Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream: Satisfy my bowl

Product name: Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream: Satisfy my bowl
Purchase details: £2.24 for a 500ml tub (tesco.com)
Calories: 255 per 100ml serving

I seriously don’t know how I survived for so many years without having tried the delights of Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. This Fairtrade Satisfy my bowl tub was a special edition to mark the 30^th anniversary of Bob Marley’s Legend album, and also supported the 1Love Foundation which funds a youth-empowerment programme in Jamaica.

I was really interested in this ice cream since it was banana flavoured (it contained 4% banana puree) but also had cookie (6%) and caramel (9%) swirls and ‘chocolatey peace signs’ (4%). To fit in with the Caribbean theme, the usual green field of the branding was replaced with a sandy beach and a cow playing a guitar. However, the pale blue sky meant the packaging was still recognisably Ben & Jerry’s.

For this variety, a 100ml serving equated to 91g, and 23% of the product was cream itself. The ice cream was pale in colour but did have some visible caramel swirls. The chocolate chunks were presented as thick discs with raised peace signs, although the visibility of this finer detail varied.

As usual for frozen products, this didn’t emit any kind of smell, but the flavour was immense and felt like a full-on dessert. I allowed my ice cream to soften a fair amount before trying it and it was ridiculously creamy! Adding to this, the banana flavour was really strong, but then there was also a lovely, sugary taste from the caramel. I can’t say I really noticed the cookie swirls as a feature but, in contrast, the size and abundance of the chocolate made a massive difference to the experience. It tasted just liked ice cream chocolate sauce but its format meant it provided a crunchy texture amid the juicy, thick, but not completely smooth ice cream.

Whilst this tub of Satisfy my bowl wasn’t quite up there with the amazing Peanut butter cup, it did feel really special and it’s a shame it was only a limited edition.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo

Product name: Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 41g bar or three for £1.20 (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 225 per bar
Country of origin: UK

As much as I love Oreo cookies, I’ve only ever had Cadbury Dairy Milk: Oreo once before as it was originally only available in a large bar format which wasn’t convenient on my diet. As a result, I was delighted when Mondelez released this new individual portion size, although it’s taken me until now to eat one!

The ‘milk chocolate with a vanilla flavour filling (36%) and biscuit pieces (17%)’ came in the expected purple wrapper which also featured an Oreo logo and image. The bar was divided into six pieces which, unusually, didn’t feature the Cadbury logo, although the simple decoration it did have bore a striking resemblance to the Milka Leo. The cookie pieces gave a speckled effect to the chocolate (containing 23% milk solids) and, inside, the bar was full of the creme and biscuit pieces.

The Dairy Milk had the familiar scent but with a slight element of vanilla mixed in. The taste wasn’t quite as I remembered in that it wasn’t noticeably of Oreo at all – the filling wasn’t quite sugary enough and the biscuit didn’t have the hint of bitterness I’ve come to expect. However, it was still sweet and creamy with an added biscuit flavour, so a general cookies and cream theme was present within the chocolate.

Texturally, the bar was very crispy but soft too. As usual, the chocolate had a nice melt, although this was combined with the bitty biscuits. I found the size of these cookie pieces to be perfect as it provided a great crunch and the feel of eating proper biscuits, without losing the cushioned feel of the vanilla filling.

This bar was nothing short of delicious. I did struggle to connect its flavour with the Oreo brand but, nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable product which I’ll definitely be buying more often now it’s available in single servings!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

Nestlé Munchies

Product name: Nestlé Munchies
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 52g packet or three for £1.20 (Tesco)
Calories: 135 per six sweet serving (256 per pack)
Country of origin: UK

It’s been years since my last packet of Nestlé Munchies but I do remember loving them as a kid as they seemed to last forever (yep, I was a greedy-guts!). I don’t feel the wrapper has changed much since then, with the 12 chocolates still coming wrapped in a gold foil and red wrapper, on one side of which was an image of a biscuit and caramel centre within a chocolate shell.

 

The sweets contained no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and the milk chocolate contained a minimum of 14% milk solids. Shaped into cubes with a simple decoration, I did find their dusty appearance made them look less appealing than they could have done. However, the ‘crisp biscuit’ (6%) and ‘soft caramel’ (30%) inside did look more promising, although the colour of these barely contrasted with the outer chocolate which I thought was unusual (that said, the difference is more noticeable on the photo!). 

The product had a scent of overly sweet and not great quality chocolate but it still had a nice enough flavour. It had the taste of general Nestlé chocolate, as well as quite a buttery biscuit. Mainly, though, it was very sweet and this seemed to be down to the caramel and chocolate combination.

The standout feature of the chocolates, for me, was the texture. The chocolate’s melt was ok but was improved by the way the caramel seeped out. As an added bonus, the biscuit didn’t feel uncomfortable when doing this. However, it would have been wrong not to munch on these Munchies and I’m pleased to report that this provided a lovely mix of chunky, crispy and soft, gooey textures – wonderful.

Although I didn’t feel that this was the type of product that was worth raving about, it did provide a nice change in my evening routine. I’m sure I’ll buy them again at some point but they won’t be a regular item on my shopping list.

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.13/10

Nestlé Yorkie: Peanut

Product name: Nestlé Yorkie: Peanut
Purchase details: £0.60 for a 43g bar or three for £1.20 (Tesco)
Calories: 248 per bar
Country of origin: UK

Well this is one exciting, new and limited edition product that nearly passed me by! I hadn’t (and still haven’t) heard a thing about the Nestlé Yorkie: Peanut but saw them mixed in with a stand of other Yorkie bars in Tesco. Once I’d convinced myself that the unusual jet black wrapper wasn’t an indication of Hallowe’en or dark chocolate, it went straight into my basket!

Choosing to ignore the typically sexist slogan of ‘man fuel for man stuff’, this bar was described as ‘chunky milk chocolate with peanuts (25%)’ which were roasted. The chocolate consisted of a minimum of 25% cocoa solids and 14% milk solids and was part of Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan.

The bar was the same in style as the Raisin & biscuit and was divided into five pieces that were full of dark-centred peanuts (the fact the chocolate splintered when I cut into it demonstrates how full each piece was!). These produced a really strong nutty scent that actually smelt a lot like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

The Yorkie’s chocolate itself was unchanged from the usual kind and it tasted nice and sweet against the nuts – I particularly loved the roasted aspect of these. It had a nice yet chunky melt but the bar was also really satisfying to chew as the nuts were really crunchy. To my amazement, the flavour was very similar to peanut butter, and the overall product reminded me of a simpler Reese's Nutrageous.

I genuinely didn’t expect this bar to be as good as it was but it was such a delight to eat. I’m gutted it’s only a limited edition...please don’t take it away from me!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.38/10

Cadbury Layers Of Joy: Caramellionaire

Product name: Cadbury Layers Of Joy: Caramellionaire
Purchase details: £1.00 for a pack of two desserts (Tesco)
Calories: 205 per 90g dessert
Country of origin: UK

I’ve tried a few Pots of joy from Cadbury in my time but this is the first time I’ve tried a new Layers Of Joy, with this brilliantly named ‘Caramellionaire’ being the variety I couldn’t wait to get stuck into.

The purple packaging featured an image of the product that looked like a trifle in style and that was the name it was given in the small print too. Made by Müller Dairy for Mondelez, the full description sounded mouth-watering: ‘shortcake biscuit at heart surrounded by delicious layers of Cadbury milk chocolate mousse, rich caramel dessert and white chocolate mousse’. You probably won’t be surprised to know that it was the white chocolate that particularly caught my eye!

The clear pot made it nice and easy to see three distinct layers of white chocolate (1% of the product was white chocolate powder), caramel, and milk chocolate (another 1% was milk chocolate but the pot also contained cocoa powder). However, despite accounting for 11% of the dessert, the shortbread wasn’t visible.

The dessert smelt of chocolate mousse (possibly as it was at the top!) and the latter aspect was also the key texture throughout. The chocolate layer was deep and provided quite a rich cocoa flavour and this went nicely with the caramel which was the same as my memory of Cadbury Dairy Milk: Pots of joy (caramel) and had quite a butterscotchy flavour to it.

Despite appearances, there was a definite biscuit layer next, with a buttery shortcake taste which was delicious. Rather than being hard and crumbly, this was soft and soggy, but very enjoyable!

I initially struggled to sample some of the white chocolate on its own, and it was hard to notice it against the other flavours, but it was possible to try it in larger quantities at the end of each pot. It was beautifully sweet and tasted a little like vanilla ice cream.

All in all, this was a really good dessert and, although I’d prefer a real piece of millionaire’s shortbread, the combination of layers did produce a satisfyingly authentic experience. To my surprise, it was the biscuit that made it, but every layer made its own unique and tasty contribution.

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