Fox's Party Rings: Blueberry muffin

Product name: Fox’s Party Rings: Blueberry muffin
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 125g packet or two for £1.00 (Poundworld)
Calories: 28 per biscuit
Country of origin: UK 

These Fox’s Party Rings: Blueberry muffin ‘iced shortcake rings’, like the Crunch Creams: Key lime pie, were part of the Vinnie’s Tastes of America range. As a result, the packaging again featured a background of the American flag, as well as the unappetising picture of Vinnie the panda! However, I did love the mid-blue colour that reflected the flavour.

I was really keen to try these biscuits as blueberry is a flavour I’ve never even heard of before in this kind of format. The biscuits were the same type of purple shade as some of the ordinary Party Rings, although the decorative ripple on this variety was white rather than yellow.

These Blueberry muffin Party Rings had an unusual aroma in that they maintained the sugary sweet scent I associate with the original product but this was combined with a deeper blueberry scent which was just as evident.

Texturally, these biscuits were the same as both standard Party Rings and the Party: Choc rings that I’ve previously reviewed. The crunchiness of the biscuit combined well with the crispy sugary shell and, for the first time, I tried sucking a biscuit too. I don’t know if this works as well with the other varieties but it was certainly a pleasant alternative here. Whilst the overall effect was a dissolving one, the icing itself felt and tasted lovely and juicy and helped release more of the blueberry flavour.

When chewing the biscuits, I did find they tasted quite similar to standard Party Rings as they remained pretty sugary, but there was a mellow hint of blueberry that did do a pretty good job of reflecting a blueberry muffin’s flavour. As the biscuit crumbled in the mouth, it also reminded me of a slightly down-market pie!

These were definitely a vast improvement on the Party: Choc rings and, whilst not hugely different from the original Party Rings, they were enough of a novelty to make me want to choose this variety in future!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.63/10

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Marvellous creations (cookie nut crunch)

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Marvellous creations (cookie nut crunch)
Purchase details: £0.25 for a 50g bar or five for £1.00 (Home Bargains)

Calories: 245 per bar
Country of origin: Europe

I’ve had this Cadbury Dairy Milk: Marvellous creations (cookie nut crunch) before and, whilst I hadn’t bought it since (there are just so many other treats waiting to be tried!), I did really enjoy it. However, having heard a rumour that the variety is about to be discontinued, I couldn’t resist stocking up when I saw this fantastic offer.

 

The packaging featured the usual purple and circus-themed Marvellous creations branding and used a green border for the variety. There was also an illustration of the product within, and the word ‘new’, although I know this had been around for a while now – the wrapper even said it had been made by Kraft UK rather than Mondelez!

The ‘milk chocolate with pieces of biscuit (8%), crunchy almond caramel (5%), and chopped roasted caramelised hazelnuts (3%)’ came in a five-piece bar format that, whilst not quite as exciting as the 200g bar (see my review of cola pretzel honeycomb to see what I mean!), was still more interesting than standard squares of chocolate. The two-tone cookie pieces (white with dark brown speckles) were large so the bar wouldn’t sit flat – a good sign, I thought. Being a lot smaller, the nuts weren’t as visible, but you could see them if you looked closely.

The chocolate itself was the usual Dairy Milk, complete with the lovely, strong aroma, although there was nothing additional in the scent despite the extra ingredients. It had the fantastic creamy flavour that we’ve come to know and love but, again, I couldn’t say the other flavours were very prominent. I thought there was a slight added sweetness but this had more of a gummy sweets type of flavour rather than a sugariness. Every now and then, though, the cookie pieces did provide more of a biscuit flavour whilst, at other times, it reminded me more of honeycomb – weird but nice!

The biscuits were really rough so this did ruin the melt of the chocolate slightly but, before this got in the way, the chocolate itself was really nice and thick. When chewing, though, the crispy cookie and crunchy nuts provided a lovely bit of resistance. The chunkiness of the chocolate really helped fill the mouth with flavour, too, and the overall effect reminded me a bit of Dairy Milk: Fruit & nut. It was a shame the taste of the nuts didn’t come through but there is no denying that this was a very enjoyable bar of chocolate.

I can understand that this variety probably isn’t unusual or daring enough to feature in the Marvellous creations range but I really hope Cadbury don’t discontinue it completely!

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

Walkers Pops: Melted cheese & crispy bacon

Product name: Walkers Pops: Melted cheese & crispy bacon
Purchase details: £0.50 for a 23g bag (Tesco)
Calories: 102 per bag

I loved Popchips so much that I was really keen to try the new Walkers Pops range when they were released. ‘Air-popped’ rather than fried, they claimed to have ‘all the great Walkers taste’, but with 50% less fat than ‘standard potato crisps’. They also contained no artificial colours or preservatives, and no MSG.

Now, I’m a weird member of the human race, in that I don’t like bacon. I wish I did – I like the smell but that’s about it on a standard rasher. However, I do enjoy crispy bacon as long as it is so crispy it can be snapped in two. The fact that this flavour specified ‘crispy bacon’ was a bonus, then, although really it’s the texture rather than the taste that causes me problems the rest of the time!

I should also add that I’m not generally a fan of meat-flavoured crisps, so I was taking a gamble with this Melted cheese & crispy bacon packet – it was definitely the melted cheese aspect that swung it for me.

Made for the UK and Ireland market, this ‘potato snack’ came in an orangey-brown bag and featured a nice and low calorie content. Despite the flavour, they were suitable for vegetarians, and 45% of the product was simply ‘dried potato’.

The Pops were presented as quite large discs with a red powdery dusting on top – they were almost identical to the Popchips Barbeque  but were more flat. Inside, they looked more white in colour, and were almost fluffy.

The strong scent of these Pops fascinated me. There was an element of a standard smoky bacon crisp aroma (not something I’m overly fond of), but I could genuinely pick up a cheesy tang too which was different to many other cheesy crisps available. The latter really lifted the overall smell for me so it certainly didn’t put me off trying this meaty snack.

On trying my first disc, the potato itself seemed to have the bacon flavour and, as soon as my tongue hit the build-up of powder, the cheese came through. Surprisingly, and slightly strangely, the taste was pretty creamy – I didn’t even know that was possible in a crisp! However, I did find the flavour a bit odd, and the melted cheese aspect tasted more like butter to me. The Pops were a bit salty too (as they should be) but, thankfully, not to the same extent as Frazzles. For me, though, the best thing about the flavour was that, whilst meaty, this was a subtle aspect rather than being overpowering.

The texture of this snack was great. Bumpy to the touch, they were fantastically crunchy and crispy in the mouth – maybe not something to eat when sitting next to another person, though!

On the whole, these Walkers Pops: Melted cheese & crispy bacon were a hit. I don’t think I’d call myself a fan of the attempt at a cheese flavour but the overall taste did improve as I worked my way through the bag. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

Cap'n Crunch Treats: Peanut butter

Product name: Cap’n Crunch Treats: Peanut butter
Purchase details: £0.99 for a 24g bar (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 110 per bar
Country of origin: USA

I’m obviously getting forgetful in my old age. I prepared this review over a month ago and was convinced I’d posted it but, it turns out, I hadn’t! Unfortunately, I somehow managed to delete the accompanying photos too, so this will be my first (and hopefully last!) plain blog. Apologies to anyone reading this as I know, as a review reader, I much prefer them to come with photographs.

Anyway, I’d never had Quaker Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch cereal before, although I had wanted to for the simple reason that it contains peanut butter. For me, then, this cereal bar was the next best thing.

Distributed by The Quaker Oats Company, the Cap’n Crunch Treats: Peanut butter came in an orange wrapper that featured a cartoon of Cap’n Crunch breaking apart one of the bars. There was no description of the product but, based on its appearance, cereal sat on a base of chocolate and also contained a chocolatey drizzle on top. Having read the ingredients, I saw that 2% of the bar was cocoa powder. I was slightly unnerved by some of the cereal pieces as they were quite orange so looked more like cheese puffs than a sweet treat! However, I was excited to see thin ripples of peanut butter inside.

Despite being small in size and containing very few calories, the bar felt pleasingly substantial. At close range, there was a chocolatey peanut butter scent but, from a distance, this was undetectable.

Sugar was the main ingredient in the Treats bar but I noticed that it contained actual peanuts, in addition to the peanut butter. Flavour-wise, it was quite sweet but with a bit of saltiness from the peanut butter which was particularly noticeable in the aftertaste. However, I did find this little too mild for my liking, and the chocolate only really came through in the aftertaste too.

Whilst the taste wasn’t incredible (although very nice), I was more impressed by the texture of this product. It provided a soft crisp and, whilst I couldn’t feel the peanut butter’s texture, it had a great feel for a cereal bar as it was neither too dry or chewy.

Now to get hold of the actual cereal and find out how milk affects the experience! 

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