Today's Review: Tesco Pizza & Choco Cheese Dippers

Cheese dippers are a lunchbox institution. There's nothing quite like dipping breadsticks in cream cheese for a tasty snack, and over the years the formula has remained pretty much unchanged. I did review Dairylea's interesting new flavours a while back, but now Tesco have gone even further and released these two interesting cheese dipper flavours.

The pizza dippers contain your regular breadsticks, but with a tomato flavoured cheese to dip them in. The cheese itself is quite thick, but it certainly has a nice smooth tomato flavour that isn't too overwhelming. Of course, all the flavours put together gives you cheese, tomato and bread, so it does indeed taste like you're eating a pizza. Very tasty.

The choco cheese variety is probably the most interesting. This pack contains sweet breadsticks, with a chocolate flavoured cheese. Obviously that gives it a nice cheesecake-like taste. and while the breadsticks are sweet, they don't distract from the lovely flavour of what you're dipping them in. There's enough cheese in either pack to generously coat the dippers too, and that's another thing that pleases me.

So if you're bored of your regular cheese dippers, look no further than Tesco. These are some interesting new flavours that put a yummy spin on an old classic. Well worth a try.

My rating: 10/10

Today's Review: Flaming Grill Pubs' Mountain Of Sweet

There is a pub near me that has closed and reopened several times over the years, operating under different chains. They've always served nice, cheap food, but the best times have been under the Flaming Grill Pubs brand, offering a good selection of grills, burgers and traditional meals, along with some neat seasonal options and some hefty eating challenges. I tried and failed their massive burger challenge a while ago, and have since stuck to regular sized portions for the main course. But that doesn't stop me taking risks when it comes to dessert, and today I order the Mountain Of Sweet.

Yes, when they say mountain, they literally mean mountain. This is one of those ultimate sharer desserts. It's awesome because I often have trouble picking which dessert to try, and this encompasses most of the tasty ones into one gigantic bowl. There's the generic vanilla ice cream and wafers, but with Maltesers and honeycomb pieces mixed in with whipped cream. All this is placed on top of a bed of profiteroles, and surrounded on all sides by alternating chocolate fudge cake and "choc-chip popping pizza" pieces. "What's that?" I hear you cry. Well, it's a giant cookie, coated in chocolate, brownie chunks, marshmallows and popping candy pieces, and by itself would make a delicious dessert. Here it's even better. If all that isn't enough, there are also cookie dough cheesecake pieces hidden throughout that are a lovely surprise when uncovered. 

Needless to say I enjoyed this dessert. I mean, just look at it, what's not to like? Even if you're not a fan of one element of this monstrosity, you're bound to find something to satisfy your taste buds. I wouldn't recommend you eat a whole one alone though, in fact I don't know if it's humanly possible. I didn't even polish this off sharing it with my family. But it's certainly a testament to how tasty this is that I was willing to keep spooning chocolatey, creamy treats into my mouth even when my stomach physically couldn't take anymore. This is a dessert that's definitely worth experiencing. 

My rating: 5/5

Today's Review: Brown Bread's Oreo Cheesecake

There's a farmer's market that takes up a large portion of my high street over the weekends. I tend to avoid town on those busy days, but when I do go, I'm always drawn to the stall set up by Brown Bread, filled with many wonderful kinds of bread, and also an impressive selection of cakes and pastries. I've sampled a few over the years, and have never been disappointed, and today I spied that they now offer an Oreo cheesecake. Obviously I had to buy a slice.

As you can see from above, this is one deep slice of cheesecake. It cost £2, which I think is a pretty good price for what you get. There's a lovely crumbly Oreo biscuit base, topped with a tremendously thick creamy layer. This isn't so much cheesecake as cream cake, as it's incredibly light, fluffy, and creamy, much like the inside of your regular Oreo. The top's finished off with some chocolate swirls and Oreo cookies, and really the whole package is pretty tasty. My only gripe is that the creamy part is a little too much, and there's not enough cookie to really make it taste like Oreo throughout. Still, it's certainly a nice treat, and well worth picking up if you happen upon one of Brown Bread's stalls.

My rating: 4/5

Today's Review: Maynards Discovery Patch

I'm always happy when a new bag of sweets comes along, as I often get tired of eating chocolate and biscuits. Actually, that's a dirty lie, but I certainly do enjoy trying new gummy sweets, and Maynards has delivered with their new Discovery Patch range. The bags comes in three types: Animals, Body Bits, and the one I picked up, Myths & Monsters. They all seem to contain pretty much the same sweets, but in different shapes.

As you can see, the sweets are in several fun forms. Yeti, dragon, mermaid, vampire, unicorn, it was enough to get my kids rifling through to choose their favourite mystical creature. As for the taste? Well, they're actually pretty nice. The yeti up there tasted much like the milky sweets you get in Haribo, while some of the gummies tasted just like Wine Gums, and others tasted entirely different. Some had foam backing as well, so there are enough flavour varieties to keep you interested, and they're all very bold and fruity. Unfortunately, they do suffer from the same problem as regular Wine Gums, in that the flavours are a bit too strong and can get overwhelming after a few sweets. But these are some cool sweets presented in a fun way that are certainly worth picking up if you have some easily pleased children. They're not the best sweets I've tasted, but I enjoyed them.

My rating: 4/5

Today's Review: Skittles Desserts

We may have finally got Wild Berry Skittles in the UK, but that doesn't mean there aren't more being churned out elsewhere. I picked up this interesting pack in Mr. Simms, and although it boasts the usual array of colours in different shades, the flavours are inspired by desserts rather than fruit. There's key lime pie, orange creme, strawberry milkshake, raspberry sorbet and blueberry tart. How could I resist all those?

These are definitely still very Skittle-like. The flavours are very bold and fruity, and sometimes this overwhelms the other components that make up the flavours. The blueberry tart just tastes like very strong blueberry, and while it's nice, there's no hint of tart at all. Same goes for the raspberry, while it does taste a little bit lighter, all I could pick up was the fruit itself. The rest of the flavours are pretty damn good though. The strawberry milkshake is like your regular strawberry, subdued with a nice milky hint, the key lime pie has hints of meringue throughout, and the orange creme tastes just like the middle of the awesome Quality Street chocolate of the same name. 

These dessert flavoured Skittles are a great idea, and for the most part one that's pulled off pretty well. It does suffer from some flavours being a bit bold, but they still taste good. If you see a pack around I suggest you pick it up.

My rating: 4/5

Today's Review: Tesco Healthy Living Red Thai Curry Popcorn

Savoury popcorn flavours are popping up all over the place. I've tried quite a few over the last few months, including a couple by Tesco, which have both been pretty good. Now there's a savoury flavour under the Healthy Living brand, in the form of this Red Thai Curry popcorn.

This isn't even the first curry popcorn I've tried, so I was already expecting it to be quite nice, and the entire packet only has 85 calories, so it's good for anyone on a diet that wants a quick snack. The popcorn certainly does taste like curry, with a lovely spice that isn't too intense. Unfortunately, it's not too bold a flavour, and it fades a bit more quickly than I'd liked. Still, it's tasty while it lasts, and for that low calorie count this bag was certainly filling. This is well worth a try if you're after something a bit different.

My rating: 4/5 

Today's Review: KP Grazing Mix: Yoghurt Coated Raisin & Nut Crunch

I reviewed Penn State's trail mix in the middle of last year, and found that it was a fantastic mix of fruit, nuts and chocolate. I've picked up a few more bags since then, but today I found that KP have released their own trail mix, called Grazing Mix for some reason. Are they implying that I'm a farm animal? Anyway, these bags come in three flavours, featuring triple nuts, red berry, and this variety, the yoghurt coated raisin, which I chose because I like yoghurt coated raisins, obviously. 

Inside this somewhat sizeable bag was a mixture of unsalted peanuts and almonds, yoghurt coated raisins, and oat clusters. I love oat clusters, so I was hoping this would be as delicious, if not better than the Penn State trail mix. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. All the components are there, and they taste nice, but there are just far too many nuts for my liking. I know it's supposed to be a nut based mix, but with the Penn State varieties there was a lot of sweetness and fruitiness with every bite, while with this one I found it to be quite lacking in any of the other stuff. It's okay if you want a bag of nuts with a few things thrown in, but having tasted Penn State's trail mix I know it can be done a lot better. These are just pretty bland in comparison.

My rating: 3/5