Grupa BGK Flips: Chrupki kukurydziane (czekolady)

Product name: Grupa BGK Flips: Chrupki kukurydziane (czekolady)
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 70g bag (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 142 per 25g serving (398 per bag)
Country of origin: Poland 

There was something about this bright yellow bag of Grupa BGK Flips: Chrupki kukurydziane (czekolady) that filled me with both excitement and fear. It was the cartoon bunny juggling pieces of chocolate against a background of corn puffs that caught my eye. As a kid, I loved sandwiching a piece of chocolate between two crisps and I love the idea of crisp-filled chocolate, but chocolate flavoured crisps? I wasn’t so sure...

Thanks to Google’s translating function, I can tell you that ‘Chrupki kukurydziane’ means ‘corn crisps’ and ‘czekolady’, predictably, is ‘chocolate’. This was reassuring since the English description on the bag simply stated ‘chocolate flavoured corn puffs’! The ingredients mentioned a ‘chocolate flavoured cream’ that contained cocoa powder, and the whole bag consisted of 1% chocolate.

On opening the packet, I was stunned by the appearance which was not what I’d had in mind! The curved crisps were huge. Unfortunately, there was something about their pale brown colour that was flecked with darker speckles that I found really off-putting. This didn’t feel great either – it was a little moist and rubbery. On the plus side, every single piece was intact, and the inner corn puff appearance was nicely familiar. The gentle but deep scent was also pleasant. Whilst not smelling specifically of chocolate, I did associate it with children’s cocoa-containing cereals.

The next thing to surprise me was the texture. Biting through the surface presented the kind of crispiness you’d expect but, past this, the crisps were very soft and squidgy. If I wasn’t certain the bag had been completely sealed, and the puffs were in-date, I would have assumed they were stale. This took a bit of getting used to but there was something quite fun about the way, part way through each crisp, the rest of it pretty much dissolved by itself. (Letting the whole thing melt on the tongue was also an option.)

Now the part I’d been dreading a little bit – the taste! Slightly awkwardly, I wouldn’t say these tasted anything like chocolate. BUT...they were actually pretty nice! They had a delicate, sugary flavour that tasted just like sweet popcorn and I had no problem munching my way through the huge amount provided in the bag (in my defence, they didn’t weigh much!). The crisps also had a corn-like aftertaste which I recognised from sucking the cheesiness of Walkers Wotsits.

So, a bit of a mixed experience for me here. They didn’t look great, they didn’t taste like chocolate, and the texture could definitely have been crispier, but do you know what? I think I’d actually buy these again!

Appearance: 6/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 6/10
Overall score: 6.38/10

Butterkist Toffee

Product name: Butterkist Toffee
Calories: 113 for a 27g bag
Country of origin: UK

Believe it or not, I still haven’t finished my Christmas stock, and this mini bag of Butterkist Toffee was another edible treat I received from Santa.

The packaging’s shade of red and general branding was identical to the Toffee Apple variety I’ve previously reviewed but this was a flavour I was much more familiar with!

Made by Tangerine Confectionery Ltd, I was impressed by the whopping 80% toffee coating on this popcorn – there was me thinking that 65% was decent on the Toffee Apple! This lovely, thick and buttery-looking coating looked delicious and made the white centres look particularly fresh.

When it came to the aroma, whilst there was a slight hint of popcorn, this wasn’t of a cinema standard. However, it did have a general carbohydrate smell that was quite like crackers.

The thick toffee coating allowed for a fantastic crunch, although I did find that, even with this handily-portioned bag, chewing did become slightly hard work after a while. However, I loved how even the pieces with a thinner coating still had a noticeably caramelised flavour, and I enjoyed the slight salty hints that seemed to be mixed with the sweetness.

I didn’t expect anything less than a tasty little treat from this Butterkist product and that’s exactly what I got...with the added bonus of a familiarity that made me feel like I was at the pictures!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Krispy Kreme Raspberry Chocolate Truffle

Product name: Krispy Kreme Raspberry Chocolate Truffle
Purchase details: £1.75 for a 59g doughnut (Krispy Kreme Doughnuts)
Calories: 372 per doughnut
Country of origin: UK

With the Krispy Kreme Choco Mania doughnut range coming to an end at the end of the week, I couldn’t not grab a Raspberry Chocolate Truffle whilst I still could!

I’ll let Krispy Kreme's website describe this offering: a ‘chocolate dough shell, dipped in dark chocolate icing, filled with a raspberry truffle kreme, topped with dark chocolate curls and finished with a delicate raspberry drizzle’. It certainly looked good on paper (well, screen!) and it looked just as appetising in the store’s display cabinet. You’ll have to take my word for it or have a look at the website's stock image, though, as the thick icing was so sticky it clung to the paper bag I transported it home in! I particularly liked the chunky chocolate flakes that sat atop the dark topping, and the glossy pink drizzle reminded me a little of lipstick.

Since there was a lot of sticky icing left behind on the packaging, I thought it would be rude not to tackle this with a spoon. And oh. My. Days. The nutritional information told me that 37% of it consisted of Belgian dark chocolate and, I must say, it was divine – just like a rich chocolate fudge cake icing.

The doughnut itself had a dark chocolate aroma mixed with a milder-than-normal sweet Krispy Kreme element. There was also a slightly tangy afterthought to this scent which came from the inner kreme. Speaking of which, I don’t think I’d ever seen a doughnut so full of filling – things got a bit messy when I cut the treat in two!

Bizarrely, when comparing the colour of my doughnut’s dough to the Peanut Butter Kreme, it became clear that it was the standard recipe rather than the chocolate one. This didn’t bother me since I do prefer the lighter version of the dough but it did mean my experience wasn’t of exactly the same doughnut described above!

Anyway, the brown kreme was light and chocolatey with a gentle tartness that was similar to some kind of berry chocolate torte. Combined with the richness of the chocolate icing, the hints of raspberry also reminded me of selection box chocolate fondants, although a much milder and less sickly-sweet version. Of course, the usual Krispy Kreme elements remained, and the chocolate flavours provided by the kreme, icing and flakes were lovely. As for the pink drizzle, this was only really for decoration. I know it was meant to taste of raspberry but, on its own, it was just sugary.

The texture was just as delicious as the taste and provided a fabulous combination of moistness, softness and smoothness.

All in all, this was a really indulgent doughnut – it felt more like a dessert than a cake. If you fancied a giant profiterole and ate this instead, you wouldn’t be disappointed!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

Fox's Party Footballs

Product name: Fox’s Party Footballs
Purchase details: £0.49 for a 130g packet (Home Bargains)
Calories: 29 per biscuit
Country of origin: UK

Last week I realised I was running out of very low calorie biscuits so I decided it was about time Fox’s Party Rings returned to my stash. However, when I got to the shop, I couldn’t resist trying these novelty Party Footballs instead – they were even a little bit cheaper!

Aimed at young boys, these ‘iced shortcake biscuits’ came in a blue and green football-themed wrapper that contained illustrations of the product. Pleasingly, there were no artificial colours or flavours, and no preservatives, and the calorie content was the same as the standard biscuits despite these Footballs containing no holes.

I really liked the pastel colours on offer from the circular biscuits and the engraved designs on the bases were a fun additional touch. I thought the icing had been distributed in a more sloppy way than normal, but it had dripped down the sides of each biscuit nicely, and I particularly loved the shade of blue that had been used. The white stripes did make me associate the product more with basketballs than footballs but that obviously wasn’t a concern for me.

I expected everything except the appearance to be the same as Party Rings with these biscuits, but I was surprised that they had almost no smell at all. At a push, I’d say they had a slight rich tea biscuit scent, but they did lack the sugary aroma I’m familiar with.

On breaking a biscuit in two, it was clear that the icing layer remained thin against the much thicker biscuit base. I’d actually say that the shortcake felt like more of a feature than usual, providing both a crunchier and more floury texture than I remembered. However, the sugary taste hadn’t changed and, having recently tried Party Rings: Blueberry muffin, I again experimented with the sucking method. As before, this resulted in the biscuit dissolving, as well as the emergence of a juicier flavour.

All in all, these biscuits were very simple, but also very enjoyable!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 5.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7/10

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