Orion Studentská Pečeť Duomix: Nestle's White & Milk Chocolate Bar with Peanuts, Raisins & Jelly

Last week I popped into one of Hereford's Eastern European Deli's, one that I don't often visit due to its location. In it I found a number of chocolate bars that I've not seen before, by a brand I'd also never come across - Orion. However, when I picked up one of the bars out of sheer curiosity (I hope you'll understand why) I soon discovered that Orion is a nestle brand. Ahhh. Now I didn't give into temptation at the time, but posted a couple of stories about the range on my instagram. Within minutes I was inundated with messages about how great the bars were. I was going to have to try this unusual chocolate...

At £1.29 for 180g the bar was excellent value too - at least I thought so until I realised it was a month out of date. Oh well, it wasn't about to kill me. The Reese's cups that were 15 months out of date didn't anyway. Not being able to speak Czech or Slovakian I'm afraid I couldn't be sure of what the bar entailed. Google translate (of Orion's website) paints a very odd picture... 

"DUOMIXCan not you decide if you have a taste for a white or milk STUDENT CARE? Duomix offers a bit of each variation, while the tongue dissolves so quickly that you want to taste another dice."

I was met with a very aesthetically pleasing bar when I retrieved it from is foil wrapping. Made primarily of white chocolate, each cube was topped with a milk chocolate topping, whilst the underside was heftily nobbled. I hadn't seen a bar this interesting for a long time -if ever. 

Unfortunately the quality of the white chocolate wasn't all that great. It tasted chalky and whilst I wasn't expecting the creaminess of luxury Belgian white chocolate, I did expect it to be on par with Nestle's Milkybar. The milk chocolate topping tasted more like a smooth praline to me. The hazelnut flavour came as a welcome surprise though and complimented the white chocolate beneath.

But what about the pieces within the bar I hear you ask? Each cube provides a different textural experience thanks to the the abundance of chopped peanuts, raisins and jelly beans. Both the peanuts and raisins worked well with the chocolate. The peanuts of course added salinity and crunch, whilst the raisins added moisture and a slight chew. 

Those jelly beans though. They're the main reason I don't buy the Cadbury Marvellous Creation bars. Jelly in chocolate just doesn't work for me, and seems to be a cheap filler to bring down the cost of production. I find that they're obtrusive little pests that offer little in the way of flavour but seem to wedge themselves frustratingly between teeth. Perhaps that's just me though. 

All of my complaints make it sound like I didn't enjoy this chocolate bar, when it some strange way I did. There's a certain charm to it - perhaps because it's so unusual, or maybe it's because it didn't leave me out of pocket. I wouldn't rush to buy it again, but If you spot it and fancy something completely alternative to what we've got in the UK then give it a go! 

6/10

Takeaway Cheese & Tomato Hot Dog Stuffed Crust Pizza (Iceland)

Apparently it's "National cheese pizza day". Honestly, who thinks these things up? I'm not complaining really; who wouldn't want to celebrate pizza? It's one of my favourite foods, and I even invested in a pizza oven in place of a normal BBQ this summer. Thanks Aldi for making them affordable. Anyway, Bert came home from work one evening a few weeks ago insisting that we try Aldi's hot dog stuffed crust pizza. The lads had all been discussing how great it was, and poor Bert felt left out*. I cycle pass Aldi every day so popped in on the way home to pick up said pizza.

Oh.

New York or BBQ: that was the choice. Now Bert is exceptionally fussy when it comes to food. The only vegetables he eats are sweetcorn and carrots (at a push) unless you count baked beans. If we go out for dinner then the restaurant must have steak (no sauce) or burger and chips (no salad, no dressing, no mustard, relish or ketchup, thank you). He'll eat pizza.. but only if it's deep pan or calzone and certainly not if it's got mustard or BBQ sauce on it - as both these pizzas had. Hmm. Back to the drawing board. Did anywhere else make Hot Dog stuffed crust pizzas? 

Yes! Iceland to the rescue. For £2, I bought the 531g cheese and tomato hot dog pizza. It also meant I could add red onion to my side and mini sausages to his. Win win. For the record Iceland, this pizza does not serve three adults. Who would just eat a third?

"A smoked hot dog sausage stuffed crust pizza base topped with tomato ketchup, mozzarella cheese and red Cheddar cheese."

I found that it took much longer than the suggested 15 minutes to cook - but my oven admittedly isn't the most reliable. After 20 minutes I was too hungry to wait any longer and retrieved the anaemic looking pizza. 

I don't think I was expecting the pizza to blow my mind, which was a good job really seeing as it wasn't particularly exciting. The base was a bit stodgy but nowhere near as bad as the cheapie frozen deep pan supermarket pizzas. The topping had a good covering though, and wasn't particularly strong - a plus point for mild cheddar loving Bert, but a downside to me and my affinity towards the smellier cheeses**. 

As for that hot dog crust, it was a cheap but cheerful affair that gives you that 'I really don't want to know what meat it's made from, or if it's even meat' thought. I did think though that it needed to be surrounded in cheese, or sauce, or something. Needless to say I had a handy supply of (ASDA's maple bacon flavoured) ketchup to dunk the crusts in, but I still thought it was lacking. Cheese makes for the perfect stuffed crust, but hot dog? I'd rather not, dog. 

6/10

*Please don't feel too sorry for Bert, I make him (from scratch) homemade Calzones on a weekly basis. 

**Munster is my favourite but I'm a sucker for Stilton and goats cheese. 

NEW! Ben & Jerry's Home Sweet Honeycomb Ice Cream (Tesco)

Ben and Jerry's have a cruel habit of releasing a batch of new flavours in quick succession. I get that this may lead to exciting times for our tastebuds, but it's not so easy on the wallet -especially at the newly inflated price of £4.20 per pint (and it's only been spotted in Tesco thus far). The launch of Home Sweet Honeycomb has swiftly followed the fairly unexciting Berry Neighbourly, and also marked the end of my self-imposed ice cream buying ban. That didn't last long.

"Have we got a sweet treat for you; creamy ice cream, chocolatey honeycomb chunks, a salted caramel honey swirl – your taste buds will feel the buzz (bees, geddit?) with this concoction. Home Sweet (Honey) Comb was created to carry an all-important, timely message: it’s time to come together for people in need of a safe place to call home. It’s time to come together for refugees."

Christ, it was soft. I mean, so soft that I couldn't scoop it properly. It had a fair amount of chocolate honeycomb nuggets though, and a faint ripple of the caramel honey swirl. I really hoped it would be less sweet and more luxurious than the Sainsbury's Honeycomb & Caramel Dairy ice cream tub.

The cream flavoured ice cream was so-so. I mean it was sweet and creamy, but offered very little in the way of excitement and melted far too quickly. To be honest, I thought that it was a fairly uninspired flavour from the brand that used to be relied upon for their ingenuity and imagination. Somehow the cream flavour worked much better in the Strawberry Swirled -perhaps because it had the fruity sauce to break it up. 

The honey caramel swirl was also a little lacklustre. I can't help but feel like the developers couldn't make up their mind either. Choose honey or salted caramel Ben & Jerry's for goodness sake! In any case, the sauce wasn't thick like the centre of their Karamel Sutra or Blondie Brownie pints, and kind of fused with the cream flavoured ice cream, resulting in a mild toffee throughout. Humf. 

On to those chocolate coated honeycomb bites. Thankfully were delicious and reminded me of the bags that ASDA used to sell. Again though, they weren't anything particularly innovative, and I can't help but think that Ben & Jerry's have been more than a little lazy with this tub. 

To be honest, this is no better than the Sainsbury's tub. In fact I'd rather save my pennies have the Sainsbury's honeycomb & caramel ice cream... 

scrap that... I'll stick to their peanut & caramel tub instead. 

6/10

NEW! Ben & Jerry's Berry Neighbourly (Tesco)

I thought I was just viewing another enviable American edition Ben & Jerry's when scrolling through my Instagram a couple of days ago and spotting the Berry Neighbourly tub. Wait, that's Chloe's page. I know Chloe has recently come back from America... but it wasn't #throwabackthursday. Was it a sneaky #flashbackfriday? No. No it wasn't! It was a new flavour, here in the U.K. Huzzah! Ben & Jerry's, you little devils! Why do you sneak these new flavours into our lives? Please shout about these things! 

Yep, it's another Tesco exclusive flavour (as Sofa So Good and Wholly Coach are). And yes, Tesco have put their price up on Ben & Jerry's again. So if you want to get your hands on this tub, you'll have to be prepared to stump up £4.20, and there's a good chance you'll have to ask a member of staff to retrieve it for you too; both of our local Tesco stores have it out the back, but haven't put it on the shelves yet. 

"Vanilla ice cream with cookie (9%) and blueberry (8%) swirls, and white chocolate flavoured chunks (6%)."

I was pleased to find that the ice cream was slightly firmer than the Sofa So Good. All of the sauce seemed to be on one side of the tub though. Also, there wasn't a huge deal of white chocolate flavoured chunks in the tub, but the ones I did find were huge! 

The vanilla ice cream was fairly good, melting easily (but not too quickly) with the indulgent creaminess that's missing from most luxury tubs (Haagen-Dazs being the other notable exception) but perhaps this is unsurprising considering that cream is the primary ingredient.

The jammy swirls were delicious though, offering a strong and authentic sweet blueberry flavour with a hint of zing. This successfully cut through the vanilla well, but there just wasn't enough of it! As for the cookie swirl, it too was scrummy, but there was next to none in my portion - although Bert seemed to  fare better than me last night on this front. This was a huge shame, as the single mouthful of cookie was delightful, giving the ice cream a real cheesecake vibe. With this in mind, I've heard people compare this tub to the Ben & Jerry's blueberry cheesecake Froyo, but as I never tried it, I can't comment on that.

As you might have gathered, Ben & Jerry's have veered away from their usual ampersand format with the white chocolate in this tub. Instead they've opted for brick shaped chunks, which made them much more obvious than the chocolate in the Topped tubs. Again though, the chunks were missing in my tubs (what is it with me and fillings), and my portion only contained two. What the badger? However,I'm pleased to see than Ben & Jerry's are honouring the white chocolate lovers amongst us again-although I'm still morning the loss of Baked Alaska. Boo. 

As someone who doesn't normally buy vanilla based ice creams (caramel and peanut butter are much more up my street) I was surprised to enjoy this new tub as much as I did. To be honest, it's nowhere near the top of my favourite Ben & Jerry's flavours, but it's a nice fruity addition to the pack.

My tub: 6/10

If it had more swirl & more chocolate: 8/10

NEW! Rainbow Ring Doughnut (Greggs)

OK so I mentioned yesterday that there's in fact two new doughnuts to grace the Greggs summer range. The banoffee doughnut didn't hit the mark but I didn't have huge expectations from the rainbow doughnut in the first place (given my previous experiences with Greggs' rings*). The two friendly girls in Greggs Hereford however were quick to sing the praises of the new summer addition though, so I tried to refrain from judging it before actually taking a bite.

"If you like something that looks AND tastes good, then look no further than our rainbow doughnut.

A soft ring doughnut is coated with raspberry flavour fondant and finished with multi coloured decoration."

It's a very pretty doughnut, I'll give Greggs that. Although if you want to keep yours that way I'd suggest that you ask them not to put it in a bag in the shop, or else most of the icing will stick itself to the bag!

The dough was slightly softer than yesterday's banoffee doughnut, but it was still a lot denser than the Krispy Kreme ring. It also lacked the sweetness of Krispy Kreme's dough, which may make it more preferable to you if you find the glazed doughnuts too cloying, but to me it just tasted bland. 

As for the raspberry topping, it was very mild in flavour. Think of a stickier version of the toppings you find on raspberry finger buns and you'll get the gist. The trouble is, those buns also tend to have a jammy centre -and without that the doughnut was insipid. Yesterday I said that KK could do with some doughnut filling training from Greggs, well today it turns out that Greggs could do with the training from KK on how to make a topping flavourful. After all, the shimmery raspberry topping on the (ridiculously under-filled) PB&J doughnut was delicious. 

Meh. This is just a pink ring doughnut, and to be honest, Tesco's pink ring doughnuts are far tastier. They're also a lot cheaper; the Greggs rings are 75p each, whereas Tesco's rings are currently 80p for four (normally £1). Even better yet, @productsinstore found new filled raspberry ripple ring doughnuts in Sainsbury's yesterday, which -I hope you agree- look incredible!

6/10

*Previous Greggs rings doughnut reviews:
Lemon Sherbet
Toffee Apple
Rhubarb & Custard

NEW! Cornetto Honeycomb Crunch (Tesco)

Cornettos. Are you a fan? I have to admit that I tend to prefer the supermarket branded versions. It's not largely down to price either, as boxes of Cornettos are often on offer for £1. It's actually because Walls have been particularly lazy when it comes to innovating their famous cones. Sure there is the 'Peanut Butter Lovers' cone -which is quite frankly an insult to us peanut butter addicts- but, even if it was nice it's not as inventive as Iceland's rhubarb and custard, banana and peanut or toffee apple cones. I wasn't particularly excited by these new honeycomb Cornettos either, but seeing as both Bert and I love honeycomb ice cream and they were on offer in Tesco (currently £1.50 per four pack) I thought I might as well give them a bash.

"Honeycomb flavour ice cream in a wafer cone (12%), with chocolate flavour coating (5%), with a core of caramel sauce (5%) topped with a chocolate flavour disc (11%) and sugar pieces (2,5%)."

I'll give it to Walls, the chocolate disk makes for an attractive ice cream. The trouble is, it doesn't taste all that great. The chocolate isn't real chocolate, it's a dark composite that has an easy melt -but that's about the only plus point. Yes, the sugar pieces added a little texture, but surely it would have been better to use little chocolate coated honeycomb nuggets instead*.

On to the ice cream and it was pretty low-quality. It was soft set and made from reconstituted skimmed milk, meaning that it lacked the quality of premium brands. On the positive side, the flavour was butterscotch-y, although the ice cream used in both the Crunchie and Daim sticks beat this new Cornetto hands down.

The caramel sauce wasn't anything special either -especially when you compare it to the stuff Ben & Jerry's use in their Karamel Sutra and Blondie Brownie pints. It's sweet, but thin and more like a generic toffee flavour ice cream topping than the buttery stuff in Ben & Jerry's -which makes me groan with joy. 

If you're a honeycomb fan then stick to the Daim or Crunchie sticks. If it's the cone you're after then I suggest you fill your own with Ben & Jerry's or buy any of the supermarkets' own brand toffee cones if you want to save your pennies.

6/10 

*note to self: I must find out if ASDA still sell bags of them next to the chocolate raisins. 

NEW! Mr Kipling Trifle Cake Slices (ASDA)

Does anyone have a dislike for Mr Kipling? It seems to be one of those favourable brands that doesn't seem to get a lot of stick. Maybe that's because they make cake, and everyone in their right mind loves a bit of cake. Thankfully Mr Kipling are helping to mix things up a little with some terribly British summer editions to grace your afternoon tea. I was pleased to see that they haven't just rehashed the old editions this year (although the cocktail fancies are back) but have brought out a new cake slice and tart. The Eton Mess tarts do appeal -and I'm sure I'll get round to buying them soon- but it was the trifle slices that initially caught my eye. 

There's something about trifle that makes me cringe a little, perhaps it's the sad Bird's mix one that's always hanging around on Boxing Day and beyond, gradually looking more and more worse for wear. Maybe it's the thought of my nan's one which was always left at birthday parties in favour of the chocolate cake. What am I getting at here? The trifle is classed as a British classic, yet it's often the poor, retro sibling of the more decadent desserts. It's nice to see Mr Kipling giving it some love, I guess. They've been making the trifle bake wells for a while, but how on earth do you transform fruit, jelly, sponge, custard and cream into a cake slice? 

"Strawberry flavour sponge with a raspberry flavour filling (12%), topped with decorated custard flavour icing (26%)."

They're funky little slices, and although the more ecologically friendly among us might disagree, the individual packs make them easier to eat on the go because, lets be honest, who has the time to sit down the aforementioned afternoon tea? 

To me, the strawberry sponge tasted like watermelon flavoured sweets. Very odd. I expected a milkshake flavour (like their milkshake cake slices) but it didn't really taste wither of the standard strawberry artificial flavour or of fresh fruit. To be honest, I couldn't really taste the sauce in the middle against the cake, but the resulting texture was fairly moist so I can't complain about it either. As for the custard icing, it was neither here nor there -It was just a standard sweet icing. 

Now I felt a little let down by the slices -despite not knowing what to expect- but Bert really enjoyed them. At £1 for 6 from ASDA, the Trifle cake slices aren't likely to break the bank so are worth buying if you're intrigued by them. 

6/10

NEW! Limited Edition Strawberry Swirl Jammie Dodgers (Home Bargains)

Yes, I'm still on the coffee caramel digestive hunt. It's driving me loopy now! Apparently they're on Ocado and in some Spars, but they still don't seem to have made an appearance in rural Hereford yet. Or Cardiff for that matter. My sister and I intended to go trampolining on Saturday, but when we got off the bus outside the trampoline park we decided that it was too hot to spend the afternoon inside - let alone doing any kind of exercise. Instead we made a quick detour into B&M and Home Bargains before getting back on the bus to her house for a sunbathing session. As soon as we walked through the door in Home Bargains I spotted jammy dodgers in different packaging. Ooh the past it had an ice cream cone on it! Was this a new flavour? Strawberry swirled. Hmm. It was hardly the most imaginative limited edition, but it was new, and would have to do in lieu of the digestives. Plus who doesn't love a good Jammie Dodger?

"Strawberry flavoured jam with vanilla flavour filling sandwiched between two shortcake biscuits."

I'm not sure where the swirl comes in but the cream filling was present on one side of the otherwise standard looking JDs. The biscuits were just as I remembered, not as crumbly as most shortcakes but with a decent vanilla flavour. It  don't expect that it'll shock you that the strawberry and cream style filling worked well together. The jam was -of course- very sweet and artificial,  and the vanilla was gooey and somewhat marshmallow-like. 

The biscuits were pleasant, but once again we find ourselves with a very lazy limited edition. With endless possible flavour combinations out there, why have we been palmed off with what's essentially a Happy Face/Classic jam ring biscuit? I miss the old banana and toffee JDs, but would love to see Burtons create something more exciting: rhubarb and custard, lemon meringue or peanut butter perhaps? 

6/10 

NEW! Müller Strawberry Oreo Yogurts (ASDA)

Last summer saw the launch of the Oreo split-pot yogurts. Unfortunately -as seems the case with many of the Oreo branded food products*- they weren't all that great. The trouble was, the yogurts are made by Müller. Müller have gone downhill in recent years, gone are the days of their thick and creamy yogurt; instead we're left with runny, artificially flavoured stuff that's best avoided. Still, I'm a sucker for anything labelled as Oreo, and I rather enjoyed the strawberry Oreo biscuits, so I just had to try them. You know... for the blog.. of course ;). I found them in ASDA at £2 for a pack of 4, but they're also in Tesco too (currently £2.89 for four). 

"Strawberry flavour yogurt with Oreo cookie pieces"

The yogurt side wasn't to the top, but it wasn't ridiculously empty either. As for the cookie side however, well that was pathetic. I was disappointed but unsurprised to find that, despite the artwork on the front of the four-pack depicting strawberry Oreos, the cookie pieces were plain. At only 8% of the yogurt, I suppose you couldn't have told the difference even if Müller had decided to go the whole hog anyway. Ooh, aren't I the cynic?

If you've had any of the strawberry split pot Müller corners recently, you'll know what to expect from the larger side of this yogurt. It was thin in consistency, with an artificial -albeit fairly pleasant- flavour. The strawberry worked well with the Oreo pieces (as it had with the biscuits), I just wished that the yogurt was thicker and creamier. This isn't supposed to be a diet yogurt after all! 

This new edition is a small improvement on the plain Oreo split-pot, and one of the nicer Müller corners available. Try them if the corners are your bag, but if -like me- you prefer thicker style yogurts, then I suggest you make your own using Skyr/Greek Yogurt and crumbled strawberry Oreos. 

6/10

NEW! Lemon Sherbet Doughnut (Greggs)

Ok, it's not that new. Greggs' lemon sherbet ring doughnut was released the same week as their brilliant caramel cookie filled doughnut*. The thing is, I don't really see the point in non-glazed ring doughnuts -surely the best bit is the squidgy filling? That's if you get any of course, both Krispy Kreme and Greggs seem to be hit and miss. I've been having citrussy cravings of late though, I think it's due to the changing seasons, and so I decided it was time to try Greggs' other limited edition offering. 

"If you're after something with a sweet and sour kick to it, then this is for you! 

A soft ring doughnut topped in a tangy lemon sherbet flavoured fondant finished with a white chocolate flavour spin decoration. "

There's two Greggs in Hereford. I went into the first yesterday, took a look at the sorry state of the lemon sherbet doughnuts and decided to stop into the second branch instead as it was on my way home. Humf. The second lot didn't look any better. The icing wasn't sitting attractively atop the rings, instead it was sliding off all over the place. It wasn't even that hot outside! I even sneakily brought a doughnut box from LIDL with me to protect it, so this time I'm not taking any blame for the sorry state of the topping. 

Slicing the ring in two revealed the well aerated dough. It was adequately soft too, although nowhere near as soft as the Tandem Bakery's incredible doughnuts**.

Sweet and sour icing you say Greggs? Lemon sherbet? That's news to me. Yes it was lemony, yes it had a slight tang, but it certainly wasn't about to cause any lip-puckering. The lemon flavour was little stronger than the icing you'll find on lemon buns**. I found it pleasant, but it certainly didn't earn the sherbet badge. What was stranger was the dusting of caster sugar that I found underneath the icing. It was like Greggs had made too many sugar dusted ring doughnuts and then whacked some lemon icing on top -which perhaps explains why the topping was sliding off. Very peculiar. 

As for the dough itself, it seems to be an improvement on the rings I've had from Greggs in the past. That's to say it was less bread-like, with a sweeter flavour and lighter texture. 

At 75p the lemon sherbet ring doughnuts are unlikely to break the bank, but I know I'd rather have a plain jam doughnut from any of the supermarkets. Last year's rhubarb & custard doughnut was better -but still not great- so please pull your socks up Greggs for your next seasonal release.

6/10

*please buy one if you haven't yet, they're better than Krispy Kreme! 

**Tandem doughnuts...check out these Easter week doughnuts (they were the size of my hand!) 

Creme Egg

Hot Cross Bun

***oh god, I'd forgotten about Sainsbury's nostalgic finger buns, adds to shopping list.