Belgian White Chocolate & Raspberry Sauce Ice Cream Sticks (Tesco)

Hey, do you remember when I moaned (yes, I know I'm always moaning) a couple of weeks ago about Magnum's double raspberry ice creams, and more specifically about the fact that they'd chosen to coat them in milk chocolate instead of white? Well, I was in Tesco the other day when I spotted something that might just be the solution to said grumbles: a white chocolate and raspberry ice cream with raspberry sauce. Hurrah!

I had actually forgotten that until this summer Tesco sold white chocolate and raspberry ice creams that were pretty good rip offs of the white chocolate and raspberry Magnums - but now both Tesco and Magnum's versions have been sadly discontinued. Boo. Let's hope that Tesco have made up for it with these 2017 editions - which are slightly cheaper than Magnums At £1.50 for three sticks  (Magnum doubles are currently on offer in Tesco at £2 for 3).

"Vanilla dairy ice cream, covered with raspberry sauce, coated in Belgian white chocolate with freeze dried raspberry pieces."

Please agree with me that the raspberry flecked ice creams looked beautiful; to me they screamed luxury. However, I still find myself taken aback however at how small all these new 90ml sticks are (new Magnums are the same size). Biting into the stick revealed the shocking pink sauce that looked stunning against the vanilla ice cream and white chocolate. 

Unfotunately, it was one of those occasions where the taste just didn't quite live up to the looks. God damnit, I wish appearances weren't so deceptive. Perhaps I'm being harsh here, because the white chocolate was fairly good -it's no Magnum covering though- and the ice cream was creamy -it just lacked the real vanilla flavour that I longed for.

It was more the sauce that I was disappointed by. The sauce in the double Magnum had a real tang to it, more like a coulis, whereas this was more like a standard Askey's ice cream topping. I mean, it was just very sweet, and lacked the tartness that I'd hoped for. The raspberry flavour was a little lost actually, and I found myself wishing that they'd used a raspberry ice cream (as Magnum had) to really boost the contrasting flavours. 

These are great if you're after a pretty ice cream, but they're another case of style over substance. Considering the uncompetitive price-point, I probably won't bother with them again. 

7/10

Magnum Double Raspberry (Tesco)

This weekend I stayed with my sister and we found ourselves craving some proper comfort food. Both of us were super-achey (she’s training for the Cardiff Half Marathon) and I’d started phase two of the Crusader Strength Program*. We needed stuffed crust cheese pizza and ice cream. But what ice cream to have? Lou, like me, has a strong love for all things Black Forest (I think we’ve got our grandma’s Xmas roulade to thank for that) and so it didn’t surprise me that she was drawn to the new double raspberry Magnums whilst we were on our junk food hunt in Tesco.

I was unimpressed with Magnum’s 2017 flavours when they were announced earlier this year. Double raspberry? Double coconut? Meh. As you might’ve gathered I’m not Magnum’s biggest fan, but I wasn’t about to argue with my sister! 

"Raspberry ice cream with a chocolate flavour coating (8%), raspberry sauce (19%) and milk chocolate (24%)."

The ice sticks have a similar layout to the Double Peanut Butter Magnums; i.e. the ice cream resides in the centre, surrounded by a chocolate layer, then a sauce, all coated in milk chocolate. 

Biting into the stick revealed the tetralogy of distinct layers. The ice cream in the middle had a pleasant berry flavour, but you'd be hard pressed to ascertain that it was raspberry and not strawberry. This might sound like a complaint, but I was fond of the seemingly discontinued white raspberry Magnums, and so did enjoy the ice cream. 

The raspberry sauce was sticky and oozed from between the chocolate layers. It was much thinner than the sauce in the double peanut butter Magnums, and I preferred it as such. Magnum have made it from raspberry puree, which was a wise idea as it gave the sauce a sharpness that counteracted the sweetness from the ice cream wonderfully. 

The milk chocolate coating was just as tasty as I'd hoped it would be. Magnum might've reduced the size of their lollies quite considerably in recent years but they don't seem to have messed with their chocolate. However, I can't help but think that this ice cream would have been really special had Magnum have opted for a white chocolate coating. I mean, white chocolate and raspberry were just meant to be together weren't they?

Thanks Lou bum to treating me to the Double Raspberry Magnum (especially as I've promised to not buy any more new ice cream until I've got my collection under control). 

8/10

 *please check it out if you fancy building some strength and muscle with an extensive full-body plan, I can’t believe the changes I’ve seen in five weeks.

NEW! Magnum White Almond (Iceland)

I popped into Iceland the other day to pick up my other half’s favourite ready meal for his night shift (sausage, cheese and beans is where it’s at apparently!) when I spotted a deal on Magnum ice creams. Now the deal itself wasn’t amazing, but it did include the new white almond Magnums and therefore piqued my interest.

I’ve kind of fallen out of love with Magnums in the past year or so, much preferring the Oreo sticks, Daim sticks, or better yet: Ben and Jerry’s in a waffle cone. I mean, Magnums are ok, they’re just not particularly inspiring.

Anyhoo, at 2 4 packs for £4, I decided to pick up a box of the new white almond Magnums as well as the classic white Magnums (which happen to be one of Bert’s favourite ice creams). After all, it seemed only fair to see how they compare to the white almond Haagen-Dazs.

“Vanilla ice cream with white chocolate (28%) and almonds (3%).”

There’s one quality you can depend upon from Magnum, and that’s a thick chocolate coating. These sticks were no different, meaning that the white chocolate cracked satisfyingly as my teeth pressed against it. Perhaps I’ve had better quality white chocolate of late, because the coating didn’t taste quite as silky as I remember. Instead it tasted much more like a composite, and although it was thicker than H-D’s covering, it didn’t taste any better. Yes, the almonds added a little texture to it, but as with the original almond Magnums, they didn’t offer much in the way of flavour.

As for the ice cream centre, it was as creamy as ever, with a real vanilla flavour and visible seeds. But that’s about as far as the enjoyment went and I found myself yearning for the caramelised nuts that studded H-D’s ice cream sticks. 

I thought these would be on par with H-D. I knew the ice cream wouldn’t be as tasty but thought the chocolate would level the playing field. In reality, I’d choose the H-D sticks over the Magnum, but probably won’t go out of my way to buy either anytime soon.

7/10

NEW! Magnum White Ice Cream Tub (Iceland)

This week I brought you reviews of all three new Ben & Jerry's Topped tubs. They sounded ingenious didn't they? But they weren't the first kids on the block. Oh no. Right at the beginning of the year I spotted some new Magnum Tubs in Iceland, balked at the price (£3.89) and didn't give them a second thought. That was at least until One Treat reviewed them (told you she's the ice cream queen) and revealed just what you were getting for your money. Naively I had assumed that the tubs were just full of the innards of a Magnum which, although tasty, isn't worth almost 4 squids - especially when you can buy 4 of the sticks from Farmfoods for one pound.

If you haven't grabbed your keys and left for Farmfoods yet I both applaud you and worry about your sanity. Seriously, that's a bargain that shouldn't be missed. Anyway, if you've stuck it out for the remainder of this review, I'll also let Magnum explain why their new tubs are considerably more special than I originally thought...

"Experience Magnum White in a tub Discover the ultimate Magnum cracking chocolate and velvety ice cream experience with the new Magnum White tub. Squeeze the pack and crack the thick Magnum white chocolate shell that envelops the delicious velvety dairy vanilla ice cream. There you will find cracking Magnum white chocolate shards throughout the tub, so you can have a rich and intense white chocolate experience in every spoonful."

Just for info: Iceland are stocking Classic and Almond flavours too. The tubs are currently on offer for £2.50, which meant it was high time for me to give this bad boy a go.

The packaging includes instructions to remove the tub from the freezer and leave it 10 minutes before pressing the indent on the side to crack the tub. Wait. I've got to wait? I'm not sure who possesses that level of patience or self restraint? Five minutes I lasted before pressing the button. As promised the top cracked; albeit into four large shards.

Beneath the top layer was the signature vanilla flecked Magnum ice cream, which had become overly soft having been left out of the freezer for a few minutes (I dread to think what I'd find after 10). Digging in I found a huge amount of white chocolate pieces intermingled with the ice cream. It appeared that there was almost 50% chocolate in this ice cream, although I'm sure there couldn't have been that much -could there? The chocolate shards make it difficult to scoop into a cone, which means it's admittedly probably best eaten straight from the tub.

If you follow me on Instagram you'll already know that I was just getting excited to tuck in when disaster struck. I dropped it on the floor. Now I'm normally a "30 second rule" kind of girl, but this doesn't apply in my back room where the dog resides after a muddy walk and the food in question is almost liquid. Boo. 1/4 of a tub wasted - Yep, the 'pints' are in fact only 440ml. Boo.

Second time lucky and I wasn't surprised by the flavours that greeted my tastebuds. As a regular consumer of Magnums, I knew to expect the milky vanilla ice cream base and creamy white chocolate. Eaten in a waffle cone did make the experience different however, and I enjoyed the greater ratio of chocolate.

I personally preferred the white chocolatey Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Swirled ice cream. The addition of shortbread chunks, strawberry and marshmallow makes it texturally more interesting, and I found the Magnum to be less inspiring in comparison. As a cheaper option to the new Magnum tubs I'd suggest buying a box of four sticks from Farmfoods and smashing them up -especially when they go back up to full price. That said, they're still tasty though, and a worthwhile buy for Magnum lovers countrywide.

7/10

NEW! Magnum Cookie Crumble (Sainsbury's)

There's two new additions to the Magnum line up this Winter which both tap in to the Cookies & Cream fan club market (and yes that -of course- includes me). The 'Cookie Crumbles' are seemingly available in full sized milk chocolate sticks and mini sized white chocolate versions. It's a shame really because I love white chocolate, but don't really understand the point of mini ice creams -unless I eat two of course! Both Magnum Cookie Crumbles have taken a while to reach sleepy ol' Hereford, but I eventually found the triple pack of  milk chocolate full sized ice creams in Sainsbury's yesterday as part of an introductory offer for £2. 

"Cookie flavour ice cream coated with milk chocolate (28%) and chocolate cookie crumbs (3%)."

Whenever I take a break from buying Magnums (i.e when I'm going through a Ben & Jerry's obsessive phase -like now!) I forget just how lovely and thick their chocolate coating is, and this was thankfully the case with the Cookie Crumbles.

I was also pleasantly surprised by their size. Disgruntled by the paltry 88g size of the Double Peanut Butter Magnums at the beginning of the year, I was much happier with the 100ml of ice cream facing me on the stick of this new flavour. 

As usual, Magnum have used a milk chocolate that is slightly darker in colour than the likes of Galaxy or Dairy Milk. There was plenty of cookie crumbs embedded in the chocolate too -so far, so good.

The chocolate tasted as good as I remember too, but then Magnums are normally pretty consistent in their quality. What wasn't as impressive was the cookie crumbs. Perhaps my disappointment was aided by how much I love the Oreo sticks and Tesco's Cookie Crumbles, but there just wasn't much flavour or crunch in the coating. 

The ice cream was also a let down; it was perfectly creamy and indulgent tasting -but that might've been it's down fall. What are cookies without their chewiness, and Ben & Jerry's cookie success is due to the grainy nature of their cookie dough chunks and biscuit swirls. When the texture is completely smoothed out, the cookie kind of loses what makes it special. Does that make sense? I mean, the flavour was yummy -I just couldn't pinpoint what it was and I certainly couldn't have recognised it for being cookie. 

Oreo, Ben & Jerry's and even Tesco remain the front runners when it comes to cookie style ice creams. Considering that these are most expensive of the four brands I won't bother with this flavour again -there's much better Magnums out there.

6/10

NEW! Magnum Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Bar (B&M)

Last week I found and reviewed a new chocolate bar from ice cream king Magnum, and I said at the time that I wouldn't be in a hurry to bother tracking one down again. That was until I saw a photo on Instagram of a peanut butter version. 

Now if you've gathered anything about me by now, you'll realise that I am an avid lover* of both peanut butter and chocolate  -so it was hardly a new product that I could miss out on. So keen was I to try this Magnum chocolate bar, that I persuaded my long-suffering father to take me on a special trip to B&M (via ALDI and Home Bargains of course) because I've just had to SORN my trusty** Landrover.

Luckily he avoided a return trip to the bargain Mecca because I found the Double Peanut Butter Magnum priced at 50p (as well as another peanut butter chocolate bar that I'm rather excited about!) AND he bought them both for me, result! Thanks Daddio!

The product description left me scratching my head, utterly baffled:

"Milk chocolate bar with peanuts and a soft filling (56%) containing caramel, peanuts and crispy crepe pieces."

 Am I being stupid here? What the badger are crepe pieces? Surely this chocolate bar doesn't contain flecks of pancake? It does however, contain gluten. 

The packaging also gave Australian Nutrition Information -which I can't imagine differs all that much from UK Nutrition Information-  and informs me the bar is in fact made in Norfolk -weird.

Anyway, I couldn't help but feel slightly put out by the size of the bar. Granted, most of us are convinced that all snacks are shrinking (and most of the time they are, especially the new Magnum this bar is based on) but this seemed ridiculously small. I apologise for the unsightly finger photo, but I just wanted to give you a true indication of its size.

The bar weighs in at 39g: 6g less than the new M&S peanut butter bar (which I also thought was small) 9g less than a Snickers and a whopping 10g less than Cadbury's Starbar. Let's hope the taste made up for its size -after all they say the best things come in small packages!

Once sliced into, all of the components (except for the crepe pieces) became evident. In the centre of the bar was a fudge-like substance studded with peanuts. Surrounding this was a layer of caramel, finally enrobed by a thin layer of chocolate.

The combination of flavours and textures worked well together and the saltiness of the peanuts helped to counteract the sweetness -my main fault with the double chocolate version. If you've ever eaten a Magnum Ice cream, you'll know what to expect from the milk chocolate. As with the double peanut butter Magnum ice cream, the nut flavour wasn't as prominent as I would have liked -but it was still pleasant. The crepe pieces (!) added crunch and sweetness in a honeycomb-like way, and the caramel was pretty standard (although there wasn't enough of it to determine whether it was salted or not). 

The main problem was that after -very- few mouthfuls the bar was gone. 

The new Magnum Double Peanut Butter chocolate bar is much tastier than the sickly Double Chocolate version, but it's far from the best on the market.

8/10

*read obsessive. 

**read leaky, noisy, pain-in-the-bum but I love it.

NEW! Magnum Double Chocolate Bar (B&M)

Even on holiday, my long suffering fiance can't escape my excitement when spotting a B&M bargains. Our Hotel in Rhyl was only a few doors down from the high street, at the end of which was a number of discount stores, including my beloved B&M. Of course I couldn't help but pop in on the off-chance that they might have some different stock to my two most local branches.

Most of the products were the same, but I did come across a chocolate bar that I've never spotted before: Magnum Double Chocolate -priced at just 50p. I've never bought any of Magnum's chocolate before, although Kev has written about a number of their bars (check out a review of the new chocolate and almond truffle bar here).

"With layers of Magnum chocolate and an indulgent chocolate filling".

First off, please accept my apologies for the lack of in-depth information about this bar. I have two rather pitiful excuses: 

1. I forgot to keep the wrapper.
2. I had drunk two large glasses of wine before munching it

I did read the wrapper before I munched it, and recall that it was supposed to contain milk and dark chocolate, with a crunchy filling... It was also quite small at only 37g... but that's about all my memory served me! 

Thankfully my taste-bud recollection is better than my visual memory...

The chocolate coating was darker than your normal British milk chocolate, but no different to the coating of a Magnum ice cream -and taste-wise it was very similar. There was a darker layer of chocolate underneath the top coat, and whilst it was richer, it was far from bitter -and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The core of the bar contained a truffle studded with crunchy bits. The textural contrast was well thought out, but the flavour less so. The crunchy bits tasted like honeycomb, and the truffle was very sweet too, which when combined with the two chocolate coatings resulted in a very sickly bar.

The Magnum double chocolate bar satisfied my chocolate cravings, but also made me want to brush my teeth. There was just too much going on for me, and I can't say I'll be in a rush to track one down again.

5/10

NEW! Double Peanut Butter Magnum (Tesco)

My peanut butter obsession is getting out of hand. Is there such a thing as pb-addicts anonymous? If not, there damn well should be. I often get stupidly excited by new food products, but I actually squealed with delight during a very dull economics lecture when I sneakily checked my twitter feed (@seeknewtreats if you're on there!) and read some news regarding Unilever's 2016 ice cream range. The new line-up includes a blackcurrant Twister, Feast snack bar (in standard and peanut butter), Magnum Double (caramel and peanut butter flavours) and a Cornetto Choc ‘n’ Caramel Disc.

Of course the two that got me extremely excited were the peanut butter magnum & feast bars; so when I spotted the new nutty magnum in Tesco earlier today -I swear I almost fainted with elation!- I rushed to the till with my new treats (ignoring the hefty £3 price tag) in a light-headed daze of excitement. 

'Peanut butter flavour ice cream with a chocolate flavour coating, peanut butter sauce and milk chocolate.'

I imagine that the ice creams are called double thanks to their inclusion of not one but two peanut butter elements: the ice cream and the peanut butter sauce. Peanut Butter ice cream is no means a new thing (Ben & Jerry's have nailed it in three of their products, and last year Cornetto launched their 'Peanut Butter Love' cones) but Magnum's are renowned for their creamy, indulgent taste that I hope would be evident this new product.

As you may already know, Unilever have recently signed up to the 250cal snack portion limit * which means that they have reduced the size of a number of their ice creams -including Magnums. This means that the new Double Peanut Butter is only 88ml compared to the previous standard 110ml size, and of course it shows -the ice cream was no bigger than my diddy palms (excuse the photo of my horrible hands!). 

The coating was perfectly rich in true Magnum fashion, and I guess it would sit somewhere between a milk and dark chocolate. The peanut sauce was nestled between two layers of chocolate and I'm afraid to say that it was mild, with a flavour that leaned more towards salted caramel than peanut. There wasn't a great deal of it, so it often became lost against its more intense chocolatey neighbours. The peanut ice cream thankfully saved the day; it was soft, creamy, and well flavoured, with a taste that truly resembled roasted peanuts -utterly scrumptious!

All in all, the new Peanut Butter double Magnum is a lovely little new edition to the range. It has a good combination of flavours, which tasted marvellous. My problem however lies with the price -if you're going to reduce the size of your ice creams Unilever, then please reduce the cost of them too.

9/10

*the reason why Mars and Snickers bars shrunk and some of Cadbury's products are set to do the same

Honeycomb Magnum

I've been searching for these Honeycomb Magnums for a couple of months because it seems that none of our local major supermarkets stock them. I finally found them this week in our smaller city centre Tesco and -even better- they were half price at £1.67 for the pack of three.

They are described as 'Honeycomb flavour ice cream with milk chocolate and sugar pieces.' 

The milk chocolate was Magnum's normal good quality, and was plentifully adorned with miniature nuggets of honeycomb which were simultaneously crunchy and melt-in-the-mouth. The ice cream tasted more butterscotch than honeycomb; reminiscent of the nostalgic 'Angel Delight'. I actually found the combination of chocolate and ice cream together unbearably sweet, and so nibbled off all of the chocolate before enjoying the ice cream separately.

I enjoyed the Honeycomb Magnum, and it made a pleasant change, but I wouldn't choose it over their 'Strawberry and White' or 'Espresso' ice creams in future. 

7/10