Today's Review: Nanobytes

I had an envelope pop through my door this morning containing these interesting little sweets. They're a brand new range called Nanobytes, and they'll be landing in stores near you this month (beware: space puns ahead). Nanobytes are tiny, chewy sweets with an interesting backstory. According to the website, there was once a cluster of edible planets somewhere in the universe, and one of them, Planet Nano, drifted a little too close to a star, and exploded into tiny pieces. I'll assume the planet was unpopulated and uninhabitable, because a) that would make it a sad story, and b) the planet was made up of cola, bubblegum and strawberry flavoured chewy goodness, which I assume is not a good place to sustain life. But now the planet has exploded, sending tiny globules of edible planetary treats, and some brave Nano astronauts have been tasked with a mission to collect them and bring them back for we Earthlings to enjoy. 

I figured I'd take my own picture, just to show all the different flavours on offer, and the product shot up there is actually nicely to scale. You get a lot of Nanobytes for your buck with these larger packs, as they're quite a full packet. I'm a big fan of the packaging itself too, it reminds me a lot of that freeze-dried astronaut ice cream you can get in space themed tourist attractions. These large packs are also resealable, and in a way that actually works! None of this "fold over and place this sticker on top"business, you get a fully functional Zip pack that will keep your sweeties fresh. If you don't eat them all in one go that is.

I know what you may be thinking, and I think the comparison will be unavoidable for a lot of people, and yes, these do indeed look just like Millions. But I wasn't ready to dismiss them as another sweet clone, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting after all. So how are they?

The short answer, fantastic. Nanobytes are indeed like Millions, but a whole lot better. The cola flavour has that proper old-fashioned good-tasting cola flavour, somewhat reminiscent of a bottle of Fentimans. The bubblegum flavour is very very sweet, but in the way that proper bubblegum is. While I was chewing it was like I was eating a stick of Hubba Bubba. The strawberry is great too. It's not quite as sweet as the others, instead opting for a more subdued, proper strawberry taste. It's definitely sweet, but not sickly, which is a trap that most strawberry flavoured confectionery falls into.

So yes, the flavours are fantastic, pretty much authentic. But another great thing is the texture. In my experience with Millions, I've found that the sweets get bunched up and stuck together a lot, making them quite hard to chew and swallow, and most likely leaving some stuck in a tooth somewhere. With Nanobytes, there's none of that at all. They're certainly chewy, and they last a while, but once they're swallowed, they're gone, only leaving behind a nicely sweet aftertaste. 

Nanobytes are great. They have bold, great tasting flavours, they're easy to chew, and it looks like they're going to be very cheap as well. These sizeable larger packs that I received will only be 69p in the shops, with the smaller packets seen above retailing for a minuscule 25p. So keep an eye out for these, they are out of this world (only two space puns, I showed severe restraint). 

My rating: 5/5

For more info, plus games, competitions and more, check out lotsoflittlesweets.com