you can see in the pic above.

It tasted slightly salty and intensely nutty, but also surprisingly "light" and creamy. It's quite hard to describe the flavour, actually, because it was a differing mixture of savoury, salty, nutty, sweet and creamy. All the flavours worked really well together, in the same kind of way that Reese's Peanut Butter Cups do. It certainly captures the taste of peanut butter in hot drink form very well, although I was hoping it would be just a bit more intense. Perhaps adding a dollop of real peanut butter might add an extra kick...I shall have to experiment! (in the name of science, of course!)

Overall, this is a tasty and unique hot drink which I really enjoyed. It's the first of its kind that I'm aware of and I really hope it takes off! I'll certainly be buying this from now on as an alternative to regular hot chocolate.

Price: £2.99 a jar at Sainsburys.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk and nuts.
Nutrition (per 20g serving): 83 Calories, 16.9g Carbs, 12.2g Sugars, 1.4g Fat, 1.2g Saturates.

RATING: 8 out of 10.

*I was kindly sent this product for an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Whilst browsing the Halloween stuff in Poundworld recently I came across this rather gruesome product...a strawberry liquid candy-filled blood bag! I was a little surprised to be honest as it seems a bit of an "extreme" product for kids, but hey maybe I'm just out of touch!

The bag comes filled with a "sour strawberry flavoured gel candy", which tasted rather cheap and artificial. You can suck it from the straw part of the bag so as to pretend you're glugging on blood like a vampire; which is either really cool or gruesome depending on the person...personally I think the concept is a bit gross!

Overall, I suppose this is a good novelty Halloween product for those who like this sort of thing, but I think I'll stick to biting the heads off of gummy spiders instead!

Price: £1.

When I saw this Noisette bar in Tesco recently, I thought it was a new flavour of Milka at first. I've never seen it in any other supermarkets or shops before...but there was no "new" label on it so I presume it's a flavour that already exists in Europe but has been imported into the UK.

I paid £1.40 for it in Tesco, but I've also seen it in Discount UK for a mere 79p over the last few days - bargain!

The bar is a simple combination of rich alpine milk chocolate with a smooth hazelnut filling. Opening the wrapper I was blown away by just how intensely nutty it smelled!

I snapped the bar in half and bit into a piece. It had a delicious full-on hazelnut flavour that was very rich. It melted in my mouth like butter - it was so smooth! It reminded me of the hazelnut cream in Ferrero Rocher, although it was a lot richer.

Overall, this is a fantastic Milka variety which I would highly recommend if you like hazelnuts, Nutella or Ferrero Rocher! Also If you have a Discount UK near you I'd recommend snapping some of these up for 79p while you still can! (they also do the discontinued Milka with D'aim, Milka Caramel Cream, Milka Hazelnuts & Milka Happy Cows).

Price: £1.40 at Tesco, 79p at Discount UK.
Allergy Information: Contains nuts, milk, soya. May contain wheat.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Doesn't state.
Cocoa Solids: 30% cocoa.

RATING: 8.5 out of 10.

When I spotted this "New" Snowball Crunch amongst Marks and Spencer's bagged range I was itching to give it a try. Not just because it's a new and limited edition Christmas product, but because it's popcorn coated with white chocolate and cinnamon - two of my favourite flavours! This combination sounded fantastically novel and I imagined it would make for a perfect tasty treat.

Alas - it didn't turn out to be all that amazing! Mainly because it was too sweet, thanks to the dusting of icing sugar on the already overly-sweet white chocolate coated popcorn.

The description on the pack reads "Toffee popcorn covered in white chocolate with cinnamon (34%) and dusted with icing sugar (9%)".

That may sound like a small proportion of icing sugar, but it dominated the overall flavour of the popcorn - it was mega sweet! All I could really taste was a strong, sugary milkiness. There was no real flavour of white chocolate, and only a faint hint of cinnamon. What little flavour there was was just drowned out by the sugar. Which is a shame because amongst all the sweetness there was some semblance of a moreish and tasty snack. I think this could have been much improved by using a thicker coating of better quality, less sweet white chocolate, and a stronger dusting of cinnamon with no icing sugar at all.

Overall, this bag of SnowBall Crunch promised a lot but was ultimately disappointing. I'm not sure who produces M&S's bagged chocolates but I think they need to have a bit of a re-think with this one! I've also tried other products from their range and found them rather lacking (more reviews of those to come...)

Price: £1.50 or 2 bags for £2 (offer includes other M&S bagged chocolates).
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk, soya. Not suitable for nut allergy sufferers.
Nutrition (per quarter pack): 115 Calories, 19.6g Carbs, 16.8g Sugars, 3.9g Fat, 2.1g Saturates.

RATING: 5 out of 10.

During the Summer I got the chance to try several Nestlé Orion chocolate bars from a local import store. According to Nestle.com, Orion is a Czech brand which came into existence in 1896, starting as a small confectionery buisness in Prague. The brand quickly gained popularity and soon represented one third of chocolate production in the Czech Republic. It was acquired by Nestlé in 1991.

I'm a big fan of Orion's Studentska brand, so I was excited to see how their regular bars would compare. Today I'm reviewing both their lime cream and dark chocolate cream, or "Krémová" bars.

Orion Krémová Lime:

This is a simple milk chocolate bar containing a smooth lime cream flavour filling and lime flavour pieces. The chocolate is standard Nestlé milk chocolate and tasted perhaps a tad creamier than what we get in the UK. It was very sweet. The lime cream filling had a tangy but subtle lime flavour, which was very pleasant, but it wasn' t quite as tart and zingy as I had hoped for. It was very creamy and refreshing though and had a lovely smooth texture.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed as I'd been hoping for something with as more full-on lime flavour. Lime and chocolate isn't paired together often but when it is it works very well indeed (who else remembers retro sweets Chocolate Limes?!)

RATING: 6 out of 10.

Orion Krémová Dark Chocolate:

This bar surprised me in being my favourite of all the Krémová bars I tried. It's a dark chocolate bar containing a dark chocolate cream filling, and although it may sound a bit simple it turned out to be very tasty indeed, proving that sometimes "simple" is best! The filling was smooth and creamy, but also very rich thanks to the added cocoa. Combined with the dark chocolate it made for a rich, satisfying and yet creamy chocolate bar. It was a pleasure to eat and went very well with a cup of coffee.

Overall, out of all the flavours from the Orion Krémová range this was by far my favourite!

RATING: 8 out of 10.

Please stay tuned for more reviews of the Orion Krémová range, including raspberry and yoghurt, vanilla cream and caramel!

Have you tried any Nestlé Orion bars? If so which was your favourite? Let me know in the comments! :)

A big thankyou to Thorntons for sending me three varieties from their new Special Toffee Slabs range to review recently. They include Tutti Frutti and Chocolate Brownie, but as it's nearly Bonfire Night I thought I'd start with the Apple Crumble variety since toffee and apples have long been associated with Bonfire Night!

The toffee is a huge 250g slab and is described as "Apple flavoured toffee decorated with biscuit crumble and dried apple slices", and comes in cardboard packaging with a clear plastic window. The blurb on the pack says: "Whack, eat, enjoy - we think it's good fun smashing and eating our toffee - little bits, big bits, some so big we can't speak. Simply keep your toffee cool, then smash it by dropping, hitting or even whacking it with a rolling pin (our favourite). Then after smashing, just leave it in your room and tuck in whenever you like".

A rolling pin seemed a bit too girly to me, so I decided to be all macho and use a hammer instead:

Whacking it produced lots of uneven sized chunks, giving a very rustic old-fashioned feel:

It tasted delicious. The toffee had a very strong fruity apple flavour, but was also very rich and buttery. I was surprised by just how strong the apple flavour was infact. The dried apple pieces and crumble topping added a nice bit of crunch, although there was a distinct lack of crumble. I would've liked more of it, after all this is supposed to be apple crumble toffee! Nevertheless it was still very tasty, and I liked the texture of the toffee after it had been refrigerated - it was very crunchy. It was also very nice at room temperature, as it softened and became more chewy and buttery.

Overall, this is a delicious and novel toffee which I would recommend to toffee lovers. There's plenty of it to share out and it has a nice old-fashioned rustic feel, so I think it would be a perfect snack for Bonfire Night!

Thorntons Special Toffee Slabs are available from Thorntons stores or their website HERE.

Price: £5.99.
Suitable for vegetarians?: Yes.
Allergy Information: Contains milk. May contain nuts & egg. Crumble topping appears to be gluten-free and is made with a mix of buckwheat and rice flours.

RATING: 8 out of 10.

Please stay tuned for my reviews of Chocolate Brownie and Tutti Frutti Special Toffee Slabs from Thorntons!

*I was sent this product for an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

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