M&S can be a bit hit and miss. They create such innovative and visually stunning concepts when it comes to food and drink, which often unfortunately gets lost in taste translation. I've been hearing good things however about their new chocolates, and so I picked up this cute milk chocolate truffle filled white chocolate Polar Bear (60p but on a 3 for 2 Christmas chocolate mix and match deal).
Moulding wise- it's not as defined as the Thornton's Chocolate Snowman, but is superior to the sorry looking (but great tasting) Reese's Christmas Tree. My polar bear is missing some eyes, but he still looks quite sweet.
Slicing him in half (sorry bear!) you can see that the filling is generously proportionate to the coating. The white chocolate is beautifully creamy and sweet, with a luxurious milkiness that pleases the taste buds. The chocolate truffle adds an extra textural depth, but I must admit it was slightly overshadowed by the glorious coating. The Mr said he wasn't keen on the centre, but he's not keen on any chocolate that's not Dairy Milk so I'm discounting his comments!
This is kind of an inside-out version of Thornton's Snowman truffle, but it's far tastier. If this chocolate is an indication of the standard of M&S's range, I've been missing out!
9/10
I've been hunting for this popcorn for what seems like eeons! I contacted Propercorn who told me that it is stocked in Tesco and Waitrose, but living in one of the most rural counties in the country meant that I havn't been able to find it. As luck would have it, I popped into the WHSmiths in Cardiff train station on the way home last week, and in amongst the crisps was the holy grail itself -Propercorn Smooth Peanut & Almond.
My lovely fellow blogging peanut-butter fanatics The Review Addict, Nibbles'n'Scribbles and Guilt Free Veggie were all lucky enough to receive some of Propercorn's new flavour a month or so back to review, and I'm sure I turned an unattractive shade of green when they unanimously agreed about the deliciousness of this product.
It didn't disappoint, and was just as good as the girls reported. The popcorn is light and fluffy with a bold nutty flavour that reaches the nooks and crannies of each and every kernel. It fulfils the characteristically sweet and salty flavour of peanut butter with a balance that's perfectly fine tuned. I thought Portlebay's Cinnamon Swirl couldn't be beaten, but this is hands down my new favourite- so much so that I'll be asking my sister to buy me as many packets as she can carry from the station when she next comes to visit.
10/10
The Black Friday box of goodies that I ordered from American Soda contained a couple more chocolate bars that I've wanted to try for a while. One of which was the Rocky Road S'mores which One Treat reviewed a couple of months ago on behalf of Taffy Mail. She spoke highly of it, and I felt the food envy kick in so I decided to order one for myself. However, given how disgusted I was with the first chocolate I tried from my order (the Sky bar) I wasn't looking forward to it as much as I was when it arrived.
The Rocky Road S'mores bar is a big gnarly ol' hunk of snack. If you haven't heard of them before (as I hadn't before reading OneTreat's review) they are 'Handmade fluffy marshmallow with a real graham cracker coated with milk chocolate and sprinkled with roasted cashew nuts.'
Unwrapping it, I noted that the chocolate was much darker than UK milk chocolate such as dairy milk. Fortunately however, I couldn't detect the horrid cheap chocolate smell that I experienced with the Sky Bar.
Biting into it, I welcomed the soft, billowy marshmallow that melted away so pleasingly. It was far better than the marshmallows I'm used to (flumps) and although very sweet, didn't become sickly. Crunch came from the graham cracker on top- which was delicious- but there just wasn't enough of it; I felt it could have really done with being both on top of and beaneath the mallow. The chocolate coating was studded with cashews (also just on top) which didn't add much in the way of flavour, but certainly offered an additional texture, reminding me of the coating of a 'Feast' ice cream. The chocolate was much better than expected, and although it's not as good quality as British chocolate, certainly outshines most of the US chocolates I've tried.
I enjoyed this bar, and I'd buy it again!
8/10
It's here: Star Wars day! The day my dedicated other half has been counting down to for well over a year. It took him almost 8 years but he's recently persuaded me to watch all six films, and I have to admit that I really enjoyed them. So it's needless to say that we'll be pootling down to our local Odeon tonight for the midnight showing...
Star Wars has crept its way into all sorts of merchandise- from Waffle makers to doggy outfits and of course food. I reviewed Fox's rather pathetic 'Empire Bars' last month, and now it's Kellogg's turn with a double review of the Star Wars themed cereal & Multi-Grain biscuits.
Multi-Grain Biscuits
Kellogg's have cleverly designed the packaging so that you can either choose a character from the dark-side or light-side of the force to face you (it had to be Vader naturally). The biscuits are described as 'Wheat and Wholegrain Cereal Milk Chocolate Biscuit with Chocolate Pieces'
The box contains six individually wrapped packs of four biscuits, although Kellogg's have misleadingly displayed calorie information on the box for just 2 biscuits- I'm not sure how that passed through the Advertising Standards Agency.
Anyway, taste wise they were completely different to what I expected with an intensive cocoa hit coming from the chocolate chips. I was convinced they had coconut in as they reminded me so much of 'Nice' biscuits but I've checked the ingredients and they haven't; so it must be the shape and texture that mentally connected the two. They're quite pleasant, but I probably won't buy them in future because -even on offer- they're £2 a box, and quite honestly Belvita make better breakfast biscuits.
7/10
Breakfast Cereal
The Star Wars Cereal is 'chocolate flavoured wheat, wholewheat and puffed rice cereal' in the shape of moons and stars. The newest boxes contain a 'free light sabre spoon' but In my usual tightwad way I wasn't prepared to pay the extra 75p for the promotional pack to get a spoon which looked no more substantial than a fork from the chippy.
.
I fully expected the cereal to mimic Coco Pops, but It held its shape better. It started out very chocolatey, but it wasn't long before most of the cocoa had bled into the milk. This wasn't particularly a problem, as it left me with a lovely chocolatey pool to slurp away at greedily. Again, this is a nice enough product but my other half quite rightly pointed out that really it's just Weetos in disguise.
7/10
May the force be with you...
I don't buy doughnuts very often, but how could I resist these star shaped treats filled with chocolate and topped with sparkly chocolate icing? Our nearest Krispy Kreme is 40 miles away, so although I read Lucy's review of their festive offerings a couple of weeks ago I haven't been able to have a Christmassy doughnut myself- until now!
My star was a little misshapen, but I'm kind of used to my oddly shaped festive food following ASDA's rather special gingerbread reindeers. I'm pleased to see that Sainsbury's haven't been stingy with the icing and that the doughnuts are plentifully covered in the shimmery bronze sugar pieces.
Slicing into it I welcomed a generous pocket of oozy chocolate sauce that resembled Nutella. The doughnut was soft, fluffy, and thankfully lacked the greasy feel I expected. The topping was thicker than expected, and offered a satisfying crunchy texture with a good -but admittedly artificial- chocolate flavour. The gooey chocolate centre was definitely the highlight, let's face it chocolate spread and doughnuts are a match made in heaven!
At £1 for the pack of two these were a reasonably priced festive indulgence, and I dare say we'll be buying more before the big day itself.
9/10
After the success of the caramel ice cream trees I went back and bought the other variety: 'Strawberry flavour ice cream with a Belgian white chocolate flavoured coating.'
Once again, they were slightly smaller than a magnum, and the lollies had a nice thick, even coating of white chocolate flavoured coating. The casing snapped nicely but half of my tree fell away (which I didn't mind because it meant I could save some white chocolate until last!).
The coating was wonderfully sweet, silky, and remarkably similar to milkybar buttons. The strawberry ice cream was a mild flavour which tasted like milkshake- McDonalds strawberry milkshake to be precise. For the more discerning pallete these references might not be a good thing, but to me it meant that the dessert was wonderful!
Another 9/10 Iceland!
It's got to that time of year where I'm a little bored of the standard mince pies. Didn't I say that would happen when I reviewed Tesco's Mince Pie Cookies just over a month ago? Anyway, I've seen the Winter Whirls on the shelves for a while now and as I was visiting my sister this weekend (who's also a Christmas maniac) I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try Mr Kipling's variation on the classic festive treat.
Winter Whirls, for anyone who hasn't seen or tried them are 'Scrummy shortcake swirls filled with rich buttercream and Christmassy mince pie-flavoured filling.' The box cost £1 from the Co-Op and contains six whirls.
The biscuits are just as crumbly as I recall -although admittedly I can't remember the last time I bought Mr Kipling's standard Viennese Whirls. The biscuits melt in the mouth with a delicate butteriness that I remember fondly. The buttercream filling is very sweet and soft, and would probably be more enjoyable refrigerated. My gripe however was the mince pie element, which was just a mere smudge of jam flavoured with the traditional Christmas spices*. The whirl could've benefitted from a better filling ratio, as the jam was almost completely lost against the decadent biscuits and rich buttercream.
It's such a lovely idea, and it feels like a lovely dainty Christmas treat. It might be one for those who aren't so keen on the richness of mince pies, or who like the flavour but not the raisins!
7/10
*I Read the ingredients later and realised that it's in fact just a spiced apple jam- how misleading...
