Today's Review: Tesco Chocolatey Summer Fruits

Summer may be over, but that certainly won't stop me indulging in some summer themed foods. I was pleased to see another quite original Tesco sweet product in the form of these chocolate covered summer fruits. The bag consists of dark, milk and white chocolate covered freeze-dried raspberries, strawberries and cherries. Three types of chocolate and three types of fruit in one bag? Sounds good to me.

So there's the breakdown for you. The white chocolate covers strawberries, the dark raspberries, and the milk cherries. Unfortunately there's no variation, each type of chocolate belongs to one type of fruit. I would have quite liked to see the other combinations in action. As for how these taste, they're pretty nice. The chocolate is thick and flavoursome, although I must admit I'm not generally a fan of dark chocolate. The innards certainly pack a very sweet punch. I'm not really keen on freeze dried fruits, and these ones certainly aren't perfect but paired with the chocolate it's an altogether sweet experience, one flavour doesn't overpower the other. 

This is another neat idea from Tesco, and is pulled off generally quite well. I just wish there was more of a mix up between the different flavours, so I don't have to wade through bitter dark chocolate to get to all the raspberries. But hey, these are still worth a try.

My rating: 4/5

Today's Review: Tesco Sour Cherry & Pomegranate Gummies

When Tesco bring out their own brand of food, it's easy for them to fall into the old groove of churning out products that are just like previously existing brand names. We get Malt Wheats instead of Shreddies, Dr. Fizz instead of Dr. Pepper, and... Jaffa Cakes instead of Jaffa Cakes? Huh, guess that name isn't trademarked.

Anyway, with all the knock offs around the place, I was quite surprised to see this little bag of treats sitting on the shelf. Sour cherry and pomegranate flavoured gummy sweets, certainly an interesting combination of flavours. They look nice too, tiny little dark purple cherries. They're soft, squidgy, and have a lovely smell.

But how do they taste? Well, pretty damn good. They're certainly not too sour, but there's a nice tang to go with the bold cherry flavour. The pomegranate is a slightly more subdued taste, but is definitely noticeable, and adds a nice layer to these already tasty little gummies. So well done, Tesco. An original idea that is pulled off very nicely. Fruity, squidgy, and juicy, these are certainly worth a try.

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Rockstar Punched: Tropical Guava Flavour

Since my successful diet a few months ago, I have fallen back into some bad eating habits, hence why I have reviewed a different snack every day for the last month or so. But one thing I have managed to stay away from is sugary drinks, because most have almost enough to give you your recommended daily dosage. Diet Coke and sugar free energy drinks have been my beverage treats, but there was something about this can of Rockstar that really caught my eye.

Yes, I'm a sucker for tropical flavoured drinks, and since I've never seen a sugar free tropical anything, I took the dive and opened this sucker up. A tropical flavoured energy drink sounded fantastic. Full of flavour, and an energy boost to boot. That's what I thought, anyway. Then I took a sip.

Rockstar Punched? Punched is right, drinking this is like being punched in the face by the Kool-Aid Man. It's an intense flavour alright, in the way that drinking a can full of sugary syrup is intense. At first I thought it was just that I wasn't used to so much sugar in my drinks, that I'd get over it soon enough. But sip after sip, this sickly syrup taste permeated my very being, and despite me not wanting to waste any, I couldn't finish the can. This drink defeated me, and left me feeling sick for a good hour after. I think I'll stick with the sugar frees.

My rating: 0/5

Today's Review: Rocky Mountain Mega Mallows

Everyone loves a marshmallow. They're chewy, gooey, packed full of tooth rotting sugar, how could you say no? Well, now there's more to love with Rocky Mountain Mega Mallows. They're just like mallows, but mega, although you probably worked that out from the product name.

Just how mega are these mallows? Well, I forewent standard measurement systems for no reason, so here's a mallow next to a bag of Walkers:

That's about the size of the actual portion of crisps you get

And here's one being held by a standard 11.5 inch Barbie: 

Now I just want to shove her body through a bunch of them and make a Stay Puft Marshmallow Barbie

So yeah, they're pretty big, and thankfully they're delicious too. I wanted to make S'mores, like the bag says you should, but Tesco don't seem to stock Graham crackers, to my dismay. I shall have to S'more it up once I've visited my local Asian supermarket. But yeah, these marshmallows are great on their own. They didn't seem that big to me for some reason, but one was enough to fill me up. They're fluffy, but heavy and gooey, and they certainly didn't leave a sickly taste despite the size. So pick up a bag today, and play the world's shortest game of Chubby Bunny.

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Popping Candy Freddo

There is nothing more often used to convey dismay at the state of this country than the price of a Freddo. You see, Freddos used to be 10p, but now they are more than 10p, so clearly everything has gone to hell. No matter that the price of everything has gone up, as has the average wage, which is exactly what happens every year. No, it is the Freddo, the small, unassuming chocolate frog, that bears the burden of exemplify the state of the nation. Well, normally I disagree, but seeing as these new Freddos cost me £1 for two, I'll pull the nostalgia card out. See, when I was a kid, Freddos were only 10p. But Freddos also didn't exist in popping candy, Christmas themed form, so I guess I don't mind dropping a little extra money for something new and exciting.

Exciting may be a strong word. It's definitely a new direction for Freddos to be taken, but it's a very safe one. This chocolate is exactly what it says on the packet, a Freddo with popping candy inside. Same chocolate, but with a big of snap, crackle and pop. There's a fairly generous amount of popping candy in here, but it was all over a bit quickly given the size of the bar. All in all, while it's a nice bar, I think it's fairly uninspired. These are Christmas themed Freddos after all, why not go for white chocolate? That's a Freddo I'd fork out for. These ones? Probably won't be buying any more.

My rating: 3/5

Today's Review: Cadbury Dairy Milk With Daim

Oh, Cadbury, you're so good to me. After the myriad of flavoursome Dairy Milk bars last year (including the fantastic Oreo), and the wonderful Marvellous Creations filling the shelves this year, it seems they're still not quite out of ideas. This time, they've taken the classic Daim (or more classically, Dime) and shoved it into a bar of Dairy Milk. Sounds good, right? Right.

As you can (maybe) see, this bar is pretty packed full of Daim chunks. While there certainly aren't enough to make the bottom of the bar all bobbly, it's actually just the right amount. Every bite has a piece of crunchy caramel goodness, and the combination of textures makes the bar seem quite weighty and filling. In a word: Satisfying. In a few: Creamy, crunchy, deliciously awesome. You've done it again, Cadbury.

My rating: 5/5

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

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