Reese's Sticks

Product name: Reese’s Sticks
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 42g bar (United States Grocery)
Calories: 220 per bar
Country of origin: USA 

Another product I bought from United States Grocery with my Living Social voucher recently was this pack of Reese’s Sticks. I had tried them before, but only in miniature form, and that bag had to be brought back from Canada for me especially. Oh how glad I am that these foreign products are now so much easier to obtain!

The 42g bar was made by the Hershey Company and divided into two fingers made of chocolate (according to the front of the packaging), peanut butter and ‘crispy wafers’. As usual for Reese’s, the wrapper was a vibrant orange, and it also contained an illustration of the bar.

I was surprised to see that the back of the wrapper gave a slightly different product description with the chocolate now being ‘a milk chocolate flavoured coating’. However, I was delighted to see that a whopping 45% of the product was peanut butter crème whilst only 12% was wafer. On looking inside the bar, it was evident that the peanut butter layers were the thickest, and it did look quite moist next to the thinner wafers. The waxy-feeling chocolatey layer was also quite thin in appearance so I was looking forward to the peanut butter being the star of the show in this full-sized offering.

The bar smelt pretty much the same as Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in that there was a strong peanut buttery aroma that was mixed with some chocolatey scents. The only downside was I found that the wafer added a slightly less pleasant element.

As soon as I took a bite, the peanut butter taste was evident straight away and it was absolutely fanflippingtastic – nutty, sugary, salty and creamy all at once! Whilst it was a crispy bar, it melted well too, with the wafers dissolving into the crème – they didn’t make it dry at all. I did find it slightly strange that the chocolate flavoured coating was barely noticeable since, although I could feel it melt, it didn’t seem to add much flavour, but this may have been a good thing!

I don’t know whether it’s because I’d only ever had Reese’s Sticks: Minis before, or whether my memory just isn’t as good as I thought it was, but I genuinely didn’t remember them being quite this good. I wasn’t expecting the peanut butter taste to be quite so strong so I just loved how much flavour it provided – my idea of Heaven! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 9/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

M&M's Mint

Product name: M&M’s Mint
Purchase details: £1.35 for a 42.5g bag (United States Grocery)
Calories: 210 per bag
Country of origin: USA 

I seemed to really get my money’s worth with my Living Social voucher since this bag of M&M’s Mint was another purchase I made on the same trip to United States Grocery.

When I was about 10, I absolutely adored mint-flavoured chocolate, with the peppermint Nestlé Aero bar being my absolute favourite. For some reason, as I’ve got older, mint has been a variety of chocolate I’ve been less inclined to choose, despite still liking it. I think this may partly be down to most mint products using dark chocolate rather than milk but, even then, I still find the combination enjoyable!

Made by Mars, these ‘chocolate candies’ were made with ‘real’ dark chocolate (milk chocolate and semisweet chocolate were mentioned on the ingredients list) and came in a wrapper that was a lovely shade of mid-green that was like spearmint and, therefore, very fitting for the flavour on offer.

The M&M’s themselves came in two different shades of green shells and they looked really attractive – the only downside was that the paler green made the white letter ‘M’ on each candy harder to see. This was obviously only a minor detail, though, and I loved how the sweets were pretty big, containing a lot of deep-coloured chocolate, whilst maintaining a relatively thick shell.

The aroma from this product was incredibly strong and minty but there was a sweetness to it too which differentiated it from, say, the freshness associated with chewing gum. It was quite a standard scent for mint chocolate but that didn’t take away from its pleasantness or strength – it made me want to tuck in!

The mint flavour was located in the chocolate itself and tasted just as powerful as it smelt, to the extent that it made my tongue tingle a little bit, and there was also a slight bitterness from the chocolate. The crispy shells added a little bit of sweetness but, if I’m honest, not quite enough for me as I found the mint a little bit too strong. However, the taste was very similar to after-dinner mints, so it certainly wasn’t unpleasant.

As an alternative, it was also possible to suck on the sweets, resulting in a creamier-tasting chocolate. When eaten this way, the cooling mint element gradually got stronger as I got deeper into each lump of slightly rough chocolate. Personally, though, I found it more enjoyable to crunch on a handful at a time.

These weren’t my favourite variety of M&M’s but they weren’t short of flavour and they were very moreish. There were quite a lot in the pack but I can’t say they lasted long!

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

General Mills Reese's Puffs

Product name: General Mills Reese’s Puffs
Purchase details: £5.50 for a 368g box (United States Grocery)
Calories: 120 per 29g dry serving (160 per 29g serving with 112.5ml skimmed milk)
Country of origin: USA 

Now, before you go accusing me of anything, I haven’t cheated! This may be my first ever review of a breakfast cereal but I have only eaten it in the evenings as part of my ‘something to look forward to’ way of thinking. I can assure you that I am still starting my days with a trusty bowl of Sultana Bran!

Being a Reese’s product and, therefore, containing peanut butter, I’ve wanted to try this cereal for ages but I’ve always avoided it due to high import prices. I was delighted to effectively get this box for half price, though, with my Living Social voucher for United States Grocery which meant a £10 spend only cost me £5.

If you’re familiar with Reese’s, you won’t be surprised to see that this product came in an orange box, and I loved the way the image used a Peanut Butter Cup chocolatey shell as a bowl for the ‘sweet’ and ‘crunchy corn puffs’ that contained Hershey’s Cocoa in addition to Reese’s peanut butter.

The box contained around 12 servings, the details of which were recommended using the American cups system. Whilst the weight of the cereal was also provided in grams, I used this helpful website to translate the milk measurement into millilitres.

The packaging also stated that the ‘first ingredient’ was whole grain which, in this case, was corn. In fact, it contributed to 11g of each serving. On the downside, the second ingredient was sugar, although there were lots of vitamins included too.

Despite a whole list of colourings being provided, the box only contained two different shades of maizey-looking puffs. The dark brown ones were chocolatey whilst the lighter, yellowy coloured pieces were peanut butter. However, both varieties were coated in a thin peanut buttery layer. The balls were small and light in size which meant there were a lot in a 29g serving and I was surprised by just how much of a peanut butter scent they gave off. 

I did try a couple of dry pieces before I took the plunge with the milk and found them to be nutty, sweet and crispy. The peanut butter puffs were obviously nuttier but, due to the outer layer, both varieties had a nuttiness to them. The other variety was more sugary and, whilst not obviously chocolatey by itself, it did have an additional flavour going on.

With milk, this cereal was so good! It was sweet and chocolatey to the extent that it reminded me of chocolate-filled pillow cereals but there was an added saltiness form the peanut butter which took it to a new level. This saltiness seemed to mix really well with the milk so it kind of caught the edges of the back of the tongue, resulting in a whole-of-mouth experience. I also loved how, although the cereal tended to get ever-so-slightly chewy towards the end of the bowl, it remained crunchy throughout – just what I want from a cereal.

Despite containing quite a lot of sugar, I didn’t find this too sweet at all. I’ve known for a long time that chocolate and peanut butter work really well together but I was delighted to find adding milk also makes for a great flavour experience. There was a perfect balance between these three ingredients since none of the flavours dominated but each unique taste could be identified. Of course, that does mean that if you want a product that is either extremely chocolatey or extremely peanut buttery, this may not be the cereal for you but, if you appreciate a combination of the two with added milk, you’ll love this! 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

Charleston Chew Vanilla

Product name: Charleston Chew Vanilla
Purchase details: £0.50 for an 18g bar (United States Grocery)
Calories: 80 per bar
Country of origin: USA 

Tonight’s review is for the last of the ‘filler’ items I bought from United States Grocery with my Living Social voucher. This Charleston Chew Vanilla was made by Tootsie Roll Industries and, I must confess, I’d never had a Charleston Chew before, let alone a Tootsie Roll!

This bar came in a luminous yellow wrapper with navy blue and red writing but the only description was that it was artificially flavoured – not the best thing to be boasting about! My understanding of the product, though, was that it would be some kind of vanilla-flavoured nougat filling coated in a chocolatey coating. On checking Tootsie Roll's website, it turned out I was right, although the extra information provided was that the nougat was ‘chewy’ whilst the coating was ‘rich’. The site also taught me that the Charleston Chew was named after the famous dance and launched in 1922 by the Fox-Cross Candy Company and later taken over by Tootsie in 1993. Apparently, the product is an American favourite and can also be eaten frozen (I only had one so I ate mine at room temperature!).

Now, I don’t mean to be crude, and I can’t quite believe I’m typing this, but there was something about this long, slender plastic-wrapped bar that made me think of a certain type of feminine product. Thankfully, when opened, this similarity ended and, instead, I was greeted with a long chocolatey baton. Unfortunately, mine had snapped in the middle which had caused some of the nougat to leak out, but this allowed me to see just how white this filling was – I don’t know if it was the colour of the wrapper but, for some reason, I’d expected it to be yellow in shade. In addition, the nougat was sticky and stringy and, as a result, looked a bit like a thicker-textured marshmallow – it stuck pretty hard to my plate!

I was pleasantly surprised by the lovely, sweet vanilla scent that emanated from the bar straight after opening. There was also a hint of the chocolatey coating up close but I didn’t find this as appetising.

In the mouth, the nougat was just as sticky as it had appeared. On its own, it felt a bit like glue but, when biting as a whole, the texture was more like a chewy fudge. I think this was partly a result of the coating, though, since this provided a bit of depth. The coating didn’t melt but I wouldn’t encourage this method of consumption anyway since, by not chewing, the nougat tended to flatten in such a way that filled the mouth so you had to chew before you choked! Unfortunately, whilst I thought the coating improved the bar’s texture, I did think its fake chocolatey taste slightly ruined the otherwise sweet vanilla flavour.

By now, you’ve probably established that this isn’t the most positive review I’ve ever written yet, in a strange way, there was something quite innocently tasty about this snack. As an add-on to my main purchases on this shopping occasion, I wasn’t expecting anything amazing from the Charleston Chew Vanilla but, to be fair, it did actually exceed my expectations. I think I would have loved this when I was a kid. 

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