Hotel Chocolat Zebra Beastie Egg Review

Image: Hotel Chocolat

When Hotel Chocolat offered to send me their Zebra Beastie Eggs I was eager to give it a try. Their Beastie Egg range is described as a "striking range of Easter Eggs for those who like their eggs wildly stylish". The eggs have been printed with an all natural cocoa butter transfer on the outside. There are three eggs available in the range: Cow Beastie Egg, Beau Bunny Beastie Egg and the one I have for review - the Zebra Beastie Egg.

The egg comes wrapped in cellophane and tied with a Hotel Chocolat ribbon. I loved the overall presentation - I immediately wanted to pull on the bow and open it up! Under the wrapping, there is a large hollow egg with a zebra print design and six smaller "Egglets" included.

The main egg has a super glossy outer surface which makes the zebra print design really stand out. It might look from the outside that this egg is partly made with dark chocolate, but it is in fact a completely milk chocolate egg.

I loved that this chocolate egg is quite thick and solid, making it possible to break off a piece cleanly with a satisfying "snap". The milk chocolate is absolutely delicious: sweet and creamy enough to satisfy all family members (this egg is part of the kids range after all), but still rich in cocoa intensity to keep chocolate lovers happy too. It's made with a minimum of 40% cocoa solids.

The Hotel Chocolat Zebra Beastie Egg also comes with six mini eggs; three filled with salted caramel and three with hazelnut praline.

The salted caramel were my absolute favourite of the two; the smooth and rich outer milk chocolate is filled with an extremely buttery caramel that has the perfect salty edge to it. Not everyone in my family is keen on salted caramel as a flavour, my husband especially, but that just left more of these little eggs for me!

The mini hazelnut praline eggs were also delicious, and these were much more to my husband's liking. For lovers of hazelnut flavours these are hard to beat. The filling has a rich buttery texture that melts away to reveal a silky smooth nutty praline. They're just gorgeous.

Salted Caramel eggs (orange peak), Hazelnut Praline eggs (pink and white peak)

Overall this is a fabulous Easter Egg that I would highly recommend, especially for fans of milk chocolate and salted caramel. The interesting outer design also gives these Hotel Chocolat Beastie Eggs a fun and unique look.

Hotel Chocolat kindly sent me this product for an honest review and all views expressed are my own.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Hotel Chocolat Zebra Beastie Egg

RATING: 9 out of 10
Buy them again?: Yes, it's a very impressive looking egg that tastes fantastic.
Nutrition (per 47g serving): 260 calories, 5g protein, 22g carbs (20g sugars), 18g fat.
Purchased: Available from Hotel Chocolat
Price: £15.00.

NEW INSTORE! Ice Creams & Ice Lollies

Magnum Mini: Fruit Meringue Loving Kiss (the red box) or Creme Brulee First Kiss (the orange box). Quite unsual packaging for Magnum, they look like should be a Valentine's release. I'm sure I will try the Fruit Meringue variety at some point.

Magnum Yoghurt Fresh - a combination of frozen yogurt swirled with raspberry sauce. Review coming soon.

Star Wars Lightsaber Lollies: Strawberry and Lemon & Lime flavours. I wish I could send a pack of these to Food Junk in the US just so I could see the awesome photos!

Angry Birds Ice Lollies: Strawberry, Lemon and Cola flavoured. Last year when I reviewed these Angry Birds ice lollies (that I purchased in Portugal), I had a mini rant about why these weren't available in the UK. I'm so glad that they are available this year!

Milkybar Minis Ice lollies - a Milkybar ice cream topped with Milkybar chocolate. I'm sure these will be popular with young children. There are 10 mini ice lollies in a pack.

Fab Minis - Packs of 12 mini lollies that have only 50 calories each. Each pack has 6 Strawberry and 6 Blackcurrant & Apple ice lollies. It's the first time I've seen these sharing a pack and also in a mini format.

Oreo cones - Vanilla ice cream with Oreo biscuit pieces. Kev's review here.

Sainsbury's Taste The Difference - Apologies for the terrible photo but I was interested to see what flavours Sainsbury's would release for the summer. I spotted a new Banoffee (on the right) and Greek Yogurt & Honey (on the left).

Walls Cornetto Mix Mini - I love the look of these bright boxes, which contain mini versions of some classic Cornetto flavours, aswell as a few I have never seen before. The Mix Mini Fruity selection (blue box) contains Strawberry, Hazelnut and Stracciatella varieties. The Mix Mini Warm selection (orange box) has Caramel, Chocolate and Classico varieties. Review coming soon.

What's your top pick from this new batch? Let me know if you spot any new ice creams instore!

All products spotted at a large branch of Sainsbury's.

Oyatsu Cafe Discount Code!

Snack fans! I'm very pleased to announce that online Japanese food store Oyatsu Cafe has offered my readers a 15% discount coupon on all orders - there are no limits and it's open internationally. So if you want to get your hands on the latest Japanese snacks like Cheeseburger Cheetos or unique Pocky flavours then take a look at Oyatsu Cafe.

Simply enter "GROCERYGEMS" on the checkout page of Oyatsu Cafe for 15% off your order!

I'll also be featuring some reviews of Oyatsu Cafe products in the near future!

Nestlé Galak Speculoos Review

I'm very excited about this review of the Nestlé Galak Speculoos bar from Belgium. Firstly, because the bar has been sent to me for review by Cybercandy, who have kindly invited me to be part of their Blogging Family. Anyone remember my epic Cybercandy haul which was one of my earliest posts? There have been a fair few Cybercandy hauls since then too! Secondly, I'm excited because this bar brings together white chocolate with one of my favourite types of biscuit: the Speculoos biscuit. My review of the Lotus Speculoos biscuit spread sums up my love of these deliciously spiced biscuits. They're a gorgeous combination of cinnamon spice and caramelised sugar - the perfect biscuit to enjoy with coffee. 

I've been wanting to try this Belgian Nestlé Galak Speculoos ever since I saw it on the Cybercandy Facebook page. The "Nestlé Galak" brand is essentially another name for what we in the UK know as the Nestlé Milkybar. The idea of white chocolate and Speculoos combined is certainly one that I find very appealing!

The Nestlé Galak Speculoos is long and thin with six segmented pieces stamped with the Nestlé logo. It has a creamy colouring with visible biscuit flecks within the chocolate.

The Speculoos biscuit pieces are especially visible on the underside of the bar and consist of lots of small bits of biscuit and a few larger pieces. The bar has the sweet smell you would expect from a Nestlé white chocolate with a hint of the cinnamon biscuit too. The chocolate has the familiar Milkybar taste, which I'm not ashamed to admit I'm partial to anyway: it's creamy and sweet with just a hint of vanilla. The biscuit pieces are scattered throughout the chocolate and give the bar a slightly crunchy texture.

The biscuit pieces really do taste like Speculoos, with the distinctive caramelised sugar flavour and a hint of cinnamon coming through. Everyone in my family was eager to try a piece of this bar and it was shared out and eaten in record time. It's been one of the most popular bars I've tried out on my family because, without fail, everyone loved it - even my husband who is not a fan of white chocolate proclaimed it as delicious. It's a very sweet treat but one we all thoroughly enjoyed. I'll definitely be picking up some more of these, they cost 89p, which I think is a bargain for this gem.

The Nestlé Galak Speculoos are available to buy online at Cybercandy. Look out for another Cybercandy review coming up in the next few days!

Cybercandy kindly sent me this product for an honest review and all views expressed are my own. 

Grocery Gems Verdict: Nestlé Galak Speculoos

RATING: 8 out of 10.
Buy it again?: Absolutely.
Nutrition: 195 calories, 2.6g protein, 19.4g carbohydrates. 
Purchased: Available at Cybercandy.
Price: £0.89p.

Asda White Choc & Raspberry Hot Cross Buns Review

When Asda sent me some of their Easter range to try, the product that immediately grabbed my attention, even before some of the fab chocolate eggs, were these White Choc & Raspberry Hot Cross Buns. They seem like such a great twist on a traditional hot cross bun that is usually made with raisins, fruit peel and mixed spices. The reason why these appealed to me so much is that my husband absolutely hates raisins. Actually hates is not a strong enough word. Loathes them. I would go as far to say that he is raisin-phobic. Is there an official term for that? Unfortunately he's passed on his raisin-hating genes to my youngest son, so neither of them have ever eaten a Hot Cross Bun.

These are not just a raisin free zone they are also spice free. I love cinnamon and mixed spice, but I don't think those flavours would work very well with raspberry and white chocolate, so it's not a surprise that they have been left out here. Of course it also makes these hot cross buns fantastic for anyone who doesn't like those spices - the perfect product for all kinds of fusspots!

From the outside these look just like a traditional hot cross bun, complete with the distinctive cross pattern.

Once cut open they look very different to a regular hot cross bun: the colouring is a bit paler and there are lots of pink fruity bits. No raisins, fruit peel or spices here. The bun had a lovely sweet smell with a real hint of the raspberry and a hint of vanilla from the white chocolate.

I couldn't see any obvious chunks of white chocolate but I could certainly taste the sweetness of white chocolate within the dough itself. The raspberry fruit pieces are soft and blend in with the texture of the bread, unlike raisins which are much more chewy and distinct. Without the inclusion of the traditional spices, the sweet bread dough reminds me more of the bready part of an iced bun rather than a normal hot cross bun. The overall combination is just delicious and I can confirm that these are also very tasty with a dollop of raspberry jam on top!

I still love traditional hot cross buns too. Luckily for me these are all on offer on a 2 for £2.00 offer so I can buy one of each pack and keep everyone happy. Asda also has Mini Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns and Mini Strawberry Hot Cross Buns available, both of which I will definitely be buying soon.

So which side of the hot cross bun fence are you on: raisins or no raisins?

Grocery Gems Verdict: Asda White Choc & Raspberry Hot Cross Buns

RATING: 8 out of 10
Buy them again?: Thumbs up from hubby and kids.
Nutrition (per bun): 216 calories 6.1g protein, 52.1g carbs (13g sugars), 4.6g fat.
Purchased: Asda.
Price: £1.25 or 2 packs for £2.00.

Asda's PR company kindly sent me these products for an honest review and all views are my own.