Cadbury Crunchums

Product name: Cadbury Crunchums
Purchase details: £0.99 for a 105g bag (Home Bargains)
Calories: 185 per 1/3 of a bag (530 per 100g)
Country of origin: Europe

I’ve been waiting to try these Cadbury Crunchums for a while. Served in a sharing bag, really, they’re ideal for a film night with friends. However, this is the sort of snack I prefer to use up spare calories on by having a few grams here and there.

Crunchums are pieces of maize cereal coated in Cadbury chocolate and on opening the resealable bag, the familiar Cadbury aroma was evident, but I also detected a hint of saltiness.

The image on the front of the packet depicted pieces of cereal that I would describe as ‘pillows’. However, I was surprised to find that the majority of the Crunchums in my packet had holes in the sides. I had thought that this aspect of the product image had been a cross-section, but apparently not. This wasn’t in any way an issue – just not what I had been expecting! Similarly, I thought the pieces would be more uniform in shape, but as the small selection I’ve pictured shows, there was quite a bit of variety.

Visually, the chocolate wasn’t as smooth I’d expect from Cadbury, and was rather dull but, I have to say, I was more interested in what the cereal looked like as it was a concept I couldn’t quite envisage. It turned out to be a yellow colour with a very bubbly texture, not too dissimilar to cornflakes, but with finer bubbles. This lighter shade contrasted well with the milk chocolate.

On tasting the Crunchums, I discovered that I hadn’t imagined the saltiness in the smell – this element was very much present in the maize and particularly noticeable towards the end of each bite when the initial chocolate hit had evaporated. The sweetness of the chocolate worked really well with this salty flavour, and the cool, creamy texture meant that the whole experience was like eating a chocolate-based cereal as the absence of milk wasn’t felt.

As you’d expect from the name ‘Crunchums’, these cereal pillows were very crispy, although it was still possible to let the chocolate melt before reaching the maize centres. However, when eating the product in this way, it was hard not to accidentally crush the cereal in the process of sucking the chocolate off!

On the whole, I feel a bit torn by this Cadbury offering. The Crunchums offered something different to other sharing bags currently available on the UK market, and they were certainly very enjoyable, but I’m afraid they just didn’t excite me as much as they could have done. However, I’d still buy them again. 

Appearance: 6.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Oh Henry! Peanut butter

Product name: Oh Henry! Peanut Butter
Purchase details: £1.93 for a 58g bar (cybercandy.co.uk)
Calories: 300 per bar

I first heard of the Oh Henry! bar from my brother-in-law who has family in Canada. He raved about it so I tried one last year and, to be honest, I wasn’t that impressed. As much as I adore peanut butter, I get less excited about peanuts themselves – at least, on their own. For me, the original Oh Henry bar was just too much like a Snickers and, for that reason, I was disappointed. However, I was still keen to try the peanut butter variety so it was with great excitement that I added this bar to my recent Cybercandy order.

This hunk of a bar (58g!) was ‘imported by’ Hershey Canada but the colourful wrapper didn’t actually state where it was produced. However, to the best of my knowledge, this variety is only widely available in Canada.
 

Unlike the smoother chocolate bars we’re used to in the UK, Oh Henry! Peanut Butter was lumpy in appearance due to the visibility of peanuts beneath the outer chocolatey coating. Cutting into the bar, I was pleased to see that all of its components were clearly visible. There was a smooth Reese’s peanut butter core down the centre of the bar which was surrounded by a thin film of ‘creamy caramel’. This in turn was covered in real peanuts and then topped with a chocolatey layer. Due to the common ingredients of peanut butter and an artificial coating, this bar did smell similar to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, although the inclusion of the real peanuts did add an additional nutty element which made the aroma even more mouth-watering.

Once again, I felt the chocolatey coating to be a disadvantage over real milk chocolate. In this case, it actually caused the bar to feel slightly greasy between my fingertips, as if the ‘chocolate’ couldn’t melt quickly enough. However, apart from the missed opportunity for extra creaminess, I can’t say this dampened by enjoyment of the product too much. Quite frankly, this bar took my tastebuds on a brilliant journey – there was just so much going on. The saltiness of the peanut butter blended well with the mellower peanuts and, combined with the sweetness from the caramel and outer coating, this really was a taste sensation.

Furthermore, this combination of ingredients made for a fantastic texture. The initial crunchiness from the peanuts was met with a slight chewiness from the caramel, which then combined with the softness of the peanut butter core. My only criticism is that the rugged nuts meant that the smoothness of the peanut butter couldn’t be appreciated. However, I did love the way the peanuts stayed perfectly in place within the bar, but easily separated out in the mouth. For me, this was a sign that the quantity of caramel was just right – enough to do its job, but not to cause so much chewiness that eating the bar became a hassle.

I genuinely loved this bar, although I’m aware that the concept is identical to that of the Reese’s Nutrageous, which is another favourite of mine. At this stage, I can’t judge which is better, but I currently have the latter in my stash so I guess the decision will be made when its time for review comes! At the moment, though, I suspect that Oh Henry!: Peanut butter might just clinch it since it is the bigger of the two bars and, therefore, may feel like more of a treat. Watch this space!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8.5/10
Taste: 9.5/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.75/10

Hill Biscuits Snack Packs: Custard creams

Product name: Hill Biscuits Snack Packs: Custard creams
Purchase details: £0.89 for a multipack of six pack of six biscuits (Home Bargains)
Calories: 65 per biscuit (390 per pack)
Country of origin: UK

As a kid, I loved custard creams. In fact, they were probably my favourite biscuit. These days, I can’t say I eat many of them, but this cheap Hill Biscuits multipack from Home Bargains caught my eye due to the different varieties it contained. It held six snack packs, each containing six biscuits – that’s a grand total of 36 biscuits for £0.89 so I wasn’t expecting amazing quality!

I’ll be sampling these biscuits over a potentially long period of time, but tonight I decided to tuck into the original custard creams. I’d never really considered what these were but the pack described them as ‘vanilla flavour cream sandwich biscuits’ and it all suddenly became clear...vanilla! Of course – I’m a sucker for vanilla!

These biscuits had the standard custard cream appearance of two pale brown biscuits containing a traditional pattern, filled with a pale yellow cream. This probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but they did also have a mild custardy scent.

Taste-wise, I found the biscuit has a vanilla-infused rich tea flavour, whilst the cream was particularly sugary – definitely sweeter than other custard creams I’ve tried and the reason why I’ve marked them down in this area. The biscuits were lovely and crunchy and, when eaten normally, the cream centres added a moisture and coolness to the heavier, dry texture. However, I did find that the cream didn’t soften the texture in this format. One of my strange habits, though, is removing the top biscuit layer and eating it alone, leaving the layer with the cream on to eat separately. When consuming the biscuits in this way, it did result in a softer texture, and also more flavour.

I really enjoyed tonight’s trip down memory lane. Before starting my snack pack, I thought it should have been half the size as I wouldn’t normally eat six biscuits at once. However, I’d forgotten just how addictive custard creams are – very moreish! I’ve obviously eaten better quality snacks in my lifetime, but I still wouldn’t turn down another pack of these custard creams, despite them not being quite as good as the ones I ate as a child.

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Milka Caramel Cream

Product name: Milka Caramel Cream
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 100g bar or buy two get one free (Poundworld)
Calories: 136 per 25g portion (540 per 100g bar)

This bar of Milka Caramel Cream was my last remaining one from the three for two deal in Poundworld. It was also the one I was most looking forward to trying due to the two different layers within the chocolate making it a more interesting concept for a caramel product.

Milka Caramel Cream is a milk chocolate bar, 35% of which is made up of a ‘caramel flavoured milk filling’, whilst 15% of it is a more common caramel. Despite careful studying of the familiar purple wrapper (I did like the swirled cream and caramel imagery on the front), I couldn’t actually work out where this product was produced – all I can say is that the contact addresses given were for the UK, Ireland, Romania and Turkey...make of that what you will!

When I removed the wrapper, I immediately noticed a strong, creamy aroma which wasn’t dissimilar to Lindt Lindor truffles. The bar was divided into 15 larger-than-normal squares, like Milka Cream, in order to contain the cream centres. Visually, the bar was an attractive milk chocolatey colour, although mine had tarnished slightly due to the recent British heatwave.

When looking at a cross-section from one of the bar’s snapping points, the main caramel cream layer looked pale and milky, and also not as deep as the wrapper had suggested. There was also no sign of the runnier caramel. However, on cutting a square in half, this additional amber layer was revealed, along with the hidden depth of the caramel cream layer. These contrasting layers looked very appetising and the bar itself looked promising.

On eating the bar, I noticed that the Milka chocolate didn’t have the nutty element that I’d detected in the other bars I’ve tried. However, it remained smooth and creamy and it melted very well. The combined components were lovely and soft and I particularly liked the texture of the caramel cream layer as it provided a contrast that wouldn’t have been there if there had been a thicker layer of chocolate, and it also prevented there being an overwhelming quantity of runny caramel. Initially, I didn’t think I could actually taste this layer, but I later realised that it did seem to have its own milky flavour which also contributed to the overall caramel taste.

As nice as this bar was when left to melt in the mouth, I preferred to chew it as this allowed the top caramel layer to burst out, almost unexpectedly. I really enjoyed this sweet layer and, whilst it was quite deep, I think it would have been nice if it had contributed to slightly more of the filling, spread across the whole of the top layer rather than keeping it central.

I found Milka Caramel Cream to be a much more interesting caramel chocolate – it took the positive aspect of a runny caramel encased in chocolate but made it better by adding an extra cream layer. I’d definitely buy this again. 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding

Product name: Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding
Purchase details: Cartmel Village Shop
Calories: Unsure – estimate 530 per 150g pudding
Country of origin: England

For the majority of my life, I liked sticky toffee pudding, but it didn’t excite me, and I certainly never classed it as a favourite. That was until a few years ago when I was introduced to the delights of Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding which originated 20 years ago in the small Cumbrian village of Cartmel. I can honestly say that this version is unlike any other sticky toffee pudding I have ever eaten and, as a result, I have refused to eat any other kind since!

Unfortunately, I hadn’t actually had this wonderful pudding for a year or so, by my parents kindly brought me back this 150g pudding after their latest visit to the Cartmel Village Shop, so I was really looking forward to tonight’s snack time. My excitement built further on reading the cardboard sleeve which recommended that the product is served when it is ‘warm, sticky, and the sauce is nice and dribbly’ – the memories this description invoked caused my mouth to water. I also noted that this packet contained one to two servings, but there was no way I sharing this with anyone!

On removing the foil container’s lid, I was hit with a strong, syrupy smell. Some of the smooth, runny toffee sauce had stuck to the lid so I couldn’t resist trying this cold. Its dark colour was reflected in its flavour which was a rich, buttery toffee that was like a nicer version of a Werther’s Original. This sauce was lovely and sugary with a very slight granular texture and, when looking at it en masse (covering the pudding), it was almost a chocolate shade of brown.

Although this pudding can be microwaved for 40 seconds, I decided to enjoy mine the ‘proper’ way, by cooking it in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. One of the best things about this method is the fantastic butterscotch-scented heat that floods over you when you open the oven door.

When I retrieved my hot, bubbling pudding, I wasn’t quite sure how to remove it from its foil case without completely ruining its appearance. I decided to tip it upside down into a bowl, but then realised the error of my ways when the toffee sauce, which made up 37% of the product, was now almost completely underneath the sponge. Despite my picture showing what appears to be a lack of sauce, I can assure you that it was very much present, and it turned out to be a bonus having it at the bottom of the cake as it saved the best bit until last when it came to the taste experience.

One of the most surprising thing about this pudding, for me, is that the sponge contains a lot of dates (they make up 19% of the whole dessert and the packaging even warns of ‘cheeky’ stones that may have been missed in the production process)...I hate dates! However, I still struggle to believe that this is what I was eating since the flavour didn’t suggest this. There was a slight tang to the sponge which, I suppose, may have been caused by the dates, but the main flavour was that of the toffee sauce that had been absorbed by the sponge. The colour of the pudding was also largely affected by the sauce, with the innermost sections of the sponge being a slightly lighter shade where the sauce hadn’t seeped as deeply. Texturally, it was beautiful: hot, soft and moist.

It is, of course, the sauce that made this Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding what it was (it’s so good that it can be bought on its own!), and it also provided the main flavour which was a very rich and sweet, dark sugary one. It had caramelised, in places, which provided an additional twist on the flavour, as well as a slight chewiness to the texture.

I’m pleased to report that this pudding was as delicious as I remembered it and it was a real treat. I was eating this as part of my diet plan (I’m hoping MyFitnessPal's calorie estimate wasn’t too far out!), but if I hadn’t been, I would have gone the whole hog and added cream for an extremely indulgent treat. The addition of ice cream is also great when combined with the hot pudding, but personally, I find this takes away from the pudding’s amazing taste.

If you’re ever in or around Cartmel, I highly recommend you popping along to the shop to sample this original dessert, or some of their other local products. If not, you may be lucky enough to find one of these beauties in an independent supplier in other parts of the country, or you can buy online here. Enjoy!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 9/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 8.25/10