The Treat Collective (Online)

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a lovely lady called Jo, who told me about her company: The Treat Collective. As you might've gathered, I have a passion for discovering independent and small-batch manufacturers in the U.K, and so when I found out that The Treat Collective is a subscription service who collates sweet treats from independent British manufacturers and sends them directly to your door once a month, I gladly accepted her kind offer of a sample box. 

A few days later I received a parcel, which I assumed might be the Treat Collective box, but when I opened it I discovered a present inside. You see the box inside was wrapped in lollipop gift paper. It wasn't my Birthday. Surely this couldn't be The Treat Collective...?

But it was! This box really did embody the company's name. I felt utterly spoilt when unwrapping the parcel, and again when I lifted the lid on the box inside. 

Wow! What a joyful collection of goodies! I spotted the cute little gummy bears, the artisan fruit & nut chocolate, the cute citrus sweets... then spied The Grown Up Chocolate Company's wonderful 'Perfectly Buttery Peanut Cups', before my eyes rested on Nellienoo's CARAMAC FUDGE. Ahem. I might've been a tad excited. Normally in subscription boxes theres one or more item that I wouldn't have chosen myself, but I was looking forward to each and every item in this parcel. 

Also included in the box was a handy guide to the companies included within The Treat Collective box, which was a really nice touch. I absolutely love the idea behind this company. If you also like to discover the Best of British confectionary then I highly suggest you head over to their website where you can sign up to receive a monthly treat box for the reasonable sum of £24.00 per month. 

10/10

Thank you to Jo for the sample Treat Collective box. Reviews of the individual items will follow on my Instagram feed, so keep your eyes out! 

Rhubarb Milk Chocolate (Choc Affair)

My father has been on the snack hunt again...

"I've found you some rhubarb chocolate, pickle. It's the peculiar kind of thing I thought you might like" he excitedly told me. I felt my stomach turn, remembering the sickeningly sweet bar from ALDI last summer "Oh, dad, please tell me it's not made by Moser Roth?" I groaned. "No no", he assured me, "it's made by a posh chocolate company called Choc Affair".

Somewhere in the back of my mind I recalled hearing good things about Choc Affair, but I spend so much time looking for and eating chocolate that I could easily be mistaken. Choc Affair, for those of you who who don't know, is a family run business from York whose tag line is "changing lives through chocolate". Their products are all handmade, palm oil free, and made using natural ingredients.

Rhubarb is an unusual pairing for chocolate, and I always assumed that given the natural tartness of the vegetable that white chocolate would be the obvious choice. It seems that Choc Affair don't always opt for the classic combinations though, and I was keen to discover whether their milk chocolate was any good and whether it would work with the rhubarb.

"Rhubarb chocolate, you say!  Well this rhubarb is a light and subtle flavour which will leave you with a feeling of serenity and a sweet surprise."

Can we please take a moment to admire the beautiful packaging too? It was a work of art, and almost too good to open.

I was somewhat surprised when I unwrapped the gold foil covered bar to discover a glossy but smooth block. I thought I'd spot strands of rhubarb, or perhaps some pink hues, but instead the chocolate simply looked like good quality milk chocolate. Just for info, the Rhubarb Chocolate contains a very respectable 33.6% minimum of cocoa solids and 20.8% minimum of milk solids.

Nibbling the edge of my first chunk revealed just how well Choc Affair have done with this bar. The milk chocolate is rich and silken, so smooth that it melts in the mouth without the slightest wax or chalkiness to it. I'd even go as far as suggesting it's one of the best quality milk chocolate bars I've had in many years.

As for the rhubarb flavour, it's bold but balanced, offering a genuine fruitiness that cuts through the sweetness. There's no hiding from its presence either, for it makes itself known in every last morsel. Despite my earlier reservations about whether a white chocolate would work better, the flavours fuse in perfect harmony and I'm glad that Choc Affair have opted for the more unusual choice here.

Choc Affair's range includes a whole host of innovative chocolate bars in milk, white and dark varieties which are reasonably priced between £1.25 (45g unflavoured chocolate bars) and £2.75 (100g flavoured bars) all available from their website. They also produce chocolate lollies, letters, numbers, hampers, and drinking chocolate as well as seasonal editions. I'm especially eyeing up their mango and peach & raspberry white chocolate bars!

10/10

Thanks for the find Daddio! 

Art of Mallow: So Strawberries & Cream (Online)

I think I've mentioned before about my Dad's talent for finding interesting foodie treats for me to try. He's a horticultural expert and lecturer so spends the majority of his time scouring the country, often popping into different garden centres. It's in one such place that he came across this bag of Art of Mallow 'So Strawberries and Cream' gourmet marshmallows. Marshmallows are another treat I go through phases of being addicted to, but admittedly I hadn't had any since trying Mallow & Marsh's Dark Chocolate Coated Raspberry Marshmallow bar last year. So who are Art of Mallow?

"Art of Mallow marshmallows are an evolutionary step away from the pink and whites that we are all used to.  They are full of delicious natural flavours including real raspberries, strawberries, lemon juice, Belgian chocolate, madagascan vanilla and natural extracts and are as light and puffy as a wonderful pillow."

The 75g bag contained six bouncy large cubes. They emitted no identifiable scent other than the sugary sweetness.

The marshmallows managed to deliver a real strawberry flavour that really tasted of fresh fruit and was a far cry from the milkshake taste I was expecting. Of course Art and Mallow only use real strawberries in their marshmallows so this shouldn't have come as a surprise. Still, strawberries aren't always that flavourful and yet somehow they've harnessed the taste of our classic summer treat.

Texturally Art of Mallow also fulfilled their promise of pillow softness. Each marshmallow was gooey and squidgy, without that dusty reside that coincides with their mass produced counterparts.

My only sticking point is the price. As a student I can't warrant £3.50 for 75g of sweets* - even if they are delicious and handmade. If, however, you're a sweetie fan and fancy a real treat then please pop on over to their website, where you'll find plenty of fancy flavours including their new (and delicious sounding) salted caramel and peanut rocky road.

8/10

Thanks Daddio for the marshmallows.

*chocolate on the other hand... ;)

NEW! Jude's Peanut Butter Chocolate Ripple Dairy Ice Cream (Sainsbury's)

As promised, today's review is the subject of last night's dessert porn: Jude's Peanut Butter Chocolate Ripple Dairy Ice Cream. The lovely One Treat messaged me a couple of weeks ago informing me of its existence in Sainsbury's, but to be honest I was a tad put-off by the lack of chunks and relatively high price. Then on Tuesday Emily sent me a message on instagram asking me if I had tried the ice cream, and with that I decided that there were just too many cues to ignore. I soon realised it was on offer so popped on down to Sainsbury's yesterday and forked out the £3.00 (usually £3.50) for the 500ml tub. It had better be good. 

"Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Peanut Pieces and Chocolate Ripple."

I haven't bought Jude's ice cream before, despite reading many positive reviews, so if -like me- you don't know much about him, here's a bit of background for you: 

"He wanted to create the world’s tastiest ice cream with milk from local cows. In his barn at home he set to work and soon the whole family joined in. In the winter of 2002 he carried the first tubs across the field to the village pub and Jude’s Ice Cream was born.
He lovingly named it after his wife."

Aww. I don't know about you, but I always appreciate a good back story and I hoped this admiration would continue once the striking looking stripey tub was open.

Crikey! The super-strong scent of salted peanuts saluted my nostrils the moment I peeled back the lid. Perhaps that should have been unsurprising considering that peanut butter is ranked number 3 on the ingredients list, and accounts for 10% of the total tub -a fact that pleased me greatly. I was a little taken aback at the lack of chocolate ripple immediately evident, but I soon uncovered it when I dug down.

The ice cream was dense, but I could easily and immediately spoon it out without too much of a struggle. I've mentioned a number of times how I'm not a fan of ice creams that melt quickly, but I knew from the thick consistency that I wasn't going to have to eat this against the clock for fear of becoming a sticky mess.

What I hadn't acknowledged in my eagerness to construct my cone was the sheer abundance of chopped peanut pieces that studded every single spoonful. I know this might sound odd considering that I'm a devout lover of the chunks in Ben & Jerry's -but I don't actually like nuts in ice cream! The walnuts in B&J's chunky monkey used to frustrate me so much that I rarely bought it despite adoring banana ice cream. Would this be the downfall of this Jude's tub that both looked and smelt divine?

No. In fact the peanut pieces were crisp, and added further flavour and welcome texture to the otherwise silken ice cream without becoming obtrusive. The flavour was sheer heaven for my peanut butter addicted taste-buds, delivering the true salty-sweet balance that so often gets lost in pb flavoured treats. Jude's have got the ratio spot on with the chocolate ripple, allowing the sweetness to occasionally crop up and cut through the nuttiness. Yum. 

Jude's Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Peanut Pieces and Chocolate Ripple is definitely worthy of the high price point -especially as the company donate 10% of their profits to charity. It's a cleverly thought out, indulgent ice cream that (even as a student) I won't mind paying the extra money for every now and then. For normal days, I'll stick to the childish (and cheaper) Co-Op PB&J ice cream.  

9/10

One Treat has written reviews on Jude's Salted Caramel, Brown Butter Pecan and Flat White flavours too, which you can find here.

IKORN Gourmet Popcorn (Online)

A few weeks ago I received an invite from British premium gourmet popcorn company IKORN to sample their new products. Given my love of the stuff (no cinema trip is complete without a bag of Propercorn's smooth peanut & almond) I didn't think twice about saying yes.

Not heard of IKORN yet? Not to worry, they're a brand spanking new company, aiming to revolutionise the popcorn market with their healthy snacks. Thought all popcorn was healthy? Well not according to IKORN who reject to use the standard canola/rapeseed oil used in most commercially available popcorn, instead opting for the superfood à la mode -coconut oil. IKORN also apparently trialled over 40 different types of corn before they were happy that they'd found the best of the best. All of this means that the company believes it has produced 'the King of Korn'. 

Currently IKORN produce three flavours: Salt, Sweet & Himalayan salted. From a shallow point of view the bags looked beautiful, and I loved the crisp, clean lines of the branding. 

I have to admit that I much prefer flavoured popcorn, and find it a little bland on it's own, so was intrigued to find out whether the premium ingredients in IKORN could change my mind. 

Unfortunately, whilst I could appreciate the light, fluffy quality of the corn (and the lack of unpopped kernels at the bottom of the bag) I couldn't really notice a huge amount of difference in the taste between this gourmet brand and the more commercial varieties. The seasoning in all three was a little inconsistent too, some popcorn was very sweet or salty whilst others were tasteless.

Seeing as IKORN had generously sent me so many bags of their products, I took some to work with me to find out what my non-blogging colleagues thought of the range. It turned out that there was a massive differing of opinions. Each flavour was favourite of roughly the same amount of people, and yet everyone found the popcorn moreish. The plain salted was too saline for one of the girls in my office (the poor thing started coughing and spluttering everywhere after one mouthful) but she loved the Himalayan salted and was convinced she could taste the backnotes of coconut -something my tastebuds had failed to pick up on. 

I'd love to see more flavours* come out in IKORN's range, and I know it's something the company is working on. If this premium gourmet popcorn made with coconut oil sounds right up your alley then please head on over to their website where you can order boxes of 12. 

Thank you IKORN for sending me the samples. 

6/10

*peanut butter if possible please! ;)

Matt & Ben's Espresso Proper Fudge

Do you remember when I received that huge Birthday hamper full of goodies from my Dad? Well, nestled in the bottom was a small container that filled me with excitement: a little espresso cup full of gourmet fudge! I love fudge, but it had been a long old while since I last ate it on its own. Fudge in chocolate, cakes, desserts, ice cream -sure! But on it's own? Gosh, it must be years. 

You may never have heard of Matt & Ben's Proper Fudge before, I certainly hadn't. They're a small Welsh company who specialise in producing home-made fudge using their secret family recipe, available in four flavours: Vanilla, Salted Caramel, Espresso and Chilli Chocolate. I've recently seen the larger bags (150g) of their vanilla fudge for sale in M&S for around £4.00.

I loved the little Espresso cup, it's such an ingenious packaging solution, especially considering that the fudge was coffee flavoured too. The little pot contained 50g, which came in 5 squares. 

The first thing I noticed was how crumbly the texture was. As I mentioned before, it's been a while since I've eaten it, but the fudge I remember was soft and squidgy. This was more like Scottish Tablet.

I took a bite, and couldn't handle much more. The sweetness was overpowering, but what else should I expect? Sugar is the main ingredient after all. The espresso flavour was extremely mild and I just couldn't enjoy it, as much as I wanted to.

It doesn't seem fair to score the fudge because of two reasons:

1. My tastebuds may have changed to not liking fudge.
2. The best before date was March 2016 and I ate it on the 31st March, which *may* explain the crumbliness.

It's an even greater shame because I spotted these suspiciously familiar pots of Fudge at Chester Zoo, and they turned out to be Matt & Ben's too... The flavours sound fantastic!

Have you tried Matt & Ben's Proper Fudge? What are your thoughts? I'm keen to hear about your experiences!