Review: New Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo Peanut Butter Flavour & Mint Flavour

It's been ages since I last reviewed a chocolate bar but believe me it's not because I don't eat them anymore. No, it's simply that I haven't found anything new recently that appealed enough to me to review. That is until I spied these new Oreo flavours from Cadbury Dairy Milk. As a fan of the original - see my review from all the way back in 2012 of the Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo - I knew I had to give these new varieties a try. Also, peanut butter and mint are two of my favourite flavours anyway (not together obviously!).

Fun spoiler alert: This is a split review - I loved one bar and hated the other. Can you guess which?

Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo Peanut Butter Flavour Review: This one is simply described on the packaging as a 'milk chocolate with a peanut butter flavour filling'. In fact it's so much more than that as it's also jam packed full of crunchy Oreo pieces. As soon as I opened the packaging I could immediately tell this was a peanut butter flavoured bar, the scent is immediately very peanutty. I liked the familiar creamy and crunchy texture here, which is just like the original Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo bar but that's just about the only good thing I can say about this one. 

Unfortunately, the actual peanut butter flavour didn't work for me or live up to the promise of that initial opening. Peanut butter is a fairly simple flavour in my mind to get right and this just doesn't capture it at all. Instead the flavour that I'm getting is a bitter peanut one with a hint of salt and a weird aftertaste of coffee. In fact I'm getting queasy just thinking about it. I could only eat a few pieces of this one and it will never darken my tastebuds again. I'm sorry Cadbury, but don't worry there's much better news below!

Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo Mint Flavour Review: Have I ever mentioned before how much I like a mint flavoured chocolate? Especially when it's not a classy dark chocolate affair but just a crazy sweet milk chocolate like the Aero Mint Bubbles. Luckily for my taste buds they were much happier after trying the Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo Mint. It has all the crunchiness from the Oreo pieces coupled with a smooth and deliciously creamy mint filling. It's not going to break any boundaries for flavour innovation but it's a solidly tasty chocolate. Taste buds rejoice!

Grocery Gems Review:Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo Peanut Butter Flavour & Mint Flavour

RATING: Peanut Butter - 3 out of 10, Mint - 8 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Peanut Butter - No, Mint - Yes.
Nutrition:  84 calories per 3 chunks.
Vegetarian: Suitable for Vegetarians.
Purchased: Co-Op.
Price: £1.00p each 120g bar.

Review: Cadbury Dairy Milk Egg 'n' Spoon Oreo

It's the start of a new year so that only means one thing - it's time for Easter! Amongst all the usual Easter products that are now appearing in the supermarkets is this new gem - the Cadbury Dairy Milk Egg 'n' Spoon Oreo. 

Just like previous products in the Cadbury Dairy Milk Egg 'n' Spoon range, there are four mousse-filled chocolate eggs in a purple carton. 

Inside the Oreo egg is a soft vanilla mousse filling with Oreo Biscuit pieces. The mousse has quite a thick texture but it's still soft enough to be spoonable. The biscuit pieces add plenty of crunch to the texture and work perfectly with the sweet and creamy flavour. It's all extremely sugary, especially with the Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate outer egg, but the creaminess balances out the flavours and creates a lovely sweet treat. 

As a fan of the Cadbury Dairy Milk with Oreo chocolate bar (which is one of the few Cadbury products I buy anymore), I'll definitely be buying a few more packs of the Egg 'n' Spoon Oreo closer to Easter. I'd take these over a  Cadbury Creme Egg anyday! 

Grocery Gems Review: Cadbury Egg 'n' Spoon Oreo

RATING: 7 out of 10
Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition (per egg 34g): 191 calories.
Vegetarian: Suitable for vegetarians symbol on pack.
Purchased: Co-Op.
Price: £2.00p.

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!

Review: Lidl Bellarom Milk Chocolate with Neo

Lidl always has a very tempting selection of chocolates, with many interesting flavours compared to other supermarkets, but it was the Bellarom Milk Chocolate with Neo that caught my eye on my last visit. If you've never heard of Neo biscuits before, they're basically the Lidl equivalent of Oreo cookies. It's a fun idea for Lidl to offer a chocolate bar with their own brand of cookies inside.

The packaging has a fantastic appearance, with a classic foil and paper wrapping, within a cardboard sleeve. The chocolate bar itself is very thick and chunky and weighs in at a hefty 200g - all great considering it only costs £0.99p.

Everything about the flavour is exactly as I had hoped. The chocolate has a great cocoa flavour with a creamy, smooth melt. There are plenty of large cookie pieces in each segment, providing lots of extra sweetness and crunch. It's nice to have the cookie pieces within the chocolate itself rather than within a "creme" or softer centre. Of course the Bellarom Milk Chocolate with Neo is quite a sweet bar overall, and a few pieces go a long way to satisfying a chocolate craving, but it's definitely one I would buy again. 

Grocery Gems Review: Lidl Bellarom Milk Chocolate with Neo

RATING: 8 out of 10.

Buy it again?: Yes.
Purchased: Lidl.
Price: £0.99p (200g bar).

New Tassimo Oreo Hot Drink

I finally succumbed and bought a Tassimo drinks machine. I've been wanting to purchase a Tassimo for a while now, it can instantly make Costa coffees and Cadbury hot chocolates, but when I heard that there was a new Oreo Tassimo pod available, I was once and for all persuaded! I can make a decent Cadbury hot chocolate anytime I want with just a kettle, but an Oreo drink? That's a whole new level of awesomeness. 

Each pack of Tassimo Oreo drinks contains enough pods to make 8 Oreo drinks. It cost £4.99 in Sainsbury's, which seems to be slightly more expensive than the hot chocolate drinks in the Tassimo range. 

As soon as I popped the pod in the Tassimo machine the unmistakeably sweet aroma of Oreo cookies filled my kitchen. The drink itself has a layer of froth on the top, perfect for crumbling a few extra Oreo pieces on top! The flavour is super sweet and creamy and tastes just like the famous cookie it's based on, albeit a slightly weaker version. It's not a hot chocolate, it really is a biscuit flavoured hot drink. My kids are already fans of blended Oreo milkshakes and they enjoyed this hot version just as much. I do see it as more of a drink for the the kids rather than for the Grocery Gems adults, but let's just say that I haven't regretted buying the Tassimo mainly on the basis of this new Oreo pod. It's got a great flavour for any Oreo fan, and it's also versatile enough to be used as the basis for iced drinks and milkshakes - I'll have to give those a go next! 

By the way, the fact that there is a great offer (see here) for a £30 Tassimo machine (plus £5 p&p) in conjunction with Costa also helped persuade me to buy a Tassimo.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Tassimo Oreo Hot Drink

Rating: 8 out of 10.

Nutrition: 102 calories (per 30g serving).

Purchased: Sainsbury's.

Review: Cadbury Dairy Milk Marvellous Mix Ups with Oreo (written by Mr. Grocery Gems!)*

Mrs Grocery Gems has reached a two year milestone with her blog. What started as a small idea to capture thoughts about new and limited editions grocery products has blossomed into a wonderful blog with a generous and supportive community. We have quietly supported her work, frequently bearing the high cholesterol heavy load of buying and eating new grocery products. It's all in a day's work for us here at Grocery Gems central. 

To celebrate the 2 year milestone, I offered to prepare and post a review and Mrs Grocery Gems gratefully accepted (and by "offered" I mean badgered and by "gratefully" I mean begrudgingly).

The Cadbury's "Marvellous Creations" range has been going for a while - you'll find reviews here and here. I am not a fan of this trend of re-packaging and selling leftovers of other products which are already available separately.

The package states "Dairy Milk presents Marvellous Mix-Ups" and contrasting goodies fly out of a chocolate top-hat. I assume we are supposed to marvel at the odd "mix-up" nestling in the bag. The marketing is clearly inspired by the funfair or carnivals of old but a more accurate description would be a PT Barnum freak show; the chocolate equivalent of a bearded lady.

This new versions comprises giant chocolate buttons, white chocolate buttons, purple and yellow pebbles (chocolates in a crispy shell) and mini-Oreos. Each of these taste exactly as you would expect. Individually these items are unspectacular, but together they are worse. Take a look at the picture above. The chocolate pebbles were cracked and chipped. The white chocolate buttons are covered in a layer of mini-Oreo crumbs. Everything shares this dusty biscuity film. Together it tastes like a gritty, dusty, chocolatey, biscuity mess.

I suppose these companies think we'll lower our expectations due to the novelty value of the product. It also happens to be cheaper and easier than making a new chocolate bar. But the novelty aspect has worn off. I'm not looking forward to the next Marvellous Freak Show Mix-Ups.

 
Grocery Gems Verdict: Cadbury Dairy Milk Marvellous Mix Ups with Oreo

RATING: 3 out of 10.
Buy them again?: No (but Mrs Grocery Gems will buy and review the next one!)
Nutrition (per 100g):  505 calories.

Vegetarian: Yes.
Purchased: Asda.
Price: £1.00.

*Note from Grocery Gems: Well done on the review Mr Grocery Gems. Thank you for eating the whole bag and then telling us all that you didn't like it!

Hong Kong Snack Haul!

Mr. Grocery Gems visited Hong Kong a few weeks ago and he somehow managed to bring a huge snack haul home with him. I've obviously trained him well as a snack spotter! Here's a quick round up of some of the products.

These Calbee Potato Grid Crisps have an interesting grid shape and are flavoured with onions, peppers and barbecue chicken.

The Calbee Olive & Garlic Pizza look similar to the Calbee Pizza chips that I reviewed HERE. Unfortunately, this Olive & Garlic variety was very disappointing - inside was a mostly empty packet!

My husband is quite annoyed that he made room in his luggage for a bag that has been pumped full of AIR. What a waste of time!

Potato chips from Nissin with pretty pink blossom packaging and an intriguing flavour too - Sour Plum! I'm not sure if I am brave enough to try them, the last time I tried a Sour Plum flavoured product it did not end well! See my review of the Ume Ninja Meshi HERE (third product down). 

A fab selection of sweets! There are Lemon Hi-Chew, Peach Hi-Chew, some Matcha Milk Candy, Puccho Soda Flavour, and lastly Puccho Miracle (assorted fruit flavour). 

The packaging of the Puccho sweets is so much fun - especially the rainbow bright Puccho Miracle!

Pocky Mango Mousse (I've reviewed these previously HERE), Calbee Jagabee potato snacks and Crunky Crunch Chocolate - the last two have been on my wishlist for some time.

It's quite hard to convey just how adorable this little box of 9 Mix chocolate are. I'll try to take better photos and do a full review soon. Each chocolate is wrapped with a completely different style of packaging, from retro to folksy, and yet the whole thing works together to create a bright appealing look. I can't wait to try these.

Oreo Chocolate Wafers - Strawberry flavour. I've tried a few of these Oreo wafers from China before (see review of the Peanut flavour HERE). I also have a box of Mint flavoured ones I bought from Chinatown recently. Reviews to follow.

I have a slight obsession with maneki-neko (lucky fortune cats) so I was thrilled with this bag of Kikko Lucky Cat Candy mix - hard candies in fruity flavours. The packaging really does make me smile! 

More cuteness in the form of these pastel coloured (and Bunny themed!) Hello Kitty candies. I should have reviewed these for Easter!

These look so cool! These Tada Banana Castella Cakes are bean paste filled banana sponge cakes that are also banana shaped AND even have the word Banana embossed across them. Just in case you didn't get the message. I expect these to be epic!

My husband bought a few products from the Bourbon range of Petit biscuits;  a Matcha Choc Chip and also a savoury Cheese Crackers variety. He said these biscuits were on sale everywhere in Hong Kong, and were available in such an array of different flavours, that curiosity got the better of him. I'm so glad it did as I've always wanted to try these mini biscuits. The Matcha Choc Chip variety are available from Oyatsu Cafe HERE. 

These beautifully packaged Coconut & Pineapple cakes from Aji Ichiban were mainly bought as presents for family and friends. 

Lastly an enormous "Gift of Hong Kong" box of biscuits with a delicious selection of flavours. The little Ginger Cookies and Jasmine Green Tea Cookies in particular, were divine, whilst the mini Panda Cookies are just too cute to eat!

All thanks to Mr. Grocery Gems - I think he may have brought home the equivalent of a small supermarket back with him! There were actually a few other items that I haven't included above (yes, really), like some noodle pots and even Hello Kitty shaped cookies. Bringing home new snacks is always one of the best aspects about going abroad! :)

Review: Banana Creme Oreo (China)

Last year there were some pretty awesome sounding Banana Split Oreos released in the US, reviewed by Impulsive Buy here and Junk Food Guy here. I never did manage to find those here in the UK but for whatever reason, it's always been easier for me to find unusual Chinese Oreo flavours compared to American ones. Most US import stores don't seem to stock much beyond the Peanut Butter Oreo, I'd love to see more of the Limited Edition US flavours making it to our shores.

I found this box of banana flavoured Oreos in a grocery store in Chinatown, sitting alongside the double fruit Oreo flavours I've reviewed previously (see my review HERE, those were awesome). Unlike the double fruit Oreos I can't find any information about these online, not even on the Mondelez China website. Looking at the picture on the box I'm assuming the flavour is simply banana cream or banana milkshake. There are no English details on the box so if anyone can give me the proper name given on the box please let me know in the comments below.

The artificial banana scent in these Oreos was super strong as soon I opened the packaging. It reminded me of a banana milkshake or those banana ice lollies from an ice cream van. I'm not going to lie, I love that kind of banana flavour. I used to buy more than one of those banana ice cream lollies and keep a couple in the freezer, that's how much I like them. 

And the same strong artificial banana continues in the actual flavour of the cream layer within the Oreo. At first I quite liked it, I even momentarily thought I was going to love these, but very quickly the flavour became too strong, and combined with the outer Oreo biscuits it was just far too sweet. These are really shockingly sweet, like throat-burningly sweet, even for an Oreo. It's more like eating a candy rather than a biscuit. The banana flavouring really lingers in the mouth after each bite. I can imagine that these would taste slightly better if dunked in a glass of milk, as it might take the edge off the sweetness. Seeing as I don't drink milk I might have to try these with an extra strong cup of espresso but I'm not even sure that could compensate for the sugariness here.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Banana Cream Oreos

RATING:  5 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Probably not.
Nutrition: Unable to read the information.

Purchased: Grocery store in London Chinatown.
Price: £1.99p.

Review: Oreo Peanut Butter Wafers (China)

Many thanks to the wonderful @Banjo_Chocolate, who recently sent me a brilliant selection of hard to find chocolates and snacks. She's simply the best at awesome finds! Take these Oreo wafers from China for example. They're such an unusual product, which I've never seen before, but it's exactly the type of product I would snap up if I did spot it! It was also featured on the recent Choc It Out youtube video of best foreign chocolate bars of 2013 (linky). 

There are some really unique products under the Oreo brand in China. Check out this fab round up on Kotaku here.

This peanut butter Oreo wafer is very crumbly in texture (making it quite messy to eat!), with a creamy peanut filling between two wafers. The wafer has that same sweet chocolately flavour as the more famous Oreo cookie, but just in a lighter wafer format. The peanut butter filling consists of a fairly thin layer, but it still manages to pack a punch in flavour. As soon as I unwrapped the wafer the peanut scent was immediately evident. It adds a lovely sweet, and slightly salty, flavour to the wafers. Definitely worth a try if you can track one down!

Please don't forget that @Banjo_Chocolate is running a campaign to get Mars to Bring Back the Banjo chocolate bar. Public support has worked for other discontinued products in the past, including Funny Feet Ice Cream which were re-released recently, so every bit of support is very much appreciated! 

Take a look at the Bring Back Banjo Chocolate Bar Facebook page here and sign the petition here! Thank you :)