Своzе ХРУПКАВА ЦАРЕВИЦА

Product name: Своzе ХРУПКАВА ЦАРЕВИЦА
Purchase details: £0.59 for a 90g bar (99p Stores)
Calories: 133 per 25g serving (477 per bar)
Country of origin: Bulgaria

Well, this is a first – a review of a product I can’t pronounce. In fact, I had to rely on Microsoft’s ‘Symbol’ function just to write it! If it helps, though, the word ‘Своzе’ came up on my till receipt as ‘Svoge’ which is a town in Bulgaria, so I’m guessing that’s how you say the brand name.

Anyway, this bar’s red wrapper caught my eye, along with the imagery of what looked like Sugar Puffs. Thinking it would be something similar to Kinder Chocolate: With cereals, I had a closer look and discovered it was actually ‘milk chocolate with crunchy, salty corn snacks (13%)’. I quite like experimenting with sweet and savoury and, seeing the bar was a Mondelez International product, I thought it would be worth a try despite its cheap price (it was actually cheaper than I expected when I got it to the till – who knew you could get things for under £0.99 in 99p Stores?!).

Apart from the translation label on the back of the wrapper, all the writing on the packaging consisted of special characters, so I’m indebted to Google Translate for the little extra information I managed to obtain. The product name (‘ХРУПКАВА ЦАРЕВИЦА’) meant ‘crispy corn’ and the writing in the blue box (‘ИЗНЕНАДВАЩ НОВ ВКУС’) translated as ‘surprising new taste’. I then decided to quit whilst I was ahead in terms of language!

The slab of chocolate was divided into 15 pieces that featured a crown design. The plentiful corn pieces were visible through the base of the bar (and a little through the top!) and, combined with their hardness when it came to cutting through them, reminded me a bit of golden unpopped popcorn kernels. Inside, though, they just looked like cereal.

The bar emitted a really basic chocolate scent which didn’t have a lot to it. Unfortunately, this was also true of the taste which wasn’t particularly sweet or milky. The chocolate also had a really grainy melt and, bearing in mind the corn pieces were painful when left behind in the mouth, it just wasn’t worth consuming the bar in this way.

On the plus side, the extremely crispy corn pieces rescued this product. Initially, they tasted like salted popcorn, but then the flavour was far more in keeping with Doritos Cool Original. This interesting element distracted from the cheap-tasting chocolate, and the bar was perfectly enjoyable to chew as there was a lot going on texturally. The thinness of the chocolate contributed to this as it made the corn an even bigger feature than it might otherwise have been.

Due to its low cost, I didn’t have high expectations of this product, but I did quite like the way the saltiness blended with the chocolate. I thought I’d end up comparing the concept to Cadbury Crunchums but the execution of this bar was pretty different.

If you stumble upon Своzе ХРУПКАВА ЦАРЕВИЦА, I’d recommend you giving it a try for novelty’s sake, but I very much doubt it would become a regular purchase!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 6.88/10

Tesco Peanut Butter Style Cupcakes

Product name: Tesco Peanut Butter Style Cupcakes
Purchase details: £1.50 for a pack of two cupcakes or three for two (Tesco)
Calories: 309 per cupcake
Country of origin: UK 

I couldn’t wait to try these peanut butter and jelly themed cupcakes when I spotted them on Tesco's website. They appeared to be part of a new American range and, having seen a review of some of these products over on The Review Addict!, I realised I’d have to leap into action as they’re a limited edition and are only around for 12 weeks – major sad face.

On picking up my pack of Peanut Butter Style Cupcakes in-store, I realised that the key word in the product name was ‘style’. You see, there was no peanut butter in these cupcakes. In fact, the allergy advice simply warned: ‘may contain nuts’ – there weren’t any actually listed on the ingredients list. Instead, the cakes contained ‘peanut butter style toasted soya frosting with jam’, but I remained intrigued.

I loved the simple plastic box that these cupcakes came in as they showed off the beauty of the product within and, most importantly, it kept both cakes firmly in place for transportation. The stars and stripes design on both the cardboard sleeve and paper cases was also a nice touch.

I thought the ‘sponge cakes filled with strawberry jam, topped with soya nut butter frosting and coloured chocolate beans’ looked great. I was delighted that the frosting, being my favourite part of a cupcake, accounted for 42% of the product, and this was a mid-brown colour with a ridged design. The pastel-coloured beans added a nice bit of decoration too. As for the sponge, this was very pale, and I was pleased to see a decent injection of a deep red jam that made up a further 10% of each cake.

I felt like I went on a bit of a journey when it came to consuming the cakes. The frosting, containing soya beans and soya oil, seemed to produce the kind of scent that I simultaneously associated with nut-based vegetarian meals and soy sauce. I guess this was understandable but this savoury aroma was a little unnerving and not really what I wanted from a sweet product!

I’d been a bit alarmed when I first handled a cake as a substantial amount of grease had seeped through the paper case. However, I was relieved that this wasn’t an issue in terms of taste. The cake was very spongy to the extent that it made a noise when cutting or tearing it, and whilst not overly moist, it wasn’t dry either. Its quite stiff texture contrasted well with the beautiful, smooth jam centre that provided a strong berry taste and delicious sweetness.

On its own, the frosting had an initially convincing peanut butter flavour but, unfortunately, the soya taste then became evident. It was pretty oily but also had a thick and slightly spongy texture. Despite not being as dense as peanut butter, it did still stick to the roof of the mouth, and I soon discovered that when eating all elements of the cake together, as intended, the frosting did become convincing as peanut butter again. There was still a slightly odd aftertaste, and the inclusion of icing sugar provided a lighter consistency, but I very quickly adjusted to the soya element. After this point, it stopped being noticeable and I found the cakes very enjoyable, with the jam and icing sugar preventing the flavours becoming too heavy.

If I could change one thing about these cupcakes, I’d get rid of the chocolate beans. Despite the very crispy, sugary shells, the overall chocolatey taste was quite bitter, and I didn’t really like this additional flavour. Whilst it didn’t interfere too much with the overall experience, I also didn’t feel that the added crunch was needed.

However, I did end up enjoying these Peanut Butter Style Cupcakes and I thought it was great that they came with relatively long use-by dates. From my point of view, the ability to store one in an airtight container after I’d consumed the other one was an added bonus!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 5.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.25/10

Mrs. Freshley's Swiss Rolls: Peanut butter flavored

Product name: Mrs. Freshley’s Swiss Rolls: Peanut butter flavored
Purchase details: £1.99 for a 79g pack of two cakes (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 360 per pack
Country of origin: USA

I somehow missed these Mrs. Freshley’s Swiss Rolls on a previous visit to A Quarter of Sweets. The clear plastic wrapper had clearly shown off the chocolate-coated cakes but I hadn’t recognised the pale brown drizzle as an indicator that the product was ‘Peanut butter flavored’! I soon rectified this mistake with a return visit to the store, though.

A look here not only provided the calorie information for these Swiss Rolls, but that the very dark and fairly thick inner swirl of peanut butter was actually Reese’s – yay! That said, I didn’t think it looked much like peanut butter against the chocolate cake – its dense and sticky appearance was a bit like a funny-coloured jam.

The scent of these Rolls was very similar to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups but it was less chocolatey and not as strong. The chocolate-flavoured sponge was very soft, if a little dry, but the moist peanut butter allowed each bite to stick to the roof of the mouth a little. The texture was very much like your standard mini roll offering, really, and I liked how the flexible chocolate layer added a bendy crunch that mixed with the innards of each Roll.

The main flavour was like the chocolate element of a Peanut Butter Cup and seemed to come from the chocolate cake. If I’m honest, it wasn’t wonderful, but I could pick up a slight hint of peanut butter, and this provided a salty kick here and there.

These Mrs. Freshley’s Swiss Rolls: Peanut butter flavored were nice enough but I did feel a bit underwhelmed by their taste. I wouldn’t have described them as ‘nutty’ and, bearing in mind the main attraction was the inclusion of peanut butter, this didn’t feel like a dominant feature, in practice. I did love the concept, though, and would love to see more of this kind of thing in the UK!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.25/10

McVitie's Milky Way: Cake bars

Product name: McVitie’s Milky Way: Cake bars
Purchase details: £0.99 for a pack of 10 bars (Home Bargains)
Calories: 120 per bar
Country of origin: UK 

I was attracted to this great value pack of McVitie’s Milky Way: Cake bars as, unlike most other cake bars, the sponge wasn’t chocolate flavoured.

Containing no artificial flavours or colours, and no preservatives, the bars were ‘baked under licence for Mars UK’, and came in packaging that featured the usual Milky Way branding.

The ‘individually wrapped light sponge cakes, with a creamy filling covered in milk chocolate’ were of a decent size and, outwardly, didn’t look dissimilar from standard Milky Ways. The smooth chocolate coating with a drizzle design made up a surprising but impressive 42% of the product and, inside, the pale yellow sponge looked very neat, topped with a deep, white creamy layer.

At the risk of sounding daft, the bars smelt like...well, cake and chocolate! That’s not to be confused with chocolate cake, though, as whilst both elements were present, the aroma wasn’t exactly special or enticing.

Despite its large quantity, the chocolate shell was quite thin and bendy, allowing me to pick some off to sample the different parts of the bar on their own. The chocolate itself was milky and sweet, whilst the soft sponge tasted very much like standard cake, with a slight vanilla element. It was the topping that stole the show, however, with its whipped cream feel and a taste that was quite like a standard Milky Way’s nougat.

All in all, there was no doubting that these light Cake bars were aimed at kids since they tasted very sweet and innocent. However, although I enjoyed the individual components, I did find that when eating the bars properly, they had a slightly strange aftertaste that I couldn’t put my finger on. Unfortunately, this did detract from their standalone enjoyability.

On the plus side, I really loved their soft and moist feel. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that they had one of the best textures (if not the best!) I’ve ever had in a cake bar.

As far as the connection to the Milky Way brand goes, there was certainly an element of the familiar childhood taste there, but this definitely wasn’t as good as the real thing. Did I mention that I loved the texture, though?!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.75/10