NEW! Chocolate & Caramel Pyramids (M&S)

I couldn't help it, ok?

After I tried my luck with the banoffee semifreddos at m&s I went back to see if any of the other frozen luxury desserts would work in the Dine in for £10 promotion. They all looked delicious but it was these chocolate and caramel pyramids that caught my eye. Not because they were particularly ground breaking in terms of flavours, or elements, but just because they looked so damn pretty. Fancy clothes might not tempt me, but pretty food? Always. 

"A cocoa sponge base topped with a Belgian dark chocolate pyramid mousse, a caramel ganache centre and caramel decoration."

I found myself thanking M&S once again for their clever packaging and thankfully, unlike their fresh banoffee cheesecake slices, the pyramids had remained perfectly intact - please ignore the freezer burn caused by my freezer blip. M&S suggests that they require defrosting for 5 hours, but I hadn't been that well organised and took mine out of the freezer a couple of hours before serving. 

That cocoa mousse was rich and fluffy with a deep flavour that I imagine would please most dark chocolate lovers, whilst remaining sweet enough to avoid offending us who prefer their chocolate milkier. Where was that sponge base at though M&S? I thought Waitrose's version was stingy but this was none existent.

Things got worse as I hunted for that supposed caramel ganache. At first I refused to panic, having been initially disappointed when digging into the Waitrose salted caramel mousse (before finding the pocket at one end), but as I got towards the last spoonful I realised I'd been duped. At best there had been a slightly sweeter mouthful, but where was that oozy caramel sauce or sticky dulce de leche?

I thought perhaps I'd got a duff one - but if I did then so did Bert. He didn't even realise that it was meant to contain caramel, and actually asked me not to buy them again as he found them too rich. Admittedly, he's not as chocolate obsessed as I am though.  Meh. Another case of style over substance, that is, unless you're after a show stopping chocolate mousse - in which case, head to Marks and knock yourself out! 

7/10

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

Banoffee Cheesecake Slices (M&S)

My sister and I were talking about how good the banoffee digestives are again the other day when she asked me why no-one does banoffee cheesecake. I then reminded her of the M&S banoffee cheesecakes that used to be part of the dine in meal deal. "You know, the ones that were designed for two that you used to munch by yourself." "Ah... yes, I remember." 

This jogged my memory back to a conversation I had with a lady called Zoe following the Sicilian Lemon & Ricotta cheesecake slice review. I remember Zoe asking me if I had got the M&S Banoffee cheesecakes to review, but I hadn't - thinking that they had been out for years, and that I'd had them many times before. What I hadn't realised (until Zoe informed me) was that they've been re-imagined. I put them on my mental list of items to review... and then promptly forgot all about them. The banoffee chat with my sister prompted me to pop into Marks & Spencer on my way home from the train station on Sunday afternoon, where I found a packet with a yellow reduced sticker on. It was fate!

"A baked banana and muscovado sugar cheesecake topped with a Belgian chocolate ganache and toffee mousse on a digestive biscuit base."

One of the cheesecakes looked a little worse for wear, which was unusual for M&S, who are normally very thoughtful with their packaging.

First up, I sampled the mousse, which was beautifully light, with a sweet toffee flavour to it. I still think that a mousse topping is an odd (and unnecessary) choice, but admittedly it worked better here than in Waitrose's new mocha cheesecakes.

Underneath this layer was the chocolate ganache, but I'd be hard pressed to comment on the flavour of it as it was so thin. In fact, I hadn't properly read the product description until I came to type this, and until a few moments ago I thought it was another toffee layer. This may sound like a complaint, but actually it's not. You see, I can see why M&S would want to provide a barrier between mousse and cheesecake (and it served that purpose well) yet I'm glad it didn't overpower either of the more traditional banoffee elements that the ganache was sandwiched by.  

As for that banana and muscovado mousse... well. It was a work of art. It was fluffy like their chocolate orange cheesecake, lacking the stodginess that 90%+ of supermarket cheesecakes suffer from. The banana flavour was authentic and omnipresent (as it had been with the Banoffee Semifreddos), shining through the toffee mousse layer to take centre stage. A delicious caramel undertone followed the banana; which was every bit as delightful as you can imagine. 

As for that biscuit base, it was thick, buttery and utterly scrumptious. You'd think that would be an aspect that is easy to perfect, when actually so many cheesecakes fall (and fail) on that final hurdle. 

There is very little, if anything, that I'd change about this dessert. It's the best banoffee cheesecake* I've ever had, and one of the best cheesecakes I've had in a long time. Bravo M&S, and thanks Zoe for giving me the nudge to try this new formula! They're worth every penny, full price** of not!

10/10

*I'm sure that will change when I get to try this one day.... (fingers crossed!).

**I can't remember the exact price, but it was less than £3.

Honeycomb & Caramel Dairy Ice Cream (Sainsbury's)

A few weeks ago I discovered the peanut buttery tub of joy that Sainsbury's surreptitously keep in their freezers, and so I couldn't help but return to my local store to find out what else I was missing...

Cookie dough and honeycomb & caramel are the other two flavours in Sainsbury's own dairy ice cream range. It was a fairly easy choice between these two tubs for me; cookie dough is fairly widespread and never as good as Ben & Jerry's, whereas there's a distinct lack of luxury extras-added honeycomb ice cream -especially since the sad loss of Morrisons' Shortbread Millionaire's mash up. 

"Caramel flavoured dairy ice cream swirled with toffee sauce, honeycomb pieces and chocolate coated shortcake pieces."

I swear the caramel ice cream was softer in this tub than in the peanut version, but I must have imagined that because there appears to be similar ingredients in both: skimmed milk, double cream, sugar, skimmed cows' milk concentrate, glucose Syrup - AKA the good stuff. Perhaps it was the sauce that made it seem looser. As well as the textural issues this toffee ripple provided, it was also problematic on the flavour front. You see, the peanut tub worked well because it had the nut brittle to counteract and cut through the sweetness, but this toffee sauce just tipped the ice cream into sickly territory. Not great.

So what would make a caramel ice cream and toffee sauce even more cloying? Oh yes, that's right, honeycomb pieces. There was an abundance of them, and they were light and crunchy... but this tub really didn't need any more sugar, and remember, this is coming from an out & proud sugar addict. Ok, ok, yes I've also recently acknowledged that I can't hack a great deal of honeycomb, so maybe if you're a Cadbury Crunchie fan this might be up your street. It's just not in my neighbourhood. 

Thankfully, redemption reared its head when it came to the chocolate coated shortcake pieces, which were both buttery and crisp. The biggest issue with biscuit in ice cream is the fact that it often goes soggy, but the coating prevented this nicely. The chocolate wasn't anything of note, but it wasn't awful either. Which reminds me, I must try the McVities nibbles soon. 

Meh. As you might've gathered, I wasn't overly fussed on this tub. Bert however really enjoyed it, and said that he'd happily have it instead of Ben & Jerry's. If we were talking about the Sainsbury's peanut tub I'd agree with him, but this one? I'd rather pay the extra 50p and have B&J's any day. 

7/10

NEW! Dessert Menu Banoffee Semifreddos (M&S)

Banoffee pie is absolutely up there as one of my all time favourite desserts (with tiramisu and my mum-in-law-to-be's apple crumble). The trouble is, most of the supermarket versions are pretty poor, and most of them come in large sized pies (I can't deal with that amount of temptation in the house, the same reason I don't make it very often). Cue M&S. Thank the lord. Their frozen dessert collection now contains a double pack of banoffee semifreddos. But there's a catch -they're £4 a time, yes, ouch. I struggle with spending £3 on a couple of cheesecake slices, but then I reconsidered...

1)  I'd heard resoundingly positive feedback on the semifreddos from fellow dessert fanatics Nat and Sian.
&
2) I'd pay more than that for a single dessert at a restaurant.

But then I had a brainwave anyway. The dine in for £10 meal deal. That says it includes selected ice creams. It usually contains some of M&S' dessert collection free desserts. I wonder... would the banoffee semifreddos be secretly part of the fortnightly deal? There was no offer ticket to suggest it was, but I did used to work at the Hereford branch and so I cheekily asked the lovely Maria to check it through the till...

BINGO!

It worked. I managed to buy two rump steaks, 4 potato rostis, a bottle of wine and the semifreddos for just a tenner. Bargain.

"Banana and vanilla custard cream with Dulce De Leche caramel sauce on a digestive biscuit crumb base, finished with cocoa powder and a dark chocolate plaque."

Chuffed with myself, I got them home and opened them up, to find that M&S had done a rather marvellous job of packaging them carefully in separate little brown boxes. First brownie point awarded to Marks, they were impeccable, despite my persistent clumsiness; anyone remember this doughnut pancake?

The topping was well flavoured with an authentic flavour (M&S have used real bananas - 6% of the ingredients) and it was creamy whilst remaining fairly light. I couldn't get my head around the consistency though; after the 20 minutes suggested defrosting time I had a soft moussey outer edge and a frozen inside. I get that's what its meant to be, but it made me think that I hadn't left it out of the freezer for long enough. 

The biscuit bottom was a lovely digestive affair, and although it was on the crumbly, fall-apart end of the cheesecake base spectrum, it was delicious nonetheless. 

It was the caramel centre that I was most excited about, and as I started to dig in, I thought M&S had been fairly stingy. In reality, it simply turned out that it was mostly pooled down one end, and the golden treasure was worth the wait. It was thick, gooey, and sweet with the buttery richness that I had hoped for. 

M&S Banoffee Semifreddos will never beat a fresh, homemade banoffee pie -especially as they understandably* lack the slices of fresh banana. At £4 for two, they're expensive too, but are well worth picking up as part of the Dine in Offer. As such, I'd happily have them again. 

8/10

*no-one wants slimy, black defrosted bananas gracing their dessert after all!

Salted Peanut & Caramel Ice Cream (Sainsbury's)

Has anyone else noticed that the standard 'half price' offer (AKA the only price that you'll spend if you're sensible) on Ben & Jerry's has gone up in the last month? Shocking. All the supermarkets seem to be charging a minimum of £3 per tub; it's been £2.50 until now. My heart weeps. I was, in fact, on a B&Js mission when I spotted Sainsbury's 500m own brand luxury ice cream tubs on offer. 

"Caramel flavoured dairy ice cream swirled with peanut butter sauce, caramelised peanut pieces and chocolate coated salted peanuts."

Chocolate coated salted peanuts? Caramelised peanuts? This sounded rather good - and even better, it was only £2! Having just finished the Gelatelli Pretty Peanut Butter, it was time to take a punt on a pint of Sainsbury's....

The ice cream smelt incredibly sweet, emanating buttery caramel tones the moment the tub was open. I was pleased to find that the ice cream was a good consistency too; none of this 'wait 10 minutes to scoop' nonsense, but neither was it so soft that it was a puddle the moment you tried to cone it up either -something I find is often the case with caramel based Ben & Jerry's ice cream. 

What is this wizardry?! How on earth is an own branded ice cream so damned delicious? I mean the ice cream itself wasn't as creamy as Haagen-Dazs, but it was far superior to Tesco's attempts at luxury. So often we see a peanut butter ice cream that's swamped by caramel sauce, so it was good to see that Sainsbury's had opted for a caramel base with both peanut praline and peanuts in.

The magic really happened when I got a taste of those caramelised peanut pieces too. Think of the caramel brittle in the Haagen-Dazs, now imagine it to be peanutty. Are you envisaging heaven yet? You should be. Seriously now, it was ingenious. 

The chocolate coated peanuts were also good, and although I don't go out of my way to buy peanut M&Ms (until only recently, I really didn't like them) I did enjoy their inclusion in this ice cream. Yes, they're obtrusive, but so are the added elements in the Ben & Jerry's tubs - and that's exactly why I love B&Js so much. 

Sainsbury's, I'm angry at you for keeping this deliciousness secret from me for so long. I'm so glad I've eventually found it. I'm utterly hooked, and as such will have to try their other ice cream flavours soon...

Have you tried this tub? I'd love to know whether you were as impressed as I was!

10/10

NEW! Waitrose 1 Chocolate & Salted Caramel Mousses

My sister was coming to stay yesterday evening and I was about to head to M&S to pick up a Dine in for £10 meal deal when I thought I'd check their 'menu' online. Oh. The desserts looked pretty lacking. I mean, the Millionaire's desserts are well worth a try if you haven't had them before, but I really fancied something different. I chanced a look at Waitrose's website and found that this weekend the upmarket supermarket is also offering a similar deal. For £10 you can have a main, side, bottle of wine (or box of chocolates) as well as a choice between many starters or desserts. This makes it a good option if you've got less of a sweet tooth, but let's be honest -for me- it's always going to be dessert.

As part of the offer, Waitrose have included their two wavy shaped mousses that form part of the '1' range. I've been eyeing these mousses up for a while, but there was no way in hell I was prepared to pay £3.99 for the privilege of trying them. I mean, they looked good, but they're hardly groundbreaking, are they? Just for info, and incase you're not as pudding obsessed as I am, the other flavour available is limoncello and raspberry. I was temporarily tempted by the lemony flavour, but when the choice was between lemon and chocolate? A no-brainer I'm afraid.

"Belgian chocolate mousse with a salted caramel centre, chocolate sponge base and topped with a chocolate sauce."

What the...? How the badger are you meant to retrieve these things from their plastic casing? If any has any better ideas than the only solution I came up with, please drop me a comment. I ended up using a combination of a knife under the cake bottom, and my fingers to wiggle the mousses out -of course leaving an inelegant finger print on both sides. Oops. I hoped my sister wouldn't spot the grooves of my digits on the side of her dessert, and instead would focus on the pretty glittery topping. 

"Ooh, they're gold..." she cooed. Phew.

The chocolate mousse was rich and light. Less so than the likes of an aero mousse, but that's unsurprising considering that whipping cream and dark chocolate (20%) are the top two ingredients. The resulting flavour is a chocoholic's dream, tasting of ganache but without the resulting heaviness. 

Disappointment hit however when I found the puddle of caramel in the centre. I was hoping for a generous, oozing trove of salty-sweet treasure, but instead I found a jot of thin, toffee sauce. Hmm. Another 'salted' caramel that really didn't live up to expectations. As for the chocolate sponge base, I can only imagine that it was created as a base to move the desserts with, for it was wafer thin and therefore added very little -if anything at all- to the dessert. 

As far as chocolate mousses go, this one is rather good. Is it worthy of a £3.99 price tag? Absolutely not. Is it worth buying with the ranch steak, pommel frites and bottle of Italian red for £10? You betcha. 

8/10

Rhokett Caramel Cheesecake (Waitrose)

There's a dessert that's been haunting me for ages.. a cheesecake that's been on my mind since I first discovered it whilst researching Rhokett 16 months ago. The rarely spotted caramel slices has been supposedly stocked in Sainsbury's stores across the country, but Hereford didn't even get a sniff. I once found them, but it was in an extra store on a trip to Birmingham, and at the time I didn't think they'd survive the journey home -plus I was sure they were going to crop up sooner or later*. I guess I was right, it was just much much later, and in a different supermarket: Waitrose. At £3 for two 100g slices they're on the dear side, but I recall thinking that the Belgian chocolate flavour were worth the money and so I hope these would be too.

"A winning combination from Rhokett that really delivers on that traditional texture, raised to the next level by the Belgian chocolate chunks and the smooth caramel sauce that have been swirled through the mix before baking."

They were beautiful slices, l give Rhokett that, however they were very fiddly to retrieve from the packet -so please be careful if you buy them. 

I expected a rich toffee tone to the cheesecake, so was utterly perplexed when I tasted it and was met with a similar cheesecake batter used in the chocolate slices. That's to say it was creamy with a slight sour tang, but it was completely devoid of the caramel flavour that I'd longed for. Humf. What I hadn't realised was that the sole source of the caramel came from the toffee sauce, but unfortunately there wasn't a huge deal of it, and it certainly wasn't the generous pockets of thick dulce de leche that I had concocted in my imaginings. 

Oh the plus side, the chocolate chunks were both aplenty and delicious -although I can't help but feel that due to the lack of caramel that fudge pieces may have suited the slices better. 

I was also pleased that I'd saved the biscuit base until last as it was the only part I thought that Rhokett truly nailed. Thick and buttery with a classic digestive biscuit flavour, it held together enough to make it from fork to mouth, but crumbled easily upon munching. It just wasn't £3 worth of biscuit base. 

7/10.

* I even ended up sending poor Nat (author of Lot-o-Choc) on a hunt for them before my train arrived into New Street station when meeting her in Birmingham last month.

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! McVities Coffee Caramel Digestives (Sainsbury's)

Tomorrow will mark two months since  the two new McVities caramel digestive flavours were announced, and since then I've been on my longest and most frustrating snack hunt to date. It seems I'm not the only one who's been desperate to try the new biscuits, as many of you have got in touch, sharing my  disappointment. At long last though I have got my hands on both varieties though (you can read my review of the banoffee caramels here) thanks to the lovely Beth and her digestive-related determination. I'm just glad I'm not the only foodzilla out there! The new coffee caramels can be found at Sainsbury's now for a rather exorbitant £1.75 -which usually I wouldn't pay, but given the length of time I've been searching for them I could hardly leave them behind. According to Beth's email from McVities, they'll be stocked in ASDA from next week and Morrisons the week after. 

"Wheatmeal Biscuits with Coffee Flavour Caramel, Covered in Milk Chocolate."

The components bare striking resemblance to the Cappuccino Twix (which, FYI, have recently popped up again, this time in Poundland at 3 for £1). I must admit though that I was less impressed when I re-tried the Twix version recently though; the caramel just wasn't as coffee-y as I had originally thought. I found myself praying that McVities had done just as good a job with this new flavour as they had with the banoffee.

I knew I was on to a winner as soon as I opened the packet and was greeted with the scent of freshly made latte. I say latte because it wasn't knock-your-socks off espresso, but the aroma was still promising.

The second sign that led me to believe that the Coffee Caramel Digestives weren't going to disappoint occurred when I left a couple in the living room whilst I retrieved my mug of coffee from the kitchen and heard a clattering. I pegged it back around the corner, where I caught my dog red handed, guiltily nabbing the biscuits from the coffee table. He's seven years old and never stolen food before. Damn McVities, what have you done to Monty?

Oh boy. They nailed it. The sturdy, wheat biscuits were truly complimented by a caramel that delivered a coffee kick much stronger than the Twix. The nature of the caramel means that it's still very sweet, but the flavour is not hindered in any way. In fact it want until writing this that I realised that the biscuit wasn't coffee too, for the flavour had permeated throughout. The chocolate was good too, which has got me thinking: why aren't caramel mochas a thing? 

I loved the taste of the cappuccino thins when they launched at the beginning of the year, but wasn't happy with the thin nature. I'm all for a bit of biscuit chunk (and hence won't be reviewing the 'new' Maryland thins -they can bore off). These are far superior, and well worth a buy!

9/10

NEW! Warrior Crunch White Chocolate Crisp

Yesterday was one of those days when the food stars aligned and I became the proud owner of not one but two incredible sounding new treats to try. Firstly, I had the heads up from Beth regarding the dates that the new McVities coffee caramel digestives were launching in each of the supermarkets and as a direct result successfully found them at last! Hurrah! I have already tried the new biscuits but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the low down I'm afraid.

One the other hand, the other new product was equally as exciting, but one I really didn't have to wait long for....

I popped into CNSport yesterday morning to speak to Conor about the new Mojito Moose Juice (which is amazing, but keep an eye on my Instagram if you want to see the review) and found him super excited about a new arrival that he thought i'd love. I wondered what it could be, but also jumped up and down when he opened the box and showed me the bar that had made my jaw drop and mouth water simultaneously when it was announced on social media only the evening before. Warrior Crunch: White chocolate crisp. 

If you remember, I likened the salted caramel crunch to a toffee crisp chocolate bar, and so I had extremely high hopes for this white chocolate version. 

I had every right to be excited too. Just look at those layers! The nougat core, caramel layer and crispies all coated in white chocolate. This was what protein bar dreams are made of, nay this is what white chocolate bar dreams are made of. 

The appearance was a fantastic start, but the taste was phenomenal. Protein bars have been coming on leaps and bounds in the last year but I can safely say that this was the best bar I have ever tasted. In fact, I'm tempted to go back and downgrade all the other bars I've reviewed in the past. The white chocolate was sweet creamy, so much so that I'm dubious about the low sugar content, but I really don't care as it tasted so good, as for the caramel and crispies, they added a wonderful textural juxtaposition against the soft nougat centre. It really was soft too, not much firmer than a mars bar, and completely lacking the tell-tale taste of whey that often hinders in the background. As an added bonus (which isn't really required but I thought I'd divulge anyway) the bar melts exceptionally well. 15-20 seconds is all that's required to transform this epic bar into a wonderful dessert.

I thought that Grenade were the undisputed kings of the White chocolate protein bars, but Warrior have completely knocked them out of the park with this one. There's nothing I would change about this bar. 

A huge thanks to Conor for giving me the new Warrior bars to try. Please give him a bell on 07967949984 if you'd like to place an order, but you'll have to be quick as I don't see these bars hanging around for long!

10/10

Macros per 64g bar: 214kCal P20 C25 (of which sugars 2.2g) F11

NEW! Mars Ice Cream Tubs (ASDA)

I wasn't too fussed on trying the new Mars ice cream tub when it first came out a couple of months ago. I mean, the ice cream bars are fabulous (albeit shockingly small) and I couldn't see the appeal of just eating the ice cream on its own. Surely nibbling the chocolate from around the bar whilst trying to stop yourself from getting covered in oozy caramel is the best thing about them, don't you agree? However, I happened to mention the new Mars and Snickers tubs in conversation with my sister though, who sounded much more excited by them. I then received report a week later from her that she's not only tried the Mars tub but had munched her way through three Mars pints since discovering them. That was it. I decided it was high time to get myself a tub. Like hell was I paying £3 though, instead I patiently waited for them to come back on offer, which they did this week -currently £2 per tub, exclusive to ASDA. 

"Dairy ice cream with caramel sauce (12%) and milk chocolate sauce (13%)."

The ice cream was on the soft side straight from the freezer, which makes it difficult to scoop on these hot summers days -not that I'm complaining about the weather, long may it last! I was over the moon when I spotted the large shards of chocolate that were embedded throughout though. Why, oh why, don't Mars highlight this in the tub's description?

Chocolate in the ice cream too? That makes it a winner for me! It reminded me of the new Magnum tubs, but with the addition of  both caramel and chocolate sauces. The second surprise came from the colour of the ice cream itself. I expected it to be creamy, but instead it was a very pale -almost malty- shade. 

Jeez. Whilst it wasn't comparable to Haagen-Dazs, Judes or Ben & Jerry's in terms of creaminess, it was reminiscent of summer days as a child: coming home from school and being given a Mars ice cream by my Gran, which always left me wanting more bars. It's like eating them mushed up, and in a waffle cone they were utterly delicious. The caramel sauce was more noticeable than the chocolate, but was as wonderful as I remembered it to be -sticky, sweet and toffee-like. Despite the shade of the ice cream, it didn't actually taste of chocolate, but I didn't really expect it to from the description on the pack, so I didn't feel disappointed. 

I've only got two real complaints:

1) How quickly the ice cream melted (you have too be quick with this one!)

and

2)  That the suggested serving size of 100ml (2 scoops) really isn't enough. 

Somehow this works better for me than the Magnum tubs, and I think I'll buy it over the Mars ice cream bars again -but only at £2 per tub. 

8/10

NEW! Mars Choc Brownie Review

Theres a new Mars bar in town! Well. I say new, but is it really? Mars Choc Brownie certainly sounds new, but it also sounds eerily similar to the Mars Triple Choc and the Xtra Choc. Are they just rehashing the same bar under different guises? Quite possibly. It didn't sound much different...

The press releases for all three bars went as follows:

2011 Triple Choc: 'tasty chocolate nougat and delicious chocolate caramel, covered in thick milk chocolate'.

2015 Xtra Choc: 'extra chocolatey taste from delicious chocolate caramel and tasty chocolate nougat encased in a thick chocolate coat' 

2017 new Choc Brownie: 'thick chocolate nougat with indulgent dark caramel”, covered in Mars chocolate, to create a “new twist on a chocolate classic”.

Ahem. In any case, I miss the discontinued Xtra Choc, so set out on a mission to find the Choc Brownie at the same time as the new McVities banoffee caramel and coffee* caramel digestives! The new Mars bar was  reportedly launched on the 22nd of May (once again, thanks to @productsinstore for the heads up) but I couldn't find it for love nor money. In the end I harassed my poor corner shop so much that they eventally got them in. Hurrah! It's therefore worth checking your corner shops, although I've seen reports that four packs are in Bargain Buys and PoundWorld (just not in Hereford PoundWorld).

Slicing it in half revealed the distinct Mars layers of milk chocolate (35%), nougat (37%) and caramel (28%) in completely different hues to the standard bar. 

The nougat and chocolate was as expected, indifferent to the Xtra Choc bar, but sweet and scrummy nonetheless. Described as dark caramel I'm unsure whether the gooey layer was meant to taste of chocolate seeing as there was already so much chocolate in the bar. To me it had tones reminiscent of black treacle and was unlike that used in the Xtra Choc bar - but perhaps that was my wishful imagination. 

I enjoyed the Mars Choc Brownie and will be sure to buy more once I've made my way through my extensive chocolate collection! Just be warned - it's a bar for those in dire need of a sugar hit. 

My only gripe is that surely the team at Mars could be more creative than rehashing the old limited editions. Given the variety in flavours of nougat style protein bars, surely Mars could bring out something more creative! It wouldn't even have to be as different as the wonderful Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Smart Bar or Banana Carb Killa -although chocolate bar versions of both of those bars would be great! A peanut butter, white chocolate or mocha Mars Bar would suffice!

7/10

* which I still haven't found yet, so please get in touch if you find them!