Review: Nestlé Shredded Wheat Apple Crumble

My son is a big fan of mini Shredded Wheat so I've been meaning to buy their flavoured versions for awhile now. There's also a Cherry Bakewell flavour available in this range which are now in regular cereal boxes rather than bags.

The Nestlé Shredded Wheat Apple Crumble is described as a bitesized whole wheat cereal with apple filling and a vanilla flavour nutty crumble topping. The nutty topping contains peanuts and 'other nut's'. 

The crumble topping gives each bite a sweet biscuity type flavour. However, I couldn't detect any vanilla (or nuttiness so the addition of nuts seems a bit pointless). The apple flavour is quite strong, despite the small amount of filling in each Shredded Wheat, which adds a tangy fruitiness. The overall flavour is pleasing enough, it's nicely fruity and quite sweet. I think they are slightly disappointing in terms of the 'Apple Crumble' theme as they don't quite have the right flavour. I would have loved to see the addition of cinnamon in the crumble topping and some more apple filling to really boost the overall flavour. 

Grocery Gems Review: Shredded Wheat Apple Crumble

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Maybe.
Purchased: Ocado.
Price: £2.49p.

Check out my previous cereal reviews:

Nestlé Cheerios Cinnamon Oat Crisp Cereal
Nestlé Spooky Cinnamon Shreddies 

Review: Müller Rice Remix Greek Inspired - Apple

A quick review for the new Greek Inspired Müller Rice Remix Apple flavour. I don't usually buy Müller Rice but I couldn't resist the description of the rice flavoured with a 'hint of cinnamon'. This is much more appealing to me than regular rice pudding.

I was hoping that the 'hint of cinnamon' would actually be a stronger than just a 'hint' and I certainly wasn't disappointed. The rice has a lovely golden brown colouring with plenty of cinnamon spice throughout. The flavour is deliciously creamy with a well balanced cinnamon flavour - not too strong or too weak. The apple compote on the side has a sweet stewed apple flavour and adds some additional fruitiness and sweetness. However, I could happily enjoy the rice on it's own without the fruit - it's all about the cinnamon for me!

There is also a Strawberry flavour available too - let me know if you've tried that one.

Grocery Gems Review: Müller Rice Remix Greek Inspired - Apple

RATING: 8 out of 10.

Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition (per 100g): 107 calories - each pot is 150g.
Purchased: Asda.
Price: £1.96p (multipack).

Cawston Press Sparkling Drinks - Rhubarb and Cloudy Apple

Cawston Press is known for it's range of high quality pressed juices. They've recently launched two sparkling drinks in cans inspired by quintessential British garden flavours; Cloudy Apple and Rhubarb. These are proudly "grown up" drinks, offering a different take on the canned drink, which are usually high in sugar and additives. Each Cawston Press canned drink is made from pressed fruit juices (not from concentrate) that are mixed with sparkling water for a lighter alternative.

Cloudy Apple: This drink has only three ingredients listed; Pressed Apple Juice (78%), Sparkling Water, and Vitamin C. That's it, nothing else! I don't think I have ever seen a canned drink to have such simple ingredients and especially one without any type of added sugar or sweeteners. The result is a flavoursome and natural tasting apple drink with a lovely light sparkling quality, that is not too fizzy. The apple flavour is crisp but still very sweet and enjoyable. 

Rhubarb: This was my favourite of the two drinks, only because rhubarb is such an unusual flavour as a sparkling drink. The ingredients here are; Sparkling Water, Pressed Rhubarb Juice (12%), Pressed Apple Juice (8%), Sugar, Malic Acid, and Vitamin C. The rhubarb taste is absolutely delicious here, a perfectly fruity balance of sweetness and tartness. It really does remind me of all my favourite rhubarb desserts, but as a drink!

Overall, I would highly recommend the new Cawston Press sparkling drinks range. I enjoyed their fresh fruity flavours and will be hunting down my nearest stockist! 

Grocery Gems Review: Cawston Press Sparkling Drinks

RATING: 9 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.
Purchased: Available at Waitrose.
Nutrition (per 330ml can): Cloudy Apple - 99 calories, Rhubarb - 125 calories.

Products sent for an honest review. 

Japanese Sweets Round Up: Puccho, Hi-Chew & More

I've been trying out some gorgeous Japanese sweets courtesy of Oyatsu Cafe. If you've never tried any sweets from the Hi-Chew or Puccho brands then I highly recommend giving them a go. The flavours and textures are always of a high standard and very tasty. It also helps that the packaging is super cute too!

The first candy I tried was this watermelon flavoured gummy stick. I'm not usually a fan of melon or watermelon flavoured sweets so I didn't expect to enjoy this one, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how yummy it is!

The watermelon flavour is surprisingly sweet and fresh tasting, there is no artificial edge or aftertaste with these. I couldn't resist eating the whole thing in one go, it's incredibly moreish. Rating: 9 out of 10.

Next are the individually wrapped gummy sweets; Hi-Chew Apple, Hi-Chew Strawberry and the Puccho Peach Plum.

The Puccho Peach Plum is a gorgeously peach scented sweet that hides a little sour surprise in the middle - it's infused with extra sweets! It's so sweetly peachy but has a really tangy flavour from the plum candies nestled in the centre. Again, I absolutely loved these sweets, they're so unique and completely delicious too. Rating: 10 out of 10.

The Hi-Chew varities offer a much sweeter candy with plenty of chewiness and full fruity flavour. It's worth trying Hi-Chew just for the extreme chewy nature of the sweets, which lasts for much longer than regular sweets. I enjoyed both the Strawberry and the Apple flavour, they're both spot on with an authentic flavour and very satisfying. Rating 8 out of 10. I've also previously reviewed the Hi Chew Golden Kiwi HERE. 

Take a look at Oyatsu Cafe for all their newest and limited edition Japanese snacks! 

Don't forget you can use the discount coupon GROCERYGEMS for 15% discount off any Oyatsu Cafe order. 

Tesco Christmas Apple & Cinnamon Pies

My husband and two boys all absolutely HATE raisins which of course means that they refuse to eat mince pies. I was therefore quite pleased to find these Apple & Cinnamon pies at Tesco to review, as I hoped they could be a welcome alternative to mince pies, especially since we all love cinnamon. It turns out that I should have read the back of the box before purchasing as these pies actually contain sultanas. I know that apples and raisins are quite a common combination but I hadn't expected them as an addition in these Apple & Cinnamon pies. I suppose the only good news, is that I get to keep these all for myself. 

The pies are quite generously sized, and are slightly larger than the Tesco brand mince pies that I've tried this year. They also have an attractive lattice type pastry top.

Each pie has a decent enough amount of filling, although perhaps there wasn't enough of the apple pieces. However, I'm the type of person who loves pastry so I was more than happy with the ratio found here. Ultimately it's the cinnamon flavour that is the real winner in these pies, as it's completely delicious. The cinnamon is sweet and strong and tastes wonderful alongside the apple. Even though I really did like these pies, I would still have preferred them to be sultana free, just so the rest of my family could enjoy the delicious cinnamon flavour too.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Tesco Apple & Cinnamon Pies

RATING: 8 out of 10
Buy them again?: I would recommend them to cinnamon fans.
Nutrition: 225 Calories.
Purchased: Tesco.
Price: £1.65 for six pies. 

Review: Thorntons Special Toffee Slab Range

There are quite a few foods (and drinks) associated with Bonfire Night, but one of the most well known is Bonfire Toffee. Traditionally this was made from black treacle and was often supplied with a little hammer to break up the hard toffee slab. These days toffee apples seem to be more wide available than toffee slabs so I was happy to be asked to sample some of the new Nostalgia range at Thorntons. It includes three flavours of Special Toffee Slab; Tutti Frutti, Apple Crumble and Chocolate Brownie!

I couldn't wait to try the Apple Crumble flavour first, no doubt because of the Toffee Apple association, it just seems like an ideal pairing for a toffee slab. The slab itself looks very appealing, there are plenty of dried apple pieces on the top, and a sprinkling of the crumble. The apple scent was immediately inviting, and I couldn't wait to get smashing and tuck in!

Believe me I had a LOT of fun whacking the toffee with a hammer to break it up! The toffee itself had a gorgeous texture, not too hard, but with a decent chew and a lovely soft melt. There is a strong apple flavour running throughout the toffee, not just in the apple pieces. It's quite a fresh tasting tangy apple flavour, so it provides a lovely counterbalance to the sweetness of the toffee itself. It's a satisfying combination, and I especially loved the full on apple flavour!

The Chocolate Brownie toffee slab is quite unusual but looks fabulous with it's dark glossy colouring. The bits on the top are "chocolate biscuit crumble pieces" rather than brownies but the whole thing does look very effective as a chocoholics treat.

I found this toffee much harder in texture than the previous Apple Crumble, even though it was at room temperature. I would recommend breaking (or rather whacking) this one up into smaller pieces that can be eaten directly, rather than attempting to take a bite out of a piece - you have been warned! The flavour is impressively chocolately, much more so than I was expecting, and once it starts to melt in the mouth provides a gorgously intense chocolate flavour. The rich, almost dark, chocolate flavour melts to reveal the deliciously buttery flavour from the toffee.

There is also a Tutti Frutti flavour available. It's described as a tutti frutti flavour toffee decoarted with coloured tutti frutti flavour fudge pieces. I'm mainly saving this one to enjoy tonight with our fireworks but I've had a quick nibble and it has a distinctly tropical fruitiness. The flavour is mainly of a sweet pineapple with some added citrus zestiness. It's completely unique and I'll update with some more photos soon!

This is a fabulous range of toffee slabs from Thorntons. I loved the traditional feel and quirkiness of the packaging, which captures the essence of the nostalgia theme. (Look out for the fun "Key to Toffee Making Machine" on the bottom of the boxes!). They're perfect for Bonfire Night and many other nights too :)

I received these products in order to write an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Thorntons Special Toffee

RATING: 8 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes - especially the Apple Crumble!
Vegetarian: Yes.
Nutrition (per 100g serving): 513 cals (Apple), 511 cals (Tutti Frutti), 512 cals (Choc).
Available: From Thorntons stores or online HERE
Price: £5.99 each.

Review: M&S Hot Toffee Apple Pudding Bake

I always try to have a delicious dessert in the house on a Tuesday night. The Great British Bake Off always makes me crave a baked treat and this Hot Toffee Apple Pudding Bake from M&S looked like it would be the perfect accompaniment. It's a dessert that's been available from M&S before but I've not seen it in my local store until recently.

It's quite a small bake, and only takes 10 minutes in the oven to warm through, but was enough to provide four decent servings. It's made up of a Bramley apple compote layer on the bottom, a moist toffee sponge in the centre, all topped with a rich toffee sauce and extra fudge pieces. The whole thing is extremely sweet, possible a bit too sweet  for me, but is still very tasty. All the elements are perfectly executed as you would expect from Marks & Spencer and it does make a satisfying dessert.

In other news, I've just seen that M&S have created a "Peanut Butter Heaven Dessert" with a shortbread base, caramel sauce and peanut butter layer. I know what I'll be getting for my fix next Tuesday then!

Grocery Gems Verdict: M&S Hot Toffee Apple Pudding Bake

RATING: 7.5 out of 10.
Buy them again?: I would recommend it.
Purchased: M&S.
Price: £2.99.

Review: Brain Blasterz - Super Sour Sweets!

Recently I received an awesome parcel of super sour goodies from the lovely people at Brain Blasterz. The whole range features fantastic packaging with it's bold warning colours and gnarly skull. It's all superb fun but don't worry if you're not a fan of sour sweets, many of these are actually very sweet. Since there are so many different products I'm going to start with the sweetest and end with the devilishly sour!

Apple Sour Straps & Strawberry Sour Straws

The Sour Straps and Sour Straws are definitely the sweetest of the bunch. The Sour Straps have a lovely apple flavour with a zingy aftertaste. The Sour Straws have a sweet strawberry flavour and even though I was expecting the coating to be a sour sherbert, it turned out to be quite sugary. I loved these!

Candy Brain Bitz

The Candy Brain Bitz (great name!) are very similar to Nerds candy, except with fruitier flavours and without the garish artificial colours. Each box feature two flavours which are partitioned down the middle. Either Apple and Strawberry, or Lemon and Raspberry.

The sweets are small, chewy and very addictive. The Apple is very fruity, with a predominantly sweet flavour. The Strawberry was surprisingly the most sour of all, with a really tart fruitiness. I loved the Raspberry ones, they're very sweet with a zingy sherbet type flavour to finish. The Lemon sweets have a zesty sour flavour whilst still retaining plenty of sweetness.

Oozing Brain Gum

Now we're getting on the the really sour stuff. The ones that you'll want to buy just to watch the expression on your unsuspecting victims face.

The little tub of Oozing Brain Gum (another brilliant name) opens up to reveal lots of individually sealed chewing gums. They're quite sticky because each gum is oozing liquid from the moment it's opened. The flavour is instantly very sour from the liquid within, but the sweeter outer gum helps to counterbalance the sourness somewhat.

Candy Spray

The Candy Sprays are really fun. They squirt a super sour shot. The apple has an instant sourness gives way slightly to a fruity apple flavour. The Raspberry is even more sour if that is possible.

This is definitely a product for the kids. For some reason they are able to keep keep a straight face while they spray this - whilst I look like a baby who's just been given a lemon. I don't know how they do it! Suffice to say they enjoyed these immensely.

Brain Blasterz Mega Sour

The sourest of all, these remind me of Toxic Waste sweets. They're more of a novelty candy that only really exists in order to watch the reaction of those that are brave enough to try one. These are perfect for trying out the Brain Blasterz Straight Face Challenge - try to keep a calm reaction on your face whilst eating one. It's impossible!

Inside the funky packaging there are lots of individually wrapped sweets in four flavours; watermelon, blueberry, lemon and apple.

The sweets are coated with an aggressively sour coating that is so sour it almost hurts (not literally but then I'm obviously a wimp). Hold out for long enough and you are quickly rewarded with the sugary fruity flavour of the sweet within. But just to make sure you haven't forgotten that first sour experience they hold an extra surprise too - a powdery sour centre!

I love the tagline on all the products - Warning! Not for Babies Wimps Adults. Suffice to say these are for firmly for kids - and and they will absolutely love them. My two certainly did and to be honest I'm quite happy to take the Sour Straws and leave them to the rest!

I received these products in order to write an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

Limited Edition Crusha Apple & Blackcurrant

I've been waiting to see what the latest Limited Edition offering from Crusha would be. I loved the Vanilla Ice Cream from a few years back and also the Cherry & Vanilla from last year. Although this is purely due to the fact that I use Crusha in a rather unusual way and not for making milkshakes! See my post HERE for more details but basically Crusha works brilliantly to create flavoured colas and fizzy drinks. It's not as weird as it sounds, since Crusha is essentially a flavoured syrup and doesn't have any milk ingredients itself, it can work well add extra flavour to soft drinks. However, I only ever use it with diet drinks and I certainly wouldn't recommend adding more syrup to the full fat versions!

The latest Crusha variety this year is the Limited Edition Apple & Blackcurrant. It's surprising to note that there are no artificial flavourings in this drink because the flavour is very similar to that found in apple and blackcurrant sweets rather than any real fruit. The sugary flavour is dominated by the blackcurrant, with only a hint of the apple. I personally can't imagine this tasting good with milk, but since I never drink the stuff I can't really be the judge of that!

The Apple & Blackcurrant was enjoyable as a mixer for fizzy drinks, adding a little bit of extra sweetness and fruity flavour, but I doubt I would buy it again. Even though I only buy Crusha on rare occasions anyway, I'm still hoping the next one will again be vanilla based.

Limited Edition Magnum No. 5 Stolen Kiss Tarte Aux Pommes

I previously reviewed the new Magnum First Kiss Crème Brûlée here and I've been eager to try the other flavours in the Five Kisses range - the Magnum No.5 Stolen Kiss especially! It's described as a "vanilla ice cream, with apple sauce, nutmeg pastry pieces, coated in white chocolate with cinnamon". So far I've only seen the Magnum Stolen Kiss for sale in individual boxes, which means you'll need to look for it in smaller freezer cabinets in local shops or supermarkets.

The Magnum itself was slightly smaller than I was expecting, only 68g. Considering it cost £1.99 I was expecting a regular size Magnum. However, the white chocolate looked gorgeous, with generous amounts of fragrant cinnamon speckled throughout.The taste fully lived up to my high expectations for a cinnamon white chocolate, it's simply delicious - rich and creamy chocolate with lots of cinnamon spicy flavour. I could eat a whole bar of chocolate just like this!

The pastry pieces are doughy and delicious, with a little bit of spiced flavour too. They work well with the creamy vanilla ice cream that Magnum is so good at. The apple sauce and pieces were slightly less appetising, it's the kind of apple flavour you would find in something like a McDonald's or a Mr. Kipling Apple Pie. It's a little too artificial and sweet for my liking. However, I still preferred the overall flavours in this Tarte Aux Pommes to the previous Crème Brûlée version I reviewed, and I would buy it again just for the cinnamon white chocolate coating! It's very expensive for such a small ice cream but still worth a try at least once - I'd like to see this available in a multipack format too.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Magnum Stolen Kiss Tarte Aux Pommes

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes, I loved the outer chocolate.
Nutrition: 210 calories.
Purchased: Tesco Express.
Price: £1.99p each.

New Maynards Sour Patch Kids Soda Popz

Maynards Sour Patch Kids were released in the UK late last year (see my previous review here) and by the looks of things they've been very successful as they've already added this new Soda Popz variety to the range. I've been trying to find them ever since I heard they were being launched so I was very lucky to be offered the chance to try some packs.

There are five different flavours in each packet, all based on popular soda drinks; Cola, Orangeade, Cherryade, Tropical and Apple Fizz. It's a great selection of fizzy flavours!

Just like the regular Sour Patch Kids sweets these are described as "Sour then turning Sweet". This is because they're coated (liberally!) with a sour sugar coating that dissolves quickly, leaving behind the inner sugary sweet flavour. It's a great idea and the overall sweetness means they're especially enjoyable for those that don't usually like sour sweets.

I love the look of the Sour Patch Kids sweets - they're just like Jelly Babies but with a teenager spiky haircut. So it's probably fitting that as the jelly teenagers of the sweetie world they're now available in soda flavours! The Cola is the most sour of the five, as the fizzy flavour seemed to last the longest before the sweetness kicked in. The other flavours were a lot sweeter and not really that sour - the Orangeade, Cherryade and Apple Fizz are quite sour tasting at the start, but that is immediately followed by their sweet fruity flavour. The Tropical flavour was interesting, but quite hard to pin down the exact fruit - it just has that vague tropical taste!

Overall, the five flavours are all extremely moreish and tasty. I also like the fact that these are made with all natural colours.

I received this product from Maynards' PR company in order to provide an honest review and all views are my own.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Sour Patch Kids Soda Popz

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: The kids love them - so yes!
Nutrition (per 8 sweets): 80 cals, 14.0g sugars, 0.1g fat.
Vegetarian: Not suitable.

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!