Today's Review: Double Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cookie Dough Bites

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of these. Thankfully, online sweetie store American Soda had one, so I've unceremoniously pinched it for this review. Yes, in the same vein as Cupcake Bites and Cinnamon Bun Bites comes these fudge brownie flavoured morsels. After finding the cupcake version average, and almost gagging on the cinnamon bun, I wasn't too hyped up about trying this variety. But still, down the hatch they went.

If you've tried the other "Bites" before, you pretty much know what to expect here. These boast fudge brownie dough, encased in chocolate, and they certainly deliver in that respect. The dough is pretty similar to the original Cookie Dough Bites, but I found it to be better. In fact, this is the best flavour of these sweets that I've tried so far. While the dough was a bit too salty and heavy for me in the Cookie Dough Bites, here it is perfectly blended with the chocolate and fudge to create a very tasty experience. They don't get too sickly, and none of the flavours become too overwhelming. You can probably tell why I didn't snap a picture of the box or its contents, the fact is I'd finished them off within five minutes of opening them, because they're just so damn good. If you can only try one variety of "Bites", I'd highly recommend this one.

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Snickers Peanut Butter

For someone who loves peanut butter, I've strangely never been too fond of actual peanuts. I've grown to like them over the years, but there was a time where I certainly wouldn't have indulged in a handful of nuts, or even a chocolate bar full of nuts. Thus, I have never been too taken with the idea of a Snickers bar. But this Snickers bar that I picked up is of the peanut butter variety, so it seemed right up my street.

As you can see, this bar comes in two distinct pieces, which is a little odd. It's meant to be so you save half for another time, but we all know that's not going to happen. Inside each portion is a sizeable layer of peanut butter, surrounded by small helpings of nougat and caramel. Unsurprisingly, this means the peanut butter flavour overwhelms the rest of the bar. It's the same kind of peanut butter you'd find in most chocolate bars, salty, creamy. But in this bar there are actually some peanut pieces thrown in for good measure. It seemed a little too much for me, I was already having a nice time with just the peanut butter, but then the texture was ruined by a surprise peanut piece, which didn't really do anything for the overall flavour anyway. 

The peanut butter Snickers is a nice bar, but it's not perfect. The added peanuts seem a but unnecessary, and the proportions of the innards are a bit off. Perhaps with a little more nougat and caramel it would be even better. Still, it's pretty tasty, so peanut butter fans should hunt this one down.

My rating: 4/5

Today's Review: Galaxy Honeycomb Crisp

With all the new Dairy Milk products flying onto the shelves, Mars have been a bit lacklustre in comparison. But they've certainly brought some new products out this year, and the latest is a brand new Galaxy flavour. This honeycomb crisp is your regular old Galaxy bar, but stuffed full of crispy honeycomb pieces. Nothing outrageously original, but it seems like a new direction for Mars.

As you can see, the bar has a somewhat generous portion of pieces, and even though this cross section may not best represent the entire bar, there are certainly enough to lend a nice honeycomb flavour overall. The pieces themselves are much like the innards of a Crunchie, crispy and slightly sticky. Combined with the smooth texture of the Galaxy chocolate, it's a very nice experience. This is certainly a great addition to the Galaxy range. Even if it's not a particularly original idea, it's pulled off with great success.

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Milka Popcorn Snax

I really have been finding all kinds of Milka products lately. This one is a bit different though. It's Milka covered popcorn, or as they like to call it, "Popcorn Snax". The "X" makes it cooler. They instantly reminded me of the Cadbury Choc Full Of Popcorn, and it's not hard to see why. They're the same idea, and they're even in the same kind of bag. But how do these fare against the Cadbury goodness?

Well, here they are. The chunks vary in size, but each kernel is quite generously coated in Milka chocolate, which tastes as good as ever. The popcorn is a different story though. It's quite strange. While the Cadbury version included your regular old toffee popcorn, this one isn't really like any popcorn I've ever tasted. It's somewhat... heavy, and quite chewy. Puffy, in a way, which I guess is why in the ingredients it states "puffed corn". The other thing is that there's no real flavour to it. It's slightly sweet, but nowhere near as much as you'd expect your average sweet popcorn to taste.

So yes, the innards of these are a little weird, but once I got over the strange texture and flavour, I certainly enjoyed these. I think the strange popcorn gives these enough to set them apart from other popcorn related products, although personally I preferred Cadbury's attempt. But these are definitely nice, and worth a try.

My rating: 4/5

Today's Review: Walkers Hog Roast With Sage And Onion Stuffing Crisps

I'm not too much of a crisp person. I certainly enjoy a nice bag, but I don't chow down every day. I've especially never been a fan of meat flavoured crisps, they all seem to taste the same, uniformly un-meaty. But, Walkers has brought out a new flavour, and although it is meaty it did sound quite nice. Just reading that name brings thoughts of succulent, juicy pork, with soft, warm, flavoursome stuffing. But how would that translate into a crunchy, cold, flat crisp?

Well, they're not too bad really. They certainly have that distinctive "meaty" crisp taste. It definitely didn't feel like I was tucking into a pig. So at first, I was a little disappointed, but instead I tried to focus on what flavours I could taste. As far as the sage and onion stuffing goes, there is certainly an oniony hint to these crisps, and the aftertaste is actually quite herby. It's like these are a combination of cheese and onion and meat crisps, and while I'm certainly not a fan of either I must say these are pretty nice.

My rating: 4/5

Today's Review: Wonka Millionaire's Shortbread & Chocolate Nice Cream

I've been excited by the prospect of these new Wonka bars, but frustrated about having to wait until October. But, as other fellow snack food pundits have informed me in recent days, these two flavours are available already, if you can stumble upon them in convenience stores. So it was my mission today to pop into every newsagent I could find, in hopes of finally getting my hands on these bars. My search could have lasted as long as an everlasting gobstopper, but they happened to be in the first shop I went in, a mere ten minutes from my flat, so the mission wasn't a particularly long or arduous one, but I can't argue with the results.

First I tried the Millionaire's Shortbread, which funnily enough has all the marks of millionaire's shortbread. According to the packet it contains "soft caramel and crumbly biscuit", and as such I was expecting a distinct layer of caramel to be sitting on top of the biscuit base. Alas, this was not the case, which is not all too surprising seeing as the bar itself is quite thin. Instead, the caramel flavouring is infused within the shortbread, and it creates a nice even flavour overall. It's a novel thing to shove into a chocolate bar, and it's a very nice attempt at doing so. You could say it's scrumdiddlyumptious.

Chocolate Nice Cream sounded even more novel though. This one boasts "vanilla creme topped with chocolate sauce", which is probably every child's dream chocolate bar. Well, both elements are certainly present, and nicely layered. The vanilla creme is quite nice and smooth, but it's certainly overwhelmed by the chocolate sauce. I'm a bit divided on the sauce, because while it is very sickly and quite sticky, it tastes exactly like the bottled kind you'd pour liberally over your ice cream as a kid. Oompa Loompa doobity goo. It's an authentic experience, but since the creme doesn't really taste like ice cream, it ends up being a bit of an odd match, and my senses were a little overwhelmed by the taste of the sauce. Still, it's certainly a novel idea, and is certainly tasty, just a little out of balance.

So there we have it. Two of the new Wonka bars. There's still Crème Brûlée on the horizon, but for now these should be available in a good few shops around. So don't be as slow as a Slugworth, go get 'em. I'm sorry, all these Wonka puns have been awful.

My rating: 9/10

Today's Review: Milka Strawberry Yoghurt

I didn't just pick up a Milka Caramel the other day, I found another variation that I hadn't tried before. It's probably been around for a while, but it's the first I'd seen of it. It's a big ol' Milka bar, filled with strawberry yoghurt.

Well, not actual proper strawberry yoghurt, that could get pretty messy. Instead, this bar is loaded with some nice, creamy filling. It's smooth, and most definitely tastes like strawberries. It's very sweet, almost to the point of being sickly, but not quite. The creaminess really blends in well with the chocolate, but there's a little something extra in the filling that I wasn't so sure about. There are tiny crunchy pieces contained within the yoghurt. At first I thought they were the pippy bits of strawberries tossed in for authenticity, but on reflection they could have been tiny pieces of freeze dried strawberry. I'm not sure, but the texture kind of threw off the creamy experience for me. Still, this bar was certainly tasty, if you like a bit of strawberry with your chocolate you can't go wrong with this. I just wish it were more uniformly creamy.

My rating: 4/5