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IKEA Blueberry Gluten Free Cheesecake

February 5, 2016, 5:22 am
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Whilst visiting IKEA over Christmas I spotted this Gluten Free Blueberry cake at IKEA, in the imported foods section. They had loads of Swedish goodies there but this excited me the most...I've been off gluten for a while now and it's impossible to find a gluten free cheesecake for some odd reason! The closest you'll come to one is Almondy Tarts, which incidentally this is very similar to.


Like the Almondy tarts, the base is made with almonds and apricots. I think perhaps they're made by the same Swedish company.


The filling is very creamy and with a nice cheesy tang, although it wasn't quite the same as real cheesecake. It was tasty though. The blueberry filling on top is sweet and fruity, but perhaps not the best fruit to use in a cheesecake...I think something like Passionfruit would have worked better. Still, this was a very tasty cake and felt like a real treat, speaking as someone who is avoiding gluten. There's a serious lack of good desserts out there for us!

Overall, if you're avoiding gluten this is definitely worth a try, it's a bit different and makes a change from the regular Almondy tarts you can get in most supermarkets now.

7.5 out of 10.
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The Primal Pantry Paleo Bars (Gluten Free, Vegan)

February 6, 2016, 4:40 am
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Recently I was offered to review some bars from The Primal Pantry, and since at the time I was on my sugar-free diet I thought I'd give them a try. The Paleo Diet as many will know eschews refined sugars and grains in place of natural fruit sugars, nuts and so on. To that end these Primal Pantry bars are made with mixtures of dates, dried fruits, nuts, coconut, cocoa etc. They're rather similar to Nakd bars, but have less fruit and more nuts. Below are my thoughts on each flavour:

Coconut and Macadamia:

I love coconut, and I love macadamia nuts (despite my on-off allergy to them) so the two in one bar sounded like heaven. And this is indeed a very tasty bar, it's very filling and satisfying, and reassuring to know it contains healthy fats from the macadamias and coconut. Luckily no allergic responses! Very tasty indeed. 8.5 out of 10.

Almond and Cashew:

I love cashews as much as I do macadamias, but sadly they don't always love me back. I chanced it this time and luckily had no problems! This is a very tasty bar indeed, sweet and chewy with a nice creamy flavour from the cashews and slightly nuttier savory edge from the almonds. 8 out of 10.

Apple and Pecan:

This was an interesting one...the fruity Apple flavour was lovely, and even though I'm not generally a fan of pecan nuts they worked very well with the apple. Refreshing and filling. 8 out of 10.

Hazelnut and Cocoa:

The first chocolatey bar of the bunch, this one let me down a bit in that it wasn't quite "Nutella in bar form" like I'd hoped, but it was still a very tasty bar despite that! It's like a richer nuttier version of the cocoa Nakd bars. 7.5 out of 10. 

Brazil Nut and Cherry:

This one was interesting...I'm not a great fan of Brazil nuts but they worked well here combined with the cherry..nice if you like a sharper, sour taste. 7.5 out of 10.

Overall, I have to say these Primal Pantry bars are all very tasty and filling, and a nice alternative to the omnipresent Nakd Bars, but flavour-wise they're a mixed bag. Some of the combinations are perfect such as macadamia and coconut, whilst others don't quite work. I think it's due to the different types of nuts used, some of them don't translate well in bar form. Still these are tasty bars and if you're avoiding gluten, dairy or refined sugars they're a perfect on-the-go snack.
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Marks & Spencer Gluten Free Brownie Bar

February 7, 2016, 3:34 am
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So it's Day 7 of my gluten-free snacks week (I must be setting a record here with having a review 7 days in a row!) and here we have the M&S Gluten Free Brownie Bar. I've already reviewed Costa's Gluten Free Brownie which is the best available in the UK...so how does this M&S version compare?

Sadly it's not as good, but that's not to say it's not a nice brownie in its own right. Nothing could compare to the Costa one unless they nicked the recipe, quite frankly!

This brownie is very moist and chocolatey, there's definitely a good amount of dark chocolate in there, but for me the texture was a bit lacking. It was a little too...eggy, or something, I can't put my finger on what exactly was up with it, but it wasn't as moist or melt in the mouth as the Costa version. Presumably it has a different ratio of ingredients, I can't tell unfortunately as I no longer have the wrapper. The white chocolate streaks running over the top of it were a nice touch.

Overall, this is a pretty decent Gluten Free brownie, if you're in M&S and in need of a chocolatey fix you can't go wrong with it, but I actually prefer the gluten free mini chocolate cakes they've recently introduced. Look out for them near the sandwich aisle!

7 out of 10.
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Aldi Dairyfine Caramel Buttons Review

February 9, 2016, 3:17 pm
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Over Christmas I was lucky enough to make regular visits to Aldi, the perfect place for a quick late night cheap choccy fix, and whilst there I spotted these Dairyfine Milk Chocolate Caramel Buttons...which look suspiciously similar to Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel Nibbles! I mean, even the name Dairyfine is an obvious ripoff of Dairy Milk!

I can't say I'm bothered though because Dairy Milk is a bit rubbish these days...but how does Aldi's version compare?


Well, these Buttons cost a lot less than Cadbury Caramel Nibbles, I believe they were about 80p although I can't remember exactly. (For comparison the RRP for Cadbury Caramel Nibbles is about £1.99, although they're regularly on offer for £1) You get plenty in the bag too, no doubt more than the Cadbury version!


They're shaped like...erm...nipples rather than buttons (come on, we were all thinking it!), they're slightly larger and chunkier than the Cadbury ones with a less scuffed appearance. So far so good!

They tasted just as good too, if not better! There seemed to be more caramel in them and it was runny rather than chewy, just the way I like it. The chocolate wasn't as waxy as Dairy Milk is these days and tasted a tad richer with a more solid texture. These were some tasty Chocolate Buttons indeed, very moreish, and because there were plenty in the bag they lasted a bit longer than usual (which isn't long for me haha).

Overall, I have to say these Dairyfine Caramel Buttons have triumphed over the Cadbury version, they're better value and IMO taste much nicer. If you're lucky enough to have an Aldi nearby and in need of a cheap snacks fix; buy a pack, you won't regret it!

8.5 out of 10. 
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Ape Slightly Peppered Crispy Coconut Curls Review

February 11, 2016, 1:17 am
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A few years ago Salted Caramel was the latest foodie trend, but this year it seems that it's all things raw/vegan/vegetable and...coconut. Ahh, the humble coconut, how I love thee so! (Though not as much as my coconutter pal Reaching For Refreshment does!)

Whilst in Morrisons recently a new coconutty treat caught my eye in the Free From section...these "Slightly Peppered Crispy Coconut Curls" made by Ape Snacks. They're a company that "aim to be awesome and make snacking better", and to that end these coconut curls contain only coconut, pepper, salt, cardamom and cumin powder. They're gluten free, sugar free, vegan, high in fiber, 107 calories and also part of your 5 a day - hurrah!.......right?!


These cost me £1 for a mere 20g, which is a bit of a ripoff if you ask me. They were pretty tasty though for a "healthy" snack. They had a nice crunchy texture and the spices made them taste savory rather than sweet, which was the odd thing about them really - I usually associate coconut with sweet things so to have them as a savory snack felt a bit weird. They were nice but after eating them I was still hungry...I felt like I'd just eaten a rabbits portion of food (and I'm sure any rabbit would still be hungry after these too!)

Overall, these are a decent snack if you're on a sugar-free/paleo/vegan diet, but the price for the amount you get is just extortionate and so I can't endorse them. I would stick with the similar Crisp Coconut you can buy plain from Holland & Barrett instead, you get a lot more for your money!

7 out of 10. 
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Guylian Artisanal Belgian Chocolates (Valentine's Box)

February 12, 2016, 8:08 am
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Recently Guylian offered to send me a box of chocolates...not for me, for my Valentine of course...so I couldn't really refuse that! They arrived promptly by courier, and as soon as I gave them to my Valentine (before Valentine's Day of course...oh it's a tough job being a snacks reviewer!), before I knew it half the box had vanished. I think that's testament to just how tasty they are!


They're "hazelnut praline filled chocolate hearts", and of course very similar to the Seashells Guylian are most well-known for. Rich Belgian chocolate, creamy hazelnut praline...what more could you want?

Overall, if you're stuck for a Valentines gift this weekend you can't go far wrong with these Guylian chocolates. They're far nicer than Milk Tray or Dairy Box so do the right thing and go for these instead! You may be rewarded for it later... ;)

8.5 out of 10
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Reese's Crispy Crunchy Bar

February 15, 2016, 6:56 am
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Whilst in Tesco recently I noticed this Reese's bar that I've never seen before...I thought I'd tried everything from Reese's but this took me by surprise! Reading the description, it sounded like an amalgamation of Nestles Butterfinger and traditional Reese's peanut butter, which sounded like a potentially lethal, sweet and nutty combination! 


And that's pretty much how it tasted; it's very reminiscent of Nestle Butterfinger with a hard crunchy interior, which is nice but a bit overly sweet. The peanut butter saved the day though, bringing that unmistakable Reese's peanut butter loveliness. 


Overall, this is a nice enough bar, it's sweet, crunchy and nutty...but I think Reese's Nutrageous and the traditional Reese's cups are much better, this one is just a bit too sweet. 

7 out of 10. 
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Nature's Store White Chocolate Caramel Rice Cakes

February 16, 2016, 9:09 am
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When I saw these "White chocolate caramel" coated rice cakes in Tesco's Free From section recently I got rather excited...not only are they gluten-free, but it sounded like they were topped with a potentially Caramac-like chocolate coating! Yay!


Sadly it tasted nothing like Caramac. The rice cakes were tasty enough and the coating did liven them up a bit compared to regular rice cakes, but it wasn't quite the caramel hit I was hoping for. I tried eating the topping in isolation which was difficult, I had to nibble bits off the rice cake, and it just tasted of regular sweet white chocolate with a vague hint of caramel. Nice enough, but nothing majorly different from the regular white chocolate rice cakes from Nature's Store.

Overall, if you're looking for something gluten-free, healthy but slightly naughty, these are worth a try but I'd recommend the White or Milk chocolate versions instead.

7 out of 10. 
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Magnum Signature Dark Chocolate Bar

February 17, 2016, 9:24 am
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It's been a while since I tried the White Magnum Signature chocolate bar last year, in fact I wasn't all that interested in these bars to be honest because they're pretty much just using the same chocolate that's on a Magnum and putting it in bar form. And as nice as it is, the chocolate isn't really the main attraction of a Magnum ice cream is it?


Still, these bars can be found for a very reasonable £1 in WH Smiths so they're a good choice if you're on a budget and only want to pay a quid for some quality chocolate.

I decided to go for the Dark Signature bar this time, which contains cocoa nibs as well as the dark chocolate used on dark Magnum ice creams.

It tastes as you would expect; fairly rich semisweet dark chocolate with a bit of extra cocoa crunch. I wouldn't say the cocoa nibs enhanced the taste all that much, in fact I'm not fond of the texture of cocoa nibs so they didn't do much for me. But still this was a nice enough bar, satisfying with a cup of coffee.

Overall, this bar won't set your tastebuds alight but if you fancy some decent chocolate at a cheap price it's pretty good. I think the White and Milk varieties are much better though!

7 out of 10.
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Eggcellent Easter Eggs In Shops 2016

February 22, 2016, 11:36 am
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Cosmic, dude! 
There's a lot of weird, wacky, and beautiful Easter Eggs in the shops this year, moreso than any other Easter it seems. Tesco and M&S are leading the way in innovation, and for today's post I'm going to give a rundown of some of the most interesting ones I've seen so far. This is by no means an exhaustive list...please see my Instagram page for loads more!

Exhibit A (shown above): the very pricey and beautiful Giant Cosmic Egg from Marks & Spencer. There's only 5000 of these in existence, which isn't surprising since they're £40 each!

There's also this Saturn Egg with Marc De Champagne Chocolates from M&S, which resembles something Lady Gaga would put on her head...


A chocolate planet! 
There's loads of new flavours too; Tesco do a glorious White Chocolate Finest Coconut Egg (check out The Review Addicts Review here!) as well as flavours like Passionfruit, Pistachio, and a Milkybar Cookies & Cream Egg embedded with cookie pieces. It's going to be hard to choose with all this eggyness! 

It doesn't stop at the Eggs however, there's various hollow chicks, lambs, bunnies and pigs gracing the shelves too. Like this huge "Chirpie Charlie Chick" from Marks and Spencer (with a chicken that size you'll be good for eggs for the rest of the year!):

Cluck cluck...
If you're on a budget, there's this cheaper version from Asda who seems to be half egg and half chick!:

Egg head! 
And there's some rather "cheeky" characters too...see these rude chocolate monkeys from Asda (we're all thinking the same thing right?): 


Is that a banana in your hand or are you just pleased to see me?! 
As if all these weren't enough, The Teletubbies have been resurrected and given their own bizarre Egg and Breakfast combo set (because giving children chocolate for breakfast is normal?!). Find it in B&M Bargains:
Teletubbies say...hell...o! 

B&M are also doing both Pot Noodle Eggs (minus the Pot Noodle, boo!) and Marmite Eggs:

Where's the Pot Noodle?!

Love it or hate it? Or not fussed either way? 

There's also plenty of non egg-themed products, such as Gluten Free Hot Cross Bun Cookies and  Egg-cellent Gluten Free Cupcakes from Asda, and also this Easter Egg Custard Bizarre bar from The Chocolate Smiths, which contains a custard flavour filling with white chocolate. Sounds delicious! 


I could go on, there's lots more glorious Easter products in shops right now, particularly Marks & Spencer and Tesco, but I think that's enough excitement for one day! :) 

Please stay tuned for my review of The Tesco Finest White Chocolate & Coffee Egg, coming shortly....

Follow me on Instagram for the latest snack spottings, which includes plenty of Easter Eggs! 

What fantastic Easter products have you seen in shops this year? Let me know in the comments! 
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Tesco Finest White Chocolate & Coffee Egg

February 29, 2016, 3:21 am
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There's a lot of cool and fancy Easter Eggies in the shops right now (see my post on the best ones here), you'll be spoilt for choice this Easter, seriously! My money is on the Tesco Finest Coconut Egg being the best of the bunch (see Hannah The Review Addict's Review), but sadly I don't have much money to splash out willy nilly, so when I fancied an Easter Egg fix I decided to make do with this cheaper Tesco Finest White Chocolate & Coffee Egg which costs £3 for 100g. I loooove coffee, and I looooove white chocolate, so having the two combined in one egg sounded like coffee heaven. I tried Marks & Spencers Coffee Lovers Egg last year and that was pretty awesome, but this sounded potentially even better...?



Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as good. Boo! It's described as "Belgian white chocolate egg with Finest Colombian coffee and Belgian milk chocolate decoration", but reading the ingredients (after I'd already bought and eaten it!) I noticed it contains only 0.5% coffee, which explains why it wasn't quite the coffee hit I was seeking!



The white chocolate is pleasant enough, very creamy and sweet as expected, not the "finest" around (har har) but it was good. The coffee added a very vague coffee flavour but it was so faint I could hardly tell it was there, it was more of an aftertaste. It wasn't even worthy of being called a Cappuccino flavoured egg. Disappointing!

Overall, if you're after a good coffee and chocolate Easter egg I wouldn't bother with this. Try the Coffee Lovers Egg from M&S instead, or even something from another supermarket...just don't waste your time with this.

5 out of 10.
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Cadbury Dairy Milk Spring Edition

March 6, 2016, 1:54 am
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A couple of years back, I tried the Dairy Milk Hoppy Bunny bar and wasn't too impressed with it. Since then, it's remorphed into The Dairy Milk Spring Edition, with a new wrapper to reflect the Spring season rather than just Easter (I suspect this helps Cadbury squeeze some extra sales from it and justifies it sitting on shelves for longer!). The bar still looks the same, there's a white chocolate bunny design on each block.


The bars are only 85p in Sainsbury's right now, which isn't too bad although once you taste the chocolate you'll kind of understand why - it's pretty rubbish, and doesn't even taste much like Dairy Milk. Booo!


To be honest I only bought this bar as I had a reader request to review it, and I was curious to see if it had deteriorated further in quality since I tried it a few years back.

Well, I don't think it's actually changed at all, it still tastes pretty bad in terms of quality. I don't know how on earth they can call this Dairy Milk because it tastes nothing like it! It's very milky and sickly sweet, with no rich creaminess like Dairy Milk used to be known for. The white chocolate adds nothing to the bar at all, it's just an extra hit of sugar. And I wouldn't say the design is that great either...it's just a basic bunny mould that anyone could buy from Poundland.

Overall, this is a bar to be avoided, there's no merit to it at all in my opinion. It tastes inferior to regular Dairy Milk, it's far too sweet...it's like a Value brand supermarket chocolate.

Please, please, please Cadbury,...stop destroying the Dairy Milk brand with this rubbish. Irish Dairy Milk still tastes good, so please follow their lead and bring the quality of ours up to par again! And bring back Dairy Milk Creme Eggs while you're at it!

5 out of 10.
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Cadbury Dairy Milk Medley Raspberry, Hazelnut & Dark Choc Chips

March 7, 2016, 7:37 am
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Recently, Cadbury added a bunch of new products to their Dairy Milk range as they do so often these days...things must be tough in old Cadburyland with the need to bring out so many new bars constantly! 

They're recycling the Milka range that Mondelez already produce in Europe, and right now you can buy Cadbury Dairy Milk Big Taste bars at Sainsbury's - check out my snacks pal Reaching For Refreshment aka The Snacks Warrior's review of them. 

They're also doing these new Medley bars, which are known as Milka Collage in Europe. They're supposed to be a more "luxury" bar aimed at women of a certain age, because presumably only a woman of a certain age would buy a bar of the sloppily presented chocolate you see below?! 


I kid, of course...it wasn't too bad, to be honest. In fact opening the wrapper I was surprised by the nice tangy smell from the dried raspberries. As a fan of tarter fruit flavours I was looking forward to this flavour combo!


The raspberries are embedded in the softer chocolate filling along with some dark chocolate chips and chopped caramelized hazelnuts to make the "medley", although all I could taste was the raspberries...they overpower everything in the bar!


On first bite I rather enjoyed the flavour...it was very sweet and fruity, but strangely lacking any creamy chocolatey-ness. Infact I couldn't taste much chocolate at all, presumably because the bar is mostly made up of vegetable fat and sugar! They've tried to take the same idea as Lindor truffles and put it in bar form but ended up with something much inferior...it just doesn't work with Cadbury's chocolate, it's far too sweet. It's like eating icecube trays filled with fat and dried raspberry bits. Not very posh or sophisticated at all! The hazelnuts added a bit of crunch but didn't taste particularly "hazelnutty", whilst the dark choc chips weren't really detectable at all. 


Come on Cadbury, you can do better than this! I know cocoa prices are increasing and you need to cut costs, but fobbing us off with extra vegetable fat-filled new-fangled faux-luxury products is not going to cut the mustard with the public! Just give us something that's genuinely better quality and charge more for it or at least stop degrading the quality, because I really can't see products like this lasting...

Overall this is a nice try, and not as awful as I expected, but it could be much better.

7 out of 10.

What did you think of these Dairy Milk Medley bars? Let me know in the comments! 
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Milkybar Giant Buttons Milkshake Mix Up

March 8, 2016, 2:21 am
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Both Nestle and Cadbury have recently launched two opposing versions of mixed chocolate buttons, Cadbury with their Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons (review soon) and Nestle with this Milkybar Giant Buttons Milkshake Mix Up...but which shall reign supreme?!

Sadly it won't be Nestle! These Milkybar Giant Buttons Milkshake Mix Up contain a mixture of regular Milkybar Giant Buttons as well as Chocolate Milkshake flavoured buttons. Yes, that's right - not actual chocolate buttons but chocolate flavoured buttons.


As you can see in the pic above (hand selfie alert!) the chocolate milkshake buttons look a lot paler than real milk chocolate buttons, more of a malty kind of colour, and that's how they tasted really; malty, milky, and very sweet without much chocolatey flavour. I was very disappointed, but I suppose they are called Milkshake Mix Up so it's no surprise they're more milky than chocolatey.

I do think Nestle missed an opportunity here to make something rather special and unique: why not do a mix up of different milkshake flavours, like banana, strawberry, raspberry...? White chocolate and milk chocolate is hardly a "mix up" of milkshake flavours!

Overall, these are a disappointment and a bit of a gimmick, they could've been much better but I suppose kids will enjoy them at least. They certainly don't add anything new or worthwhile to the snacking table for the rest of us.

6 out of 10. 
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Cadbury Dairy Milk Mixed Buttons (White & Milk Chocolate)

March 9, 2016, 5:20 am
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So it's round 2 of the Chocolate Button-Off...yesterday we had Milkybar Milkshake Mix Up, and today entering the ring we have...dun dun dun...good old Cadbury's! Yes, Cadbury have finally brought out a new product that the people actually wanted and have put Dairy Milk Buttons and White Chocolate Buttons in a sharing bag together...genius!


I'm not actually being sarcastic when I say this is genius, it genuinely is a good idea. Everyone loves Cadbury Buttons, they're so moreish and addictive despite the poorer quality Dairy Milk they use in them these days...mix them with White Chocolate Buttons and you've got a winner!

I found these in B&M Bargains for 99p, but they're also in Home Bargains and have started appearing in Poundland stores too. Seems like the discount market got first dibs on them!


There's 115g of buttons per bag and there seemed to be a good amount of both Dairy Milk and White Chocolate buttons, although (hand selfie alert - grab a fan Snacks Warrior!) in my pic above I seem to have grabbed more white than milk buttons.

Eating them together made for a delightful experience, there's the creamy comforting Dairy Milk, which despite being poorer quality than it used to be, was somehow much tastier in button form! Then there's the sweeter, creamier white buttons, which are lovely in and of themselves, reminding me of being a kid again. The two combined just go perfectly together, it's a massive sugar rush of course but it's oh so worth it.

Overall, these are a great snack and are sure to keep any kid or big kid happy. They're far better than the Milkybar Milkshake Mix Ups as the Dairy Milk Buttons are just so much more tastier. Oh Cadbury, you've surprised me...a new product that's worthwhile and tastes great!

8 out of 10. 
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Cadbury Dairy Milk Big Taste Toffee Whole Nut

March 10, 2016, 5:02 am
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Recently Mondelez/Cadbury decided to copy their Milka range from Europe and bring out these "Big Taste" bars under the Cadbury brand. Why they can't just directly import the Milka versions is beyond me...I guess us Brits will only buy chocolate if it has the words Cadbury Dairy Milk slapped on it?!

As an FYI, the Milka "Toffee Ganznuss" version of this bar is currently available from B&M Bargain Stores for only £1.99 (check out the lovely One Treat At a Time's review), and also please do check out The Snack Warrior's review of all three Dairy Milk Big Taste bars.

I didn't fancy splashing out three quid per bar, and I'm allergic to gluten so I couldn't try the Oreo variety, so it was a toss-up between this or Triple Choc Sensation (click for Nibbles & Scribbles review). This sounded like the more luxury bar out of the two, so into my basket it went!


Sadly there's no hand-selfies this time (The Snacks Warrior will no doubt be crying!), but above you can see a few pieces from the bar. They're quite chunky and each block has a circular dome with the Cadbury logo printed on top...fancy!

I scoffed a hefty amount of the bar whilst I was out and about (I walk a lot, I needed the energy!) so there was only about a quarter of it left by the time I got home to take photos...oops!


There's no denying that this is a very moreish and tasty bar. The chocolate is...well...it's the super-sweet substandard stuff that passes for "Dairy Milk" these days, but it played second fiddle to the filling anyway. The filling is comprised of "toffee flavour filling (32%), caramel (10%) and hazelnuts (8%)". It was very creamy and sweet, with a lovely toffee flavour, whilst the gooey caramel brought some nice sticky texture and the hazelnuts were nicely toasted and crunchy. The combination works together very well although it's dangerously sweet in excess. This is definitely a bar to share, even I struggled to finish it off and I'm notorious for my sweet tooth!


Overall, this is a good bar in and of itself but it's a shame Cadbury have to use substandard Dairy Milk to sell it when the Milka version tastes soooo much better and costs less. If you've got a B&M bargains nearby, seek out the Milka Toffee Ganznuss instead, but if that's not an option you can currently find Dairy Milk Big Taste bars in larger Sainsbury's stores.

8 out of 10. 
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Nestle Aero Mousse Caramel Bar

March 10, 2016, 11:21 pm
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I wasn't too interested in trying this New Aero Mousse Caramel variety when I first heard about it, not after the boringness that was the original Aero Mousse Bar I reviewed last year. However for the sake of saying "I tried it" I decided to give it a whirl when I spotted it in a random newsagents recently, and thank goodness I do give things another chance because it turned out to be a rather tasty (if not very tiny) chocolate bar!


For 75p (!) you get a mere 34g of chocolate, and it's not even all chocolate, a large proportion of it is vegetable fat. Despite this, Nestle have had the audacity to list the calories of a mere mouthful of the bar (half!) on the front of the wrapper, and the back even says "re-close to save some for later". I'm sorry Nestle, but no sane person is likely to do that when there's barely enough chocolate to feed a mouse!

On the wrapper the bar is described as "smooth milk chocolate filled with bubbly milk chocolate and a layer of aerated caramel flavour chocolate mousse". That's a lot of air you're paying 75p for!


I broke the bar in half (97 calories, FYI) and took a bite. And it tasted delicious! This was a huge surprise because I wasn't expecting much from this at all...the caramel mousse had a strong, butterscotch-like burnt caramel flavour that was seriously moreish! I promptly ate the other half/mouthful since the first was gone in no time at all, savouring every bite since the experience was clearly going to be over very quickly!

Well, what can I say, this is an extremely tasty bar that gives you a delicious caramel hit but leaves you wanting more. Maybe that's a good thing, I'm not sure, but I do feel a bit ripped off paying 75p for 34g of aerated chocolate and vegetable fat, even if it is tasty. Hopefully they'll do a larger version eventually and charge a bit less, like they did with the original Aero Mousse Bar. This one tastes far superior to the original and to be honest I don't know why they didn't bring it out first!

8 out of 10.
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Butterkist Yogurt Coated Popcorn

March 12, 2016, 10:38 am
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Recently Butterkist announced two new Popcorn varieties, one is the elusive Hot Cross Buns Easter variety, and the other is this Yogurt Coated variety. This is apparently a "first" in the popcorn world, no yogurt coated mass-produced popcorn has been made before, so claim Butterkist.

I found these in Poundland with the rest of the Butterkist Popcorn range, and for £1 you get 160g popcorn which is pretty reasonable (the RRP is £1.49).


Basically it's very sweet, creamy coated popcorn with a slightly yogurty tang. It tasted more sweet than tangy to me which is definitely a good thing, and I was under no illusion at all that these were a "healthy" snack despite the yogurt! (Though we can of course pretend!) It was very moreish and the lighter, less sugary taste of the yogurt coating made it easier to eat than regular sugary Toffee Popcorn.

Overall, these are a great new addition to the ever-growing Popcorn market, they're very moreish and perfect for the cinema, but don't bother sharing them as they're far too addictive! Now, to find the elusive Hot Cross Bun flavour...

8 out of 10. 
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Chocologic No Added Sugar Milk Chocolate

March 13, 2016, 12:27 pm
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Last year I reviewed the Dark Chocolate Chocologic bar and was a bit down with it, but a lower sugar version of a milk chocolate bar? Now that makes a bit more sense! The Chocologic range, which includes a hazelnut bar as well as Dark Chocolate is on offer at the moment in Tesco for £1 a pop, so I decided to give this Milk variety a go and see what the fuss is about.

 

It contains 60% less sugar than standard milk chocolate, which is pretty good going. It's sweetened with a mixture of stevia and inulin fibres, as well as milk of course. I like that it's foil-wrapped, that's not something you see often with chocolate bars these days.


Taste-wise it wasn't too bad for a lower sugar milk chocolate. It has a nice milky flavour and because of the lower sugar content isn't as throat burningly sweet, letting the milk shine through more. It's not exactly a luxury chocolate hit but if you're on a low carb diet this will definitely feel like a treat. The stevia is mild and thankfully doesn't leave an aftertaste as some stevia products can.

Overall, a decent bar of chocolate if you're watching you're sugar intake or on a low-carb diet, but probably not for the everyone else.

7.5 out of 10. 
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Galaxy Duet Toffee and Popcorn

March 14, 2016, 11:48 am
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When I first heard about this new Galaxy Duet flavour I was rather excited; I haven't been able to try the other flavours in the Duet range since they contain gluten, but luckily this one doesn't...hurrah! It also sounded a bit unique and different for a chocolate bar: it contains a layer of toffee caramel down one side and a mixture of crunchy toffee and popcorn pieces down the other.

Since this was my first time trying a Duet bar I was surprised by the shape: it's two thin chocolate fingers stuck together, but isn't sectioned into chunks so you can bite into both at the same time (the hand selfie returns...careful you don't faint Snacks Warrior!):


I took a bite from one end and got a nice mix of both the caramel and popcorn sections. The caramel was lovely and gooey and pretty similar to what you get in a regular Galaxy Caramel. The popcorn was a bit undetectable to be honest; there was a vague sweet and savoury crunch from it but nothing that screamed "popcorn!" to me. It tasted pleasant enough, and made for a nice textural variation next to the caramel, but it felt a bit insubstantial.


Overall, this isn't a bad chocolate bar from Galaxy, it's a nice idea to give you two textures and flavours together, but the fillings are a bit off. This flavour will no doubt be very popular but it's not something I'd buy again personally. I'd like to see something a bit more daring and imaginative from the Duet range; perhaps something fruity!

7 out of 10. 
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