Vrettos Snappy (honey)

Product name: Vrettos Snappy (honey)
Purchase details: £0.75 for a 50g pastry (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 165 per pastry
Country of origin: Greece

For years, I had a childhood memory of eating some unknown but delicious pastry product at a buffet. Having never come across it again, I began to wonder if I’d made it up, until my friend brought her Mum’s homemade baklava into school to celebrate Eid. Despite that now being years ago, I’ve not had it since, so I couldn’t resist trying this shop-bought version. As it happens, the wrapper of the Vrettos Snappy (honey) didn’t include the word ‘baklava’, but Tesco's website confirmed that that’s what it was.

The ‘crispy snack with honey’ came in an orange wrapper that had a honeycomb design and showed an image of the pastry product sitting in a pool of honey. I had been worried that the long shelf-life would have caused the baklava to dry out but the treat was actually served in a little tray in an attempt to keep it moist from the runny ‘flower honey’ (4%) that was visible on the inside of the wrapper. It would have been rude not to have sampled this and I thoroughly enjoyed its deliciously sweet yet floral flavour.

The roll looked nice enough from the outside – the pastry made up 27% of the product and provided a crispy shell to cut through before the tougher filling which accounted for 10%. This centre looked a bit off-putting, in comparison. The translation wasn’t great but I could see it at least contained almond, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon so, arguably, that’s where the main flavours were. For some reason, though, the combination looked a bit like meat!

One of my main memories from previously trying baklava was its sweetness and this version contained 19% Greek sugar in addition to 20% glucose. With the honey, it was sticky to the touch, and all these sweet aspects provided a lovely juiciness in the midst of quite a chewy product.

I found this Snappy to be quite festive. Its scent was like a mild marzipan with a hint of the inner spices and, in the taste, I could really taste the nutmeg and cinnamon. The pastry was quite buttery and I liked the novelty of the crunchy nuts here and there too.

Whilst the product was full of flavour, I did find it a little dry in places on the outside. It wasn’t awful but the texture just wasn’t quite right. There was quite a lot of honey on the base which provided a fantastically sweet flavour and moisture and I would have loved this to have encapsulated the whole roll.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable treat which I’m glad I found. I was actually impressed that it didn’t contain more calories than it did as, what with all the sugar and greasiness from the honey, it didn’t feel particularly healthy!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Kellogg's Pop Tarts: Frosted bustin' berry

Product name: Kellogg’s Pop Tarts: Frosted bustin’ berry
Purchase details: £1.49 for a box of eight tarts (Home Bargains)
Calories: 200 per tart (400 per pack of two)
Country of origin: UK

 

This box of Kellogg’s Pop Tarts: Frosted bustin’ berry was the variety I was actually buying when I ended up getting the Frosted apple blast ones too.

The product was very purple in terms of the branding, frosting and, to an extent, the inner ‘berry flavour fruit filling’. However, the icing certainly wasn’t a natural shade of purple for food, and it was also a shame that it had succumbed to the greasy effect Pop Tarts sometimes get. However, the jammy-looking filling (with a red tint) looked deliciously moist and plentiful within the golden, albeit cracked, pastry.

When cold, these Pop Tarts, like with the Frosted blueberry kind, smelt like Go Ahead! Fruit Bakes. I was pleased that the pastry had the seemingly-improved UK flavour that was evident in the apple blast Pop Tarts, too, with a combined buttery and salty taste. The filling did mainly taste of berries (4.5% of the overall product was strawberry) but there was also a slight tangy apple flavour mixed into the general sweetness...it turned out apple was also listed on the ingredients! As usual, the texture was slightly crumbly but with a crispy element from the frosting, whilst the moist filling softened the pastry nicely. Overall, the experience reminded me of sweeter fig rolls.

This was another box that stated that the pastries couldn’t be microwaved so I only warmed the tarts in the toaster. This turned the pastry itself to a lovely shade of golden brown and caused the frosting to appear slightly molten. The baked berry aroma was also delicious, and I loved the added crisp that was given to the pastry when toasted. The flavour was also a bit richer, warmed, but sicklier too.

All in all, this was another tasty fruity variety of Kellogg’s Pop Tarts, once again proving that not all the nice stuff has to be imported! 

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

Kellogg's Pop Tarts: Frosted apple blast

Product name: Kellogg’s Pop Tarts: Frosted apple blast
Purchase details: £1.49 for a box of eight tarts (Home Bargains)
Calories: 200 per tart (400 per pack of two)
Country of origin: UK

It’s been a little while since my last review of Kellogg’s Pop Tarts so I thought it was about time for another. This time, though, it’s a little bit different since these Frosted apple blast Pop Tarts are the first UK ones I’ve featured on my blog. As a result, they were considerably cheaper!

I actually nearly passed up this flavour until it occurred to me that that the ‘apple cinnamon fruit filling in a pastry with a sugar topping’ might actually be a bit like apple pie.

The Pop Tarts came in the same type of blue box as the American varieties I’ve previously reviewed, and featured a photo of the inner product – a rectangular pastry with a fresh white icing topping and a centre that looked like an apple purée. The reality of the tarts was very much the same. The pastry was the paler kind and I noticed that, like with the Frosted confetti cupcake variety, parts of the icing looked a little greasy. The highlight of the appearance for me, though, was the moist-looking apple compote. Once again, the 50g pastries were stored in pairs in silver foil wrappers.

Surprisingly, this box specifically stated that the Pop Tarts were not to be microwaved and, since it didn’t state they could be eaten cold either (although they had been pre-cooked), I decided to play it safe and only eat them toasted on the lowest setting, as instructed. As a result, this review will be shorter than my other reviews of this brand!

The tarts had a gentle but fruity apple scent which was evident when they were both cold and warm. I also noted that the pastry tasted slightly buttery too and, pleasingly, this transferred to the flavour. I’m not sure if the UK pastry recipe is different to the American one but I certainly enjoyed this one more than normal – not only was it buttery but it was sweet and didn’t have the usual flavour I associate with stale biscuits. It had also absorbed a slight tang from the filling so it was a lot nicer than I’d expected.

The ingredients stated that 6.5% of the product was apple and, as a result, there a lovely sweetened but tangy apple flavour. What was particularly nice about this was the way that the sugary topping cut through the slight tartness. The butteriness of the pastry went well with these elements too.

Furthermore, the texture was great and, to my delight, just like the part of an apple pie’s pastry that has been in contact with the apple filling – it was moist and stuck to the mouth slightly. The pastry’s edges added a twist to the texture by being crunchy (without being dry) and the crispy sugar topping also provided some variety.

I couldn’t believe how flavourful this Frosted apple blast variety was. I genuinely thought it tasted more like a dessert than a Pop Tart. I’m so glad I added these to my shopping basket as an afterthought – it would have been a crime if I hadn’t! 

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

Kellogg's Pop Tarts: Frosted cookies & creme

Product name: Kellogg’s Pop Tarts: Frosted cookies & creme
Purchase details: £4.49 for a box of eight tarts (boldstreetsweets.co.uk)
Calories: 190 per tart (380 per pack of two)
Country of origin: USA 

Considering that, until a few months ago, it had been several years since I’d last had a Kellogg’s Pop Tart, I seem to have been completely sucked in by the American varieties! When I placed my order with Bold Street Sweets in December, I originally opted for a box of the Frosted cinnamon roll variety but, unfortunately, these are no longer in production. However, I knew instantly that I would like to swap them for these Frosted cookies & creme Pop Tarts, and I’d like to thank Bold Street Sweets for their great customer service around this.

 

Thanks to a Juice FM voucher, these pastries really cost me half the £4.49 website price. They came in the brand’s usual blue box and the images on the front looked very appealing – there were Oreo-style cookies as well as the tart itself which had a dark chocolate pastry and moist-looking creamy filling. The pastries contained both natural and artificial flavours, but the box also boasted the presence of seven vitamins and minerals (including calcium and four B vitamins), and the absence of cholesterol. 

Inside the silver foil wrappers, the Pop Tarts had a great appearance which was very like how the box had suggested. The very dark cocoa-containing pastry was topped with crisp white icing and crumby sprinkles. The only down-side was that the white filling wasn’t quite as abundant as the photograph had suggested. 

When cold, the tarts had a part baked chocolate and part cookie smell. The pastry was dry and soft and had quite a dark and bitter aftertaste. However, this element wasn’t really noticeable when chewing. The creme filling was more like a paste, on its own, rather than a solidified creme. With the pastry, it provided a welcome moisture and, combined with the crispy frosting, a sweetness too. Whilst I could recognise the cookies and cream theme within the flavours, I can’t say that this was as good as an actual Oreo! 

Toasting a tart made the filling look slightly softer and it also resulted in the baked aroma having a pleasant warmth to it. The pastry’s texture was barely altered (it was simply a bit firmer), but it was more flavourful to chew, providing a warm cocoa taste whilst maintaining its bitterness. I found the layers tended to separate in the mouth and, for me, there was a bit too much of a cocoa taste and not enough sweetness. However, I quite enjoyed its almost salty aftertaste. 

 

After being mircowaved for 10 seconds, the pastry was, again, not much different. Thankfully, though, the sweeter elements of the tarts were a bit more prominent and the overall experience was generally more cookie-like.  

 

There wasn’t a massive difference between the results of the two different warming methods but the microwaved tarts did just edge it for me. What I did find, with all three versions, was that the crumbs went everywhere, and the pastries provided a strong chocolatey taste at the back of the throat. I just would have preferred a little more sweetness to counteract this. 

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