NEW! Ben & Jerry's Berry Neighbourly (Tesco)

I thought I was just viewing another enviable American edition Ben & Jerry's when scrolling through my Instagram a couple of days ago and spotting the Berry Neighbourly tub. Wait, that's Chloe's page. I know Chloe has recently come back from America... but it wasn't #throwabackthursday. Was it a sneaky #flashbackfriday? No. No it wasn't! It was a new flavour, here in the U.K. Huzzah! Ben & Jerry's, you little devils! Why do you sneak these new flavours into our lives? Please shout about these things! 

Yep, it's another Tesco exclusive flavour (as Sofa So Good and Wholly Coach are). And yes, Tesco have put their price up on Ben & Jerry's again. So if you want to get your hands on this tub, you'll have to be prepared to stump up £4.20, and there's a good chance you'll have to ask a member of staff to retrieve it for you too; both of our local Tesco stores have it out the back, but haven't put it on the shelves yet. 

"Vanilla ice cream with cookie (9%) and blueberry (8%) swirls, and white chocolate flavoured chunks (6%)."

I was pleased to find that the ice cream was slightly firmer than the Sofa So Good. All of the sauce seemed to be on one side of the tub though. Also, there wasn't a huge deal of white chocolate flavoured chunks in the tub, but the ones I did find were huge! 

The vanilla ice cream was fairly good, melting easily (but not too quickly) with the indulgent creaminess that's missing from most luxury tubs (Haagen-Dazs being the other notable exception) but perhaps this is unsurprising considering that cream is the primary ingredient.

The jammy swirls were delicious though, offering a strong and authentic sweet blueberry flavour with a hint of zing. This successfully cut through the vanilla well, but there just wasn't enough of it! As for the cookie swirl, it too was scrummy, but there was next to none in my portion - although Bert seemed to  fare better than me last night on this front. This was a huge shame, as the single mouthful of cookie was delightful, giving the ice cream a real cheesecake vibe. With this in mind, I've heard people compare this tub to the Ben & Jerry's blueberry cheesecake Froyo, but as I never tried it, I can't comment on that.

As you might have gathered, Ben & Jerry's have veered away from their usual ampersand format with the white chocolate in this tub. Instead they've opted for brick shaped chunks, which made them much more obvious than the chocolate in the Topped tubs. Again though, the chunks were missing in my tubs (what is it with me and fillings), and my portion only contained two. What the badger? However,I'm pleased to see than Ben & Jerry's are honouring the white chocolate lovers amongst us again-although I'm still morning the loss of Baked Alaska. Boo. 

As someone who doesn't normally buy vanilla based ice creams (caramel and peanut butter are much more up my street) I was surprised to enjoy this new tub as much as I did. To be honest, it's nowhere near the top of my favourite Ben & Jerry's flavours, but it's a nice fruity addition to the pack.

My tub: 6/10

If it had more swirl & more chocolate: 8/10

Multipower 40% Protein Bars: Peach Yogurt, Chocolate Almond, & Blueberry Vanilla (Online)

Last week Multipower's PR company got in touch with me to ask if I'd like to try the new 40% Protein Fit Bars. To be honest, Multipower is a company that I hadn't come across before, but I was informed that their new bars are 'low in sugar, a great source of fibre and come in three amazing flavours'. As you know I'm always keen to try new bars and supplements, so I gladly accepted the offer.

By Monday a parcel arrived containing a selection of bars in all three flavours: peach yogurt, blueberry vanilla and chocolate almond. The protein bar market is already exceedingly saturated and so I was pleased to see that not only have Multipower brought out slightly more unusual flavours -no cookie dough in sight- but also that they're a completely different size to most of the bars currently available. At 35g, each bar contains less than 135kcal whilst delivering 14g of protein -not bad! For info they're also aspartame free (they're sweetened with sucralose instead). 

Peach Yogurt

Well it's not the most appealing looking bar I've ever seen, I don't buy protein bars for their aesthetics. I did give it a little squidge though, and instantly appreciated just how soft this bar was -there's nothing worse than a jaw-breaker. 

Just as I hoped: what the bar lacked in looks, it made up for in taste. It's hard to spot the freeze dried peach pieces in the photo but they packed a delicious punch (surprising considering they only constitute 3% of the bar). The nougat-like texture was remarkably soft too, which made it very easy to eat -sheer relief for my clicky jaw. Perhaps the biggest surprise came from the bar's casing though, which was in fact white chocolate and not yogurt. Lord knows why Multipower doesn't shout about this, white chocolate is always a winner in my book, and would certainly make me much more likely to pick a bar up from the shelf!

Macros: Kcal: 129 P: 14/C: 9.4 F: 4.7

9/10

Chocolate Almond

Having enjoyed the peach yogurt bar so much, I decided to try the chocolate almond bar for dessert last night, warmed up in the microwave with a good helping of Salted Caramel Oppo and sugar-free caramel syrup. Once again I appreciated how soft the bar was, and the addition of real almond pieces was evident once I sliced into it.

The first thing I noticed was an odd, synthetic taste, but this soon abated and fortunately only a moment later I was revelling in one of my favourite combinations of chocolate and almond. In fact, the softness and flavour of this bar reminded me of the utterly delicious Côte-d'Or FudgeNut -high praise indeed. Of course, it's low sugar and high protein so therefore not a chocolate bar, but it's a scrummy alternative. 

Macros: 134kcal P:14/C:8.4/F: 5.9

8/10

Blueberry Vanilla

I'm not sure why, but I expected a white chocolate covering to compliment the blueberry. Again, this was super soft, and I decided to enjoy this one just this morning with a cup of coffee.

Just look at those freeze-dried blueberries! Unfortunately the primary flavour of this bar was the chocolate. The artificialness of it couldn't be escaped without the ice cream and caramel sauce, and I simply wasn't keen. Luckily the inner filling was pretty good -although nowhere near as tasty as the peach bar. It's the only bar of the three that I probably wouldn't buy again.

Macros: 126kcal/ P:14/ C: 8.5/F: 5

5/10

Summary

On the whole I'm impressed with these Multipower 40% Protein Fit bars. They're soft enough to serve as the perfect on-the-go protein hit, or as part of a healthy low-sugar dessert. You can find more information on the bars and order your own from Multipower's website, simply click here. 

I'd like to say a huge thank you to Multipower/their PR agency for sending me the samples to review. 

NEW! Haribo Scaremix (ASDA)

It's October and finally cold enough to stick on my parka and pull up the big fluffy hood before leaving the house in the mornings, which means that it's perfectly acceptable to publish a Halloween themed review! Hurrah!

Do you get into the spirit of the festivities and look forward to the dressing up and trick or treating? Or are you of the opinion that it's a gawdy, dangerous American holiday that facilitates begging and makes children greedy? To be honest, Halloween doesn't really bother me. I quite look forward to seeing the little'uns dressed up as witches, or putting a bed sheet over their heads pretending to be ghosts (the pesky teenagers don't have the same effect, and just cause me to roll my eyes and ignore them). Perhaps my ambiguity is because I live in a rural city where there's not a huge deal of crime (or trick or treaters for that matter). Halloween does however bring a few seasonal products and releases, and that's what I do welcome with open arms.

Last year the only Halloween Haribo I spotted was the scary minions edition, which seemed a bit pointless, and I didn't even bother picking up a bag. This year the company have had the good sense to seize the opportunity and bring out two new 'Spooky Editions' -which are available in both Starmix and Tangfastics style selections and appear to have replaced the Frenzy Carnival bags of the summer.

The 'spooky flavours' are shown in the picture below:

As usual there seemed to be a lot more bears in the packet than anything else, which always annoys me! Surely everyone reaches for the foamy sweets first?

That's exactly what I did anyway. First up was the toffee apple 'Monsters Eyeball' (fried egg to you and me) which had a strong, pleasant apple flavour, but a rather odd and slightly synthetic toffee taste. I wasn't keen. It was a Good job there wasn't too many of them -although my other half disagreed and really liked them. Next I tried the 'Vampire Hearts' which were also rather peculiar thanks to the inclusion of bubblegum and blackcurrant. Also not my cup of tea. Bubble gum should be kept to gum not sweets OR ice cream for that matter. Fortunately, I liked most of the gummy sweets; especially the cherry bears (although not as good as the banana bears), and blood orange 'witches brew' (aka cola bottles). The other sweets left me feeling a bit meh. The apple and blackcurrant rings tasted like squash, and the blackcurrant & blueberry rings and lime bears weren't anything special either.

All in all, I'm not prepared to begrudge the option of new Haribo. It's lovely to see a new concoction of flavours, even if they aren't particularly 'spooky'. The Little Cupcakes were far more ingenious, and I much preferred the summer edition of Starmix.

6/10

NEW! Milbona Skyr Pots (LIDL)

If you look into our 'drinks fridge' (aka the skanky fridge that we inherited with the house, but worked fine so we couldn't throw it out) you'll find a rather impressive selection of yogurts. My other half and I love the stuff -his shelf contains Muller corners, mine Skyr. I'm a happy girl with a bowl of yogurt so thick I can stand my spoon up in it. The trouble is, my preferred brand -Icelandic Skyr- is so much more expensive than the ARLA big pots, so I end up buying the cheaper version most of the time and then flavour it -at the moment I can swap between: banana, salted caramel, white chocolate, almond and tiramisu. With that in mind you can imagine my animation whens spotting the photo Alex posted onto Instagram of a selection of flavoured small pots he'd found in LIDL this week, and I made a beeline for the discount retailer after work. Everyone else must have seen Alex's pic too, because they had sold out the first day, but thankfully I was in luck the second! Each 150g flavoured tub cost 49p, and the plain 45p. 

Strawberry

So keen was I to try this new Skyr that I even took my first pot to the cinema with me that very afternoon (together with a generous supply of popcorn and sweets). I had assumed that the strawberry flavour would be amalgamated within the yogurt, so I was shocked -and excited- to find that in fact it formed a separate fruity layer at the bottom. The layer was also thick, and even better... it contained whole strawberries. I gleefully informed my fiance of this whilst we were watching the trailers, but I don't think he was as impressed! As for the Skyr, it tasted just like the ARLA stuff to me, and passed the thickness test.

8/10

Raspberry 

Unfortunately the thick layer of compote at the bottom of the raspberry yogurt wasn't quite as successful. It was very runny, and the natural tartness of the fruit didn't do enough to counteract the acidic yogurt on top; resulting in quite a bitter yogurt pot.

4/10

Blueberry

The balance of sweet-sour was better with the blueberry, but again the fruit layer was too watery, meaning that it was more like a sauce. The pot was pleasant though, and certainly much more enjoyable than the raspberry.

6/10

Peach & Passionfruit

The almost tropical flavours worked well with the Skyr in this pot, helped again by the natural sweetness. My only complaint would again be the thickness, but it was better than the blueberry.

7/10

Plain
As expected, I couldn't handle the acidity of the plain Skyr. I can't fault LIDL for that though, seeing as I'm not keen on the taste of any natural yogurt. Not to worry though, my trusty tiramisu syrup came to the rescue!

 7/10

Summary

These little pots from LIDL make a welcome change to ARLA, and are handy to pack in my lunchbox. They're not even close in deliciousness to the premium Iceleandic Skyr -but then I didn't expect them to be either. For anyone interested, the macros for the fruity are roughly: 6.6C/13.4P/0.3F (83Kcal) and the plain: 6.2C/17.7P/0.3F (98kcal).

NEW Haribo Little Cupcakes

It turns out that the Frenzy Carnival range isn't the only new addition to Haribo's extensive sweetie range -there's room for a super cute product in 2016 too. I saw the Haribo Little Cupcakes on instagram a couple of months back, but they've proven extremely hard to track down. I tried all of the pound stores, discount stores, WHSmith, all of the supermarkets... and eventually discovered them in Superdrug of all places! Who'd a thunked it?

"Create your own delicious cupcake creations with a caramel or lemon biscuit base, finishing it off with either a blueberry, orange, lemon, cherry, vanilla or strawberry topping!" 

I was pleased to find such a mixture of flavours, although there seemed to be a far greater ratio of cakey bottoms to frosting tops in my bag. 

I tried the lemon base first; expecting to not like it as I find that lemony sweets are so hit and miss. I was delighted therefore to discover a sweet citrussy kick, followed by a surprising ginger aftertaste. Lemon and ginger works so well together in cheesecake form, and it seems to harmonise in Haribo's foam candy too. 

The caramel base was less exciting. Sure it had a super sweet toffee flavour, but the ginger from the lemon version had leeched its way into the caramel. There's less to say about the toppings: each was well flavoured, soft, squidgy and awfully moreish. My favourites were the blueberry and cherry, but none will be left lingering in the packet for very long. 

Fellow sweet-o-holic? Make the effort to pop to Superdrug and get yourself a pack of the new Haribo Little Cupcakes -if only for the novelty. At £1, they're not likely to bankrupt you either. 

8/10

Icelandic Skyr: Blueberry and Strawberry Flavours (Waitrose)

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a yogurt brand that I hadn't come across before. My dear friend and fellow blogger Laura (A Daisy Chain Dream) coerced me into popping into my local Waitrose to pick up a pot of Vanilla Skyr. Laura's judgement was spot on, and if you remember my review you'll recall that I made the bold statement that it was the best high protein yogurt I had ever tasted!

I would therefore have been foolish to turn down the opportunity* to try -and review- Skyr's other two flavours: blueberry and strawberry.

Blueberry

What I didn't mention last time was that each of the pots come with a handy spoon in the lid, perfect if you're grabbing a pot to enjoy at lunch or on the go. I peeled back the foil and discovered the pale mauve colour blueberry Skyr. As with the vanilla flavour the yogurt was thick enough to stand my spoon up with, as you can see in the photo below. The flavour was slightly tarter than expected, but not unpleasantly so, and I found that it was just enough to offset the sweetness. The creaminess was again outstanding and I found it hard to comprehend that I was enjoying such a healthy treat.

Strawberry
This flavour is a brand new contender in Skyr's line up. I had high expectations given my experience with their blueberry and vanilla yogurts, so could it be as good? 

What a silly question; of course it was. Strawberries and cream are natural born partners and with Sky's unbelievable texture the melt-in-the mouth treat was a winner once again. Iceland you've done the British proud! 

Seeing as Skyr is so saintly I decided to adulterate it with a few extras for an evening treat. One side was decorated with fresh strawberries and the other with Graze's strawberries and cream protein granola topper, oh my days! Soooo good. 

Summary
Asking me to choose a favourite flavour would be like asking me to choose between my siblings (that's a lie, my sister is my best friend) but you get the gist. Try any of these pots and you'll be a Skyr convert for life! I promise you that Arla has nothing on these guys. Skyr is available in Waitrose stores nationwide.

10/10

*Skyr have kindly reimbursed me for the yogurts I have reviewed.

Laffy Taffy Apple, Funyuns & Trident Pineapple (Taffy Mail Part 1)

As a lover of American snacks, I was over-the-moon when Taffy Mail kindly offered to send me a box of their November 'Classic' Box to review. Taffy Mail are a subscription based service who will send a surprise selection of American treats to your door every month, with prices range from £7.49-£24.99 depending on how many goodies you'd like to receive. The classic box is their mid-priced product and contains 10-12 American Sweets & 1 can of Pop.

I felt like Christmas had come early when the Postie dropped mine off. The box was chock-a-block full of goodies, and so I'll be reviewing it in parts over the next week or so! 





















Just for info, the box contained:

• Laffy Taffy Sour Apple
• Laffy Taffy Strawberry
• Mike & Ike Zours
• Trident Pineapple
• Take 5
• Twinkies
• Double Dipped Nerd
• Hawaiian Punch "Juicy fruit Red"
• Twizzlers Twists
• Milk Duds
• Funyuns

Laffy Taffy Apple














The Laffy Taffy was a very long rope style sweet, and although it claimed to contain no artificial flavours, it certainly contained  artificial colours as it was luminescent green and would have made an excellent glow-stick!




















It was apple-y although not particularly sour, and had a good amount of chewiness (which I was thankful for as my teeth can't handle hard caramels). It was fun, but nothing hugely different to what we can get here in the UK -it's  similar to a long Maoam- although I did like the terrible joke on the back!

5/10

Trident Pineapple
I get through quite a lot of chewing gum, and I really like flavoured gum- especially the Turbulence range because the flavour is powerful and it lasts a long time too. I wish we had more of the exciting flavours that the Americans are accustomed to, and so I was looking forward to enjoying a fresh new flavour.

It certainly tasted exotic and refreshing to begin will, but within 30 seconds the flavour faded to nothing and I was forced to throw my piece in the bin.
3/10

Funyuns

Ooh clever play on words- but basically these are just onion rings -standard, maize based snacks that you can buy from any British supermarket. 

They were tasty, but they're not particularly different to what we have here in good ol' Blighty (and pickled onion Monster Munch waaaay outstrip them!)
4/10 

ASDA Blueberry Ice Cream Roll

Nestled amongst my favourite foodstuffs, alongside peanut butter, caramel, chocolate and bananas is ice-cream. Over the past few years there has been something of a retro resurgence which has thankfully led to the return of some much missed favourites such as the Cadbury Wispa bar. In 2008 one of the nostalgic treats that made a comeback was the Birds Eye Arctic roll, which was welcomed back to supermarket shelves after an eleven year break. 

ASDA must have taken note of this trend and have manufactured their own spins on this classic dessert. Last year we were graced by a Battenberg variety which unfortunately seems to have been now dropped; it certainly hasn't been in my local branch. This year they have produced two new varieties of an arctic roll style dessert- Blueberry, and Cookies and Cream.

I bought the Cookies and Cream a month or so ago, when ASDA started clearing their summer lines in favour of the winter items. I was lucky enough to pick one up at 25p, a ridiculously low price. More specifically it was a 'chocolate flavour sponge wrapped around cream flavoured ice cream with chocolate flavour cookie crumble and chocolate sauce.' I don't have any photos of it, because it was before I started this blog, but it was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, as soon as I realised the deliciousness of this treat I returned to store to stock up, and of course they had all gone. 

I have been sulking about ASDA's decision to sell off all their stock as I would have been happy to pay the £1.50 standard price and eaten them all year round. ASDA did however decide to keep selling their (non-chocolate) Blueberry ice-cream roll and they must have had their reasons so I decided to test it out. This flavour is described as 'blueberry flavoured sponge wrapped around purple and white blueberry and sponge flavoured ice creams with a layer of blueberry sauce'- well that's got to be one of the most confusing descriptions I've read.

The roll is supposed to serve 6 but that would be a pretty measly portion so I quartered ours. The ice cream has four different sections and it looked rather attractive once presented. I sampled the purple ice cream first, which was lovely and fruity; exactly what I hoped for.Next I tried the white coloured ice cream, but I couldn't identify a flavour. The blueberry sponge however was beautiful- and complemented the purple ice cream perfectly. I couldn't find much of the blueberry sauce that was meant to nuzzle between ice cream and sponge, which was a tad disappointing but didn't ruin the pudding.

Overall, I enjoyed this retro-inspired ice cream dessert. I definitely preferred the Cookies and Cream flavour, but that's the opinion of an utter chocoholic. 

7/10