Cadbury Picnic

Product name: Cadbury Picnic
Purchase details: £1.00 for a multipack of three bars (Poundland)
Calories: 230 per 48.4g bar
Country of origin: Europe

The Picnic seems to be one of Cadbury’s lesser known products – it’s not a bar I see around all that often and it must have been over a decade since my last one so I could barely remember what they were like!

The purple wrapper boasted ‘a feast-full’ of caramel (32%), peanuts (12%) and raisins (7%) and these three ingredients were each represented around the brand name – I particularly liked the way the caramel was used as a border. However, beneath the chocolate that contained a minimum of 14% milk solids, lurked another significant ingredient: ‘crispy’ rice cereal (10%).

This particular multipack had been produced by Kraft Foods and I couldn’t believe how huge each bar felt on removal from the main packaging. However, on opening the individual wrappers, I realised that, whilst the bars were very long, there were also relatively thin. That said, they had a very rugged appearance, and the caramel was clearly holding the individual elements together. Despite not being mentioned in the main product description, the cereal was definitely a big feature, whilst the raisins were a lot less visible and nowhere near as big as the Nestlé Yorkie: Raisin & biscuit.

The Picnic mainly smelt of sweet chocolate but the aroma did hint at the fact there was more going on beneath the surface and I was pleased to find that each ingredient made its own significant contribution to the whole. The peanuts provided flavour (although not lots) and a bit of a crunch within the crispy chewiness provided by the cereal and caramel. (For the record, this overall texture was perfectly balanced so that the bar wasn’t hard work to eat.) As for the raisins, I found there were more of these further down the bar than first appeared, and they produced an extra chew and an occasional additional sweetness.

Thinking of the Picnic as a whole, I realised that it was essentially a cereal bar in reverse, with a proper chocolate coating rather than the silly drizzles some brands include in an attempt to make a seemingly healthy product a bit more exciting. In this case, though, the overall flavour was a general sweetness that came from the individual components, and the thicker-than-normal chocolate layer provided an alternative method of consumption since the bar was also enjoyable to let melt, and it added a nice juiciness to combine with the raisins and caramel.

This was certainly a decent product but, although individual elements were noticeable, the main flavour wasn’t particularly exciting and, I guess, it felt a bit too healthy for my liking, bearing in mind it was an unhealthy snack!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Popchips Sour Cream & Onion

Product name: Popchips Sour Cream & Onion
Purchase details: £0.99 for an 85g bag (tesco.com)
Calories: 95 per 23g serving (352 per bag)
Country of origin: Europe

This is the last of my big bags of Popchips (thank goodness their lovely people have sent me some smaller ones to keep me going!) and these Sour Cream & Onion chips were the same concept I described in my review of the Barbeque ones.

The green bag contained at least 3.5 servings of around 18 crisps which were described as ‘creamy onion dip plus crispy chip minus guilt trip’ – a nice way of looking at it! I was also quite surprised that the powerful scent actually had a teeny bit of this creaminess to it, in addition to the stronger oniony and herby elements.

The crisps were the usual shape but were two-tone, with parts of each chip being more golden in colour than others. They were also flecked with green, and had a noticeably powdery texture, which was to be expected since the ingredients contained onion, sour cream and garlic in powder form!

The first Popchip I tried tasted almost identical to the Original so I was a bit alarmed by the lack of additional flavour. This gradually built, though, and I was again surprised to be able to specifically identify an element of cream – something I’ve never noticed in sour cream and onion crisps before. When I reviewed Walkers Pops: Sour cream & onion, I described how I always associate the flavour with Pringles, but these Popchips actually tasted different. Each chip seemed to either focus on a garlicky or slightly sweeter flavour, and there was a fairly zingy onion aftertaste too.

Whilst the texture remained the same, I found the flavour to be more interesting than both the Original and Sea Salt & Vinegar versions, but they weren’t quite as good as the Barbeque.

I have one flavour left to try...I wonder how it will compare!

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

Popchips Sea Salt & Vinegar

Product name: Popchips Sea Salt & Vinegar
Purchase details: £0.99 for an 85g bag (tesco.com)
Calories: 94 per 23g serving (349 per bag)
Country of origin: Europe

It’s time for me to try another flavour of Popchips from my stash: Sea Salt & Vinegar.

These chips were the same concept again as the Barbeque and Original varieties but, this time, the packaging was a gorgeous shade of turquoise.

The bag contained 3.5+ servings of 18 chips which featured ‘the tangiest pairing of flavours since, well, ever!’ and these discs had a very strong, tingly vinegar scent that went right up the nose...I quite liked it in a weird kind of way!

Interestingly, the flavour wasn’t as strong as the scent had suggested. The base flavour was very much like Popchips Original, but much less salty, and this was well-balanced with the barley malt vinegar which had a cooling effect, lifted the flavour, but wasn’t overpowering and didn’t sting the lips. In relation to more traditional salt and vinegar crisps, these had a much starchier taste, as well as the same enjoyable texture as the other Popchips I’ve reviewed.

I found these Popchips Sea Salt & Vinegar to be another great part of the range and I can’t wait to tuck into the smaller bags that Popchips kindly sent me recently!

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

Popchips Original

Product name: Popchips Original
Purchase details: £0.99 for an 85g bag (tesco.com)
Calories: 95 per 23g serving (351 per bag)
Country of origin: Europe

Since it’s been nearly a year since my first and only review of Popchips, to date, I thought it was about time I cracked on with some of the other flavours! For this post, I will be going back to basics with the Original variety.

These Popchips came in a cool blue bag that had the same overall style as the Barbeque version. However, this was a bigger packet that was supposed to contain at least 3.5 servings of around 19 chips. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get the point of that – surely it would be better to make it serve either three or four rather than somewhere in the middle? (I had enough spare calories for the whole pack but that wasn’t the point!)

Issues of logic aside, I was really quite keen to get tucked into these. The discs looked the same as the Barbeque ones, too, but without the red powder. I also found my mouth watering, once more, at the smell of the crisps – it was surprisingly powerful despite essentially just smelling of salt and potato! There also seemed to be a slight oily element to this which may have been down to the sunflower oil they’d been popped in.

Unlike Walkers Pops: Original, these chips were simply flavoured with sea salt and contained no additional flavourings. For that reason, they were much more like your traditional ready salted crisps. However, the level of starchiness in their potato flavour reminded me of something even more specific: Walkers French Fries. Despite being plain, I didn’t find these Popchips tasted boring and, if anything, I sometimes found them a bit too salty on the back of my tongue.

The chips felt a tiny bit greasy between the fingers but, aside from that, their texture was the same great one that the Barbeque variety had.

One minor criticism was that the bag these Popchips came in was far too big for the contents but, thankfully, this was deceptive as there were a lot more crisps in there than it first appeared. Furthermore, despite being lighter than most normal crisps, these Popchips still felt like a real treat...one I’d happily buy again.

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