Today's Review: Cadbury Dairy Milk Marvellous Mix-Ups With Maynards & Oreo

I reviewed the new Marvellous Mix-Ups dessert yesterday, and was far from impressed. However, I also picked up these Marvellous Mix-Ups bags, which combine all manner of Cadbury goodies with either mini Oreos or Maynards jellies. The latter was very interesting, as I have never have seen Dairy Milk and Maynards together before. But did it come out on top? Let's see:

Marvellous Mix-Ups With Maynards

This bag contains an interesting selection of Cadbury Nibbles, Cadbury Dairy Milk fudge, and assorted Maynards jellies. The jellies are nicely presented in fruit form, much like the big bag of Fruit Pastilles, and they come in flavours ranging from raspberry to banana. Unfortunately, there's nothing special about them, they're just simple fruity sweets, and I think putting in some classic Fruit Gums or Pastilles would have made it a bit more interesting. As for the Cadbury side, the fudge is a nice change from your standard Dairy Milk offerings, while the Nibbles are as tasty as always with their smooth caramel. But I'm not a fan of all of these things together in one bag. Switching between chocolate and jellies is a bit odd, and there's nothing that really stands out in this bag, which was also the emptier of the two. So while the ideas seemed interesting to me, in practice it didn't turn out so great. There are some tasty things in the bag, but they don't really go well together.

My rating: 3/5

Marvellous Mix-Ups With Oreo

This is more like it. This bag was pretty full compared with the Maynards, and is packed full of mini Oreo cookies, Cadbury Pebbles, Giant Buttons, and some Cadbury Dream buttons as well. It's been a long time since I've had some of Cadbury's awesome white chocolate, and it certainly doesn't disappoint. The best part is that although the majority of the bag is chocolate, there are enough textures and varieties to make every mouthful different, and everything in the bag tastes great. I did find that all the Dairy Milk bits were covered in Oreo dust, but that's certainly not a bad thing. This is a tasty bag of treats that's well worth picking up.

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Cadbury Dairy Milk Marvellous Mix-Ups: Cherry Cola Fizz

Cadbury have brought out some interesting varieties in their Marvellous Creations chocolate line, but apparently bars aren't enough for them, as they've also gone and made chocolate bags and desserts with some interesting mixed up flavours inside. I picked up this Cherry Cola Fizz creation today, and since the Cola Pretzel Honeycomb bar was one of my favourites, I was quite looking forward to it.

This is your standard creamy Dairy Milk dessert that you see in the Flake or Buttons pots, but with an interesting side of chocolate cereal clusters, cherry flavour cereal balls and cola flavour jellies that you can swirl in. Each piece has its own distinct flavour, but the balls and jellies are quite bold and sickly. Together it does taste like cherry cola, but artificially so. Even mixing the pieces in with the chocolate doesn't help that much. It's an interesting combination of flavours, but it just doesn't come together all that well. This is certainly an edible dessert, but the balance is a bit off, and it just seems more mish-mashy than marvellous creation. But then, I'm not a massive fan of these twin pot desserts, so maybe I was biased from the start. This Marvellous Mix-Up is an interesting idea, but I'm not that big a fan.

My rating: 2/5

Today's Review: White Chocolate Covered Oreos

Everybody loves Oreos, even in their normal form they're a classic that can't really be beaten. But we also have chocolate or peanut butter cream Oreos, or Oreos that are filled with double the stuff, and they're awesome too. But why bother changing all the stuff on the inside when you can just dump a load of chocolate on top?

Yes, these Oreos are "bañadas choco blanco", or "dipped in white chocolate", and somehow this changes the whole experience. Regular Oreos sometimes come in handy packs of four, but you only get two of these white chocolate monstrosities at a time. That's because the layer of white chocolate is extremely thick and filling, and makes the whole experience more like eating small cakes. The chocolate is lovely and smooth, and makes for even more of a sandwich effect, with cream between cookie, between chocolate. Despite being loaded with sweet stuff, these cookies aren't all that sickly, but it would definitely be difficult to polish off a whole lot of these at once as they're quite filling. Still, they're delicious, and certainly a well done spin on the original cookie. If you can find a box of these, they're well worth tucking in to.

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Mango Super Straws For Milk

I've reviewed a couple of these flavoured straws before, both under the name Dr. Moo. I'm not sure what her doctorate is in, but it's certainly not Flavour Sciences. But the other day I came across a new brand of these magical milk straws, and this time in an interesting mango flavour. Never one to pass up on a new way to potentially make my milk taste awful, I picked them up. After all, they are super. Or are they fun? Apparently they're both.

I was actually pretty surprised by this one. Once you suck some milk through it, it certainly does taste like mango, though it's not overly strong. Overall it's a smooth, fruity flavour that actually blends in with the milk quite well, although it seem a little odd. It's easy to see why chocolate and strawberry are the go to flavours for milkshakes, as they fit a lot more than mango does. But hey, maybe that's my prejudiced milkshakes preconceptions getting in the way. Perhaps I could learn to love mango milk more and more, and I'm certainly not afraid to try one of these straws again. If you're looking to add some interesting flavour to your milk, you should hunt these down instead of the Dr. Moo varieties. 

My rating: 4/5

Today's Review: Candy Land Refreshers Dip Dab

The child in me is always partial to a Dip Dab, or any other equivalent. Lollipops are awesome, and having some sherbet or pop rocks to dip them in makes them even better. I also love Refreshers, so I was happy to find this Refreshers Dip Dab that promised to combine the best of both worlds.

Indeed, the lolly does taste like a Refreshers bar. It's a little scratchy on the tongue after a while, but the flavours are bold and fruity, and it would probably make a good lolly just on its own. But where this Dip Dab really shines is in the sherbet. It's raspberry flavour, and is at once fantastically smooth and wonderfully tingly. I normally get a bit sick of sherbet after a little while, but with this one I found myself scraping the empty packet just to get another taste. So if you fancy dipping your dab, it's well worth seeking out one of these.

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Pizza Hut's X-Tremely Cheesy Pizza

Another week, another pizza. I tried out Pizza Hut's X-Tremely Hot pizza last week, and while it was pretty good, I was left wondering what the cheesy one would taste like. So naturally, I had to give it a go. This one contains cheese, extra cheese, and some more cheese (well, cheese sauce). So overall, a very cheesy pizza.

So how does it taste? Well, cheesy, and that's a good thing. The cheese is layered on nice and thick, making for a goopy, chewy pizza worthy of adorning a Ninja Turtle's plate. The cheese sauce adds a lovely layer of creaminess, and a bit of a different texture that gives a nice break from the regular rubbery cheese. If you like cheese on your pizza, you're going to love this one. X-Tremely cheesy indeed, and X-Tremely delicious too.

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Vimto Insane Grain

Vimto make some pretty good sweets, with quite a lot of variety. I'm always willing to pick up new stuff with the Vimto brand, so I snapped up this Dip Dab style treat as soon as I saw it. This basically contains a Vimto flavoured lollipop, with some "super sour" popping candy to dip it into.

I say "super sour" in quotes, because in reality it's only so so. On top of that, there hardly any in the bag at all, so I didn't exactly get much to work with. It was piping candy, sure, but I would not say it's super sour. As for the Vimto lollipop, that's pretty nice, and has the nice black currant taste that you'd expect from Vimto. Again, you don't get much lollipop to work your way through, so it was a little disappointing. I can't blame it too much for skimping on the portion size as I only paid 25p for it. It's still a nice treat, I just wish there was more inside. Vimto fans should definitely seek this out though.

My rating: 4/5