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

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

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.

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! 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

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! 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! 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! Gelatelli Master of Taste Pretty Peanut Butter Ice Cream (LIDL)

If you'll recall if you read my review of the Neo cones, I also picked up a peanut butter tub during American week at Lidl. It sounds a lot like Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup, but at £1.99 per 500ml is cheaper. After the disappointment of the Neo cones though I didn't hold out much hope that this would be a decent copycat.

"Peanut butter flavoured ice cream with peanut butter filled milk chocolate pieces (20%)."

The first thing I noticed was how solid the ice cream was. I mean I couldn't scoop it. Now to others that might sound like a problem, but I much prefer hard ice cream -it melts slower and therefore I can enjoy it for longer. Plus there's no need for the gym when you have a ten minute wrestle with a tub of ice cream! The second thought that struck me was the lack of peanut butter pieces. Where were the Reese's cups that I'd imagined? I mean the packaging didn't show cups, but it did say 'peanut butter coated chocolate' and everyone knows that means Reese's (or fake Reese's at least). 

The ice cream was delicious though; the robust nutty flavour shone through the creamy base, which is no doubt due to the high peanut content (13.6%). It was far richer than the Snickers ice cream, and its density meant that it tasted more luxurious than the Co-Op's tub. I was pleased to see that they hadn't included a caramel sauce to dilute the flavour either, I mean who puts peanut butter and caramel on toast? Jam yes. Caramel no. So why do so many companies insist on adding it to their ice creams? Hats off to Lidl, the ice cream itself was a very good Ben & Jerry's rip off, but let's talk about those chocolate cups...

When I posted the photo of my ice cream on instagram I was met with an instruction to buy another tub by someone who'd apparently had much more luck on the cup front than I had. My first portion hadn't heralded a single cup -only shards of chocolate- hence my aforementioned thoughts that maybe I'd come to the wrong conclusion about the chocolate pieces. So before I reviewed this, I had a second portion to see if I could find any of these promised cups. 

Digging down to the bottom of the tub I found one and a half mini cups. They were a similar size to the Reese's cups, and a fairly good imitation, which made me all the more gutted that I'd been so unfortunate regarding the amount my tub had in. It's a huge shame really, because this Gelatelli ice cream would be getting extremely good marks if it had contained more cups. 

Now It may sound a little redundant that I'm reviewing this ice cream when the supermarket won't be getting deliveries of it again anytime soon but when I popped into our local branch yesterday they still had plenty left, and even if your local store doesn't have any, I'm sure there'll be another American week in the future months. 

8/10 

NEW! Neo Ice Cream Cones (LIDL)

It's 'Taste of America' week at Lidl, which means that there's all kind of peanut butter treats on offer, as well as foot long microwaveable hotdogs (complete with bun and sauce) and some Oreo themed treats. Oreos aren't Oreos in Lidl though, they're Neos. At least they're a little more subtle than Aldi with their cheeky rip offs, ahem, anyone for a Domio yogurt or Hike bar? Anyway, I was intrigued by their Neo ice creams, as both Bert and I are fans of all the Oreo ice creams (sandwiches, sticks and cones).

"67.5% vanilla flavoured ice cream with 6% biscuit pieces in 16% wafer cone coated in 5% chocolate flavour glaze, coated with 3% chocolate flavoured biscuit pieces."

They certainly looked the part! 

They just didn't taste the part. Unfortunately the ice cream tasted of reconstituted skimmed milk, lacking the creaminess that I'd hoped for. The cone wasn't great either. The dark shade insinuated that it would taste bourbon-y like the Oreo cones, but instead it had a mild cocoa flavour. My cone was also soft towards the bottom, although Bert tells me that his was completely crispy. There wasn't enough Oreo/Neo in them either, as the ice cream itself was plain throughout, and the 3% biscuit crumbs didn't make much of an impact.

At £1.49 for four they're no cheaper than the real deal (which are part of a 2 for £3 deal in Asda, £1.50 in Sainsbury's and £1.33 on Ocado) and so I'd give Neo a miss if I were you. I picked up a tub of LIDL's 'Taste of America' peanut butter ice cream at the same time, so let's hope that's less disappointing... 

5/10 

NEW! Häagen-Dazs White Chocolate & Almond Ice Cream Bars (Tesco)

I'm gradually dipping my toes into the world of Häagen-Dazs. So far the salted caramel tubs have been the clear winner, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to try the new white chocolate sticks whilst they were on offer (currently £1.74 per pack in Tesco). I've often bemoaned the lack of almond-chocolate combinations on the market, and although Magnim have started selling a white chocolate version of their classic milk chocolate almond ice cream sticks, I was interested to see how Häagen-Dazs fared.

"Our vanilla ice cream with crunchy caramelised almonds enrobed in a coating of real white Belgian Chocolate, a soothing white chocolate treat."

Ok so there's already a clear difference between Magnum and Häagen-Dazs: Häagen-Dazs' ice cream incorporates caramelised almonds and is covered in a smooth white chocolate coating, whereas Magnum is a plain ice cream surrounded by a nutty chocolate. 

Once again I found myself disappointed with the quality of the white chocolate. It did seem a little thicker than the coating user on their salted caramel sticks, but was noticeably inferior to Magnum's chocolate. I can't imagine Häagen-Dazs releasing a bar of pure chocolate as Magnum have, put it that way.

Fortunately the ice cream was the saving grace, although there weren't as many of the caramelised almonds as I'd have liked (they only constitute 7% of the bars). The nuts I did find were delicious though, like little crunchy pockets of flavour amongst the otherwise smooth and creamy luxury ice cream. 

I really wish we could amalgamate the Magnum and HD ice cream sticks. 

Magnum are the chocolate champions but Häagen-Dazs' ice cream and caramelised almonds are superior to Magnum. Therefore if you're buying the sticks for the chocolate then stick to Magnum, for the ice cream opt for Häagen-Dazs. If like me, however, you're governed by budget then choose whichever is on offer!

8/10 

NEW! Snickers Ice Cream Tubs (ASDA)

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I caved and bought the Mars ice cream tub? Well it didn't take long for me to return to ASDA on the pursuit of the Snickers tub. Normally I'm a Mars bar over Snickers girl, but I'd heard great things about the ice cream version and simply had to find out for myself what it was like! 

"Peanut (4%) dairy ice cream with milk chocolate coated peanuts (10%) and caramel (7.5%) and chocolate sauce (7.5%)."

The caramel sauce was instantly evident as soon as I removed the lid, and so was the softness of the ice cream. In fact I was patient enough to wait for the temperature outside to cool down last week before attempting to try the Snickers ice cream (just for info Ben & Jerry's Sofa So Good is sofa no good to scoop on the hottest days either, unless you fancy mousse).

I couldn't see a huge deal of the chocolate coated peanuts though, and felt a pang of disappointment at the lack of chocolate shards that made a surprise appearance in the Mars tub. I hadn't written this ice cream off just yet though... 

Kudos to Mars for using real peanuts in the ice cream (yep, I'm looking at you Mondelez), but unfortunately it wasn't as flavoursome as I'd hoped. There was a mild peanut taste but it certainly wasn't on par with Ben & Jerry's or the Co-Op. It was still enjoyable though, and despite the chocolate sauce being as lost in this pint as it had been in the Mars version, the caramel sauce made up for that. 

Oh there they were: the chocolate coated peanuts! Jackpot! They'd just been well hidden amid the ice cream, and actually there was an abundance of them. They were pretty smashing too, large in size and delivering the chocolatey hit that was missing from the sauce, as well as a textural contrast from the welcome crunch. 

Perhaps the link between ice cream and chocolate bar is on the tenuous side, given that there's no nougat in the ice cream and that the peanuts aren't chopped and are chocolate covered, but I don't mind that -like I say, I'm not a huge snickers fan anyway. Personally the Mars tub pips the Snickers to the top spot, but only just, and it's well worth a try whilst on offer for £2.

7/10

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! Gianni's Limited Edition Eton Mess Ice Cream Cones (ALDI)

I'm not sure if you'll remember but I bought two of Aldi's new ice cream cones a few weeks ago - Peanut Butter and Eton Mess- for £1.49 per pack. Of course I tucked into the peanut butter cones straight away but I was fell less excited about the Eton Mess versions. I love the British dessert, and no one can argue its role as a summer staple, but it's hardly a groundbreaking flavour.

"Mixed berry and cream flavoured ice cream rippled with a mixed berry sauce, topped with meringue pieces."

The cones looked rather pretty though with their two-tone colours and meringue dusting. As with the peanut butter cones I wasn't expecting the highest quality ice cream, but still felt disappointed with the lack of flavour. I guess that 'Mixed berries and cream' even sounded vague so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that the taste was also ambiguous. Bland and mildly fruity would be my best description. 

As for the meringue pieces, they melted away against the ice cream and didn't add anything in terms of either taste or texture.

I hoped for a pocket of sweet but sharp sauce in the centre, but instead found a solid lump of berry flavoured ice to chomp through. Very odd. At least the cone was crisp and contained a large nib of chocolate. 

I won't be buying these again, there's far better (and cheaper) cones on the market.

5/10