Maryland Strawberry & White Choc

Product name: Maryland Strawberry & White Choc
Purchase details: £0.49 for a 200g packet (Home Bargains)
Calories: 103 per two biscuit serving (51 per biscuit)
Country of origin: England 

This metallic pink packet of limited edition Maryland Strawberry & White Choc cookies caught my eye in the Summer since they were so cheap and contained my favourite type of chocolate! I may have only just got around to opening them but that was in no way down to a lack of excitement over trying them.

As a general rule, I find that Maryland biscuits look more attractive on the wrapper than they do in reality, with the cookies tending to be more bumpy than knobbly (there is a difference, honest!). This particular product image showed visible white chocolate as well as pink strawberry pieces. The real-life biscuits didn’t look identical but there were still appetising in appearance. Their pale shade made them look more like shortbread than cookies (particularly without any dark-coloured chocolate chips), and the ‘sweetened strawberry puree pieces’ that accounted for 3% of the product weren’t as vivid a hue as the packet had suggested. See the black dot on my picture? That’s one! To be fair, they did look juicier and more of a peach colour, on the base of the cookies. As for the white chocolate chips, these seemed plentiful (contributing to 17% of the biscuits), and they looked nicely chunky.

When it comes to dried strawberry, I like it, but I do find it can sometimes be too sweet and sickly in these kinds of products. On opening this Burton’s Biscuit Co product, there was an immediate fruity aroma and, whilst this subsided slightly, a buttery biscuit scent with a hint of berry remained. The fruity taste was also very noticeable in the biscuits and was more spread out than I thought it would be. I’d expected a strawberry hit here and there but, instead, each mouthful was full of a sweet but not too overpowering slightly medicinal taste – it was surprisingly yummy!

The biscuits themselves also had a buttery taste which the white chocolate added a creaminess and slight sweetness to here and there. It wasn’t the most noticeable white chocolate flavour I’ve ever come across but it did a decent job.

The cookies’ texture was pleasantly crunchy with a cool solidness from the white chocolate chips. I also found that dipping them in tea softened them considerably as well as releasing a further flavour.

These Maryland Strawberry & White Choc biscuits were a lovely twist on standard chocolate chip cookies and I’d happily buy them again. Bargain! 

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

Klik Vanilla 'N Fudge

Product name: Klik Vanilla ‘N Fudge
Purchase details: £1.40 for a 75g bag (Tesco)
Calories: 504 per 100g (378 per bag)
Country of origin: Israel 

Another Klik product today in the form of Vanilla ‘N Fudge (let’s just ignore the missing apostrophe!).

These white and milk chocolate covered corn puffs came in a bag that was designed in the same way as the Cornflakes and Kariot-Pillows but, this time, the colour scheme was brown.

Made by Unilever Israel Foods Ltd and ‘imported and distributed by’ Empire Foodbrokers Ltd, this treat seemed like a simple concept, with the small, glossy balls looking like slightly bigger versions of the pieces you get in pots of Müller Corner: Crunch! (vanilla choco balls). 

I wasn’t quite sure where this Klik product got its name – I figured the white chocolate would either have a vanilla taste whilst the milk had a fudge flavour, or it was purely down to colour scheme provided by the contrasting chocolates.

The chocolate itself had a standard appearance, whilst the inner cereal filling looked a bit like Kellogg’s Corn Pops, providing a pale yellow colour that didn’t stand out much against the white chocolate.

The milk chocolate contained a minimum of 29% cocoa solids and, combined with the 30% minimum present in the white chocolate, provided a sweet chocolate smell which was the same as the Kariot-Pillows' aroma. Both chocolates were really creamy and I enjoyed the cocoa element of the milk chocolate too – it seemed to be of a better quality and it melted better than the other Klik products I’ve tried.

The corn cereal was just that, really, delivering a really crispy experience and going very well with the proper chocolate coatings. As basic a snack as this ultimately was, it was extremely yummy, and I loved how, even when eating the two types of chocolate together, the white chocolate flavour didn’t get lost in the way it often does when competing with milk chocolate.

I honestly didn’t expect this snack to score quite so highly but, if you want a simple yet satisfying snack, I’d highly recommend it. Once again, I felt there was a generous portion in the bag, and I enjoyed every mouthful.

I’m still not entirely sure why the name ‘Vanilla ‘N Fudge’ was chosen, but I’ll let that go! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

Vilniaus Pergalé Pergalē: Coconut centres

Product name: Vilniaus Pergalé Pergalē: Coconut centres
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 100g box (Poundland)
Calories: 499 per box
Country of origin: Lithuania 

This box of Vilniaus Pergalé Pergalē: Coconut centres recently caught my eye in Poundland as, not only did they contain white chocolate and coconut, but they looked like a cheap version of Lindt Lindor. Granted, the fillings looked moist and bitty in comparison to Lindt’s truffles, but they even had the pale blue and white colour theme used for Lindor: Coconut!

These 55% white chocolate-containing ‘candies with coconut filling’ came individually wrapped in coconut-depicting, paper-lined foil wrappers. The chocolates were almost like a rose, in shape, and I was pleased to see that their chocolate shells looked nice and thick, albeit slightly scuffed. Compared to the image on the box, the fillings didn’t look nearly as wet, and appeared to have more of a truffle-like texture than I was expecting. However, it was moist and sticky to the touch.

The chocolates did have a coconut aroma but, oddly, this seemed to be mixed with a hint of alcohol. The white chocolate itself was sweet with a milky taste that reminded me of the coating used on Wall’s Magnum: White. This melted nicely but not all that comfortably since the chocolates were quite large for the mouth!

When first biting into the soft, wet filling, the taste that hit me was almost like melon, but this then settled into a coconut flavour, helped along by a bittiness provided by the ‘coconut chips’ that accounted for 2.8% of the product. I would still have liked a stronger coconut taste but what really disappointed me was the taste of alcohol. This was only mild, to start with, but since I’m a non-drinker, I found the warm feeling at the back of my throat unmistakable. On checking the ingredients, I saw that the chocolates did, indeed, contain ‘ethyl alcohol’. I persevered anyway but I found that that the boozy taste only got stronger and I felt that this was such a shame as it was completely unnecessary for what would have been a perfectly acceptable product as it was.

I thought that this was a good concept for a chocolate treat but, for me, the inclusion of alcohol ruined it. Whether or not someone who actually likes alcohol would enjoy these, I’m not sure, but I did feel that, without the alcohol, these were decent enough. The flavours from the chocolate and coconut may not have been the strongest in the world, and they may not have been mind-blowing, but they were certainly enjoyable. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Klik Kariot-Pillows

Product name: Klik Kariot-Pillows
Purchase details: £1.60 for a 75g bag (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 504 per 100g (378 per bag)
Country of origin: Israel 

One of my first ever reviews was of Klik Cornflakes and, today, I thought I’d revisit the brand with Klik Kariot-Pillows which I, again, picked up from the ‘Foods of the World’ section’.

These ‘nougat filled crunchy cereals coated with milk chocolate’ came in a similarly designed bag but, in this case, it was blue rather than green. From previous experience, I knew that this ‘nougat’ was likely to be a kind of praline, and with the images on the bag depicting square chocolate-covered cereals containing a gooey chocolate filling, I was expecting this product to be a bit like Krave with an added chocolate coating.

Made by Unilver Israel, the bag had been ‘imported and distributed by’ Empire Foodbrokers Ltd, and its contents consisted of 50% cereal which contained hazelnuts. The chocolate contained a minimum of 20% milk solids and 29% cocoa solids, and had the same kind of smooth and waxy feel as the Klik Cornflakes. Outwardly, these slightly dimpled pieces looked very similar to the product image, but inside was a whole other matter. Instead of being a light shade of brown, the cereal looked more of a cocoa colour, and there was no moist filling. Assuming I’d picked up a dud, I cut into a second piece and found that, this too, just had a cavity as if there should have been a nut present. This second one did have a very slight chocolatey lining that the first didn’t have, but it certainly wasn’t the gooey chocolate that the bag had suggested. I had noticed that the Pillows felt light and hollow so this seemed to be why!

The cereals had a slight chocolate smell from the coating and this chocolate tasted sweet and milky. As with the Cornflakes, it had a smooth feel to it, but it didn’t really melt and, when tasted on its own, I felt it was a bit like Advent calendar chocolate in quality. However, when enjoyed with the rest of the components, it was very enjoyable.

The crunchy cereals were a bit like Maltesers in texture – crunchy with a slightly sticky resistance. Unlike Maltesers, though, they had a slight hazelnut flavour which was similar to mainstream pillow cereals, and this nuttiness went well with the chocolate.

I can’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed by the lack of an interesting filling. My bag was a couple of months away from its ‘use by’ date so I can’t think of a reason why this would have just disappeared. It may be, then, that these were exactly as intended, and that the illustration was simply very misleading. I certainly wouldn’t have felt disappointed by the experience if it hadn’t been for the promise of ‘nougat’! Therefore, brushing that aside, this was a tasty and different snack and I felt that there were a lot in the bag for the amount of calories it contained. 

Appearance: 7/10 
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.25/10