NEW! Walls Feast Sandwich (Tesco Express)

About this time last year I squealed in a lecture when I found out that Walls were bringing out peanut butter Feasts. Get over. My favourite childhood ice cream was being combined with my favourite flavour? I couldn't imagine anything more exciting. I still haven't got over the disappointment of the reality though, those meagre Choc ices were disgraceful. Walls haven't given up hope though, they've just released another new version of their iconic Feast - this time in sandwich format. Now if you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know just how much I love a good ice cream sandwich. Could Walls do a better job with their 2017 addition? I decided to not buy a whole box but purchased a single ice cream from my local Tesco Express for £1.

"Vanilla ice cream between chocolate biscuits (18%) coated in chocolate flavour coating (13%) with nougat pieces (2%)."

More or less a Maxibon then? It seems that it's not only Kellogg's who've been keeping tabs on Nestle!

"Cream flavoured ice cream with chocolate chips (4%) sandwiched in between biscuits (15%) and half covered in a milk chocolate flavour coating (11.5%) with hazelnuts."

They certainly look very similar, although the Walls version is lacking the chocolate chips that stud Maxibons.

As you can see, the chocolate coating was paper thin, and despite my careful transportation it had smashed in the corners. It tasted ok though, nothing special but not like cooking chocolate either. A redeeming factor was the nougat pieces, which had thankfully remained crisp.

It can't just be me who thinks that the ice cream in a Feast should be chocolate flavoured? The vanilla ice cream in the middle was the same stuff Walls use in their Gingerbread sandwiches. It tastes like soft serve, which strangely makes a nice change from the creamier ice creams I usually favour. Still it's not really a Feast is it?

The biscuits were soft, which I expected, and tasted indifferent to the ones used in Maxibons. Their flavour is akin to a very mild bourbon and they're pleasant enough.

To be honest, there's very few differences between Walls' new Feast sandwiches and Nestle's iconic Maxibons. The ice cream is better in the 'Feast', but it's lacking the chocolate chips that add texture to the Maxibons. My biggest bug bear is that once again Walls have relied on Feast's success to brand an unrelated product. It's NOT a Feast. I do however want to try the new Maxibon Cookie (when I can find it) it looks very good!

6/10

NEW! Peanut Butter Feast Bars (Morrisons)

Do you remember me telling you about my embarrassing little mid-lecture squeal about Unilever's new ice cream range? It was in the new peanut butter Magnum review, in which I also mentioned the new Feast Bars, Twisters and Cornettos that are coming to Supermarket freezers this year.

I made a trip over to Morrisons this afternoon to stock up on Müller Rices (currently on a brilliant 10 for £2 mix & match deal with all the Muller singles) and also to see if I could pick up the new Ben & Jerry's 'S'wich me up'' (which sounds awesome -check out One Treat's review). Unfortunately, the ice-cream tub section looked like it had been ransacked, most of the Ben & Jerry's had been upended and there was no S'wich me up left. I then hunted for the Millionaire's Mash Up to no avail, and was just about to give up and head for the tills when I spotted an alternate Holy Grail: the new Peanut Butter feast ice cream bars! I was tempted to leave them be as they weren't on offer, and the aforementioned Magnums went on offer the week after I bought them (how annoying is that?!) but I knew I'd be hankering after them until I got my lips around the, so into the basket they went.

 

'Peanut butter flavour ice cream with caramel sauce, chocolate flavoured coating and peanut pieces'

 

Feasts were my favourite as a child, the sheer amount of chocolate in one delicious product meant that they became the ultimate ice cream van treat. I have four younger siblings, so my mum didn't buy them very often for us due to the expense, and we ended up with mini-milks on most occasions.

I think it was these early experiences that led me to be so intrigued by the new peanut butter feast bar. My excitement was too hard to bear, and instead of waiting until dessert tonight to try one, the box was opened within the hour.

 

 

As you can see, the ice cream bars aren't very large, but at least there were 6 in the £2.01 (!) box.

 

Taking a bite, I was met with creamy vanilla ice cream... wait!... hang on!.. Isn't it meant to be peanut butter flavoured? The nuttiness was completely lacking, and I couldn't even remotely taste the peanut butter that it was meant to resemble. I mean, if the new Peanut & Caramel Müllerlight missed the mark, this hadn't even entered the nutty universe.*

I'm not sure if I opened a duff one, but my Feast was seemly missing the caramel sauce that was supposed to account for 14% of the bar. My only evidence that it partook in that section of the production process is from the photo below, and as you can see it's barely visible (looking nothing like the image on the front of the packet)!

 

Saving grace came from the chocolate that surrounded the ice cream  -it looked dark in colour, and that translated in taste too (I'd even go as far as to say that it's very similar to that of a Magnum). The peanut pieces embedded within the chocolate broke up the texture nicely, in traditional Feast style.

Ok, so the new peanut butter feast bars are far from being inedible  -the chocolate is tasty, and the ice cream is soft and velvety- I'm just underwhelmed for the second time this week** following what should've been a pretty special new ice cream. Boo.

4/10

*I was so disgruntled that I made my PB hating fiancé try a bite, but he was disgusted when he took a nibble and swears that I must've become peanut butter immune. I'd be extremely eager to hear your thoughts if you've tried them!

**Cadbury's new Medley bar was the first disappointment.