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).

Review: Snickers Intense Choc Limited Edition

I bought this Limited Edition Snickers Intense Choc in a local newsagent. I think this is originally a Polish release, although it's difficult to tell from the packaging as there are several languages on the back.

The Snickers Intense Choc is basically a dark chocolate version of a regular Snickers, all the other elements are the same apart from the thick dark chocolate covering.

I was initially disappointed with the flavour of the dark chocolate here. It just lacked any real depth or intensity (especially given the name of this edition!). But the more I tried this bar, the more I enjoyed it overall. Unlike the milk chocolate covered version, with it's far creamier and sweeter flavour, the chocolate coating here does not dominate any of the other flavours. It's not a bitter dark chocolate, but just has fairly strong cocoa flavour, that actually works to accentuate the delicious peanut and nougat centre within. It's a successful combination, and even though I wish the dark chocolate flavour was a bit more intense, I still think I prefer the overall balance here compared to a regular Snickers.

Grocery Gems Review: Snickers Intense Choc

RATING: 8 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition:  244 calories per bar (50g).
Purchased: Local newsagent.
Price: 3 for £1.00p.

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.

New Snickers More Choc Limited Edition (UK)

Early last year Snickers released two Limited Edition chocolate bars; the More Caramel and More Nuts bars - see my previous review HERE. As those names suggest, they were Snickers with either more caramel or more nuts included in the bar. They were obviously popular as they have been released again this year, only this time they're joined by a new addition; the More Choc. Since a Snickers bar is only made up of caramel, nuts, chocolate and nougat, I fully expect that next year there will a More Nougat edition to join in the range - it makes sense!

According to Choc Mission, who keeps an awesome record of these things, the new Snickers Limited Editions are smaller than the ones released last year. This Snickers More Choc for example is 48g compared to 54g for the More Caramel last year. To be honest without having read Choc Mission's review I doubt I would have noticed, it looks pretty much the same to me, although I'm not a regular eater of Snickers (last time was for the More Caramel and More Nuts reviews in Jan 2013). It makes me wonder though just how small they can go with the Snickers' size before it starts to look like a snack bar? 

The new bar contains 'more chocolate' in the form of a new chocolate flavoured layer. It's not the most innovative idea ever to grace the world of chocolate but I was eager to give it a try nonetheless. For some reason I had assumed that MORE Choc also meant that the outer layer of chocolate would be super thick, so I was a bit disappointed to see a regular amount of coating. In terms of overall flavour this is pretty similar to a regular Snickers, but for me, the layer of chocolate nougat makes this More Choc even sweeter than the classic bar. The original Snickiers nougat is of course very sweet itself, but it also has a malty flavour and slightly salty edge that balances out the sweetness of the chocolate. Having more chocolate makes the More Choc bar a little sweeter, and also a bit blander, in comparison. 

Mr. Grocery Gems, who is more of a Snickers fan than me, said: "It tastes exactly the same as a regular Snickers bar but in a blue wrapper". He's so insightful.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Snickers More Choc

RATING: 7 out of 10
Buy them again?: Snickers, we'll meet again at your next limited edition.
Nutrition (48g bar): 241 calories, 21.1g sugars, 13.1g fat.
Purchased: Local newsagents.
Price: £0.70p. 

Limited Edition Snickers More Caramel and More Nuts Review

The chocolate fanatics amongst you will know that the Snickers More Nuts has been around before (in 2010). It's been released again, along with a new More Caramel version. Apparently this is the first time that Mars Chocolates (the company behind Snickers) has introduced two limited editions to the "same brand at the same time".

There is nothing radically new about either of these limited editions. I'm going to assume for the purposes of this review that everyone reading this has tried a Snickers, or maybe it was a Marathon, at some point in their lives. The Snickers More Nuts is extremely similar to the regular Snickers. There is a the same delicious peanut flavour and aftertaste, but it's just a little more intense.

More Nuts

Extra peanuts have been crammed into the nougat layer giving the nougat an almost peanut butter type flavour. Almost. Anyone who already loves a Snickers bar will undoubtedly enjoy this More Nuts version.

The Snickers More Caramel is slightly different. As you can see from the cross section below, there is no nougat layer. Anyone who tried the Limited Edition Mars Caramel, which also removed the layer of nougat, will have reached the conclusion that the nougat is an essential part of a Mars Bar - it was just too bland without it. Is it the same for the Snickers More Caramel?

The Snickers More Caramel is certainly not as bad. There are plenty of peanuts inside the caramel which stop it from becoming a bland mess. However it still doesn't have the same appeal as either a regular Snickers of the Snickers More Nuts. The overall flavour is just too sweet and the texture too soft, especially the nuts. If the nuts had a bit more crunch to them then I think this bar would work a lot better. But they don't.

The More Nuts is definitely the winner of the two for me. It's just like a Snickers but with even more flavour. The More Caramel is smaller (54g versus 58g) and has less calories but is nowhere near as tasty.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Snickers More Nuts

RATING: 8 out of 10
Buy them again?: Delicious for Snickers fans.
Nutrition (58g bar): 300 calories, 25.4g sugars, 16.8g fat.
Purchased: Local newsagents.
Price: £0.65. 

Grocery Gems Verdict: Snickers More Caramel

RATING: 6 out of 10
Buy them again?: Too sweet for me but worth a try.
Nutrition (54g bar): 281 calories, 22.7g sugars, 16.1g fat.
Purchased: Local newsagents.
Price: £0.65.

Snickers Almond Review

The Snickers Almond is an American chocolate bar which I assumed would be identical to a regular Snickers but just with almonds instead of peanuts. The combination of nougat, caramel, almonds and chocolate is basically the same except for the nuts. Even though I've mentioned before that Snickers is not really my thing, (there is definitely a gender divide in my house when it comes to chocolate and Snickers falls firmly into the male camp), I do love almonds so I was interested to see how this Snickers Almond would taste.

The chocolate looked quite good, with the same thick layer of chocolate as a regular Snickers. Inside it has large pieces of almond and a very smooth looking nougat. However the overall taste was very disappointing. In fact, even though I cut this bar up into smaller chunks and shared it out with my family, we still didn't manage to finish it. No one was impressed with the flavour.

The chocolate is fine, very sweet and basic. It's the insides where the bar goes downhill. The nougat is very bland and tasteless, it's just an overly sugary mass. Nougat often has a malty or nutty flavour to it, but here it is devoid of any flavour. The almonds, although quite large, were just tasteless blobs too. There was no nice crunch from the nuts, they were too soft in texture. The caramel layer is slightly better as it has a nice salty edge to it, but it can't rescue the overall tasteless flavour of the rest of this bar.

On the plus side the whole bar is 230 calories which is not too bad for a chocolate this size (49.9g). It does have a much "lighter" taste than the regular peanut based Snickers but unfortunately it's far inferior in terms of taste.

 If you have tried a Snickers Almond before? Let me know what you thought of it by leaving a comment :)

Snickers Cruncher Bar

Another chocolate that was only discovered because of the great 10 Foreign Chocolate Bars 001 youtube video from @chocitout. Just like the Aero Boci Strawberry I was very happy when I found this Snickers Cruncher in a local newsagents. This chocolate bar seems to have been imported from Holland. It has been available in UK shops for a while but for some reason has totally passed me by.

I have to admit that gender lines are firmly drawn between me and my husband when it comes to chocolate. Even though my hubby doesn't eat that much chocolate, Mars & Snickers are probably the bars he would go for, whereas I rarely eat them. They just don't appeal to me as much as other chocolates.

The description on the packaging of the Snickers Cruncher describes it as "Milk Chocolate with fresh Roasted Peanuts (21%), Crisped Rice (13%), mixed in Caramel (26%)".

The chocolate coating is much thinner than on a regular Snickers which gives the bar a much lighter texture than I was expecting. There is also no nougat layer in this one. Instead the filling is made up of crunchy rice and peanuts all held together with creamy caramel. The peanuts had a lovely salty flavour which constrasted nicely with the rest of the sweet flavours. The caramel is not too chewy or sticky. It has a lovely soft texture and holds all of the other flavours together nicely.

Overall there is something to be said for this lighter chocolate bar. The original Snickers is quite heavy and this Snickers Cruncher is an enjoyable alternative. It's not over filling and provides just the right amount of chocolate snack. My husband really enjoyed it and would definitely buy it again.

If you have tried the Snickers Cruncher, leave your thoughts below!

Snickers Peanut Butter Squared

My brother bought me this little gem in a sweet shop in Brighton. I loved the idea of this glorious marriage between Snickers and peanut butter. The best thing about a regular Snickers are the huge crunchy peanuts so this combined with extra peanut butter could only equal deliciousness.

Inside there are two squares of chocolate. They are a decent size and I quite like it when chocolate bars are sectioned in this way. It just means more chocolate coating and being able to save some for later, which is always a good thing.

I've said before that Snicker is not a bar I buy very often. This Snickers Peanut Butter is described as "Filled with peanut butter, peanuts, caramel, nougat and covered in milk chocolate". Sounds like they took every ingredient and the kitchen sink and threw it into this bar! It's a Mars Bar, a Snickers Bar and Reese's peanut butter cups all rolled into one.

Happily the result is delicious and one that I was craving more of as soon as it was finished. There are many different flavours and textures at play all at once but somehow they all work together well. The layer of nougat at the bottom is quite thin but is nicely chewy. The peanut butter is salty and sweet at the same time with a slightly crumbly texture. There are generous chunks of peanuts which add a great crunch. Then to top it all off there is the thick layer of chocolate coating which is solid and creamy.

It's impossible to sum up this bar in one word. It's sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy, crumbly, creamy - all at the same time. I loved it and so did my hubby so this is definitely one we'll be looking out for again.