Twix

Product name: Twix
Purchase details: £1.00 for a packet of four two finger bars (tesco.com)
Calories: 124 per finger (248 per bar

It seems I like to do things out of order since I reviewed the imported and lesser-known Twix White last month having not reviewed the common and ever-popular milk chocolate version! 

Made by Mars, this bar was simply described as ‘milk chocolate (35%) covered caramel (32%) and biscuit (26%)’ and was split into fingers that each weighed 25g. Again, the country of origin was not stated, but the contact details provided were for Holland, Great Britain and Ireland. Whilst a serving was, technically, one finger, I don’t think I’ve ever left the other one for later!

The colour scheme used for this variety of Twix was gold and red (quite similar to the Cadbury Crunchie, really!) and there was a delicious-looking image of the twin fingers on the wrapper too. As for the bar itself, this was identical to the White one – only the colour of the chocolate was different (providing a greater contrast with the biscuit), and the coverage seemed a bit thicker. 

This Twix had a chocolate smell that, whilst not overly powerful, was stronger than the white chocolate one had been. It tasted very chocolatey and had the same delicious, sweet caramel, although I didn’t think this tasted quite as good with the milk chocolate. I’m not sure whether the same biscuit recipe is used for both varieties but, to me, the biscuit base used for this Twix was sweeter and less buttery. Together, though, these simple ingredients, once again, formed a winning combination.

Understandably, this bar was also texturally the same as the White bar, and I really enjoyed biting through the soft caramel into the crunchy biscuit. I also decided to try something a bit different by biting off the ends of a finger and drinking some tea through the remainder, like a straw. The process itself wasn’t anything to write home about, but eating the melting, softened finger afterwards was certainly enjoyable, albeit a bit messy!

Well done, Twix, you’re b-e-a-utiful. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Wonka Crème Brûlée

Product name: Wonka Crème Brûlée
Purchase details: £1.40 for a 100g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 111 per two square serving (555 per bar) 

A couple of months ago, I reviewed the two newly-released Wonka bars (Millionaire's Shortbread and Nice Cream). At the time, the Crème Brûlée variety was due to join the collection but had yet to make an appearance. Whilst I managed to obtain this ‘scrumdiddlyumptiously shareable’ 100g bar shortly afterwards, it has taken me until now to try it (as is always the way, I’ve seen them everywhere since!).

As with the other bars, the Crème Brûlée came in a pinky-purple wrapper but, for some reason, I didn’t think this looked as magical in appearance (maybe my initial excitement had just worn off!). Once again, the packaging didn’t state where this Nestlé product had been made, but it did have a useful opening and sealing method which worked well...not that there was any chance of my bar being resealed! The other plus points mentioned on the wrapper were that that bar contained no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and that it was part of the Cocoa Plan – ‘supporting farmers for better chocolate’.

The bar was divided into 10 large squares that each contained a ridged circle for decoration, within which was, alternately, a Wonka ‘W’ or what looked a bit like a sun but was a bit too faint to make out. The milk chocolate contained a minimum 14% milk solids and gave out a noticeable chocolatey aroma on opening. The filling was described as a ‘vanilla crème with a caramel crunch’ and the ‘caramel flavoured sugar pieces’ that made up the latter also smelt of burnt caramel up close.

The ‘vanilla flavoured filling’ contributed to 40% of the bar and looked almost identical to the Nice Cream filling – it was smooth and contained specks of vanilla and, on eating, the caramel pieces were also visible. Unfortunately, this vanilla crème also tasted and felt the same as the one used for the Nice Cream bar – I struggled to taste the vanilla and it was rubbery to the extent that, after allowing the chocolate coating to melt, it just remained on the tongue, flexing but not really dissolving. On the plus side, 6% of the bar was the caramel pieces within this crème, and this added an interesting, bitty texture, as well as a sweet sugar taste.

The chocolate used for this bar had a strange taste to it. The cocoa flavour was there but there was also a slight chemical element to it. Whilst it was creamy, I did think it was a bit too sweet. This wasn’t a problem in itself but I just didn’t seem right for milk chocolate. However, it did melt well, and the slow nature in which this happened allowed the caramelised pieces to be gradually released to be crunched on. The squares could have done with being a bit smaller, though, since I found they reached quite far back in my mouth!

Combined with the other ingredients, I found the whole experience a bit strange – it certainly tasted like no crème brûlée I’ve ever had before. It was pretty rich, and I certainly wouldn’t describe the flavours as ‘unpleasant’, but it was just odd. In addition, whilst the bar didn’t have a hard texture, I’d expected the filling to be softer and creamier, so I was quite disappointed.

I so wanted to love this bar but it was actually my least favourite of the three Wonka flavours. It was by no means disgusting, but it certainly left some important boxes unticked. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6/10
Texture: 6.5/10
Overall score: 6.75/10

Butterkist Caramel

Product name: Butterkist Caramel
Purchase details: £0.89 for a 175g bag (Home Bargains)
Calories: 101 per 25g serving (406 per 100g)
Country of origin: UK

Considering it’s a relatively low calorie snack, I don’t buy popcorn enough. This unusual yellow and burgundy bag caught my eye recently, though, and I was glad it did since it heralded the arrival of a new Butterkist flavour – Caramel. I didn’t expect it to taste much different to toffee popcorn (particularly as it was simply described as ‘caramel flavour toffee popcorn’), but I’ll try anything once...unless it contains fish – bleurgh.

Part of Tangerine Confectionery Ltd, Butterkist is a well-established brand, and I was interested to read a bit more about it on the back of the bag. Founded in America in 1914, it’s been available in UK cinemas since 1938, and it now claims to be ‘the nation’s favourite popcorn’ with a ‘delicious and unique flavour’. Since popcorn is connected with films so much, I did like the way the brand’s logo was styled like the opening credits of a movie, and I was also amused by the concept of a strong man struggling with the weight of a single piece of popcorn. 

On opening the bag, I was greeted with a lovely cinema popcorn smell with a slight sweetness to it. Visually, it was paler in colour than standard toffee popcorn, but it still had a visible coating. The overall appearance was as expected, with similar sized pieces being different shapes, and some being more thickly coated that others (as far as I’m concerned, the shinier and thicker the coating, the better that piece will be!). 

I’d been surprised to see that the ‘sweet caramel flavour’ coating (made using Butterkist’s secret recipe) made up 65% of the product but, thankfully, the popcorn was still light enough to mean I felt like I was getting a lot for the calories. I was doing my fairly typical thing of using up spare calories rather than having 25g portions, but I didn’t feel deprived at all. 

Taste-wise, the flavour was more different than I thought it would be. The popcorn itself was quite buttery and, with the coating, it was obviously sweet too. It wasn’t as deep a flavour as toffee popcorn and I found it almost hinted at banana (now that would be a good variety!). It also reminded me of something from my childhood but I couldn’t work out what it was – it was making me think of biscuits but I couldn’t think of anything specific that would have tasted like this product! As I normally do, I really enjoyed the sugary shell that the coating formed, and the more thickly coated pieces were definitely the tastiest, as well as the crunchiest, which provided a nice contrast to the otherwise squishy popcorn. 

This was definitely a very moreish treat! 

Appearance: 7.5/10

Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.5/10

Ben & Jerry's Core: Dough-ble whammy

Product name: Ben & Jerry’s Core: Dough-ble whammy
Purchase details: £2.49 for a 500ml tub (tesco.com)
Calories: 230 per 100ml serving 

You might need to be sitting down for this confession...I’ve only ever eaten Ben & Jerry’s ice cream twice. I know, I know – it’s terrible. We just never had it in the house when I was growing up and, now I’m old enough to make my own decisions about what to buy, I rarely think of getting my own ice cream! The two varieties I have tried (Phish Food and Core: Peanut butter me up), though, have been pretty darn good.

I’ve heard a lot, over the years, about how amazing the Cookie Dough variety is but I’ve just never got around to trying it. However, when a friend raved about this even more exciting Dough-ble whammy flavour earlier in the year, I decided I just had to try it. Fair enough, it’s now a few months later, but I’ve been waiting for it to be on offer – I snapped it up as soon as it was half price!

The Core range of ice cream is relatively new and, I think, is fantastic. The concept involves each tub being split into two different ice cream flavours with some form of pillar of sauce running down the centre. In this case, the ice cream flavours were chocolate and cookie dough and the core (that contributed to 12% of the tub) was chocolate fudge sauce. Excitingly there were even chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough within the ice cream (making up 7% of the product), and I have to say, I loved the clever name!

Despite it being a freezing cold November day, I was really excited to try this Fairtrade ice cream for the first time. I’m used to seeing Ben & Jerry’s tubs containing background images of a farm scene and, whilst this was present on the back of my tub, I was far more interested in the scrummy-looking images of the ice cream that waited inside, and I loved how this was done in a way that clearly showed the layout of the tub rather than being a ‘serving suggestion’ of the product in a bowl.

The back of the tub warned that the ‘chocolatey concoction’ wasn’t ‘for the faint-hearted’ so I decided to stick to the recommended 100ml serving size which is about the equivalent of two scoops. The packaging didn’t state where the ice cream had been produced, but there was a fantastic description of the journey each mouthful took you on, involving diving ‘into the core of soft chocolate fudge’ and riding ‘the rapids of rich chocolate ice cream’ whilst avoiding the ‘cookie dough rocks as you reach the canyon of creamy vanilla ice cream’.

On prising off the lid, I thought the ice cream looked great, with the border between the two halves being curved just enough to look a bit like the yin and yang symbol. There were visible chunks of chocolate and, on delving a bit deeper, the cookie dough looked deliciously like light brown sugar. As for the core, this looked far more like chocolate fudge sauce then I’d expected, and was a darker shade of brown to the chocolate ice cream which made it easy to see what you were getting on each spoonful.

As this was a frozen product, there was hardly any smell at all, but there was a very slight hint of chocolate. The chocolate ice cream that this seemed to come from had a strong cocoa taste and was also extremely creamy (unsurprising when considering 24% of the product was cream!). I love vanilla and loved how fantastically strong this flavour was in the cookie dough side of the ice cream – it wasn’t boring at all. Both of the ice cream varieties had a lovely, silky melt which was interspersed with the chunky chocolate pieces that reminded me slightly of the end of a Cornetto cone, although more chocolatey.

The core was, quite simply, incredible. It really did taste like it had been lifted from a chocolate fudge cake – it had such a strong chocolate flavour that almost hinted at alcohol. On the spoon, it was very stiff and gooey, and remained nice and thick in the mouth before practically trickling down the throat. Overall, it was a great additional texture that you would never normally experience with ice cream.

As for the cookie dough pieces, I was delighted that that these had remained soft, despite being frozen. It had a part-smooth, part-grainy texture and, thankfully, did taste like cookie dough – amazing. It was sugary and, as a result, lifted the flavour from the intense chocolate hit provided by the core and half of the ice cream.

I ate my ice cream after it had been out of the freezer for 5–10 minutes and found that this allowed it to maintain its frozenness whilst being very soft and smooth. The flavours were nothing short of great together so I had no option but to lick the bowl when I had finished!

I think I need to buy Ben & Jerry’s more often! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 5.5/10
Taste: 9/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.88/10