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

Nabisco Oreo: Peanut butter creme

Product name: Nabisco Oreo: Peanut butter creme
Purchase details: £4.00 for a 432g pack (Bold Street Sweets)
Calories: 70 per biscuit
Country of origin: Canada 

One of these days, I’ll review a Nabisco product that doesn’t contain peanut butter...but you’ll just have to wait a bit longer!

Despite not having reviewed them yet, I’m a massive Oreo fan, and I’ve wanted to try the Peanut butter creme version for a long time but have always been put off by the high import prices. Thankfully, though, I was able to buy these for half the normal cost of £7.99 when Bold Street Sweets had a half price day for their Facebook fans.

These ‘chocolate sandwich cookies’ came in a large, blue resealable pack containing a giant picture of an Oreo (with fake-looking creme!), and a brown and white colour scheme to represent peanut butter and milk (the drink these biscuits are famous for being dunked in). Since I knew it would take me a long time to get through all the biscuits in this pack, I didn’t dare risk relying on the sealing mechanism alone, so I can’t comment on whether or not it does the job. 

The pack also had a recipe on the back for a Peanut Butter Creme Oreo Milkshake – this looked like a nice idea but I have to confess that I haven’t given it a go (partly due to it using American measurements).  

The biscuits were made by Kraft Foods and contained sugar as their main ingredient. A serving was classed as two cookies and, with around 14 servings per pack, I worked out that it should contain 28 biscuits in total (although I didn’t open it right up to double-check!). 

Hopefully your life is fulfilled in that you know what a standard Oreo looks like. These cookies had the same dark, patterned appearance, but the creme was a pale orangey-yellow as opposed to white. As a result, the creme didn’t look as fresh, but it was still nice and thick. 

The peanut butter scent was instantly noticeable on opening the packet but this wasn’t quite as good in quality as an actual jar of peanut butter. However, the creme was actually quite like peanut butter in texture – it even had a slight crunchiness when eaten on its own but I think this was down to stray crumbs! 

The biscuits were really crunchy and chocolatey and provided the usual, rich Oreo taste, along with a slight nuttiness from being in contact with the creme. The latter was more sugary than actual peanut butter and it had a slightly bitter edge to it but it was still very pleasant. The two components went very nicely together, which is what I’d expect from chocolate and peanut butter, and the creme provided a great moisture which prevented the cookies feeling too dry.

To sum up: these were fantastic! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

Nabisco Nutter Butter: Creme patties

Product name: Nabisco Nutter Butter: Creme patties
Purchase details: £7.99 for a 297g pack (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 170 per five patties serving (34 per patty)
Country of origin: Canada 

When A Quarter of Sweets posted these Nabisco Nutter Butter: Creme patties on their Twitter page as a new item of stock, I just knew I had to have them. I wouldn’t normally spend so much on a single product just to indulge myself but I was kindly provided with a discount which made my decision a lot easier! Knowing how good the original Nutter Butter cookies are, though, and the large pack size (it contained about nine 32g servings), it wouldn’t have been a big issue for me anyway.

‘Distributed by Kraft Foods’, these ‘crispy wafers with peanut butter creme’ came in a large red pack with an enlarged image of a couple of patties on the front. They looked quite basic in appearance but I was pleased to see that the real peanut butter layer looked quite thick.

I certainly wasn’t expecting what greeted me inside the wrapper – a plastic tray containing three long sheets that each contained 16 patties that could easily (but not particularly neatly!) be broken apart.

Slightly less surprisingly, but much to my delight, I was also hit with an instant mouth-watering peanut butter smell which was particularly nutty. Rather randomly, the aroma wasn’t quite as appealing up-close, as the wafer had a scent that reminded me of the white end of fountain pen eraser pens! 

The wafer was very pale in appearance and had a smooth, raised top and a standard criss-cross wafer base. The peanut butter was a slightly darker shade of brown and had a smooth, moist-looking texture. I couldn’t wait to try a piece! 

The first aspect of the taste I noticed was the wafer itself which was actually very flavourful. The peanut butter then came through and they blended very well together with a slightly sweet overall taste. The flavour wasn’t dissimilar to Mrs. Freshley's Buddy Bars: Peanut butter wafers, but these patties weren’t quite as sweet, and also didn’t have the slightly redundant cocoa layer.

The wafers provided a very crispy centre and the moist peanut butter centre was just wonderful. I would say that each patty was more dry than moist as the peanut butter wasn’t quite as thick as I’d hoped, but the balance of the textures worked well, regardless.

This is definitely a product for fellow peanut butter lovers! 

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

Nabisco Ritz Bits: Peanut butter

Product name: Nabisco Ritz Bits: Peanut butter
Purchase details: £2.50 for an 85g bag (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 140 per 12 sandwich serving

I’ve waited for what seems like an age for A Quarter of Sweets to get these Nabisco Ritz Bits: Peanut butter back in stock – that will teach me for not being quick enough last time!

Most of you will know by now that peanut butter is one of my guilty pleasures but these Ritz ‘cracker sandwiches’ were something new for me in that they were entirely savoury. As a result, I was expecting them to be very salty, and this wasn’t helped by the knowledge that a 29g serving contained 240mg of sodium.

These Ritz Bits were ‘distributed by Kraft Foods Global’ and appeared to have been made in the USA. They came in a red bag which depicted a peanut butter fountain...

...

...sorry, I was just imagining what that idea of Heaven would be like in real life. 

Anyway, the bag contained about three servings and boasted that the sandwiches were ‘made with real peanut butter’. The Ritz crackers came in the form of little discs (smaller than McVitie’s Mini Cheddars, if that helps) with a few air holes in each. Whilst there were a few misshapen and misaligned sandwiches, they generally looked ok. The peanut butter centres were a different shade of brown to the crackers and formed a slightly thinner layer than each Ritz piece, and I was pleased to see that it looked quite moist. On the downside, they were pretty greasy to touch.

These Ritz Bits had a noticeably salty and peanut butter aroma and I was pleased to see that the suggested serving of 12 sandwiches was actually quite a lot. The crackers had the standard Ritz taste and were quite plain although not very salty on their own. Texturally, they were very crispy and slightly fluffy.

The peanut butter was, surprisingly, quite dry and gritty on its own, and it also seemed to have a Jacob’s Twiglets flavour about it which was a bit bizarre. However, combined with the crackers, it quickly became very addictive and added a hint of sweetness and warmth (in addition to the expected saltiness), as well as performing its duty of sticking to the roof of the mouth. That said, I didn’t find the flavour very strong and found it tasted more of standard peanuts than peanut butter, although this may have been due to the buttery aspect being drowned out by the quantity of cracker.

These Ritz Bits: Peanut butter were by no means amazing but they were very tasty. What’s more, I was pleased that they felt nicer in the mouth than they did between the fingers and, whilst the saltiness was pleasantly present, it certainly wasn’t overwhelming. 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.25/10