Grupa BGK Flips: Chrupki kukurydziane (czekolady)

Product name: Grupa BGK Flips: Chrupki kukurydziane (czekolady)
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 70g bag (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 142 per 25g serving (398 per bag)
Country of origin: Poland 

There was something about this bright yellow bag of Grupa BGK Flips: Chrupki kukurydziane (czekolady) that filled me with both excitement and fear. It was the cartoon bunny juggling pieces of chocolate against a background of corn puffs that caught my eye. As a kid, I loved sandwiching a piece of chocolate between two crisps and I love the idea of crisp-filled chocolate, but chocolate flavoured crisps? I wasn’t so sure...

Thanks to Google’s translating function, I can tell you that ‘Chrupki kukurydziane’ means ‘corn crisps’ and ‘czekolady’, predictably, is ‘chocolate’. This was reassuring since the English description on the bag simply stated ‘chocolate flavoured corn puffs’! The ingredients mentioned a ‘chocolate flavoured cream’ that contained cocoa powder, and the whole bag consisted of 1% chocolate.

On opening the packet, I was stunned by the appearance which was not what I’d had in mind! The curved crisps were huge. Unfortunately, there was something about their pale brown colour that was flecked with darker speckles that I found really off-putting. This didn’t feel great either – it was a little moist and rubbery. On the plus side, every single piece was intact, and the inner corn puff appearance was nicely familiar. The gentle but deep scent was also pleasant. Whilst not smelling specifically of chocolate, I did associate it with children’s cocoa-containing cereals.

The next thing to surprise me was the texture. Biting through the surface presented the kind of crispiness you’d expect but, past this, the crisps were very soft and squidgy. If I wasn’t certain the bag had been completely sealed, and the puffs were in-date, I would have assumed they were stale. This took a bit of getting used to but there was something quite fun about the way, part way through each crisp, the rest of it pretty much dissolved by itself. (Letting the whole thing melt on the tongue was also an option.)

Now the part I’d been dreading a little bit – the taste! Slightly awkwardly, I wouldn’t say these tasted anything like chocolate. BUT...they were actually pretty nice! They had a delicate, sugary flavour that tasted just like sweet popcorn and I had no problem munching my way through the huge amount provided in the bag (in my defence, they didn’t weigh much!). The crisps also had a corn-like aftertaste which I recognised from sucking the cheesiness of Walkers Wotsits.

So, a bit of a mixed experience for me here. They didn’t look great, they didn’t taste like chocolate, and the texture could definitely have been crispier, but do you know what? I think I’d actually buy these again!

Appearance: 6/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 6/10
Overall score: 6.38/10

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