Green & Black's Organic Sea Salt Milk Chocolate

Green & Black's was one of the first premium brands of chocolate I ever tried. I remember my friend raving about this new chocolate and buying several bars for us to eat. We were both wide eyed in wonder at the fact that it was organic, it seemed so "wow" at the time! I was hooked from that point on and I tried all the Green & Black's bars available and would even buy the Green & Black's Ice Cream and Easter Eggs. But how times have changed. I genuinely can't remember the last time I bought a bar of Green & Black's but it has been a long time. It's a brand that has totally slipped off my radar.

When I heard that there were two new Green & Black's releases, Sea Salt Milk Chocolate and Spiced Chilli Dark Chocolate, I knew it was time to give the range another try. The Sea Salt Milk Chocolate in particular is very appealing to me. I have mentioned before how I love sweet and salty combinations so I was eager to try this new bar.

The Green & Black's Organic Sea Salt Milk Chocolate comes in the same 100g format as usual for Green & Black's. The packaging fits into the rest of the range in a nice, if a bit uninspiring way. The ingredients listed are very good and most of them are organic and Fairtrade. There are no science-fiction sounding chemical ingredients. It's described as "Organic Milk Chocolate with Anglesey Sea Salt" and contains Raw Cane Sugar, Whole Milk Powder, Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Butter, Anglesey Sea Salt (0.7%), Emulsifier and Vanilla Extract.

 Inside the wrapper the bar looks the same as I remember from Green & Black's, with quite small pieces of chocolate that are not sectioned very deeply. When trying to break off a chunk it often breaks haphazardly in the middle of chunks rather than breaking off cleanly. There was no obvious evidence of the inclusion of Sea Salt in any of the pieces of chocolate, even when looking very closely at it. However when biting into the chocolate I could feel the pieces of sea salt on my tongue with their slightly gritty texture. The milk chocolate has quite a strong cocoa taste for it's 37% cocoa content. It also has a lovely almost buttery like melt in the mouth which is similar to the other Green & Black's bars I've tried. The sea salt pieces give quite an uneven hit of salty taste  and some pieces of the chocolate are much saltier than others. However, where you do get a burst of salt it really enhances the flavour of the chocolate. It makes it an intense chocolate to eat and I couldn't take too much of it in one sitting. In fact I only ate a couple of chunks before I put it away.

It's strange because even though I usually love sweet and salty combinations I didn't enjoy the combination in this bar. I think it has been fairly well executed but it's just not for me. I wouldn't buy this bar again and I'm not inclined to try the Spiced Chilli version either. However I did go on to buy the Green & Black's Crispy Milk Chocolate which is a fairly new bar and we all loved that one! These new bars have helped rekindle my interest in the Green & Black's brand and I'm looking forward to what they come up with next.

Leave a comment, I'd love to hear what you think about these new bars and whether you have bought any Green & Black's Chocolate recently.

Aunt Bessie's Carrot Cake Mix

Aunt Bessie's has a new range of cake mixes in Asda. I couldn't help noticing as it had a whole stand full of them shouting "New" and only "£1 each". Of course nothing tastes as good as home baking but cake mixes can be a good middle option between store bought and home made. With a cake mix you can at least put in some fresh ingredients, such as eggs and butter, and get to enjoy the cake while it's hot, even if you haven't exactly put in the hard graft of cooking from scratch. The only downside to cake mixes is that they can be a bit hit and miss tastewise.

I have to admit I'm a fan of the Betty Crocker range of cake mixes, party because they are just so American, but also because they come in such brilliant flavours; red velvet cake, rainbow chip cake, a bright pink strawberry cake - they're all fantastic. This Aunt Bessie's range of cake mixes seems to have taken a bit of inspiration from Betty Crocker but given it a British twist. The range includes the Moist Carrot Loaf Cake, a Fruity Yorkshire Tea Loaf Cake and a Golden Syrup Cake.

The Aunt Bessie's Carrot Loaf Cake was extremely easy to make, although I have to admit that it was actually my husband who whisked it up and made it. The package comes with a cake mix that just needs two eggs, water and vegetable oil to complete. There is also an icing mix sachet which has to be mixed with softened butter to make a lovely topping for the cake. My husband also made cute carrot decorations out of some leftover coloured icing we had. They certainly jazzed up the look of the cake! The cake turned out a bit flatter than it should have been but this was because we used a loaf tin that was slightly too big. We didn't realise that the mix provided is only enough to make quite a small cake.

The taste was good and certainly very moist, however there was something missing for me. I'm not sure what it was but it just tasted a bit bland, almost as if it need a pinch of salt or some extra cinnamon. I like carrot cakes that have a bit more flavour and spice to them. I'd only recommend this cake mix if you prefer milder tasting carrot cakes. Despite this it was still enjoyed by my family and my husband loved the fact that it didn't have any raisins in it. I'd happily try the other cake mixes in the Aunt Bessie's range.

Angry Birds Ice Lollies

If you know your Apps from your Candy Apps then you'll probably know about the new Angry Birds game out today called Bad Piggies. Since I live with three gaming addicts I've heard quite a bit about it, non stop for the last few weeks, on and on. You could say my kids are quite excited about it.

I' d like to be able to tell you that I bought these Angry Birds Ice Lollies in a UK supermarket but alas this is another product I bought on holiday in Portugal. Although not as awesome as the Pirulo Jungly, these Angry Birds lollies were still very exciting. I'm always on the lookout for gaming related food or sweets but they are frustratingly rare. I recently tried the US Angry Birds sweets but they were beyond awful. I couldn't even bring myself to post a review because they were that bad.

These angry birds ice lollies on the other hand are pretty awesome. OK, maybe the best part is the actual box and branding. Those three Angry Birds flying across a generic city skyline at night look like they are ready for action. Inside the box there are three types of ice lolly; cola, lemon and strawberry. Each one is topped with a chocolate layer embedded with popping candy. My son was quick to point out that the lollies are not shaped like an actual Angry Bird. I think he expected a fully carved anatomically precise Angry Bird ice lolly for the € 2,99 we paid. Sorry son but these ice lollies are just a basic rocket shape, but on the bright side, at least they've matched the colours up to the Angry Birds on the box. Of course in the end neither of my kids were disappointed with these ice lollies. They now refer to them in a misty eyed "do you remember those amazing Angry Birds ice lollies?" kind of way.

Yet again I find myself asking, why aren't these available in the UK? I think they would be huge sellers. Don't companies know by now that we Brits like to eat ice cream in all weathers? Even rainy, cold and miserable countries deserve magnificent ice lollies!

I bought these from a supermarket called Continente. I'm afraid I have no idea who the maker is, it was hard enough taking a photo of them before the kids/hubby/me scoffed the lot.

Cadbury's Dairy Milk Mint Bubbly

Cadbury's have been on a bit of a Dairy Milk bender recently with the release of the new Toffee Popcorn and Golden Biscuit varieties, not to mention the three new Olympic themed bars before that. Yesterday they announced another new Dairy Milk bar; the Mint Bubbly, but let's face it a new Dairy Milk bar is always a source of great excitement.

A Cadbury's Mint Bubbly has already been produced before as part of an Australian only range. This had quite a lurid green aerated filling akin to an Aero Mint. This new incarnation of the Dairy Milk Mint Bubbly looks much more sophisticated and tempting. Gone is the off putting bright green filling. Instead there is a layer of mint creme which mainly resides inside the top bubbles. The aerated chocolate below looks much better with it's brown colouring, rather than green, reflecting the fact that the actual chocolate is not mint flavoured. The mint flavour is all in the cream layer.

I have a love/hate relationships with mint chocolate bars. I used to love the Aero Mint when I was at University, I swear I used to live on the things. Not the greatest diet in the world for cerebral health. Then I just went off them and my tastebuds completely changed. As I've got older my tastes have veered more towards coconut and vanilla flavours. Well, the Dairy Milk Mint Bubbly has put me firmly back on the mint wagon. The flavour builds up so perfectly, it's a wonderful chocolate experience.

Firstly and unexpectedly it's not the mint flavour that I could taste first; it's the creamy Dairy Milk Bubbly chocolate which is very light and just melted in the mouth. Only after the smooth chocolate taste did I taste a mild mint flavour which then built up to a peppermint crescendo. Every mouthful was the same; rich chocolate taste, then creamy mint taste, then finally peppermint taste. It leaves such a refreshing flavour and feeling in the mouth that it kept me going back for more. This is undoubtedly because of the way this chocolate bar has been layered. The aerated chocolate at the bottom melts first giving you the wonderful chocolate taste, whilst the mint layer takes a bit longer to break down but dominates in the end.

I don't think I've tried any of the other Dairy Milk Bubbly bars yet. I could be wrong though. I'm getting to the point where I'm having to search my own blog as the only way to know for sure if I have already tried a particular product. I'll definitely be seeking out the other Dairy Milk Bubbly bars, I'm hooked!

I bought the Dairy Milk Mint Bubbly yesterday from Sainsbury's for £1.39. Then today I saw them piled up high in Poundland... so I bought another one.

Any thoughts on the new Dairy Milk Mint Bubbly?

You may also be interested in:
Cadbury's Dairy Milk with Oreo
Cadbury's Crunchy Spiders

Starbucks Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Latte

Great news for UK Starbucks fans; finally we get an autumnal themed coffee, and by autumnal I really mean Halloween. It's a delicious sounding Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Latte. The new latte is described as espresso, pumpkin-flavoured syrup and steamed milk topped with whipped cream and pumpkin pie spices.

Pumpkin flavouring might sound quite scary but in reality the word "pumpkin" is simply used to describe a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove; perfect autumnal spices. The Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Latte is available now and I can't wait to try one! For those of us that can't wait for the Starbucks red cups we can console ourselves with these Pumpkin Spice Lattes. I'd love it if they came in special orange cups but somehow I doubt it!

If you've tried one, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of it.

The Gobstopper Boys Party Box - Retro Sweets Gift

When the lovely people at The Gobstopper online sweetshop offered to send me the sweets of my choice to review I was literally like a kid in a sweet shop, except that it was online and I'm not a kid! Faced with so much choice of yummy goodies I was overcome with indecision. There are so many delicious categories to choose from on their website! In the end The Gobstopper kindly decided to send me this Boy's Party Box which, much to my children's delight, arrived on a Saturday morning.

The delivery came extremely well wrapped with a distinctive retro feel to all of the packaging. The Boy's Party Box comes in a corrugated cardboard box (pictured above) decorated with the Gobstoppers logo. The box is hand packed using lots of wood wool padding to keep the sweets and inner box safe. The outer postal box even had The Gobstopper logo tape and stamp on it. It all looks very nostalgic and guaranteed to make the recipient squeal with delight when the postman arrives!

There was a great selection of sweets inside the Boy's Party Box including two different and generously sized bags of pick n mix sweets (one with fizzy snacks and the other with jelly teddies and fried eggs), a large whirligig lolly, four Vimto lollipops, cola Fizz Wiz, refresher sweets, Rainbow Drops and a Swizzels Matlow Whistle.

It's a fantastic selection and great value for £5.99, especially since there is FREE delivery on all orders from The Gobstoppers at the moment. These are great for any last minute gift or as a present for someone who is difficult to buy for - everybody loves sweets! Even though this is labelled as a boys box I think it would be good for adults too. There is also a Girls Party Box (which if my husband is reading this - I want it!) that has super cute girly selections such as candy necklaces, Loveheart lipstick, Mini Lovehearts, Friendship rings,  Jazzies, Snowies and more. There are also filled Party Bags which are only £2.50 each.

Did my kids enjoy this box? Seriously what do you think? They loved it! It made their day just opening the box and rooting around inside knowing that it was filled with sweets. There is something for all tastes, sour or sweet, fizzy or jelly. My youngest son loved the Rainbow Drops and Whistle whilst my eldest loved all the fizzy sweets and Fizz Wiz cola!

Check out The Gobstoppers website for other great gift ideas. The large Big Brown gift box looks especially fabulous. For chocolate lovers there are plenty of chocolate selections too and even Peanut Butter M&M's for £1.40. It's definitely a good time to take advantage of the free delivery offer!

You can also Follow Gobstoppers on twitter @The_Gobstopper or connect via Facebook

Leave a comment below, I'd especially love to know what your favourite retro sweet is!

Candy Apps by Au'some: Who needs an iPhone 5?

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

PLEASE DO NOT adjust your monitor/mobile device/iPad. What you are looking at on the right is not an iPhone 5, or even a prototype of the iPhone 6. It's a beyond awesome looking candy called Candy Apps. The company that makes the Candy Apps is so awesome it's even called Au'some! The word "awesome" wasn't enough, they had to misspell it to make it even more awesome.

Yes it's true, they are now making mobile phone application inspired candy. I just don't know why it took 5 versions of the iPhone before somebody came up with this stroke of genius.

Now, I'll admit it, I don't own a smart phone. My mobile phone is so old it does not take pictures or have internet access. I still have to use the number keys to type out my text messages. My husband bought me an iPad recently but I can't figure out how to use it because it doesn't have any buttons. But now the awesome Au'Some Candy App sweets are in my life, I have everything I need!

Not the inside of an iPhone 5

Unfortunately there is no touch screen, the candy will not appear if you jab at the "screen", you have to peel back the plastic front cover in order to reveal the sweets beneath. That's where the awesomeness starts to drift into averageness. And when I write "drifts" I actually mean "plummets". There are 8 compartments, containing a variety of violently colourful and oddly named candy; 3-DEES gummies, Mega Bitz, Crunchy Candies, Sour 3-Dees Gummy, Candy Roll, Au'some Nuggets and even a bizarre large Sour Candy Bone. Why a bone? The emoticons I understand, they match the App theme. But a bone? The sweets are not very tasty either, unless the thought of highly artificially coloured and flavoured candy makes your mouth water.

You should give Candy Apps a try if you find them. I bought them from a 99p Store. They make an amusing gift for the Apple obsessive in your life and are cheaper than an iPhone 5. However, once the 10 seconds of amusement have passed, your Apple obsessed friend will realise that these Candy Apps are not Au'some, just Au'verage.
 

 Leave a comment, I'd love your thoughts on these!

Kellogg's Special K Cracker Crisps

I was really pleased to be offered the chance to try the new Kellogg's Special K Cracker Crisps before they hit the shops at the end of September. They come in three great sounding but basic flavours; Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar, Sour Cream & Chive and Sweet Chilli. There is something for everyone with these flavours and it seems like an easy way to enjoy a tasty snack whilst sticking to a healthy diet. They all have 95 calories and only 2g of fat (0.3g of saturated fat) per serving. Crisps without the guilt!

Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar

I wasn't expecting the cracker crisps to come in boxes but I think these look really cute. They are about half the size of a normal box of cereal, each one holding 100g of Cracker Crisps. The package says to eat 21 crisps for a 95 calorie portion. The crisps are quite large so that feels like a generous sized portion. I would say these boxes are ideal for sharing, a great substitute for higher calorific bags of crisps that you might share on a night in. These Special K Cracker Crisps will also be available in individual bags which might be better option if portion control is an issue.

I decided to try the Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar first as this flavour was the most appealing to me. The texture was quite different, they are not as hard as crackers nor are they the same as most crisps, they certainly don't have any of the greasiness. They are similar to other baked potato snacks, such as Pom-Bear crisps but with more of a crunch. The Sea Salt & Balsamic Vinegar has a decent  salt taste even though they are quite low in sodium compared with other crisps. The vinegar is tangy but also has a lovely sweetness. I must admit I didn't count out a 21 cracker portion and they were quite hard to stop eating. I could happily have snacked on these without stopping! They were easily my favourite out of the three flavours.

The Sour Cream & Chive flavour is a bit of an odd one for me. I have to say that I didn't really like the flavouring. It has a very milky aftertaste which is not like the usual sour cream flavoured crisp. I don't like the taste of milk so these are not crisps that I could enjoy. It's a shame because I usually love any Sour Cream & Chive flavour crisps. My husband tried these as well and he agreed they had a milky taste to them, and although he didn't mind the taste they weren't his favourite either.

The Sweet Chilli variety however was much tastier and we all enjoyed them. The flavouring is quite strong on these ones and they have a distinctive red colouring. There are plenty of spicy flavours with the ingredients containing many spices such as; chilli pepper, sweet chilli seasoning, cumin powder, coriander powder and red bell pepper. They have quite a strong taste of pepper and they are not as sweet as other sweet chilli crisps on the market. I can imagine that these would be fantastic with a salsa dip. In fact I think all of them would be great for dipping.

Sweet Chilli Cracker Crisps

It's great to see Kellogg's releasing another product in the UK which has also been launched in the US (they are known as Special K Cracker Chips over there). I'm sure these will be very popular here in the UK. They are available in two packages: an individual bag or the boxes of crisps. I already buy the Special K cereal bars for when I am out and about and I'm glad there is now a savoury snack option. I'll definitely be buying the Sea Salt & Malt Vinegar variety.

Special K Cracker Crisps will be available in the crisps aisle in all major supermarkets from the end of September 2012. The priced 100g box will be priced at £1.99 and the individual bags for 60p.

I received these boxes of Special K Cracker Crisps in order to write an honest review and all opinions are my own .

New Kellogg's Pop Tarts Range at Asda

I first heard of this new range of UK Kellogg's Pop Tarts from a tweeted picture by Lot o' Choc. It was enough to have me heading to Asda the very next day. Up until this point the only Pop-Tarts regularly sold in UK supermarkets have been the plain chocolate or strawberry. Compared to the awesome flavours that are regularly released in the US, these are woeful. I usually don't bother buying the UK Pop Tarts, preferring to get the US imports. I mean just look at these new Limited Edition US Pop Tarts: Marshmallow Hot Chocolate, Pumpkin Pie, Spookylicious. Then there is also the new Confetti Cupcakes Pop Tarts, US only of course. All we get here is chocolate and strawberry, no fair.

Finally here's a new range of Pop Tarts for the UK for us to get our teeth into, with new flavours called Apple Blast, Burstin' Berry and Very Cherry. These are still following a fairly traditional unadventurous fruity palate for the UK market. I'd like to see flavours similar to the US but these will have to do for now!

I don't buy Pop Tarts very often. In fact I'm not even a big fan of them to eat myself. It's more my hubby and kids that love these toaster pastries. They are great to serve up on a lazy weekend morning, especially when sharing the different flavours. It's a rare but fun occurence!

In case you've never tried a Pop Tart before they come in sealed foil bags which contain two Pop Tart pastries in each bag. To warm them up you simply pop the tart into your toaster on the lowest setting. Ready to eat, simple as that.

Apple Blast

Since it's the weekend and the kids don't have to go to school (I wouldn't send my kids to school after this sugar overload!) we decided to toast up a batch of one each of these new Pop Tarts. Everyone was quite excited by the Apple Blast, it seemed quite different from the usual Pop Tarts. It has a lovely apple smell as soon as it comes out of the wrapper. The outside of the pastry has pale green frosting. The frosting is not as thick as it looks on the packaging, which is probably just as well because it is super sweet and sugary. Inside the pastry is a jam like apple filling. It's very sweet and fruity. I needed to have a strong cup of coffee in order to combat the sweetness of these but they are very tasty. It's like having a slice of apple pie in biscuit form.

L-R: Very Cherry, Burstin' Berry, Apple Blast

The Burstin' Berry is the most colourful of the three. It has a bright purple frosting and inside the fruit filling is quite dark. I'm not sure what fruit it's supposed to be as it's just described as "berry flavour". The ingredients don't mention any fruit apart from apple which is quite scary! The flavour to me was most reminiscent of blueberries and these would be good for any blueberry muffin fans.

The Very Cherry was a bit disappointing. There was nothing bad about the flavour but they just didn't taste strongly enough of cherry. If I had been told they were strawberry then I would have believed it. Cherry is quite a hard taste to get right because if it is too strong it can taste synthetic and medicinal. Here it is the opposite and has ended up a bit underwhelming. My husband really enjoyed them but I would say our overall favourite was the Apple Blast. I would probably buy those again but for the moment we are all pop tarted out!

These packs cost £2 each from Asda for 8 pastries (there are four foil bags with two tarts in each). If you are on a diet then look away now! Each individual Pop Tart has a gut-busting 200 calories. It might not sound a lot but if you open a foil bag then you will probably eat both the pop tarts that are inside. That would be a massive 400 calories, more than some chocolate bars. These are certainly indulgent but I'm sure no one buys Pop Tarts for a healthy treat!

So what's your favourite Pop Tart of all time? Mine is the Cinnamon Roll!

Asda Loaded Peanut Butter Crunch Ice Cream

What better way to start off the weekend then cracking open a new tub of ice cream. I've often mentioned on this blog how much I love peanut butter and it's many incarnations. Especially peanut butter and chocolate - bring it on! I'm racking my brain but I don't think I've ever had peanut butter ice cream before, even from the up market brands, so this Peanut Butter Crunch Ice Cream is a first for me.

The ice cream is described as "swirled with peanut butter, salted caramel flavoured ripple and milk chocolate coated caramel, peanut and rice clusters". Lots of yummy sounding elements in there, especially the salted caramel. The ice cream itself is a golden colour and I could see straight away that the peanut butter has been totally incorporated into the ice cream. I had assumed that the peanut butter flavour would be in the little chocolate nuggets or as seperate swirls but that's not the case. The whole ice cream has a peanut butter taste. It's not just nutty or tasting of peanuts. It's definitely the peanut butter taste you would get from your favourite jar. There are lots of little bits of peanut throughout the ice cream which some texture-phobic people might not like. Not me though, I loved it! The ice cream is very creamy, perhaps not as richly creamy as brands such as Haagen-Dazs, but it comes quite close. Mixed with the peanut butter it all tastes extremely moreish delicious.

The salted caramel swirls are delicious too, they didn't hold back with the salty flavour which I like. When I first tasted a bit of the salted caramel swirl it instantly reminded me of a Snickers and that is not surprising what with the salty, chocolate, peanut and caramel combination. The chocolate pieces are filled with rice clusters. They give a nice crunchy texture to the ice cream but the chocolate flavour is not as distinctive as it could have been. Overall, I would also have preferred there to be more caramel swirls and chocolate pieces but it's still perfectly pleasant and altogether a very interesting tub of ice cream.

I bought the tub for £2 in Asda from their Chosen by You range. It contains no artificial colours, flavours or hydrogenated fats. I think it's a great tasting bargain and I would definitely buy it again and try other products from this range.

Thomas & Friends Ice Cream Engines

If you have any little Thomas fans at home then they will absolutely adore these Thomas Ice Cream Engines. The raspberry and vanilla flavoured ice cream lollies are shaped to look like a silhouette of Thomas the Tank Engine. I bought them for £1 for a pack of 6 lollies in Asda. Even though my kids are getting a bit too old to be interested in Thomas they were still excited to try these.

The Thomas lollies don't look quite as good out of the wrapper as they do on the box. The ice lollies were all a bit squashed at the front. Despite this they were still bright enough and cute enough to satisfy my kids. The ice cream taste is quite a basic vanilla, very sweet and not too creamy. The raspberry blue bits have a vague fruitiness about them. It's quite hard to distinguish the flavours between the two colours. Bigger kids might be disappointed if they think the blue colouring will equal a bubblegum flavouring but the subtle flavours are more suitable for little kids. Overall they are a great value lolly that is a fun product too.

There are also cute Hello Kitty and Peppa Pig ice lollies available in the same range.

Mr Men Yogurts: Mr Happy & Mr Bump

I've mentioned many times that I love the Mr. Men range of children's food products in Tesco. Here we have another new addition, Mr. Bump Vanilla Yogurt with Chocolate Rocks and Mr. Happy Vanilla Yogurt with Chocolate Beans.

One of the reasons I love this range is because of it's bright packaging and the thoughtfulness of the designs. Kids will love the fact that the chocolates featured in the yogurt have been incorporated into the Mr. Men picture on the front of the pack. Mr. Bump is seen injuring himself with a falling chocolate rock, whilst the ever jovial Mr. Happy is seen merrily juggling with the chocolate beans.

Importantly these products also taste very good. My kids prefer vanilla yogurt rather than fruity flavours so these have become a firm favourite with them. The yogurt has a lovely creamy flavour that kids will enjoy and added vanilla flavour enhances the sweetness.

I haven't bought my kids many yogurts with chocolate portions before. They don't really like mixing the chocolate in with the yogurt. Like many kids they like to keep different food groups separate! However with these they seemed quite happy to dip the chocolate into the yogurt. The chocolate pieces actually taste quite nice on there own. I thought they might be quite cheap tasting for the price but it's actually decent chocolate. The Chocolate Beans are basically mini smarties while the Chocolate Rocks are actually little biscuit pieces covered in chocolate.

These yogurts are currently on offer for 50p for a twin pack. This is excellent value for yogurts of this type and I have stocked up on quite a few!

You might also be interested in:

Mr. Men Ice Lollies
Mr. Men Yogurt Drinks
Mr. Men Chocolate Characters

New Krispy Kreme Doughnuts: Chocolate Praline Fudge Cake and Pistachio & White Chocolate Nougat.

Even though I had hotfooted it to Krispy Kreme purely to try their new Salted Caramel doughnut I also couldn't resist buying the other two new doughnuts in this range. I officially have no self-control when it comes to doughnuts.

To be fair the Chocolate Praline Fudge Cake doughnut (is it a cake or a doughnut?) looked delicious and quite irresistible. The doughnut is covered in a rich milk chocolate with golden coloured nuts around the edge. Underneath all that lovely chocolate coating the actual doughnut is not the usual Krispy Kreme but one of their denser chocolate doughnuts.

I hadn't actually read the description of this doughnut online but judging by it's name I was expecting it to taste like a chocolate fudge cake with some nuts on it. I haven't liked many of Krispy Kreme's chocolate doughnuts in the past so I thought this would be vastly inferior to the new Salted Caramel doughnut. I'm happy to admit I was completely wrong in my assumption that the Chocolate Praline Fudge Cake would taste of chocolate fudge cake. Silly me.

Instead I would like you to imagine Nutella in the form of a doughnut. Imagine that the lightly chocolate flavoured doughnut is covered in a rich hazelnut chocolate, with added hazelnut praline pieces along the edges. Congratulations you have now imagined exactly what the Chocolate Praline Fudge Cake tastes like and it's just as delicious as it sounds.

If I had read the description of this doughnut online then all would have been revealed sooner. It's described as "covered in a rich milk chocolate hazelnut sauce, hand rolled in caramelised hazelnuts and drizzled with dark chocolate icing". The clue to the Nutella taste is in the word hazelnut. I'm still not sure how this is the same as a fudge cake but I'll forgive Krispy Kreme because this doughnut is friggin' gorgeous. I might even have preferred it to the Salted Caramel doughnut - sssh don't tell anyone!

Would I buy this doughnut again? Hell yes, and just try to stop me. I almost don't want to know if my local Tesco starts to stock these because then I will find myself nipping out for "milk" quite regularly.

The same cannot be said for the third and final new doughnut from Krispy Kreme, the Pistachio & White Chocolate Nougat. It's not that I had high hopes for this doughnut. In fact I went against all my inner feelings, based on what it looked like, and just bought it because it's new. I do that quite a lot.

Now there might be some people that would look at this doughnut and think "ooh that looks nice" but I'm not one of them. It just looks a bit busy and almost chintzy. If Laura Ashley made doughnuts this is how they would look. The doughnut is lavishly decorated, almost with abandon, with a variety of toppings. It looks like a veritable fruit and nut basket atop a doughnut.

Inside there is what Krispy Kreme describe as a "smooth pistachio praline Kreme". It has a nice pale green colour but that's the best thing I can say about how it looks. Although in the end the look of this doughnut turned out to be the best thing about it.

The fruity bits on top are actually "honey and raspberry flakes" which have an oddly slimy and sticky texture. They are tangy and fruity but are not something that I would want to eat again. The white chocolate drizzle doesn't taste of chocolate at all. If it hadn't been described as white chocolate I would never have guessed it from the taste. It's simply a sugary icing, that's it. Even the pistachio pieces on top of the doughnut are disappointing and don't have much flavour. Similarly, the inner pistachio cream doesn't taste of pistachio, it's just a very sweet creamy, quite bland filling. There is very little taste to it at all. Maybe I tried one from a bad batch but there was nothing about this doughnut that lived up to it's name. It doesn't taste of white chocolate, nor pistachio and where the word "nougat" fits into all this completely baffles me.

I don't want to leave this on a negative note though, the other two doughnuts in this new range are delicious - so two out of three being doughnut perfection is not bad at all! If you've tried any of these doughnuts then let me know how you got on. If not, which one would you choose?

You may also be interested in:
New Krispy Kreme Salted Caramel Doughnut

Dip Dab Ice Lollies

I first heard about these earlier this year but I hadn't actually spotted any to buy until this weekend. I picked up this pack of 8 lollies from Asda (no prizes for guessing how much) for £1. My kids are quite big fans of the original Dip Dab sweets, they always choose them if they are allowed free reign in a sweet shop. If you have been living on Mars, or are too young to know any better, Dip Dabs are a retro sweet which consists of little pouches of sherbet with a strawberry flavour lolly to dip into it.

The Dip Dab ice lollies were much bigger then I thought they would be, almost twice as long as a Mini Milk. The colours were not as bright or distinct as they appear on the packaging. The white and red layers blend together to form a pinkish ice lolly, that doesn't look particularly appetising. They look even worse in the photo below. Although that wasn't even the first thing I noticed when I opened the wrapper. There was such a strong strawberry smell coming from these that everyone in my vicinity knew I was eating one. It's a very sweet and enticing smell. I'm quite surprised that these lollies use "all natural colours and flavourings", as claimed on the box, because I should think mother nature would need a helping hand to create such a smell.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the taste, I'm afraid I couldn't give these a proper testing, they were far too sour for me. I know I have quite a sweet tooth but I still wasn't expecting to find the taste so sour. This lolly had me pulling a face like a baby sucking a lemon - not pleasant. In total contrast my two boys were happily eating the lollies as if they were the sweetest treat ever. In fact I doubt they are that sour at all, I'm obviously just a complete wimp when it comes to sourness! The flavours are essentially a lemon sherbet on the outside (sour!) and a sweet strawberry for the rest of the lolly. It's quite a nice idea but I'm not sure about the execution.

I probably won't be buying these again but they were a fun, if somewhat basic, treat which my kids enjoyed. They are only 44 calories a lolly which is excellent for the size. I'd like to see more classic sweets brought to ice lolly form. My vote is for a fizzy cola bottle ice lolly!

You may also be interested in: Chilli powder Dip Dab sweets from Mexico!