Cadbury Wispa: Biscuits

Product name: Cadbury Wispa: Biscuits
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 124g packet of biscuits (Asda)
Calories: 78 per 15.5g biscuit
Country of origin: UK

I bought these new Cadbury Wispa: Biscuits a little while ago when they were first released since I’d really enjoyed the Creme Egg version, and I’m obviously a fan of the Wispa bar too.

The ‘delicious biscuits filled and coated with velvety Wispa chocolate’ were branded in the usual way and there was a nice image of the deep, bubbly filling on the packet’s wrapper. Unfortunately, there were only eight in the pack, although this was still more than the Creme Egg ones!

Mondelez’s ‘scrummy biscuits’ had been made by Burton’s Biscuit Co. and had a wrinkly surface, rather than a smooth one, with slightly jagged bases too. On the inside, they looked very much like the packaging had promised, with a deep chocolate filling sitting atop a pale biscuit. There was a strong chocolatey scent, too, that was just like that of an actual Wispa.

On trying the biscuits, I couldn’t believe that they ‘only’ contained 58% milk chocolate – they were fantastically chocolatey! The flavour was recognisably Cadbury, as well, but I did find the Wispa’s texture was disguised by the crunchy biscuit (this was an observation rather than a bad thing!). However, I did particularly like the added density at the centre of each biscuit.

As tasty as this product was, there’s no avoiding the fact that they were essentially very chocolatey biscuits. To make things a little more interesting, I wonder what a Wispa: Gold version would be like (apart from messy!)?

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

Fox's Party Rings: Raspberry ripple

Product name: Fox’s Party Rings: Raspberry ripple
Purchase details: £0.50 for a 125g packet (Asda)
Calories: 27 per biscuit
Country of origin: UK

I was really excited when I first heard about the ice cream-inspired limited editions of some of Fox’s classic biscuits but it took me ages to track them down. Thankfully, I managed to find them all at an amazing £0.50 a packet in Asda, and the first variety I’m reviewing is the Party Rings: Raspberry ripple.

These excitingly-flavoured ‘iced shortcake rings’ came in colourful raspberry and baby pink packaging which was less ‘busy’ than the standard version but also contained Vinnie the panda. I’ve mentioned before that I found his image a bit unappetising (see here) but he’d had a bit of a makeover, here, and actually looked quite cute with a drop of melted ice cream on his ear!

The packet contained around 20 biscuits that were free of artificial colours, flavours and preservatives. There was no specific mention of raspberries on the ingredients so, what the flavourings contained, I’m not sure.

The rings looked almost identical to one of the standard Party Rings but seemed a tiny bit smaller – I’m not sure if I’m going mad?! To my delight, they genuinely smelt of Mr Whippy ice cream with raspberry sauce, and I couldn’t wait to tuck in.

I was impressed that the flavour was pretty realistic and did taste like raspberry ripple ice cream, although it was so sweet that there was a slight sherbet element too. They were absolutely full of flavour but also pretty sugary so, unusually for me, I would have liked a little bit more focus on the cream rather than the sugar.

Texturally, these biscuits were as standard for Party Rings, but the icing’s surface was a bit rougher on the tongue, and it seemed to add a juiciness to the flavour too.

This was such an interesting twist on a classic and it’s such a shame that it’s only intended to be a limited edition!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
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

Metcalfe's Skinny: Topcorn (sweet cinnamon spice)

Product name: Metcalfe’s Skinny: Topcorn (sweet cinnamon spice)
Purchase details: £1.58 for a 75g bag (Asda)
Calories: 117 per 25g serving (351 per bag)
Country of origin: UK

Metcalfe’s Skinny is a brand of popcorn (or ‘Topcorn’) I’d never tried before but that I wanted to give a go. I much prefer sweet popcorn to savoury so it was this sweet cinnamon spice flavour from ‘the lovelier, lighter snack tribe’ that I decided to try.

This sharing bag (which I dutifully kept to myself!) featured a floral design and nice image of falling popcorn that promised to be light but filling. Confusingly, only 51% of the product was ‘popped butterfly popcorn’ so the ‘delicious natural flavourings’ obviously took up a lot of space! These consisted of sugar, cinnamon and full cream.

The Topcorn itself looked very much like the Tyrrell's Proper Popcorn: Sticky toffee pudding due to its pale colour, being coated in a powder rather than a glaze, and having a papery feel. There was also an element of cardboard to the scent but the hint of cinnamon still made the aroma a pleasant one.

In terms of the flavour, there was certainly no denying that it was sweet and tasted of cinnamon! The base popcorn flavour was like a creamier version of the type you get in the cinema, but this extra flavouring was very tasty indeed...I just would have liked it to be stronger. Generally, even the more thickly-coated pieces weren’t very powerful, although the ones nearer the bottom of the bag were far more delicious than the ones at the top.

 

As suggested by the Topcorn’s appearance, the texture was the same as the Sticky toffee pudding Proper Popcorn, but it wasn’t as powdery. The bag seemed to last for ages as well which was an added bonus.

I may have appreciated a stronger flavour from this sweet cinnamon spice Topcorn but it did have a nice level of sweetness. There was something really warming about it and I think it would be perfect for settling down to watch a Christmas film with.

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

Nestlé Aero: Bubbly mousse (orange & choc)

Product name: Nestlé Aero: Bubbly mousse (orange & choc)
Purchase details: £0.50 for a pack of four mousses (Asda)
Calories: 84 per 58g mousse
Country of origin: UK

I tried the white chocolate and mint versions of Nestlé Aero: Bubbly mousse a couple of years ago so, when I saw a limited edition orange version was available, I couldn’t wait to try it. My relatively recent enjoyment of the orange bar helped too, as did the great price!

The packaging’s design was very much linked with the wrappers found on the chocolate bars. There was also an image of a spoonful of the mousse and, although I liked the look of the chocolate swirl, I did think the combination of the consistency and orange colour was a bit unnerving! However, the colours weren’t artificial, and I knew that the orange flavour was also natural. In addition, the mousse part of this ‘orange flavoured bubbly dessert with chocolate sauce’ made up 88% of the product and, within that, 68% was whole milk – not exactly a scary prospect!

In the end, the actual mousse did have a generally attractive appearance, but it really reminded me of Hallowe’en because the chocolate ripple looked a bit like a spider’s web on an orange backdrop. Unfortunately, I hate Hallowe’en with a passion, so this wasn’t a good thing for me!

In better news, the mousse had a nice orange aroma, although it was more subtle than the chocolate bar's scent. I also really enjoyed the way the soft, foamy texture melted in the mouth.

 

Initially, the flavour didn’t grab me. Rather than tasting like orange chocolate, it was like milk with a hint of orange and stronger cocoa hints. I also felt that it was a bit artificial, despite the evidence to the contrary. Thankfully, though, the flavour improved as I went on, and I particularly enjoyed the bits which contained more of the chocolate sauce – I’d never really appreciated before just how important the chocolate is in orange-flavoured chocolate!

On the whole, I thought this was a great product for the calories. The serving size was decent, both in appearance and, despite the air, in weight. I would have preferred a stronger orange flavour with more of a kick but this was still great as an everyday kind of snack.

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.25/10