Review: Vegan Go Max Go Chocolate Bars - Jokerz, Mahalo & Twilight

A trio of vegan chocolate bars for review today. I was lucky enough to get a lovely foodie gift basket from my vegan brother for my birthday. He included loads of interesting vegan treats that I've never tried before but he assured me were just as good (or better!) than the real thing. 

These Go Max vegan bars are all made in the US and have simple, yet distinctive, packaging. These are often sold as vegan versions of the popular chocolate bars - Bounty, Snickers and Mars Bar (the Milky Way Bar in the US).

Twilight: The Twilight bar is described as 'layers of chocolatey nougat and caramel in a chocolatey coating'. I've never been a fan of the regular Mars bar but the Twilight bar is a different story. The nougat is soft and delicious whilst the generously thick caramel layer is extremely satisfying. The outer chocolate is impressive for a vegan bar and adds enough cocoa flavour. The overall bar is very sweet but I really enjoyed it.

Jokerz: The Jokerz is described as 'caramel, peanuts and peanut nougat in a chocolatey coating'. I really loved the peanuty nougat in this one, the hint of saltiness from the peanuts really helps to balance out the sweetness of the nougat and chocolate. Maybe I'm greedy, but I would have liked a few more peanuts in the filling but overall it's a great vegan replacement for the classic Snickers bar.

Mahalo: Lastly is my favourite of the bunch! The Mahalo is described as 'coconut and almonds in a chocolatey coating'. This is billed as the vegan Bounty bar but in my opinion it's much superior. Even though I love coconut I don't like Bounty's at all, especially their horrible texture. The Mahalo bar in comparison has a gorgeously fudgey texture alongside the sweet coconut flavour. The combination of almonds too is a lovely addition. I'd take the Mahalo over a Bounty any day! 

Find the Go Max Go range from many online vegan stores. My brother bought them from www.veganstore.co.uk. They're quite pricey at £2.39 each (I assume because they're US imports) but they're also free from artificial ingredients of any kind or hydrogenated oils . Even my husband, who's not usually a fan of vegan chocolate, enjoyed all of these bars - they're definitely a treat but worth a try!

Grocery Gems Review: Go Max Go Chocolate Bars

RATING: 8 out of 10 (with 9 out of 10 for the Mahalo).
Buy them again?: Maybe next birthday - but YES.
Vegan: Yes
Purchased: www.veganstore.co.uk.
Price: £2.39p each.

Review: Aldi Chocolate Bars - Racer, Titan, Dreemy & Wacko

I recently stepped into Aldi to buy a few fruit and veggies and ended up adding at least five different packs of chocolate bars to my basket. In my defense they're all chocolates that are obviously based on popular chocolate bars - it's only fair that I buy them for a comparison review right? The DairyFine Dreemy is basically a Milky Way, the DairyFine Racer is Snickers, the DairyFine Titan is a Mars Bar and the Belmont Caramel Wacko is a bit like Twix (although not really - see below). These all come in multipacks of various sizes and value but they were all fairly cheap.

DairyFine Dreemy: These are described as lightly whipped nougat covered in milk chocolate. The nougat centre has a darker, more caramel type colour compared to a MilkyWay, but the flavour is very similar. It fact the Dreemy even has the same sweet malty aftertaste that Milky Way chocolate bars have. The outer chocolate is quite thick and has a good cocoa flavour to it as well. Overall these compare very favourable to a Milky Way and I would definitely buy them again. 

RATING: 8 out of 10.

INFO: £0.42p for a six pack. 100 calories per 22g bar.

DairyFine Titan: The Titan is described as a milk chocolate with soft nougat and caramel centre. It looks and tastes very similar to a Mars bar. The caramel especially has a good flavour and the chocolate outer is generously portioned with a very thick layer and has a lovely creamy flavour. The only slight negative is that I did find the nougat a little bland and the whole thing is a bit too sweet for me. However, I would probably say the same thing about Mars bars so they're a decent enough replacement!

RATING: 7 out 10.

INFO: £0.59p for a six pack. 172 calories per 38g bar.

DairyFine Racer: This is a soft nougat with roasted peanuts and caramel coated in milk chocolate. I  much prefer a Snickers bar over a Mars bar any day - the slightly salty edge from the peanuts makes all the difference for me. I was happy to find that the Racer really does capture that delicious roasted peanut and caramel flavour of a Snickers. The nougat layer is quite thin here and there seems to be more caramel which I enjoyed. The chocolate is again very thick and creamy. Mr. Grocery Gems is a Snickers fan and he gave the Racer a thumbs up too.

RATING: 9 out of 10.

INFO: £0.59p for a six pack. 185 calories per 38g bar.

Belmont Wacko: I actually meant to include the DairyFine Jive at this point as it's pretty much an exact match for Twix bars from Aldi (just a bit smaller). However, the Jive bars were all eaten before I could take a photo, which should probably tell you just how good they are. Instead, here are the Wacko chocolate biscuit bars with caramel. They're also delicious with a crunchy shortcake biscuit, thick caramel and creamy chocolate. It's obviously not as Twix-y as the Jive bar so I'll have to update this review at some point.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

INFO: £0.89p for 9 biscuit bars. 102 calories per 21g biscuit bar.

Let me know if you've tried any of these bars in the comments below. I'd also love to hear from you if you've tried any of the other copycat Aldi bars such as the DairyFine Romeo (coconut bars that look similar to Bounty).

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).

Limited Edition Mars Hazelnut and Snickers & Hazelnut

As any Nutella fan knows all too well, hazelnuts and chocolate make the most perfect flavour combination. The idea of a Mars and Snickers bar with hazelnuts is such a simple one but sadly, these are not UK Limited Editions, they're actually from Poland*. Instead we've had the dull recent limited edition of "Mars Extra Choc" - that's a Mars bar with a slightly thicker layer of chocolate. The good news is that these Polish chocolate bars are both fairly easy to find in the UK.

Snickers & Hazelnut: As I'm sure everyone reading this will know, Snickers consists of a thick layer of peanuts within caramel, on top of a layer of nougat. The Snickers & Hazelnuts sees the introduction of hazelnuts within the caramel layer. The ingredients are all in Polish but as far as I can tell, this bar still includes "peanuts" in the ingredients list. The main fillings listed are: nougat (15%), caramel (27%), peanuts (17%) and hazelnuts (only 5.6%).

The chocolate itself looks great, with lots of hazelnuts and peanuts within the caramel layer. Unfortunately when it comes to the flavour it's a bit of a let down. The hazelnuts have quite a soft texture and not much in the way of real hazelnut flavour. Instead, I could predominantly taste the salted peanuts more than the hazelnuts themselves, which were largely flavourless. It's still a tasty chocolate, but it didn't have the hazelnutty flavour I was expecting.

Mars Hazelnut: The Limited Edition Mars Hazelnut (for any US readers the Mars bar in the UK is the same as the Milky Way in the US) differs from the above Snickers & Hazelnut by adding the nuts into the layer of nougat rather than the caramel. The main filling ingredients are nougat (20%), hazelnuts (14%) and caramel (27%). 

The hazelnuts are again quite soft, and it's a shame they're not crunchier, although they still add a little texture and interest to the nougat. As there are no peanuts to compete with the flavour, I could taste the hazelnuts a little more in this Mars edition, although it's still a fairly subtle taste overall. I probably shouldn't have mentioned Nutella at the start of this review as it's clear that neither of these chocolate bars can reach those levels of hazelnut perfection.

Despite that, these are still far more interesting than our recent UK Limited Editions so I don't mean to sound too negative. I still think these Hazelnut Limited Editions are worth a try if you spot them. If you've tried either of these bars then let us know what you thought of them in the comments below!

Grocery Gems Review: Mars Hazelnut and Snickers & Hazelnut

RATING: Mars Hazelnut - 7 out of 10, Snickers & Hazelnut - 6 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Probably.
Nutrition: Mars Hazelnut (47g)- 229 calories, Snickers & Hazelnut (49g) - 240 calories 
Purchased: Large newsagent.
Price: £0.69p each.

*The Snickers & Hazelnut has Mars Polska on the packaging and the ingredients are all in Polish. The Mars Hazelnut has less information but the languages on the back are German and Polish.

Grocery Gems: Top 10 Reviews of 2014

Following on from my Best of 2014 list yesterday, here's a look at the readers favourites - the Top Ten most read reviews of the year on Grocery Gems. It's always a surprise to see which reviews are the most popular and I have to admit that I was completely surprised about some of the posts which made the top ten, including the number one most viewed post on Grocery Gems in 2014! For this list, I left out any post that made the top ten that wasn't actually published in 2014 (there are a couple of reviews from 2013 that are still very popular). You can click on the product name for links to the original review.

10: Coke Life

Just making the top ten is my review of the first new core brand to be released by Coca-Cola since 2006 - Coke Life. This also made my personal favourites of the year list. It's no surprise to me that this is in the top ten, in fact I'm just surprised this review from back in August it wasn't higher up on the list.

9: Müller Corner Bliss Whipped Greek Style Yogurt

This is one of those reviews that I had completely forgotten about so I was completely surprised to see it anywhere near the top ten. The photos are ones that I had taken on my kitchen worktop which usually means that I'm not planning to even review the product (I pretty much take photos of everything now just in case!). Anyway, I'm certainly glad I posted this review in the end, as readers were obvioulsy curious to know more about this new Whipped yogurt from the Müller Corner range. 

8: Lidl Deluxe Coconut Spread

Coming in at number 8 is the Lidl Deluxe Coconut Spread review. This was definitely one of my favourite finds of 2014. Even though it had been around before in previous years, this is the first time I had managed to find and review it. Lidl brings out the Deluxe range of spreads for sale at sporadic intervals during the year and it remains a frustratingly difficult product to find.

7: M&S Toffee Fudge & Belgian Choc Hot Cross Buns

At number 7, the M&S Toffee Fudge & Belgian Chocolate Hot Cross Buns. I was quite shocked to see this review amongst the most popular of the year, I didn't really remember these hot cross buns at all. Looking back, however, they were one of the more interesting products released last Easter, along with the equally tasty Double Chocolate Hot Cross Buns from Tesco. I hope we'll see some interesting hot cross bun flavours for 2015 too.

6: Haribo Minions

I'm pleased to see these Haribo Minions in the Top Ten even though the sweets themselves were quite disappointing in terms of flavour. Despicable Me 2 is one of our favourite family films and I think the cheeky Minions characters are here to stay as popular characters for products aimed at children. In fact, I spotted Minions products for Easter already - check out my instagram photo of these Minions Eggs. 

5: Asda Piñata Cake

Asda came up trumps with this great value piñata cake - a celebration cake filled with sweets. Piñata cakes were already popular on blogs and Pinterest but it's handy to have a supermarket version for anyone who is not a keen baker. Asda often releases celebration cakes with wow factor - such as the Asda Rainbow Cake back in 2013. 

4: Tesco Custard Cream Spread

Reaching the number 4 spot, this review of the Tesco Custard Cream Spread, was the post I was expecting to hit the number one spot easily. I hands down thought this was my most popular review, especially after it was mentioned on various news sites and my photos used on Buzzfeed. However, not only wasn't it number one, there was actually another sweet spread review that beat it on viewing figures.

3: Maltesers Teasers Chocolate Spread

Surprisingly, there are a total of three chocolate spreads in this top ten! I posted this Maltesers Teasers Review just a few days before the Tesco Custard Cream review but I didn't expect it to have been more popular. I guess that's what happens when you turn a favourite chocolate brand into a spread. Here's hoping that 2015 sees the release of a proper Bounty Chocolate Spread! 

2: Walkers Ranch Raccoon Crisps

Of all the crisp reviews I posted in 2014, I didn't expect the one with the worst rating to become the most popular and certainly not to be the second most viewed post. This was a variety that divided crisps fans with it's love-it-or-hate-it gamey meat and sour cream flavour. I wasn't even going to review this variety, having already reviewed all the other varieties in Walkers Do Us A Flavour promotion. However, even though I hated the flavour, I decided to review them just to complete the series. Funnily enough this review was also posted in the same week as the above Tesco Custard Cream Spread and the Maltesers Teasers Chocolate Spread. Looking back that was an important week for Grocery Gems!  

1: Kinder Surprise Disney Princess & Marvel Heroes

And finally, easily being my most popular post of 2014 is this review of the Kinder Surprise Disney Princess and Marvel Heroes range. It's funny to look back and see a Disney Princess product that doesn't include any of the characters from the movie Frozen! This review from back in February 2014 was my most popular post by far in 2014. It even attracted a staggering amount of comments, with a mini swap-shop taking place via the comments section. I thought that was just wonderful! 

I hope you enjoyed this run down of the Top Ten Grocery Gems posts of 2014. Thank you to all my readers, commentators, and anyone who's sent me photos over the year. I really do appreciate your support. Here's to more foodie gems in 2015 :)

New Mars Cakes: Galaxy Treat Cake and Mars Cake Bars

I was recently invited to try out some products from the new Mars range of cakes and cookies. I've already covered a few of these products before with the new Bounty Cookies, Milky Way Cookies, and the new Maltesers Teasers Spread. There were still quite a few products which I haven't tried yet and I was very kindly sent a few to try out. 

The Galaxy Treat Cake looks amazing - it's so fully loaded with chocolaty treats. The cake itself is a large tray bake style chocolate cake topped with Galaxy chocolate buttercream and decorated with mini Galaxy Counters and Ripple chocolate pieces. It's a generous size, with 15 servings, perfect for larger gatherings or parties, and very reasonably priced at £7.00 in Asda. 

The cake itself is simply delicious too. The base cake is a fairly simple chocolate sponge but the added toppings and buttercream have that distinctive creamy Galaxy taste which really gives the traybake an added indulgence. I wouldn't hesitate to buy this if I needed a larger cake for a special event. 

I was also sent a pack of the new Mars Cake Bars - I've really had more than my fair share of cake so far this week! These are small treat sized cake bars with a Mars inspired filling.

These sponge cakes include layers of chocolate cream and caramel. They're super sweet but I was pleasantly surprised by just how much they tasted like a cake version of a Mars bar. There is that same nougat type flavour within the cake layer that makes this much tastier than the average cake bar. I enjoyed the thick layer of caramel combined with the cake and also the generous coating of outer chocolate. I don't usually buy these types of cake bars but judging how popular these were in the Grocery Gems household I'm sure these will find there way into my shopping trolley in the future.

The Mars Cake Bars are available in packs of 5 from Coop, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons - RRP £1.65.

Products sent for an honest review. 

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).

New Milky Way Magic Stars Cookies (and Bounty, Galaxy and Jaffa Cookies at Tesco too!)

Tesco have expanded their range of instore baked cookies to include some popular chocolate brands; Bounty, Galaxy, and Milky Way Magic Stars. I bought the latter as a little treat for my kids - I still have an M&S cheesecake to finish!

There are ten Milky Way Magic Stars cookies in each pack. They're described as "mini" but are still a decent size for a biscuit, although they are much smaller than the usual supermarket instore bakery cookies. It's an ideal size for kids or for portion control. The cookies themselves have a very soft and chewy texture without any crunch or snap. So soft and chewy that I could bend the cookie into an arch shape without it breaking! It's almost as if they have had nougat or marshmallow mixed into the cookie dough. I would have preferred a bit more crunch to go with the chewiness. The flavour profile here is quite basic but my kids really enjoyed them nonetheless. There wasn't really anything about the flavour that reminded me of Milky Way in particular - they're just extremely sweet (and chewy!) sugary cookies with milk chocolate star shaped pieces. 

Being a coconut fan, I was of course tempted to buy the Bounty cookies aswell, but as these cookies are all freshly baked they don't have a very long shelf life - I'll have to save them for another day.

A quick photo of the Galaxy Cookies and (non branded) Jaffa Cookies. Let me know in the comments below if you've tried any of these!

Grocery Gems Verdict: Milky Way Magic Stars Cookies

RATING: 7 out of 10 (kids' verdict!).
Buy them again?: Next it's Bounty time!
Nutrition: 53 calories per cookie.
Purchased: Tesco.
Price: £1.00p.

New Maltesers Teasers Chocolate Spread

There are quite a few new chocolate and biscuit spreads on the supermarket shelves this month but the one that appealed to me the most was this Maltesers Teasers with Malty Crunchy Pieces spread. 

The spread has a great appearance - it looks very thick and is packed full of the malted honeycomb pieces. Unlike the other Mars branded chocolate spreads, Galaxy and Milky Way, that were released last year in squeezy plastic tubes (see review HERE), the Maltesers Teasers spread comes in a reusable glass pot.

I really enjoyed the texture of this spread, the generous amount of malt pieces provides that recognisable crunch that gives way to a slightly chewier feel, just like the Maltesers Teasers chocolate bar. The chocolate itself has a very sweet flavour that reminds me of previous Mars spreads I've tried. The actual malt flavour from the crunchy pieces is quite subtle, it's not as distinct a flavour as within a Malteser itself, but it's still very delicious. Overall, the Maltesers Teasers Chocolate Spread is an enjoyable and unique product and I know this jar will not last long at all. Mr. Grocery Gems suggested we use it to decorate chocolate cupcakes - with a few extra Maltesers on top too! 

Grocery Gems Verdict: Maltesers Teasers Spread

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition (per 20g): 108 calories.
Purchased: Sainsbury's.
Price: £1.99 (200g jar).

Limited Edition Twix White Minis (White Chocolate Twix)

Just a quick post for this pack of 11 mini Twix White which I picked up in a discount store at the weekend. I've reviewed the Limited Edition White Twix before here, but on that occasion I'd bought a (regular sized) bar while on holiday in Portugal. I don't think I've ever come across them in the UK, although I know from comments left on my original review that they have been spotted in discount stores before. This multipack bag of Twix White Minis is a German import - bargain!

This bag of mini sized Twix was displayed on a special stand with other multipacks of Mars Funsized products, no doubt gearing up for the end of term school parties next week. I'm just waiting for the annual conversation that usually goes like this - Son at bedtime: "Mum I need 30 x cakes/chocolates/crisps for our class party", Me: "no problem, when do you need them by?", Son: "...tomorrow of course". Arrrrgggh! 

Anyway, the Twix White tastes just like I remember; super sweet and creamy. It's a sugary treat which will test the mettle of even the biggest sweet tooths out there, so it's nice that it comes in this smaller size. Although, if I'm honest, it's a bit too small, and just left me craving another one! 

Grocery Gems Verdict: Twix White Minis

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition (per 20g bar): 101 calories.
Purchased: 99p Stores.
Price: £0.99p for 11 mini bars.

Around the World: South Africa - Chocolate Bars Round Up!

I have to admit that I wrote this review a few months ago now but never got round to finishing it properly and posting it! All of these chocolate bars were bought from a great little shop called The Savanna which is located in Liverpool Street Station in London (they also have a few other locations around the capital), which specialises in African groceries and snacks. I bought three chocolate bars in total, all produced for the South African market; Cadbury Tempo, Cadbury Lunch Bar, and the Nestlé Chocolate Log (yes, really!).

The Cadbury Tempo has shortcake biscuit pieces and a layer of hard caramel. This would be a great bar if the Cadbury chocolate here tasted like Dairy Milk. Unfortunately it has a slightly weaker taste which is not as moreish. However, this was still my favourite of the three and is definitely worth a try if you see it. 7.5 out of 10.

The Cadbury Lunch bar, these are actually available in the World Food section of some Tesco stores.

It's a great big bar in size and is packed full of ingredients to match. The central wafer biscuit is surrounded with caramel, crisped rice and peanuts, all covered in a milk chocolate. It's a bit like a Lion Bar with added bite - this is definitely one for big appetites! 7 out of 10.

Could there be a worse name for a chocolate bar? I'm guessing it doesn't have the same connotations in South Africa that it has here! This was a really strange bar too, an odd combination of marshmallow and wafer.

The marshmallow was a bit bland and had a drier texture then I was expecting, but the wafer had a good crunch and crispy flavour. However, the chocolate was disappointing, far too waxy and not enough decent chocolatey flavour here. I didn't really enjoy this bar at all.  3 out of 10.

If you've tried any of these bars before and agree or disagree then I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!