New York Snack & Shopping Haul!

The globetrotting adventures of Mr. Grocery Gems continued recently with a visit to New York City last month. It's all in the name of work, but luckily he managed to get some shopping done too (and of course I'd given him a ridiculously long list!). It goes without saying that he brought home a generous amount of candy bars such as Payday, 100 Grand and 5th Avenue to name just a few (see photo above!). These were all bought in places such as Duane Reade and Walgreen's as they seemed to be the easiest places to find chocolate and groceries in Manhattan.

Luckily he also made it in time to find lots of Christmas themed chocolates and candies. He bought two large bags of festive M&M's which are coloured red, green and white, two types of Christmas Peeps, and a large pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Trees.

Unfortunately he couldn't find any of the limited edition flavoured Oreos (he really wanted to get the new Cinnamon Buns flavour!) but he did get this awesome Winter Oreo pack. They have a red coloured creme and cute winter characters on each biscuit.

In the early days of this blog I used to review American cereals quite regularly. However we rarely buy them these days so it was fun to get some old favourites as a one-off treat. I especially liked the fun pack of mini Kellogg's cereals!

From the New York M&M's World he found this simply awesome apple shaped container filled with I♥NY printed M&M's. This was easily the most popular gift with the kids, they were absolutely enthralled with it!

Away from the world of chocolate, Mr. Grocery Gems also surprised me with an amazing haul from Bath & Body Works. Sadly we don't have this store in the UK but all it's products are just gorgeous - these foaming hand washes are phenomenal!

Just look at how cute their PocketBac hand sanitisers are! And they all smell fab too. My favourite is the Jolly Gingerbread Oh Snap.

The Bath & Body Works range of home fragrances is really worth a try too. These large three-wick candles have the most beautiful packaging (the silver lids have an embossed snowflake design) and have lovely festive fragrances; the two pictured are Vanilla Bean Noel and Marshmallow Fireside.

Last, but not least, was a much anticipated visit to the Nintendo World store in New York. Mr. Grocery Gems bought quite a lot here, most of which is top-secret until Christmas! One thing that was top of our shopping list were these cute 8-bit Mario plush cushions.

Even though our Christmas tree has a simple red, white and silver theme, it's now rocking these bright yellow Mario ornaments too. Thanks Mr. GG!

New Instore: Maltesers Cake Mix and M&M's Cookie Mix

Maltesers Cake Mix and M&M's Cookie Mix: I'm a big fan of Pinterest with all it's visual treats that are seemingly impossible to replicate. There are hundreds of photos of impressive looking Maltesers cakes and M&Ms loaded cookies on Pinterest so it's kind of a genius move from Mars to provide instant cake and cookie mixes for this. I would definitely be tempted to give both of these a try. Spotted in Morrisons - £1.98p and £2.43p.

A big thank you to Luci J. who spotted these and sent me the above photo. Thank you!

Review: Chocolate Mega M&M's - Limited Edition

We don't really see the release of many new M&M's products in the UK, and usually the difference is simply to do with the colours involved (like the recent M&M's Red, White & Blue limited edition), so I was pleased to find these limited edition Mega M&M's instore at Asda. Unsurprisingly these are just bigger versions of regular M&M's - three times bigger by weight in fact.

The Mega M&M's colour mix is exactly the same as standard Chocolate M&M's - yellow, blue, green, red, orange and brown. The larger size of these Mega M&M's are very similar to Galaxy Minstrels (which are also made by Mars), but the flavour of the inner chocolate is considerably different. Whereas Galaxy Minstrels has a very caramel-leaning, creamy flavoured chocolate, the Mega M&M's feature the familiar extra sweet, and less smooth M&M's chocolate, that is nonetheless still very tasty. Personally I prefer the sweeter Mega M&M's flavour to Minstrels, but then I'm not a huge fan of Galaxy chocolate.

For comparison, above are the exact same number (and colour) of Mega M&Ms and standard chocolate M&M's side by side to show the size difference. I think the Mega M&M's would make great fairy cake or cupcake decorations - just one chocolate on top of the icing of each cake would be really cute. 

Have you tried the new Mega M&M's? Let me know what you thought in the comments below. 

Grocery Gems Review: Mega M&M's Limited Edition (UK)

RATING: 8 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition: 208 calories (per 43.6g portion - 1/3 of the bag).
Purchased: Asda.
Price: £1.00p (128g bag).

New M&M's Hot Chocolate with Mini M&M's

Earlier this year I reviewed the new range of Mars branded hot chocolate pouches, including; Magic Stars, Mars, Galaxy, Galaxy Ripple and Galaxy Caramel (see my review HERE). I was quite surprised to see a new addition to the range in the shops already - M&M's Hot Chocolate with Mini M&M's. This hot chocolate can be made with water or with milk and contains mini M&M's within the powder.

Initially there didn't look like there were any M&M's inside my pack, they weren't visible even when I shook the bag. However, when I scooped out three spoonfuls (I used a plate as I couldn't get a clear photo from the bottom of a mug), there were actually plenty of mini M&M's to be found. 

Once I made the hot chocolate the mini M&M's seemed to mostly sink to the bottom of the mug, but they were still noticeable as I was drinking, adding little bursts of extra chocolate flavour. The drink itself has a satisfying chocolate flavour that reminded me of dark chocolate (although that may be because I used water rather than milk and also made a fairly small cup). This M&M's Hot Chocolate also impressed me by not being too sweet, I was expecting it to be quite sugary but that wasn't the case at all, and added to the strength of the chocolate flavour. Overall it's a very enjoyable hot chocolate and a great addition to the range. I get the feeling that this one has been designed to enjoy with some whipped cream on top and extra M&M's to decorate! 

Grocery Gems Verdict: M&M's Hot Chocolate

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition (per 20g): 82 calories.
Purchased: Sainsbury's.
Price: £1.99 (140g pouch).

M&M's Limited Edition Halloween Green & Orange Colours

M&M's have released new colour mix for Halloween. These Limited Edition green and orange Peanut M&M's feature a really fun looking (or should I say spooky) design on the front packaging, and come in either a 300g 'More to Share' Pouch or a 100g individual sized Treat Bag.

I'm not going to review these in terms of flavour, as they are simply Peanut M&M's in a different mix of colours. Some people may be disappointed by the lack of any autumnal flavour here (wouldn't pumpkin spice or cinnamon M&M's in the UK be fab?), but personally I still like these Limited Edition M&M's. I always look forward to these special colour mixes. Perhaps it's because I have kids who love M&M's World in Leicester Square, London, and have spent more money than I care to admit on whatever colour of M&M's catches their eye when they see THIS brightly coloured pick 'n' mix display! Seriously, last time we went my eldest son bought a small bag of their 'gold' (basically dark yellow) M&M's and it cost about £7.00, yes really. So we're all a little bit obsessed with different colours of M&M's and this new orange and green bag looks perfect for Halloween!

Grocery Gems Verdict: M&M's Halloween Green & Orange Colours

Rating: 7 out of 10
Buy it again: I look forward to the Christmas colour mix next!

Purchased: Tesco.

Price: £2.00 (for large 350g bag).

Around the World: MEXICO - Futbol M&Ms, Chutazo Eggnog Footballs & More!

And talking about awesome brothers (see my previous post here!), I also received a gorgeous birthday parcel of Mexican goodies courtesy of my globetrotting older brother. He's sent me some fantastic snacks over the past few months and I was thrilled with this parcel containing four products from Mexico; Futbol M&Ms, Cocoy Coconut Candy, La Carona Chutazo, and Takis Paleta Fuego. I've been wanting to include Mexico in my Around the World Challenge for quite some time and now I get to do it in style. Thanks big bro! 

Futbol M&M's: These are regular Peanut M&M's but feature football themed packaging for the World Cup and also a collectible M&M flag figure. I got France! 

Remember when cereal boxes, and even sometimes crisp packets, would contain little toys/tokens like these? They seem to have disappeared in the UK but I've seen them quite often in products from overseas. I would definitely be trying to collect all these M&Ms flag figues if they were available here!

La Corona - Chutazo Edición Mundialista: At first glance these look like a cool set of three football shaped chocolates, each with different flag wrappings to collect. But on closer inspection these contain an enigmatic feature that I would love to get to the bottom of. The mystery? These are EGGNOG filled chocolate balls. There are several different companies that make these Chutazo footballs and they are also eggnog filled. I always thought that eggnog was exclusively a Christmas flavour so if anyone can tell me why it's used for these Chutazo then please leave a comment below!

UPDATE: Take a look at the comment by Niza in the comments section below who explains more about the eggnog (rompope) flavour in Mexico. Thanks Niza!

The packaging is brilliant, with different flag themed wrappers. It's hard to tell from the photo but my three wrappers featured Australia, Korea and Japan.

Each chocolate is quite large, about two thirds the size of a Cadbury Creme Egg, and is moulded to look like a football.

I was quite surprised to discover the soft fondant filling inside! It looks just like a full yolk Cadbury Creme Egg! Even more surprising was the flavour. I'll admit I've never actually tried eggnog before, it's not a very common flavour here in the UK (unless you count Starbucks Eggnog Lattes which are flavourless and sugary). In these Chutazo it's a very sweet, with a slightly spiced undertone, and a dominant alcoholic flavour. The chocolate was much nicer than I expected too, with a cocoa flavour that's able to compete with the strong filling.

Even though I'm not usually a fan of sugary creme eggs or of alcoholic chocolates, there's something wonderful about trying these Chutazo. Maybe it's just the novelty factor but I really enjoyed mine. I'll try the rest on Mr. Grocery Gems! :)

I'll have a review of the other two products in a few days. One is a hellish version of a Dib Dab - a lollipop that comes with a fiery chilli powdery dip!

Limited Edition M&M's Brazil World Cup (UK)

If you read my rather scathing review of the Limited Edition Kit Kat Chunky Orange last week (here), then you might expect a similar review for these Limited Edition Brazil themed M&M's. After all, the only thing that is different about them is the colour. The flavour is certainly nothing new, just good ol' peanut. But despite all that, I really like these colourful blue, green and yellow M&M's! 

The thing is I'm obsessed with flags (I have so many books about flags, posters, maps - even a flag globe on my Around the World page) so these type of flag themed products always appeal to me. I gave the London Olympics themed M&M's a big thumbs up back in 2012 too for the same reasons (review here - but be warned it's in the early days of my blog so it's pretty awful!). The supermarkets are full of party supplies featuring the Brazilian flag for the football World Cup and it's nice to have a chocolate product that fits in with this party atmosphere. I can imagine having bowls of these M&M's at any World Cup get together or even for watching a match on your own, and they will look great. I don't even mind that they are not a special flavour because that's not the point. It's all about the flag, the Bandeira do Brasil, and I think that's fabulous. If anything, I wish these were plain chocolate M&M's rather than peanut ones because they would appeal to more members of my family (i.e. my kids don't like the peanut ones!).

Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments below! 

Grocery Gems Verdict: M&M's Brazil Colours

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Purchased: Tesco.

Price: £1.00.