Kev's Snack Reviews

Today's review (and upcoming reviews) are specially thanks to the makers of Perfect World ice creams, a company specializing in vegan, sugar and gluten free ice creams that are suitable for pretty much any dietary needs. I first reviewed the brand a few years ago with the Taste Of Carrot Cake Ice Cream, and since then they have totally revamped their range, removing egg from the ingredients and adding new flavours such as Raspberry Ripple, Mint Choc Chip, Sweet Espresso, Pistachio, Double Chocolate Chip and this...the delightful Caramel Pecan! With only 4.7g of natural sugars and 423 calories in a tub, this ice cream is completely vegan and dairy free and made with a mixture of coconut milk, cashew nuts, vegetable fibre and the sweeteners xylitol, erythritol and stevia. It's also high in 12 vitamins and minerals, making it a truly healthy ice cream indeed! As impressive as all that is though it would mean nothing if it didn't taste good...so does it? I would shout ...

It may nearly be September but all of a sudden the British Summer has finally started...it's been boiling where I am lately so I've been lapping up the ice cream like it's going out of fashion! One brand I had never tried before is Jude's, and they only came on my snacks radar when One Treat aka Marmey reviewed them recently . The description Brown Butter Pecan with swirls of caramel had me sucked in immediately, this sounded like a heavenly combination. This may be a small tub, but it's a tasty one. It comes with a little spoon so you can eat it straight after buying...how handy! (of course, I always keep cutlery with me wherever I go in case of a snacking opportunity, so I didn't actually need it). The ice cream is a delightful combination of creamy buttery ice cream, swirls of caramel sauce and pieces of delicious toasted pecans. And it's perfect! In fact I only wish I had a larger tub...so so tasty! The butter flavour is definitely notic...

I'm secretly quite a fan of Nakd bars...not only are they gluten free (a biggie for me!), they're dairy free, vegan and refined-sugar free to boot. Woo! Sadly they're not nut-free, so those who go pop from nuts step away now! I do have issues with nuts myself, particularly macadamias, but lately I seem to be doing ok with the lesser nuts. Nakd bars are predominantly a mixture of cashews and dates, which touch wood I am ok with thus far.  I've been after this Pecan Pie Bar ever since I first noticed it...I do love pecan nuts especially combined with sweeter flavours, and I wondered how Nakd might recreate pecan pie in bar form. I spotted this along with the Cocoa Mint variety in Waitrose so couldn't resist snapping up both! (Stay tuned for a review of Cocoa Mint).  This bar contains a mixture of dates, pecans and almonds, and nothing else. I kinda expected the addition of a flavouring such as cinnamon or cloves, since pumpkin pie would traditionally ...

Recently some new Eat Natural bars appeared in my local Tesco Express, I've never been a fan of their bars to be honest as I find them rather sugary and unhealthy for a "natural" snack bar, but it seems they have upped their game and reduced the sugar whilst increasing the protein content. Always a good thing in my book! They're also wheat, dairy and gluten-free so are suitable for us folks with various intolerances as well as being vegetarian. Yay! For £2 you get three 45g bars, which I must admit I thought was a bit steep. But you have to pay for your health, I guess! The bars smelled nice and peanutty with a hint of maple syrup. They were kind of sticky, but not overly so, they still held their shape despite my warm hands. They tasted pretty decent! Not too hard and not too chewy, not too sweet, with just the right amount of maple flavour and crunchy nuttiness. They were very filling and satisfying, I didn't feel the need to eat another after ...

So this week I've decided to review only gluten free snacks. I'm sensitive to gluten and have been off it for a while now, and have been a bit disappointed with many of the gluten free choices out there. It's mighty hard to find a good gluten free cookie in the shops, in fact it's impossible to find the gooey, buttery fresh ones, so we're left with only the dry, shelf stable kind to nom on :( One of the new kids on the (gluten free) block is Udi's, a brand popular in America that has only recently made its presence felt on UK shores. They make various bread rolls, bagels, toaster pastries, and more. My local large Tesco stocks a few of their Cookie varieties, which usually cost £3.50 (too much for my budget!) but when they're half price I sometimes buy a pack. They're currently half price in Tesco again and for £1.75 I decided to give this "Dark Chocolate Chip, Pecan Nut & Maple Flavour" variety a try. You get ten cookies in a p...