Mrs. Freshley's Mini Donuts: Frosted

Product name: Mrs. Freshley’s Mini Donuts: Frosted
Purchase details: £2.50 for a 94g packet of six doughnuts (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 440 per pack
Country of origin: USA

It’s been a few weeks now since I reviewed the Crunch and Cinnamon versions of Mrs. Freshley’s Mini Donuts, but I’ve finally got around to trying the Frosted version too.

Distributed by Flowers Foods Speciality Group, I expected the coating to make them the heaviest variety, but they were actually lighter than the Cinnamon ones. However, they did contain the most calories!

The thick, generously distributed and very dark frosting looked like chocolate and, on reading the ingredients, I saw that it did contain cocoa but that its main ingredient was sugar. I loved how this had been allowed to fill the doughnuts’ holes, forming mini columns in their centres, and the contrast with the pale inner dough made the frosting look almost black in colour.

The product smelt very much like chocolate coated doughnuts as soon as I opened the purple-themed packet and I was hoping that the waxy-feeling coating would provide a Magnum-like crack. In reality, I liked the way the solidity of the frosting combined with the soft dough, although the two did just merge together rather than the frosting cracking apart.

Once again boasting a new and improved recipe, I was expecting the dough itself to remain unchanged. It certainly had the same good, sweet and doughy flavour, and this went nicely with the more bitter and chocolatey coating. However, I found that the dough felt pretty dry and had no spring to it, which was a shame. Thankfully, though, the smooth, cool frosting helped distract from this.

This was another decent experience with ‘long-life’ doughnuts although I’d definitely prefer a fresh one when given the choice!

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

Mrs. Freshley's Mini Donuts: Cinnamon

Product name: Mrs. Freshley’s Mini Donuts: Cinnamon
Purchase details: £2.50 for an 85g packet of six doughnuts (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 360 per pack
Country of origin: USA 

At the time of purchasing my pack of Mrs. Freshley's Mini Donuts: Crunch, I also picked up this Cinnamon variety. I was a little bit more eager to try this version as it’s a spice I love and, although I think it’s a pretty common concept in America, I’d never actually had cinnamon on a doughnut before.

Again made by the Flowers Food Speciality Group, this product was exactly the same concept as the Crunch Donuts, but was more attractive due to its pale and speckled pinky-brown ‘cinnamon sugar coating’. The flavour was represented by a burnt orange colour on the familiar packaging and, as before, the recipe was apparently new and improved.

The Mini Donuts were soft and velvety to the touch and had a deep, warming cinnamon scent. The overall cinnamon flavour was the same kind of strength as Nestlé Curiously Cinnamon cereal and I found this developed on the rear tastebuds during each mouthful. The taste of the doughnut itself wasn’t as evident as with the Crunch version, although there was a baked sweetness there, but this hardly mattered as the cinnamon coating was so flavoursome and delicious!

The soft dough also didn’t feel dry this time – possibly as a result of the coating. I adored the texture as the powder was cooling and melted on the tongue like icing sugar. It felt like a thick layer and, for me, really lifted the whole experience.

I think it’s safe to say I have a new favourite product from Mrs. Freshley’s – fabulous!

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

Mrs. Freshley's Mini Donuts: Crunch

Product name: Mrs. Freshley’s Mini Donuts: Crunch
Purchase details: £2.50 for a 96g packet of six doughnuts (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 380 per pack
Country of origin: USA

I love doughnuts, me, but so far in life, I’ve only ever come across the fresh variety. As a result, I was intrigued when I recently found two varieties of Mrs. Freshley’s Mini Donuts in A Quarter of Sweets. I wasn’t convinced that a longer life version would be very nice but there was only one way to find out!

The Donuts were distributed by Flowers Foods Speciality Group and featured the standard white and blue Mrs. Freshley’s branding. This Crunch variety was represented by the colour teal and, as usual, the inner product was visible through the packaging. This was partly what drew me to the product since the squishy doughnuts looked bigger than most British miniatures and, amazingly, the whole pack was one serving – wahey!

Despite being ring doughnuts, the golden treats were definitely more dough than hole. There was no product description so I was unsure what contributed to the ‘Crunch’ but the Donuts were coated in what looked like soggy crumbs. However, they were dry to the touch and despite the idea of a crunchy doughnut seeming a little strange, on close inspection, I wondered if the experience would actually be provided by sugar granules.

Inside, the dough was paler in colour and looked a bit like Madeira cake, and the scent produced by the apparently new and improved recipe was one similar to sugar-coated almonds.

I found these Mini Donuts did manage to capture the basic flavour of a doughnut and their sugary coating (I was right!) helped contribute to this. However, there was definitely a difference when compared to freshly baked ones – the outside felt quite moist in the mouth but the overall texture was pretty dry but dense. Thankfully, this wasn’t to the extent that I needed a drink to help me along, but they did feel more cake-like than doughnut-like. The Donuts also had a very slight metallic taste but, the more I ate, the sweeter the general flavour seemed to become.

As for being called ‘Crunch’, this was certainly a feature, but it was an element that was just like ordinary sugar-coated doughnuts rather than being created by some random add-on ingredient.

As long-life doughnuts, these Mrs. Freshley’s Mini Donuts: Crunch had the potential to be awful...but they weren’t! I can’t pretend they were as good as freshly baked ones but they were a perfectly acceptable alternative to keep in the cupboard for when the munchies strike. The fact that I’ve since been back and bought a third variety that had previously been out of stock is testament to their edibility!

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

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Marvellous mix-ups (Oreo)

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Marvellous mix-ups (Oreo)
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 111g bag (Asda)
Calories: 561 per bag

Cadbury are making new products faster than I can eat them these days! Still, I try, so here’s my review of the Dairy Milk: Marvellous mix-ups (Oreo).

This bag was made by Mondelez for the UK and Ireland market and, like the Marvellous creations range, had a purple and white striped circus theme. What I particularly loved was the gorgeous aqua colour but the packaging also contained illustrations of the pieces inside.

The ‘assortment of milk chocolates, white chocolates, and chocolate flavour sandwich biscuits’ consisted entirely of existing products but in a brand new combination. I wasn’t quite sure what I’d think because, although I knew I loved all the individual components, I don’t tend to like mixing my foods – give me a roast dinner and I’ll always eat the vegetables, then the meat, then the potatoes, and then the stuffing!

There were four separate ‘ingredients’ in this bag. First up was Dairy Milk: Buttons (giant) which were, believe it or not, the same as the Dairy Milk: Buttons I’ve previously reviewed – they were just a bit bigger! This larger size did provide a better melt but, with this product, it hardly mattered.

There were also regular-sized white chocolate Buttons. These emitted a lovely white chocolate scent and had a sweet and milky taste that made for a decent version of my favourite ‘colour’ of chocolate. It also had a thick and slightly grainy melt.

Providing a completely different flavour and texture was the inclusion of Nabisco Oreo: Mini. I’m a big fan of these ‘chocolate flavour sandwich biscuits with a vanilla flavour filling (29%)’ although, so far, I’ve only reviewed the Peanut butter creme version, as well as the Kraft Handi-Snacks. I used to have a bit of an addiction to this miniature variety which is why I don’t tend to buy them anymore so I was pleased to be reunited with them. Containing 4.6% reduced fat cocoa, the biscuits had a slightly bitter chocolate taste, and the sweet vanilla creme was delicious. Texturally, the creme was soft and a little grainy, whilst the biscuits had a great crunch.

Finally, the bag contained purple and yellow Dairy Milk: Pebbles which added colour as well as an additional crispy texture.

Combined, these elements looked great together. Dust from the Oreos did transfer onto some of the other pieces but this didn’t make too much of a difference to the appearance and I was pleased to see a variety of shades. The aroma of the united components was also lovely – a decent mix of cocoa and creamy vanilla.

I did have to delve a bit to get a good variety in each handful since the Oreos had a tendency to gather at the top of the bag. However, this was totally worth it, and the result was a lovely mix of thick textures, and a great creamy taste. The product felt like a great novelty and I enjoyed how she stronger flavours were mellowed by the creamier ones. Even better was the way that even the white chocolate’s taste didn’t get lost in the mix – every element brought something noticeable and different.

The packaging hadn’t suggested what a recommended serving was and, since I figured it wouldn’t be the easiest product to measure anyway, I went ahead and ate the whole bag. As a result, its resealable element seemed completely unnecessary, although any really self-restrained people may find it useful! If I’m honest, I hadn’t thought the bag looked very full at all, but it did take longer than I expected to polish off its contents. Thankfully, this didn’t result in a sickly feeling either – the only negative was the coating of Oreo dust over my fingers!

I have to say that these Marvellous mix-ups lived up to their name. Bravo, Cadbury!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 8.25/10