Kev's Snack Reviews

I was quite intrigued when Doisy and Dam announced some new snack products for Veganuary recently, the dairy free, gluten free vegan Ballers, D&D’s and Buttons range that you can now find in Holland and Barrett stores (99p per 30g bag, £1.99 per 75g bag). There’s also some Dark Chocolate Vegan Mini Eggs joining the trio in time for Easter. Unfortunate names aside (Ballers? They must have seen the jokes coming with that one - I’m sure it’s not unintentional!), these are a great idea in theory as they’re meant to be like Free From versions of Maltesers and Smarties for vegans. But there’s a catch...they’re made with dark chocolate rather than a vegan “milk” alternative so are inherently a more marmite product to start with - not everyone is a fan of dark chocolate, and I imagine that doesn’t suddenly change if you’re vegan. And that’s why these products fail. Now personally I enjoy dark chocolate, especially the more flavoursome varieties, so I assumed I would like these. But ...

This is a bit of an oldie from Cadbury, albeit one that has come and gone in various formats over the years. With the success of their Bournville with Orange bar , and Veganuary in full swing, they've relaunched their classic Old Jamaica Rum and Raisin chocolate. I last remember seeing this around 2011 or so, when it was launched along with the Orange variety as a limited edition. Here's an old pic from chocablog : Before that I've been told it used to be available in thinner bars, a bit like Lindt bars. I certainly don't remember that version! I found this in Wh Smiths near the tills for £1, which is standard for a 100g bar like this. Opening the wrapper it has the newer Bournville block design - somewhat square with half of the block having grooves on. I'm not too keen on the design to be honest, it doesn't break off very cleanly. Nevermind though. It has a strong albeit artificial rum aroma. Which is what you expect from something like this ...

Veganuary rolls on, and with it the many and varied new Meat, Dairy etc Free product launches. One in particular that had to go straight into my basket when I spotted them in Sainsbury's were these New Nakd Salted Caramel Bars. I do love Nakd, and have done for years now, from their Nibbles Range to the Posh Bits and all the various Limited editions like Carrot Cake , Lemon Drizzle , Blueberry Muffin and so on. It seems tradition for them to bring out a new flavour every year and at last it's the trendy Salted Caramel! They've done this before in the Nibbles range, but never in bar form so I was pretty excited. These cost £1.99 for a 4 pack in Sainsbury's and are gluten, dairy and refined sugar free. There's also a new Walnut and Coffee variety - but more on that later! The ingredients are pretty simple like all Nakd bars: dates, raisins, cashews, peanuts, Cornish sea salt and a hint of natural flavourings. I'm glad to say that these live up to ...

The new snacks just keep on coming this year, and it's still only January! By now I imagine many who follow me will have fallen off their "New Year, New You" plans? Yes? If so read on... Ben & Jerry's UK have announced the release of a new Topped variety that will be available in February just in time for Valentine's Day. It's called "Love is..." and features Buttery brown sugar ice cream, salted caramel cups with a pink coloured coating, cookie swirl, a pink topping and pink hearts. And how amazing does it look?! Never mind your Valentine...you gotta love yourself before anyone else! (aka buy and eat one of these to yourself haha). This one will be music to the ears of anyone Lactose Intolerant or Vegan - Ben & Jerry's have launched a new Coconutterly Caramel'd Non Dairy Ice Cream. This will feature non dairy coconut flavoured ice cream, caramel and cookie swirls and chocolatey chunks. Available now (although I am yet to sp...

With Veganuary and the Rise of the Greggs Vegan Sausage Roll (thanks Piers !) in full force, it's nice to see more options for Dairy Free and Vegan snacks in shops. If only for those avoiding dairy, which I try to do as much as I can. Amongst some of the newbies in stores recently I spotted these new bars from The Free From Kitchen, who I believe make dairy free chocolates exclusively for Tesco. There's a Rich Brownie Choc Slab and this Salted Caramel variety, which I chose because I do love salted caramel! The bars aren't cheap at £2.50 and I was a little apprehensive because I wasn't too impressed with the Original Chocolate variety in this range, but I thought I'd chance it since a few people told me on Instagram that the other bars in the range are nicer. This is described as a "Milk free choc sea salted caramel bar made with cocoa and rice flour". The caramel pieces are made with corn syrup rather than glucose syrup, making them safer for those a...

If you're dairy free, one of the big things you may miss from your dairy eating days might be caramel, that lovely sugary substance made from a base of condensed milk. Luckily now thanks to Nature's Charm you can get a vegan variety - condensed coconut milk! Who knew such a thing was possible? When I saw this in my local vegan store my eyes perked up - I HAD to have it! I love coconut milk and use it in all manner of dishes, so this was the next best thing. Consisting of a mixture of sugar and coconut milk, presumably cooked together to form this gloopy thick syrup. Opening the can, it was very thick and already looked like caramel, but with a sweet coconut aroma. I tried a spoonful by itself, and it had a lovely fudgey coconut flavour. I had to be careful not to eat too much - it tasted absolutely delicious! This is seriously dangerous stuff and would make a good addition to all manner of things from coffee, cakes, or simpy spread on toast. I used the rest of it to ...

In case you haven’t heard about the health benefits of turmeric yet, allow me to introduce you to this super herb; it's been shown act as an antioxidant, reportedly protecting against Alzheimer's disease and being anti microbial too. It's a staple of many healing diets and is what gives curry powder it's orangey hue. It can be used in supplement form as Curcumin, or a somewhat more tasty and interesting Turmeric Latte. There’s many recipes for how to make these online, but no need to bother with all that now; Drink me Chai have come to the rescue with their new Turnmeric Latte Mix! Suitable for vegans and gluten free, this mix can be made with any type of milk but it is recommended to use a dairy free milk to get all the anti inflammatory benefits of the turmeric. The mix consists of Turmeric (50%), Coconut Powder (45%), Cinnamon and ground black pepper. I made it with a can of coconut milk I'd bought from Waitrose, but unfortunately it wasn’t one of th...

After the disappointing Loving Earth Coconut Mylk Bar , I thought I'd review something a bit tastier for #veganuary, this time it's Chocolate Tree's Coconut Milk & Sugar 55% cocoa bar. I found this in the same vegan store as Loving Earth Coconut Mylk, and it's priced higher at £4.65 for 80g, but boy is it worth the extra money. I've tried a few coconut milk chocolate bars now in the search for something tasty, the best one so far being the Waitrose 1 Indian Ocean Coconut Dark Chocolate (which isn't really dark chocolate - it's far too creamy!). If you're vegan or dairy free I would recommend seeking that one out for sure. Back to today's bar, the chocolate is actually split into two plastic foil wrapped bars within the main box, each containing 40g. They have a patterned design and interesting shaped blocks. The pack description reads "An alternative to milk chocolate made with coconut milk and coconut blossom sugar. The caca...

Today's review in honour of #veganuary is for something I hoped would be a bit of a treat for someone avoiding dairy. This bar, or rather heart is made in Australia by Loving Earth with coconut "mylk" as well as coconut nectar to make it somewhat of a vegan milk chocolate. I reviewed the Loving Earth Salted Caramel last year and enjoyed it, so was curious how this would compare to that bar. Coconut nectar is the first ingredient, followed by virgin cacao butter, coconut, and finally raw cacao beans. The bar cost me £1.75 from a local vegan store. The ingredients are certified organic and fairtrade. Opening the wrapper, I have to say I wasn't too excited by the dusty looking chocolate. I don't know if it's a "blooming" effect or caused by being transported from the other side of the world but it didn't look great. Still, the heart shape is a nice touch so I'll let them off. Sadly, I can't say I enjoyed the taste. The texture i...

Now that the Christmas festivities are over with and everyone will (hopefully) be focusing on healthier ways of eating for 2018, I thought I should review these Marks and Spencer cocktail Avocados, which are available for a limited period I believe. They are stoneless, so if you're one of those unfortunate people to sustain injuries cutting into the regular variety (I know people this has actually happened to!) these may be the avocadoes for you. The skin is also edible (apparently - I haven't tried!) and they look somewhat like large gherkins. You get around five or six per pack and they cost £2. I chose not to eat the skin, it just seems wrong. Just because you "can" doesn't mean you should! So I used a potato peeler and peeled it all off. They tasted pretty nice; creamy and comforting, although there isn't quite as much of the creamy flesh part as in a regular avocado so it's more of a firmer chewy texture for most of the eat. They're s...

My first post-Christmas review...hurrah! And in typical fashion it's for something healthy, which is just what the doctor ordered after all the rich food and sweets over the festive season. This new Blueberry Muffin flavour Nakd bar caught my eye in a local Sainsbury's Express only a few days after Christmas, and being a huge fan of their other varieties it went straight into my basket. How would it compare to previous editions like Lemon Drizzle and Carrot Cake ? The bar cost 85p and consists of a mixture of dates, cashews, raisins, almonds, blueberries and a hint of natural flavouring. Opening the wrapper it had a super strong blueberry aroma - wow it smelled like a blueberry muffin alright! Taking a bite, it tasted even more of blueberry muffin than I'd expected. I mean yeah I expected blueberry, but the cashews and almonds actually gave it a muffin-like taste and texture. This was a real treat indeed, and better than some of the previous limited editions, in my ...

Just a quick review for this new M&S Unsweetened Almond Milk today...I spotted this in the Free From section of M&S over the weekend for £1.50, which compared to Alpro Almond Milk (which is usually £1.89 in most supermarkets), is a bit of a bargain. It's made with similar ingredients but seems to have a higher percentage of almonds in, although I haven't compared it directly to Alpro. I usually use almond milk as a lighter alternative for hot chocolate if I have vegan guests, but on this occasion I tried it by itself. It was pretty good, it has a slightly thicker and creamier consistency than Alpro Unsweetened Almond Milk does. I later made some hot chocolate with it and it tasted even better, and since it's unsweetened I added some raspberry stevia drops to make a nice light drink.  Overall, this is a pretty good Dairy Free Unsweetened Almond Milk and to be honest I'll happily buy it again over Alpro! If you're after a healthier, low sugar dairy f...

If you're trying to reduce the sugar this January, it can be mighty hard to find a lower sugar chocolate bar, let alone one that's sugar free. Luckily, a few companies are now making them more widely available. One is Montezuma's, whose Absolute Black 100% Cocoa bar is now available from Sainsbury's stores. For that dramatic cocoa hit...don't say we didn't warn you!  As well as being completely sugar free (apart from the naturally occurring sugars found in cocoa beans), it's also dairy free, vegan, soya free and gluten free. However it may contain traces of dairy, nuts and sesame seeds. I've had plenty of 100% cocoa bars in my time, from the likes of Hotel Chocolat and Grenada Chocolate Company, and all have varied in taste. Some are bitter and unpleasant and some have a smooth sweet flavour despite the lack of sugar. This bar achieves some sort of middle ground. It will definitely be bitter to anyone unaccustomed to 100% chocolate, but t...

Another #veganuary review today, and this time it's for a very special bar indeed. This is an "Academy of Chocolate Bronze 2016 Winner", made in micro batches with directly traded single estate cacao. It's called Solkiki Toasted White and is minimally processed with only three ingredients: organic cold-pressed cacao butter, organic cane sugar and organic coconut. Does the lack of extra ingredients make it boring? Definitely not! As well as being vegan and dairy free, like all of Solkiki's chocolates this bar is GMO free, and free from pesticides and herbicides. It's made in Solkiki's renewable factory, which offers only uncut, unprocessed chocolate. Pretty impressive! I love the presentation of the bar; it feels super special with it's mysterious black wrapper. There's a "Tasting Notes" board where you can mark which flavours you feel best describe the chocolate. Such a fun touch! There's also this cheeky Day Of The Dea...

I've never been a fan of regular yogurts, they're just not something I eat a lot of, but one brand I've always had a soft spot for is Co Yo (in fact I reviewed their Original Co Yo Yoghurt wayyy back!) Their yogurts are made exclusively with coconut milk, and are suitable for anyone who is dairy free or vegan. They also contain no added sugar and are suitable for anyone on The Paleo Diet. They're usually around £2 a pot but Tesco are selling them for £1.50 currently so I couldn't resist giving this Salted Caramel variety a try. It contains coconut caramel, which is a mixture of coconut milk, coconut sugar and Himalayan salt. Opening the lid, it had a very natural but distinct caramel aroma. Taking a spoonful, the first thing I noticed was just how thick and rich the texture of the yogurt is. It's very satisfying and creamy, and feels like a proper luxury yogurt. The caramel taste is strong, but rather than the super sweet throat burning caramel in ...