Review: Aero Mousse Chocolate Bar

The new Aero Mousse bar is described as a bubbly Aero milk chocolate bar with a chocolate mousse layer inside. As exciting as that proposition sounds (which is NOT at all), the reality is even more boring than I expected.

The layer of mousse is very light and whipped in texture, rather than being a thick and creamy mousse. This gives the chocolate filling a light and airy consistency that is similar to another aerated chocolate bar- you know the one, it's called an Aero. The result being that the Aero Mousse tastes identical to a regular Aero chocolate bar. It's still a tasty enough treat, but I'm just not sure what the point of it is. 

Grocery Gems Review: Aero Mousse Chocolate Bar

RATING: 6 out of 10.
Buy them again?: No.
Purchased: Tesco.
Nutrition (per 1/2 bar):  94 calories (as long as you just eat half!).

New Instore: Five Pack Cadbury Creme Eggs & More

Despicable Me Minions Mini Eggs: The ever-popular Minions are back this year with their own movie so I suspect we'll see lots more Minions branded products in the next few months. These milk chocolate Mini Eggs look pretty much like any other mini eggs except they're all yellow. They'd probably be good for Easter themed baking projects. £1.00p at Poundland.

Whole Earth Peanut Butter with seeds: Two new varieties of Whole Earth Peanut Butter spread; Peanut Butter With Sunflower Seeds, and Peanut Butter With Sunflower, Pumpkin & Flax Seeds. £2.50p at Tesco.

Tesco White Chocolate Spread: A few months ago, Tesco held a competition to decide the next biscuit inspired chocolate spread, and they recently announced that the winner is the Millionaire's Shortbread Spread, which should be available soon. Meanwhile, I spotted a White Chocolate Spread which I don't think I've seen in my local store previously. £1.50p at Tesco. 

Udi's Toaster Pastries: I spotted these slightly healthier version of Pop Tarts in the "Free From" section of my local Tesco. They were only £1.00 for a box of 5 so I picked up both flavours to try, Apple Cinnamon and Strawberry - review coming soon! £1.00 at Tesco.

Nakd Bakewell Tart: I know this flavour came out before Christmas but I've had the hardest time trying to find it. The Nakd Bakewell Tart bars are finally available in my local Tesco and even better the whole Nakd bar range is on offer for £0.50p each at the moment. I stocked up on a few more of the Nakd Christmas Pud bars!

Katjes Brad The Bunny: Vegetarian bunny shaped sweets from German confectioners Katjes. I reviewed the Katjes Better Bunny previously and these look very similar. £1.29 at Tesco.

Cadbury Creme Eggs Five Pack: If you're on Twitter, you may have noticed the outcry that occurred when Cadbury confirmed that they have changed the recipe for Creme Eggs, from using Dairy Milk chocolate (around 20% cocoa solids), to using a "standard cocoa mix" (supposedly around 14% cocoa solids). To add even more insult, the traditional Cadbury Creme Egg multipacks will now only contain 5 eggs instead of 6. Bad decision Cadbury, very bad. £2.00p at Tesco.

Thomas & Friends Raspberry Jelly: I couldn't get a decent picture of this but it's a really cute jelly for any Thomas the Tank engine fan. The jelly itself is actually a blue colour and shaped as Thomas himself. The little plastic pot that it comes in can also be reused as a jelly mould - brilliant! I bought one each for my kids even though they are far too old for Thomas the Tank engine. £0.50p each at Tesco.

Ehrmann Crackle Pots Heart Shape: I also though these heart shaped yogurt pots were really cute. They have a large pot of yogurt in the middle with two sections making a heart shape, one with strawberry purée and the other with popping candy. Such a fun idea. £0.89p each at Tesco.

Collective Dairy Limited Edition Coffee Yogurt: The Collective Dairy have released some interesting seasonal flavours, from Pumpkin Spice to Xmas Pudding. Their new Coffee flavoured yogurt for January looks quite intense. If you've tried this one then let me know what you thought in the comments below. £2.40p at Sainsbury's.

A big thank you to Richard W. who sent me some brilliant new product finds via Twitter. These were all spotted at Sainsbury's. Thanks Richard!

Müller Rice Blueberry & Salted Caramel: I can't remember the last time I tried a Müller Rice pot but I'm going to have to track down the Salted Caramel one. £0.70p each at Sainsbury's.

Aero Bubbly Mousse Limited Edition Hazelnut & Choc: I'm hoping that this will taste like a bubbly and light Nutella mousse! Watch this space as I'll definitely be reviewing this one. £1.25p at Sainsbury's.

Red Nose Day - Nose In A Bag: It's Red Nose Day on 13 March this year and this year the Red Noses are these Nose In A Bag characters. I'm sure my kids will want to collect them all! 

Thanks again to Richard. W. for the last photos! Don't forget if you spot any new products instore then I'd love to hear you. Email me at grocerygems@gmail.com. 

Limited Edition Aero Bubbly White

Sigh... Expect to see lots of random outbursts of "the White Chocolate won? REALLY?" in this review. You see, a few months ago Aero asked the good people of Facebook to vote for it's next Limited Edition flavour. Granted the choices were not that great, the prospects were; White Chocolate, Lemon, Cappuccino or Strawberry, but I was still not expecting that the most boring and obvious choice of the lot would win. The White Chocolate won?? Seriously? I demand a recount!

It's an uninspired choice to say the least and it's telling that I purchased it last week and it's been sitting in my review box since then. Normally I would try to review a new chocolate bar by a major brand as soon as I could but this one was not particularly appealing. I mean first off it's not even flipping white! Look at it! From the creamy coloured wrapper I was expecting that this was a full white Aero bar, that would at least be a little bit interesting. But this one is milk chocolate on the outside and white bubbles on the inside, a fact that is written in teeny tiny letters on the back. So it's basically the same as the Polish 2 in 1 Aero that I reviewed last year (see here). 

I do like the Aero Bubbly brand, although I tend to go for those sharing bags of Aero Bubbles rather than the bars. The Aero Bubbly White has the same milk chocolate coating that is present in the rest of the Aero Bubbly range, it's extremely sweet and slightly bland but pleasant nonetheless. The inner white chocolate bubbles have the barest hint of vanilla, but it does taste better than the Polish version overall. 

It's nice enough as a sweet treat and probably worth a try if you're a fan of white chocolate but I still can't see why such a basic flavour should be a limited edition. Perhaps it's time to add white chocolate to the permanent Aero range instead?

Grocery Gems Verdict: Aero White Bubbly

RATING: 6 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Possibly.
Nutrition: 221 calories.
Purchased: Local newsagent.
Price: £0.60p 

Aero Bubbles Mint half and half are back!

A very quick post - I was sent these Aero Bubbles as part of a Bzzagent campaign. Aero Bubbles are returning to a "half and half" look, rather then being completely covered in milk chocolate.

I do prefer this half and half look - having some visible green colour makes these immediately a "minty" snack. The previous Aero Bubbles all had the same milk chocolate coating, regardless of the flavour within. Now all three varieties of Aero Bubbles, orange, milk and mint, have their own unique appearance.

This might seem to be merely a cosmetic change but it does actually alter the balance of flavours. The previous Aero Bubbles had a much thicker layer of milk chocolate, and this was reflected in a smooth chocolate flavour to go along with the refreshing minty filling. These half and half Aero Bubbles have hardly any outer milk chocolate, and even that is a very thin covering. These are practically just an Aero mint layer by itself in a ball. Personally I would prefer it to be half milk chocolate inside aswell, which would give a bit more interest to the overall flavour.

UPDATE: Check out the excellent round up and history of Aero Bubbles so far, on Kev's Snack Reviews!

Grocery Gems Verdict: Aero Bubbles Mint

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Probably.
Nutrition: 195 calories, 1.7g protein, 22.5g Carb, 22.4g sugars, 10.8g fat.

Nestle Tex Review

This Nestle Tex bar was very kindly sent to me by the lovely Hannah from The Review Addict who managed to find the perfect snack to represent South Africa for my Around The World challenge. I think if I'd seen this Nestle Tex in an import shop I would have assumed it was an American bar so I'm very grateful to Hannah to opening my eyes to this hidden gem.

The Nestle Tex looks like an absolute behemoth of a bar in terms of size, it's so chunky and tall that even it's own logo doesn't fit properly on the wrapper. Although when it comes to weight it's firmly in the featherweight category, weighing in at a light 40g. It's made up of some airy ingredients, namely wafer and Aero. In fact the Tex is a chocolate that has a layer of Aero inside it. Truly epic and I couldn't wait to give it a try!

Once unwrapped the bar is very rectangular and neat, with rippled chocolate but no defined segments.

I'll cut straight to this chase, this tasted like a maxed up version of another Nestle product, the Kit Kat Chunky. The combination of wafers and Nestle chocolate is just too familiar a taste experience to not associate it with a Kit Kat. It's essentially a cross between a Kit Kat Chunky and an Aero.

Within the Nestle Tex bar, the wafer layers are even bigger and chunkier, with a much more wafery flavour. Even though that's not an actual word - you get the idea. Wafery. The outer chocolate layer is quite thin and slightly waxy. However, the Aero in between the central wafers, adds an extra chocolate layer and flavour.

The Aero layer is not quite as massive as they make it appear on the packaging but it's still very much an Aero chocolate in appearance. And even better, it really tastes like an Aero too. I'd like to see Nestle make this with an even bigger layer of Aero, one that amounts to an actual Aero bar encassed in wafer and wrapped in more chocolate. Now that would be epic!

Thanks again to Hannah for sending me this bar!

Grocery Gems Verdict: Nestle Tex

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Worth a try if you can find it!
Purchased: Available from import specialists like The Stateside Candy Co.
Price: £1.69.

Aero 2 in 1 Milk and White Chocolate

This Aero 2 in 1 is an imported bar from Poland. It has been around for a while but I spotted one for the first time in a local store this weekend. It's a very basic Aero bar with a fun twist, a milk chocolate outer coating with white chocolate aerated centres.

Remember when all Aero bars looked this way before the "Bubbly" bars took over? I prefer these sleek rectangular pieces.

Unfortunately the taste is quite mediocre - it's not terrible, just a bit boring. The chocolate has that bland almost watery quality that you get with a lot of Nestle chocolates these days. There is a nice creaminess and subtle vanilla sweetness to the inner white chocolate but it's not enough to compensate for the poor cocoa flavour.

I think children would enjoy this chocolate the most, the white inner bubbles are very appealing and it's has a certain fun value.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Aero 2 in 1 Milk & White

RATING: 5 out of 10.
Buy them again?: No.
Nutrition (per 2 bars): 194 calories, 2.9g protein, 18.7g carbohydrate (18.6g sugars), 6.9g fat.
Purchased: Local shop
Price: £0.45p 

Aero Boci Strawberry

There are some unusual chocolate bars hiding on the shelves or your local newsagents or small grocery store. I like this video called 10 Foreign Chocolate Bars 001 from @chocitout because it highlights some of the gems out there. It was on this video that I first saw this strawberry Aero bar (or is that Boci?), which originates from Hungary.

I couldn't quite believe it when I found this very chocolate bar in a local corner shop for 69p. Why had I never noticed this before?! The packaging looks very distinctive with it's green fields and blue skies. I love the picture with the strawberries and pink bubbles too, it's all so girly.

Inside the bar looks just like a regular Aero Bubble bar, with 7 large segments. It has a sweet strawberry smell which struck me as soon as I took off the wrapper. The bubbly chocolate inside each segment was a very satisfying pale pink colour which I just loved.

The strawberry flavour is actually not that strong or overpowering. It's quite a delicate sweet milky strawberry flavour. It's different to the usual strawberry taste you get from selection box chocolates. I enjoyed this bar a lot, but it was probably because of the pink colour and the cute wrapper. No one else in my family liked this chocolate bar at all, they all thought it was horrible. Oh well, more for me!

Let me know if you have spotted any unusual chocolate in your local shops.

Aero Bubbly Bar Limited Edition Orange

Apparently the Aero Bubbly Bar Limited Edition Orange is only available for 12 weeks so if you like this then stock up! It has the same taste as the previously available Aero Orange bars. The difference with the Bubbly Bar range is the new design of the chocolate bar. It now features 10 snappable and bubble shaped segments of chocolate, making it easy to share and even easier to eat!

I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate orange as a flavour, I find the combination is often sickly sweet. I was pleased that the Aero Bubbly Bar is different, probably because of the light and airy texture of the chocolate. The orange taste is zesty and fruity but not too overpowering. I love the look of this bar, the colour is bright orange and the bubbles are very pronounced. It was still a bit too sweet for me and a few pieces go a long way to satisfying any sweet craving.