Lotus Biscoff: Spread (crunchy)

Product name: Lotus Biscoff: Spread (crunchy)
Purchase details: £1.79 for a 380g jar (tesco.com)
Calories: 572 per 100g
Country of origin: Belgium

Although I’m not generally familiar with the brand of Lotus Biscoff biscuits, I’ve been wanting to try their spreads for a while and have even seen positive comments from my non-blogger Facebook friends about them. I’m not surprised, though...they’re essentially liquidised biscuits!

Due to the usual high store prices, I’d always assumed that these Lotus Bakeries jars had been imported from America, but they were actually from Belgium. Either way, I’d been waiting for an offer to come along and I immediately snapped up a jar of this crunchy spread, as well as a smooth one, as soon as that happened. As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one who was keen try these spreads – I’d fully intended to review the smooth one first but, when I took off the lid, I discovered that some nasty shopper had stuck their finger through the foil layer in-store and helped themselves to some – thanks to Tesco for refunding me for this...I’ve been able to pick up another jar before the offer runs out!

Anyway, this crunchy variety of ‘the original caramelised biscuit spread’ was represented by a yellow lid and I loved the visualisation of a Lotus biscuit being turned into the spread. Although not relevant to me, I was impressed to see that it was both vegetarian and vegan, and the spread also contained no added flavours or colours, and no hydrogenated fat. What it did contain was 65% biscuits which resulted in a product that looked like a slightly darker-than-normal peanut butter.

Whilst nutritional information was provided, there was no suggested serving size, so how calorific or not a snack it was fully depended on how much was used and what it was served with! So far, I’ve only consumed it on ‘naughty’ days, and I think I might have to keep it that way because it was just so good – who needs bread when you’ve got a spoon?!

The spread was pretty thick and, whilst the crunchy bits weren’t really visible, they could be felt easily with the knife. The deep scent incorporated both caramel and biscuits but also hinted at ginger snaps – although it was very good, it was also on the verge of being a bit much.

On trying the spread on its own, it was very crispy but with the fabulous thick texture I’ve come to associate with peanut butter. In terms of flavour, it was quite like digestives but with a sweeter yet darker caramel element.

On bread, this crispy texture remained really noticeable and the flavour was still good too. The best bit, though, was the way the gloopy texture combined with the dough of the bread, making the roof of my mouth very happy indeed.

Finally, I sampled some of the spread on toast. The heat caused the spread to melt pretty quickly and the flavour and texture remained really good (although it wasn’t really possible to differentiate between the ‘crunchy’ aspect of the spread and the toast). Despite forgetting to check the toaster’s settings and subsequently cooking it for longer than I would have liked, the sweetness of the spread really helped disguise the slightly burnt bits, so I still enjoyed every mouthful...praise indeed.

This really was an excellent product and I can’t wait to eat the rest of it! There are quite a few biscuit spreads on my wish list right now and, if they’re all this good, I’m going to have to be keeping an extra-close eye on my waistline in the coming months.

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

Clif Bar: Crunchy peanut butter

Product name: Clif Bar: Crunchy peanut butter
Purchase details: £1.28 for a 68g bar (tesco.com)
Calories: 254 per bar
Country of origin: USA

I bought this Clif Bar: Crunchy peanut butter at the same time as the White chocolate macadamia nut that I’d previously reviewed. Despite my love of peanut butter, I had actually been more excited about the concept of white chocolate, although I did still hope that this variety would be better than the other peanut butter energy bar I’ve tried: Lenny & Larry's Muscle Brownie.

Understandably, this bar had the same history and features of the White chocolate macadamia nut version. The packaging was also identical apart from the mountains being brown instead of white.

Described as an ‘oat and peanut butter energy bar’, it contained 15.2% rolled oats, 6.3% peanut butter, as well peanut flour and peanuts. It was the same shape as the other variety but was darker in colour (even more akin to a flapjack), had no drizzle decoration, and was sticky to the touch.

The aroma was different but still slightly strange. The waxy element remained, and it didn’t smell natural, but there was the subtlest hint of nut and no floral aspect.

Thankfully, the flavour on offer here was also nicer. The peanut butter wasn’t as strong as I’d have liked but there were hints of it and, every now and then, I hit a ‘clump’ of it which felt like a nice treat and had a toasted nut aspect to it. However, I did find each mouthful had a bit of a journey – it started off nice and relatively nutty, then tasted a bit weird and artificial just before the swallow, but had a pleasant aftertaste to follow!

The moist texture remained good and was actually improved. There was still a chewy/crispy combination but with an added starchy feel, as well as the odd crunchy nut, and thick flake of oat.

There is no doubt in my mind that this Crunchy peanut butter bar was nicer than its White chocolate macadamia nut sibling, as well as the Lenny & Larry's Muscle Brownie: Peanut butter competitor. As I’ve come to expect by now, I do prefer more general snacks than these functional ones, but I definitely wouldn’t complain if I was given one of these as an energy boost! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 6.88/10

Lindt Hello My Name Is: Crunchy nougat

Product name: Lindt Hello My Name Is: Crunchy nougat 

Purchase details: £0.60 for a 39g bar (Sainsbury’s Local) 

Calories: 215 per bar
Country of origin: Germany

Out of the new Lindt Hello My Name Is range, I was least excited about trying this Crunchy nougat variety. I’ve always associated nougat with a white or pale brown chewy and/or fluffy mass and, whilst I don’t dislike it, it’s not my favourite thing in the world. However, I still wanted to give this bar a go and was intrigued by the wrapper’s depiction of a darker brown filling.

The presentation of this bar was identical to that of Lindt Hello My Name Is: Cookies & cream (see here) except with blue tips on the wrapper instead of yellow. The contrast between the outer chocolate and the filling was also on a lesser scale but the product still looked very inviting.

I was taken aback by the smell of this chocolate as, whilst not strong, there was a definite praline element which I put down to the bar containing 3% hazelnut brittle. Another 3% was made up of wafer pieces and the crunch of these two ingredients were immediately felt when cutting into the chocolate, although I can’t say they were particularly visible.

As for the taste, I was very confused since 38% of the bar was made up of nougat, but all I could taste was the praline that the aroma had hinted at! I absolutely love praline, and the nuttiness here contrasted wonderfully with the milk chocolate, but I just couldn’t work out how this was nougat. Therefore, I headed over to the wonders of Wikipedia and discovered that there is a German kind of nougat made of a chocolate and nut praline, and where was this bar made? Germany. There you go – you learn something new every day!

As with the Cookies & cream bar, this Crunchy nougat version melted well in the mouth. However, I did find that that the hazelnut and wafer pieces made it a little bit too ‘bitty’. The chocolate and nougat were so lovely and soft but the praline just seemed to be full of these crispy pieces. However, I did really enjoy the flavours each ingredient contributed and found that the combination of the creamy praline and wafer, particularly, created a taste very similar to another favourite of mine: Ferrero Rocher.

I really did love the flavour of Lindt Hello My Name Is: Crunchy nougat but, as much as I can see that it’s important for the product name, I would have liked slightly less crunch. I didn’t dislike the bar’s texture, but I did find its bittiness slightly spoilt what was, otherwise, a fantastic product.

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 9/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10