Snickers Bar: Rockin' nut road

Product name: Snickers Bar: Rockin’ nut road
Purchase details: £1.59 for a 49.9g bar (Mr Simms)
Calories: 230 per bar
Country of origin: USA

I’m not generally a fan of Snickers which is why, so far, I’ve only reviewed the mini version included in Celebrations. However, this Rockin’ nut road variety (based on rocky road) caught my eye on my first ever visit to Mr Simms. (That’s right – we have a Mr Simms now! I always wondered what this magical place was like and I can now report that it smells amazing!)

This bar consisted of dark chocolate, almonds, caramel and marshmallow flavoured nougat, and it was the change in nut type and nougat that got me so excited. I can usually take or leave marshmallow since I like the flavour but, in other things, I don’t tend to like its elasticity. As a result, having the flavour in a nougat seemed like a win-win situation, particularly since it’s the presence of marshmallows in real rocky road which tends to put me off eating it, usually.

Made by Mars Chocolate North America, the bar came in a striking black wrapper and was a very good looking specimen. The semisweet chocolate was nice and glossy and the pale nougat, large nuts and gooey caramel were all well-defined against this dark shell.

It may have contained artificial flavours but this Snickers Bar: Rockin’ nut road wasn’t bad at all. Its aroma was a simple but deep dark chocolate one and this ingredient was definitely the main one in terms of taste too – it made the product noticeably more bitter and it balanced well with the inner features, almost creating a saltiness by comparison. The downside was that the nougat and caramel weren’t as sweet as they could have been and the inside, generally, wasn’t very flavourful but, overall, the taste wasn’t miles away from an actual piece of rocky road.

The texture was the standout element for me, though. The inside was stringy but not too chewy, and I loved the softness of it, as well as the fact that it wasn’t overrun with nuts that got in the way. If anything, I’d say the feel was very much like a Mars bar but with the odd dull crunch here and there.

In conclusion, I would have liked the flavours from the nougat, almonds and caramel to be more prominent in this bar, but its squidginess was very enjoyable indeed.

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

General Mills Lucky Charms

Product name: General Mills Lucky Charms
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 49g pot (Poundland)

Calories: 190 per pot (232 per pot with 125ml skimmed milk)
Country of origin: USA

 

General Mills Lucky Charms is another cereal that, like Kellogg's Froot Loops, I’d always wanted to try but never had. For that reason, I was really pleased to find this single-serving  tub that still managed to contain 19g of whole grain within its ‘frosted toasted oat cereal with marshmallows’. I’d never actually realised that this was a frosted cereal so this aspect increased my interest and, what with the marshmallows, I couldn’t think of ever having tried a similar product.

I don’t know about you, but I sometimes take words for granted, so I’d never made the connection between this cereal’s name and what it actually was! However, I quickly realised that the red pot featured things that are often considered to bring luck, such as a leprechaun. This theme continued with the tiny, shaped Cheerio-like cereal and colourful marshmallows – these featured horseshoes (which I initially thought were fish!) and shooting stars, as well as other more general items like hearts. (If anyone can figure out what the shape on the bottom right of my picture is, I’d love to hear from you!)

Imported by Innovative Bites Ltd, there were some negative aspects of this product too. The corn it contained was genetically modified, and the ‘adverse effect’ the colours could have on children was also highlighted – not great but I couldn’t let that deter me!

The overall scent from the tub was gorgeous. It was like a cross between Kellogg’s Rice Krispies: Squares and real toasted marshmallows. The cereal had a slightly sticky glaze that possibly contributed to this but, on the whole, it seemed to be from the hardened ‘charms’ that were also a little sticky. I was impressed to see that the colours of these marshmallows went throughout each piece too – they weren’t just for show on the surface.

I did try a tiny dry sample of the product, out of matter of interest, and found the cereal to be nicely sweetened and the marshmallow to be very sugary with a slight crisp. The different colours used didn’t impact the flavour. They all tasted like toasted marshmallows – it was just a shame they didn’t have the warm, gooey centres to accompany the flavour!

I figured the idea was to pour the milk into the tub so this is what I did...only to find it all went to the bottom (don’t ask what I thought would happen!). This ended up being fine, though, as the cereal still got a good moistening. The only problem I found was that the bits at the bottom did go soft and slimy pretty quickly but, on the whole, the cereal was quite chewy and I adored the sugary hits from the marshmallows. The flavour combination really reminded me of something which I couldn’t work out until I remembered I had actually had this cereal in bar form a while ago so it was probably that!

Once the cereal had gone, I enjoyed using up the remaining milk. It didn’t look very appetising as the blue food colouring had leaked and created a grey appearance, and its texture had also become a bit starchy, but it did have a slightly sweetened taste.

Aside from this cereal’s deliciousness, what impressed me most was the good balance between the two elements – there was no shortage of either the oats or the marshmallows and they were both very enjoyable. If I’m honest, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this so much...I just wish it was healthier!

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

Gardners Candies S'mores

Product name: Gardners Candies S’mores
Purchase details: £1.50 for a 42g bar (Bold Street Sweets)
Calories: 186 per bar
Country of origin: USA

Since my review of Kellogg's Pop Tarts: Frosted s'mores, I’ve still not tried the real thing, but I was intrigued by Gardners Candies’ chocolate bar version of the product so I decided to give it a go.

The bar came described as marshmallow and ‘graham cracker covered in our creamy milk chocolate’ and came in quite an unusual wrapper that combined fake with real. The background featured close-ups of real graham crackers, as well as drawings of chocolate, marshmallow, and a fire (the latter to remind of the campfire aspect of real s’mores). I also liked the way the letter ‘O’ of the brand name was made of a chocolate-topped marshmallow.

I was surprised at just how good-looking the S’mores bar was. It wasn’t huge but it was pretty chunky and had a thick chocolate shell – I could see how this was the main ingredient! The drizzled chocolate  was a nice finishing touch too. Inside, the decent-sized biscuit base was topped with another (much thinner) layer of chocolate, and then a slab of smooth, white marshmallow that looked like a creme filling. It was this marshmallow that seemed to provide the sweet and creamy scent that was noticeable on opening the wrapper and was even more evident up-close.

 
The chocolate was very milky, if a little on the sweet side, but I figured this was partially down to its contact with the marshmallow. This soft centre was very chewy and provided a vanilla flavour that blended nicely with the digestive biscuit-like taste that came from the graham cracker. This biscuit was, unusually, more soft than crunchy, and I found the contrast in textures, generally, made the bar slightly difficult to eat as the chocolate and biscuit crumbled as they sunk into the marshmallow on biting.

For textural reasons, marshmallow isn’t one of my favourite foodstuffs, but I was pleased that the thick chocolate shell was the stand-out aspect of this product. It wasn’t the best bar I’ve ever tasted but it was an interesting concept – I had been concerned it would taste like Wagon Wheels (I don’t like those!) but it didn’t so that was a bonus. Despite being served cold, the S’mores bar offered a good combination of flavours, but I imagine a real s’more would be a bit more special! 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.25/10

Mrs. Freshley's Snowballs: Creme filled cakes

Product name: Mrs. Freshley’s Snowballs: Creme filled cakes
Purchase details: £1.99 for a 120g pack of two Snowballs (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 210 per Snowball (420 per pack)
Country of origin: USA

These Mrs. Freshley’s Snowballs were recommended to me a while ago via the A Quarter of Sweets Twitter page but, since I’m not a huge fan of marshmallow-heavy products, I passed. I’d failed to notice the ‘Creme filled cakes’ part of the product name so, when I was recently told by a staff member in-store that they contained chocolate cake, my arm was twisted!

Distributed by Flowers Foods Speciality Group, these very pink and very squidgy coconut-covered Snowballs came in the usual style of Mrs. Freshley’s packaging and looked rather pretty on the outside, although I wasn’t convinced that this colour went very well with the dark cake within! The marshmallow looked a bit meringue-like, in that its inner edge was slightly golden, and the creme filling was also clearly visible towards the bottom of each cake. The bases of the Snowballs were left uncovered by the marshmallow coating but I ended up being glad of this.

The marshmallow was incredibly bouncy to the touch to the extent that it almost felt alive – a part of me was genuinely afraid it was going to move of its own accord! It was stretchy to bite into and, in the mouth, its spongy texture dissolved almost instantly. It didn’t really taste of anything but I did enjoy the strong coconut flavour from the bitty coating. This coconut also provided a mellow scent that mixed in the with slight chocolate cake aroma emanating from the centre.

The chocolate cake contained less than 2% cocoa, which seemed a shame, but it actually tasted pretty similar to the Mrs. Freshley's Fudge Bake: Brownie (candy topped). It had quite a crumbly texture, but was also moist, and I really enjoyed the lovely sweet and thick creme filling within it.

The flavours of the four elements worked well together and I found that the coconut had a surprising kick to it – almost tasting salty in comparison to the sweet centre.

Unfortunately, though, the texture of the marshmallow did spoil my enjoyment of the product as it almost felt as if I was foaming at the mouth. I definitely prefer standard marshmallows to the marshmallow part of this product but, as a whole, the overall Snowballs were a lot more enjoyable than I expected them to be when I first heard about them. They definitely would have scored more highly if they’d just been coconut-covered creme-filled chocolate cakes!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 6/10
Overall score: 6.75/10