Lacasa Turrón de Tiramisú (Home Bargains)

The trouble with being good friends with a chocolate blogger is that she's always finding delicious, tempting treats that get me salivating. Whilst Nat often reviews bars by well known brands from across the globe, she's also excellent at tracking down more unusual companies. Cue Lacasa. I'd certainly never heard of the Spanish chocolatier until she reviewed their 'Turrón de Cookies' bar  a few weeks ago. Boy doesn't it look delicious? She then got her hands on two of the Turróns de Tiramisú, and kindly offered to send me one -knowing how much I love the classic Italian dessert. Perhaps there's no problem with being friends with a temptress after all. Thanks Nat, you're a diamond. 

I'd never heard of a Turron before, but the imported label translated it as 'Tiramisu Praline Nougat'. The ingredients included a delectable mixture of cocoa butter, biscuit (15%), hazelnuts, almonds, and, um, cheese powder. Again! Twice in one week for chocolate bars with cheese powder. Who knew it was such a popular ingredient? I headed to Lacasa's website for a further description of this intriguing bar... 

"Tiramisu NOUGAt"All the flavor of the traditional Italian dessert, in this nougat, made with cheese, coffee, cake and the best cacaos. Format 100g."

Oh. I'm not sure that's any clearer. I tried..

I hope you'll agree that it was a very aesthetically pleasing bar. I loved the dual layers and simple decoration. But what on earth did it taste like?

Well there was a lovely cocoa flavour to it, with a respectable coffee kick and notes of Masala. A wonderful creaminess came from the top layer, which had a slight tanginess to it - in fact Lacasa managed a more convincing cheesecake flavour than KitKat did! 

I loved the combination of textures too; the top was smooth whilst the bottom was crumbly with a slight crunchiness to it. Where the nougat element comes in I'm not sure, as it wasn't remotely chewy. Additionally, there wasn't any large nut or biscuit pieces in the bar, but it wasn't as smooth as a traditional praline either. Perhaps that's why I enjoyed it so much though - because it was utterly different to anything we've got here. 

Interestingly though, Nat experienced something quite shocking with her bar, but you'll have to read her review to find out what went down...  

Thank you to Nat for sending me this beautiful bar. According to Nat they're available in Home Bargains, but Hereford hasn't had any - so I hope you're in luck if you fancy trying it!

8/10

NEW! Pink Panther Ice Cream Cones (Home Bargains)

It's a very rare occasion when Bert gets as excited as I am about a new food product - but then I don't get as excited as he does about vehicle parts. He's just not as bothered about food as I am, most of the time it just serves function to fuel him through the day. There's a few sweet treats that he's impervious to resist however, and one of them is the classic Pink Panther Wafers. Once opened, a pack can last a matter of hours if in his eyeline. He also enjoys our nightly ice creams and so the announcement that Pink Panther were creating wafer cones tickled his pickle. So to speak. 

 "Wafer cones with sweeteners and sugar sprinkles."

They popped up in Home Bargains, of all places, a few weeks later. 79p for 21 cones and a bag of sprinkles, bargain. Were they too good to be true? 

Wafer cones are normally super thin, and so we tend to prefer the sturdier biscuity Waffle variety (FYI Tesco and ASDA own brand are better than Askey's!) but these were fairly thick -and super pink! I was pleased to see the panther had made an appearance on the cones themselves too; attention to detail goes a long way. 

I did find that they were very narrow at the top however, which made it difficult to fit in the normal copious amounts of ice cream I usually top my cones with. 

Perhaps my expectations were too high when I hoped that they'd taste of pink panthers. They just tasted like normal, albeit thicker, wafer cones. But I've given it some thought... do Pink Panthers have a flavour? Really they're just very sugary wafers and I think perhaps that the fall-apart-in-the-mouth texture is what makes them so enjoyable. It wasn't just me though, Bert was disappointed by them too. 

As a swap for regular wafer cones, these are a good buy. They're cheap and pretty. They fall on the likeness to pink panther front though, and for that reason Bert and I will return to our favoured waffle cones.

7/10 

NEW! McCoys Chips: Chip Shop Curry Sauce (Home Bargains)

Crisps are something I go through phases with. Most of the time I'm not bothered by them but then I'll get a random craving and boom! I'm hooked again for a few months. When in a crisp loving phase there is one prerequisite: salt & vinegar reigns. However snack hunting extraordinaire @productsinstore posted a picture of McCoys new chip shop curry chip sauce flavoured 'chips' a few weeks ago on instagram and I was suitably intrigued. Curious, but I still waited a few weeks until they cropped up in Home bargains for £1.

The range of 'chips' crisps are also available in salt & vinegar and sea salted flavours, but for some reason it was the curry that really tickled my pickle. Of course they're not really chips, they are in fact crinkled crisps cut into rectangular shapes. The packet contained 6 individual 25g bags.

"Curry Sauce Flavour Reformed Potato Snack."

I feel sorry for the crisp manufacturers. They have far less options when it comes to innovation within their market, so I guess shaping them is one variation.

I like McCoys crinkle crisps, but they're quite clunky so I liked the 'chip' shape, and found them far easier to eat in a lecture theatre without making too much noise.

As for the flavour, McCoys never hold back, and these were every bit as punchy as their other crisps. There was one factor that you couldn't ignore though: they tasted exactly like Nik Naks. I mean they're indistinguishable. As someone who prefers potato to maize based snacks it meant that these ticked the box. It's the Nik Nak for potato lovers! The heat wasn't too strong either, although I was acutely aware of my stinky curry breath for hours after. The new shape might make them more socially acceptable to eat in public, but the flavour sure doesn't!

7/10

Protein Active Peanut Chia Blast Bar (Home Bargains)

I can't think of a more unusual shop than Home Bargains. It's the only place where you might find Emma Bridgewater wellies for less than a tenner, LED Gnomes, Matrix Hair Oils, and Heinz Worcester Sauce (which for info tastes like chinese!). On a recent store exploration, I spotted this Peanut Chia Blast bar. In the same way that Magpies are attracted to all things shiny, I'm drawn to anything with peanut in...

'Healthy Protein Snack made with Carob, Roasted Peanuts & Chia Seeds'.

The bar came in slab form, covered in what looked like chocolate, but was in fact Carob. Biting into the bar, the texture reminded me of a powdery Nougat. The sweetness greeted me with my first mouthful, and although it tasted unlike anything I'd had before, I thought I'd hit the flavour jackpot. I couldn't really detect the peanuts, which was disappointing, but I was enjoying it so I didn't really mind. By the time I'd made my way half way through, the bar became cloying, and I felt queasy. Not wanting to quit, I carried on -ignoring the alarm bells ringing in my head- but it was a mistake: a BIG mistake. The bar had turned my stomach to the point of no return... 

I'm not sure if it was due to the high levels of Whey protein in the bar, but my body couldn't handle it. It was the worst thing I've eaten in a long time (it was even worse than the Beetroot yoghurts). I've tried looking on their website for this product, but I couldn't find it; so I don't know if other people have felt the same and its since been discontinued. All I know is, I won't be buying this, or any of Protein Actives's other products ever again. 

0/10