Elvan Choc'n Roll

Product name: Elvan Choc’n Roll
Purchase details: £0.10 for an 18g bar (Home Bargains)
Calories: 93 per bar
Country of origin: Turkey

The best way to describe this Elvan Choc’n Roll is like Milky Way Crispy Rolls but with a different filling...and a cleverer but cheesy name!

The ‘compound chocolate coated roll wafer with hazelnut cream’ came divided into two fingers (which combined to make a portion) and were served in a wrapper that had nice melted chocolate imagery and an illustration of the product.

The bar had quite a basic appearance and I noticed that the wafer seemed to be thicker than the core which made sense since its scent was strong! There also seemed to be hint of sweet vanilla which was a welcome addition.

In many ways, I found this product to be like a cheaper Wafel Teatralny Classic which
I reviewed a few days ago. It had a soft crisp and the main flavour was one of sweet wafer although, in contrast, the cocoa element wasn’t really there – the compound chocolate added a different level of sweetness rather than a richer chocolatey flavour.

This Elvan Choc’n Roll was certainly inoffensive and a great little find for £0.10. It’s wasn’t the first time I’d tried one, and it won’t be the last, but I can’t say I can see it becoming a staple in my diet!

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

Vrettos Snappy (honey)

Product name: Vrettos Snappy (honey)
Purchase details: £0.75 for a 50g pastry (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 165 per pastry
Country of origin: Greece

For years, I had a childhood memory of eating some unknown but delicious pastry product at a buffet. Having never come across it again, I began to wonder if I’d made it up, until my friend brought her Mum’s homemade baklava into school to celebrate Eid. Despite that now being years ago, I’ve not had it since, so I couldn’t resist trying this shop-bought version. As it happens, the wrapper of the Vrettos Snappy (honey) didn’t include the word ‘baklava’, but Tesco's website confirmed that that’s what it was.

The ‘crispy snack with honey’ came in an orange wrapper that had a honeycomb design and showed an image of the pastry product sitting in a pool of honey. I had been worried that the long shelf-life would have caused the baklava to dry out but the treat was actually served in a little tray in an attempt to keep it moist from the runny ‘flower honey’ (4%) that was visible on the inside of the wrapper. It would have been rude not to have sampled this and I thoroughly enjoyed its deliciously sweet yet floral flavour.

The roll looked nice enough from the outside – the pastry made up 27% of the product and provided a crispy shell to cut through before the tougher filling which accounted for 10%. This centre looked a bit off-putting, in comparison. The translation wasn’t great but I could see it at least contained almond, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon so, arguably, that’s where the main flavours were. For some reason, though, the combination looked a bit like meat!

One of my main memories from previously trying baklava was its sweetness and this version contained 19% Greek sugar in addition to 20% glucose. With the honey, it was sticky to the touch, and all these sweet aspects provided a lovely juiciness in the midst of quite a chewy product.

I found this Snappy to be quite festive. Its scent was like a mild marzipan with a hint of the inner spices and, in the taste, I could really taste the nutmeg and cinnamon. The pastry was quite buttery and I liked the novelty of the crunchy nuts here and there too.

Whilst the product was full of flavour, I did find it a little dry in places on the outside. It wasn’t awful but the texture just wasn’t quite right. There was quite a lot of honey on the base which provided a fantastically sweet flavour and moisture and I would have loved this to have encapsulated the whole roll.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable treat which I’m glad I found. I was actually impressed that it didn’t contain more calories than it did as, what with all the sugar and greasiness from the honey, it didn’t feel particularly healthy!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

McVitie's Digestives: Strawberry cheesecake creams

Product name: McVitie’s Digestives: Strawberry cheesecake creams
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 168g packet (Asda)
Calories: 67 per biscuit
Country of origin: UK

I really wanted to try these McVitie’s Digestives: Strawberry cheesecake creams as soon as they were released as they seemed more exciting than the vanilla version. However, although I bought them straight away, it’s taken me until now to open them!

Made by United Biscuits, there were around 13 ‘wheatmeal biscuits with strawberry and cream cheese flavour filling’ in each packet. The wrapper and sandwich biscuits were designed in exactly the same way as the vanilla variety but featured baby pink colouring, instead, which I really liked. I did also think the firm filling looked a bit thinner and more widely spread out but that may have just been the unlucky biscuit I attempted to dissect. (As you can see from my photo, the McVitie’s Digestives remained soft and crumbly which made the finished product practically impossible to pull apart in one piece!)

There was no mention of strawberries of any kind on the ingredients (just ‘natural flavouring’) but the biscuits did have a subtle yet noticeable strawberry scent – very much like flavoured milk. The ‘cheesecake inspired strawberry flavour cream filling’ also had a good strawberry flavour but without the sugar hit that I noticed in the Hill Biscuits Snack Packs: Strawberry creams. I was also pleased to find that the cheesecake concept was better executed, here, since there was a cheesy tang from the ‘dried cream cheese’ (2.5%) mixed in with the strawberry.

The biscuit itself was the usual, slightly sweetened kind, with a soft crunch and, even on its own, it had picked up hints of the berry taste. The nature of the sandwich design did mean that the proportions still weren’t right for an authentic cheesecake feel but I did think these Strawberry cheesecake creams were much more enjoyable than the vanilla ones.

I’d definitely buy them again!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Wafel Teatralny Classic

Product name: Wafel Teatralny Classic
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 46g bar (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 243 per bar
Country of origin: Poland

The gold, brown and red wrapper of this Wafel Teatralny Classic bar didn’t give much away about what was within but, on examining the blurb when I found it in-store, I found it was actually quite an exciting concept of ‘peanuts cream wafer in chocolate’.

The  wide and slim bar was made by Kopernik Torun and, according to their website, was a ‘theatrical wafer’ with ‘real nuts’ (can you get fake ones?!) and ‘natural chocolate’. Apparently, the thinness of their wafers was something they were particularly proud of.

As with a lot of wafer bars, the chocolate coating on this was relatively thin, despite being 30% of the overall product. It had the appearance and aroma of dark chocolate but it had been spread particularly thinly on the base and it had also suffered some blooming around the edges. The inside looked a lot more promising, though, with regimented layers of wafer and chocolate-coloured cream that emitted a slight peanut scent that blended with that of the outer cocoa.

The first thing I noticed on taking a bite was how fantastically crispy the wafers were – they were extremely satisfying. However, they were also nice if left to soften in the mouth, and they produced a surprisingly strong flavour, either way, that provided a lovely sweetness.

Based on the dark colour and rich aroma, I’d expected quite a bitter chocolate flavour from the coating but, in reality, it was pretty mild. The cocoa was much more evident than it had been in the Mrs. Freshley's Buddy Bars: Peanut butter wafers, and it did taste more of dark chocolate than milk, but it was a perfect balance with the sweet wafers rather than an overpowering taste.

Somewhat disappointingly, the peanuts (3.5%) were completely lost in this bar. I couldn’t taste them at all which resulted in an experience that was very tasty, but not unique. All in all, it wasn’t much different from eating a Nestlé Blue Riband, although the large size was a bonus!

Appearance: 6.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10