28 February 2009

THANK YOU!!!

I know this isn’t my usual style of post, but I felt that something needed to be said. I have been running this blog for six months now and there is so much more to it than just posts from me.

I have had so much support from my family and friends that it really is overwhelming. From the setting up of the website (and the great patience shown from one individual who explained how to set up my admin@foodstufffinds.co.uk email), and all the other advice given, through to the numerous readers who keep a look out for new or interesting products for me. Then there are the wonderful people that post comments and keep the community going, and the amazing items that family and friends get for me. For example the very nice man who sent me the Cajun Squirrel crisps when he realised that my local supermarket weren’t stocking them.



This gift of chocolates also needs a special mention as I would like to give huge thanks to the sender; it truly is a wonderful gift! And readers, this does mean that there are going to be a few more indulgent Milka reviews appearing here soon! Thanks again!


You are all amazing and I felt that it needed to be said – I really couldn’t do this without you all. Thank you all for supporting this blog and my insane obsession of trying new foods!!!!

Cadbury's Brunch Bakes – Fruit and Nut (Sainsbury’s)


Cadbury’s have bought out two new products, both in the same range and both with similar packaging. What is even more confusing is that they have such a similarity in name too, the other product is Cadbury's Brunch Breaks which I wrote about a few days ago, compare this to Cadbury's Brunch Bakes. Breaks and Bakes – it’s just confusing!
The names may only be subtly different, but the difference in product is more pronounced. Cadbury's Brunch Breaks are a type of cereal bar, but these Bakes are what I would describe as biscuits. They come stacked in a plastic packet, not individually wrapped and just how you would expect biscuits to be packaged. I mention this as the packaging does not use the biscuit word, which just struck me as being a little odd. Anyway, they have a thick cookie style base, which is soft rather than brittle, and packed into the base are hazelnuts, chocolate, oats and raisins. They have a good balance of flavours and textures, and are very morish. I recommended them dunked in coffee!

27 February 2009

Crips Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper (Waitrose)


It is not a typo, the company who make this snack call themselves ‘Crips’ much to the dismay of my spell checker. The reasoning behind the name is explained on the packet as being “Like crisps, but better”.
They are actually a mix of potato and wheat flour which has been baked and seasoned. This avoids the unhealthy frying that is the traditional method of cooking crisps.
The ‘Crips’ have a lovely crunch and nice texture and are thicker than ordinary crisps. I felt that the cracked black pepper was a little too strong, and it left a bit of a pepper burn on my tongue. I might not have got on with this variety, but in principle they are a nice potato snack and I look forward to trying a different flavour. I also really like their strange but eye catching packaging.

26 February 2009

Nestlé Peppermint Crisp (Australia Via Cybercandy)


This bar has a milk chocolate coating covering some bright green mint crystals. The bar is neatly marked into five pieces, but it isn’t worth trying to break it. I made this mistake and broke the first chunk off, and a shower of green mint crystals attacked me! What is it with these Australian bars and their crumbliness? The filling of the bar is made of pure green peppermint crystals, not peppermint embedded in chocolate, but pure fragile shattering crystals. Consequently the bar is rather crunchy, and the peppermint is quite strong, which makes for a strangely refreshing bar. Very different to anything I have had here in the UK and well worth hunting out.

25 February 2009

Polo Mint O Fruit (The 99p Store)


When I first saw these I was sure that they were the clear fruit Polo sweets I know that I have had before, but I was very wrong. Opening the first individually packed sweet I soon realised that they were in fact opaque in colour and not just fruit flavoured, but mint and fruit flavoured.
  • Lime Mint – This tasted almost exactly like a Citrus and Honey Strepsil throat sweet.
  • Strawberry Mint – Better than the lime flavour as they were sweeter, but not enough strawberry for my liking.
  • Cherry Mint – This one you could tell it was cherry flavoured at least, but it was reminiscent of a Cherry Tune.
  • Blackcurrant Mint – My favourite of the selection as it had a good blackcurrant flavour, with just a hint of mint. I wish that the other flavours had focussed on the fruit and just included a gentle hint of mint.
Polo seemed to have mastered the flavour of making the sweets taste of menthol, even though there is no menthol present. The problem with them is that I associate that kind of fruit and strong minty menthol flavours with throat sweets. A strange combination, but it was fun to give them a try. Yet again I would like to say thank you to that very nice man from the NTSC-UK forum who sent me them.

24 February 2009

Honey and Pistachio (Hotel Chocolat)


This is part two of me rectifying the lack of Hotel Chocolat products on my site. The second bar I opted for was a milk chocolate concoction flavoured with honey and with pistachio nuts inside.
The chocolate smelt divine, it had a gentle hint of honey in the aroma. Tucking in the chocolate was firm, but not too tough.
The flavour of the milk chocolate was, well I think there is only one word that can describe it; stunning. The sweetness of the honey was prominent and balanced to perfection. Any less honey and it would have been too subtle, any more and it would have been over sweet, as it was, it was spot on! The flavour of the pistachio’s mingled with the honey chocolate and added a wonderful texture. Pure heaven, a must purchase.

23 February 2009

Birds Eye - Original Arctic Roll (Sainsbury’s)


This isn’t so much a new product as a re-launch of a retro one. The day that Birds Eye ceased production of this fine dessert was a dark one, but I forgive them now as they have come to their senses.
It is such a simple idea; vanilla ice cream, a swirl of raspberry jam and a layer of vanilla sponge. Good basic flavours which when put together make up a wonderful traditional British dessert.
According to the Birds Eye website, they have also launched a Chocolate Arctic Roll, and I really can’t wait to get my hands on that!

22 February 2009

Cadbury's Brunch Breaks - Sunflower Seeds, Hazelnuts and Raisins (Waitrose)




The packet doesn’t really paint much of a picture of what the bars are actually like, it just shows some of the ingredients. Consequentially I was expecting something more like a soft Nutrigrain bar type of product, but the contents are quite different. The product consists of a biscuit 'tray' for want of a better word, filled with sunflower seeds, hazelnut pieces and a few raisins. The bottom of the biscuit has been coated in chocolate, and there are streaks of chocolate on top.
The chocolate goes surprisingly well with the sunflower seeds. The flavours mingle well together, and mix of textures make for a very satisfying bite. Very tasty, the sort of chocolate product that is perfect with my morning coffee break.

21 February 2009

Army Ration Pack


Ever wondered what soldiers are going to be eating when they are sent abroad? Well the MOD has re-launched their ‘menu’ for soldiers, and are looking for feedback. Many thanks to Tim Hayward who writes for “The Word of Mouth” blog in the Guardian for sending me the new multi-climate ration pack.

So a large heavy cardboard box arrived filled with an array of products and meals in the format of boil-in-the-bag. My first thought was that this should be an adventure. Admittedly I can do this from the luxury of my own home and not in a bunker under fire somewhere. Spectre did offer to make machine-gun noises throughout the experiment, but I declined, which didn’t entirely stop him! So anyway, for one day only, I guess I was eating army style.

First up – Breakfast


To be honest I’m not much of a breakfast person, unless I am staying in a hotel! I found the silver foil bag marked Pork Sausages, Omelette and Beans – and I boiled it. A few minutes later I snipped the bag open and poured it onto the plate. It looked more appetising than I expected! There were five mini sausages, a small omelette and a fair amount of beans. Taste wise it was acceptable, but nothing stunning. I think the issue was that the beans have quite a muted flavour, and my taste buds were expecting the sweeter flavour associated with brand beans. The omelette was nice, although small in size, but with the sausages made the whole meal quite filling. It could have done with a slice of toast to soak up the sauce, but I guess the wonders of boil-in-the-bag haven’t come up with the science for that!

Lunch Time


I checked the menu, it seemed Mexican Tuna Pasta was on the cards. After cooking, this looked a little more school dinner-esq than I imagined. On the plate there were pasta twists, tuna, and both cheese and tomato sauces. To be honest, I may have over cooked it a little as the pasta was slightly too soft. In my defence, there were no cooking instructions on this one! Taste wise, this was really good. The Tuna was quite succulent, and the Mexican theme meant that it had nice spices, with kidney beans and sweetcorn to add texture. Very pleasant, far better than it looked.

Dinner


For dinner this evening chilli con carnie was served with pilau rice. Pilau rice is more usually associated with Asian cuisine, but I will let this minor detail pass me by. This aside, after cooking, it looked the most tempting of all the meals. There was also a mini bottle of Tabasco sauce to add spice for those with braver palettes. Firstly the rice was seriously good. I was worried that after cooking it might go clumpy, but the grains were loose and also very flavoursome. The chilli was also meaty, had a good spice and was really nice. I found the heat from the spice perfect, and didn’t need the extra bite from the Tabasco sauce.

Dessert


Wow, a chocolate chip cake! Regular readers will know of my sweet tooth and love of chocolate in general! Although I have to say the concept of a boil-in-the-bag chocolate chip cake did worry me a little. It seems a strange idea, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a boil-in-the-bag dessert before. I boiled the cake (even that sounds weird), opened the foil bag and found a chocolate chip sponge cake. The cake is actually made by Baxters, and was very pleasant. The vanilla based sponge was tasty, and the chocolate chips added flavour and sweetness, the whole consistency was fluffy and it was nice having a hot pudding. Very enjoyable.

Cold Drinks



Inside the box were three sachets of granules to mix with water to make fruit drinks. To start with I had the O2GO – Orange & Cranberry drink, which is designed to give you energy. It had a very sweet, but pleasant orange flavour. Next up was the Uelzena Cherry electrolyte drink powder, which also contained a fair few vitamins. It was sharp, though not as sweet as the Orange and Cranberry drink, but it was drinkable. Finally there was the Lemon Energidrikk, which was very sweet and reminded me of lemon sherbet. None of the drinks were horrible, but I’d have no desire to hunt them down in the shops either. They taste okay, and you know they are doing you good, but you wouldn’t have them unless you had too.

Hot Drinks



Ok the traditional tea and coffee section included:
2x Typhoo teabags
2x Kenco Smooth Roast coffee
4x Whitener
4x Sugar
1x Eurogran Hot Chocolate with a hint of orange
It's probably not worth going into too much detail about Typhoo or Kenco, they both make good tea and coffee, and I’m sure everyone has already tried them. I would like to make one comment though, if there are four hot drinks, and only four whiteners, one per drink makes for very dark tea and coffee. That’s a quick fix for this ration pack, double the number of whitener sachets.
There is one other hot drink in this section, the Eurogran Hot Chocolate. To be honest I was dreading it. I am quite fussy when it comes to hot chocolate, even when it's well known brand names it is still hard to find a decent chocolate drink. According to the instructions this makes two mugs worth and only uses hot water to make it up. Firstly, it dissolved into the hot water incredibly quickly, the packet says ‘stir vigorously’ but that is unnecessary as it mixed so well.
The drink itself is really good. There is a strong hint of oranges and a good flavour of chocolate and I was rather impressed with the drink. So impressed that if they stocked this in my supermarket it would be a new regular purchase!

Snacks

Fruit Bar – This was allegedly a strawberry flavour bar, but the flavour isn’t quite distinguishable as that, it comes over as just being syrupy and over sweet. The dull brown looking colour doesn’t help either!


Imperial Fruit and Nut
Not much to report here, a classic and tasty snack bag with peanuts and raisins.


Berry Combo Fruit Grains
These are small squares of what I can only describe as raspberry concentrate. Surprisingly tasty! Think: solidified raspberry jam.


Fruit Pocket
Is this a drink or is this a snack, to be honest it is somewhere in between. It is like a very thick smoothie, and tasted pleasant, sweet and fruity.


Acadia Boiled Sweets
Oh my word, how can boiled sweets be so bad. The flavours were indistinguishable, unless they were actually aiming at tasting like children’s cough medicine. I gave one to Spectre and he spat it out. They really are that bad. Why they couldn’t just put a packet of Fox’s in there is beyond me.


Oreos x6
I have written about Oreos before, and I do really like them. However Spectre’s reaction was that he was surprised that American biscuits had made their way into a British ration pack. Perhaps there should have been some Jammy Dodgers there instead!

Extras

Here are the other items in the box, which don’t contribute to your calorie intake! You get a couple of anti-bacterial hand wipes, some matches, aqua tabs for purifying water, tissues, a plastic spoon and some dental chewing gum.

Conclusions
The meals are far more interesting than I imagined that they would be. I never thought that they would include products with spices like the Chilli Con Carnie, or the Mexican Tuna. Generally speaking, the main meals were far better than I thought they would be, and are impressive given the cooking method. My only niggle with the pack are the minor details, for example not enough whitener for the tea and coffee, a poor fruit bar, sweets that aren’t particularly nice. It's good overall, they just need to improve on the minor detail. Even in the current state though, I wouldn’t be disappointed if I was given this. I’d certainly be full, there is far more here than I normally eat!

20 February 2009

Kelloggs Rice Krispies Squares: Totally Chocolatey (Sainsburys)


I love rice Krispies Squares, both the caramel and the regular version. I did recently talk about their Crazy Choc addition to the range, and how it wasn't very crazy. It turns out 'crazy' was referring to a small number of smarty clone chocolates on top. Anyway, it’s been a while since I last saw the Crazy Choc variety, but today I found this new version which is completely chocolate! Now you are talking Kelloggs, bring on the chocolate.
The Rice Krispies are stuck together by chocolatey mallow, and decorated on top with some streaks and pieces of milk chocolate. It’s very sticky and very tasty, the only question I have is, why didn't they make it sooner?

19 February 2009

Hellema Chocolate Peanut Cookies (Waitrose)


These biscuits are European, but use what I thought was the American terminology of cookie to describe themselves. I’m sure regular readers will know about my love of chocolate and peanuts. To me, the flavours were meant for one another, so there was obvious excitement when I found these biscuits.
They consist of a layer of plain biscuit, like you would find on a Nice biscuit, with a good sprinkling of peanuts on top, held on by a layer of milk chocolate. The quality of the biscuit is good, and it has a nice creamy after taste, which when mixed with the chocolate and peanuts makes for an absolutely adorable flavour combination.

18 February 2009

Cadbury's Cherry Ripe Double Dipped with 70% Cocoa (Australia Via Cybercandy)



This is another Australian treasure from my gift box from Cybercandy. I was surprised to see that is made by Cadburys, a firm originating in Birmingham but making bars for the Australian’s that I have never seen before.
The bar is ‘double dipped’ in 70% cocoa, which means that the dark chocolate is twice as thick as a regular bar. I broke a piece off and discovered that the inside of the bar was deep red, this combined with the name made me expect a strong hit of cherries when I bit in. However the flavour was mostly coconut, with a gentle undertone of cherries. The dark chocolate compliments the sweet coconut filling and the whole bar is very nice, the flavours work very well and the bar has a grown up feel about it.

17 February 2009

Caramellow (Hotel Chocolat)


Recently somebody pointed out to me that there was a lack of Hotel Chocolat products on my website, as this needed rectifying I felt obliged to visit the shop and treat myself. I bought a selection of their smaller bars to try, but will start with this Caramellow one.

Half of this bar is white chocolate, the other half is milk and the two are marbled together. Decorating the top are pieces of cinder toffee, chocolate buttons and a toffee Florentine. The white and milk chocolate are of a superb quality, and although the chocolate is quite thick it still remains relatively soft to bite. The buttons and the cinder toffee are a pleasant addition and add nice texture. The only negative point is that the Florentine is a little hard and sticky. This doesn’t ruin the bar or anything; the rest of it is far too good for that!

16 February 2009

Phileas Fogg – Poppadoms Indian Red Chilli (Sainsbury’s)



Recently I was reviewing the ‘Do Us A Flavour’ Walkers crisp’s range, and amongst them are the Onion Bhaji ones. I mention this particular flavour as it led to a strange conversation with Spectre (our resident crisp expert). He said that the taste of the Onion Bhaji crisps reminded him of ‘Poppadom crisps’ from the eighties. I had no idea what he was talking about, and didn’t really give it a second thought. That was until I was wandering around the supermarket and these caught my eye. They are Poppadom crisps from Phileas Fogg and are part of a product re-launch. Clearly fate was dictating that I should purchase them.
Wow. I was not disappointed, these poppadoms are absolutely fantastic. They are shaped like small round poppadoms, and have a lovely authentic taste. The added flavour of red chilli gives a gentle burn and adds warmth. They are morish, tasty and gorgeous. I honestly can’t recommend them enough!

15 February 2009

Pocari Sweat (Mount Fuji)




Next time you are in Mount Fuji, make sure you try the Pocari Sweat, that's what NLI10 said when I wrote about drinking Ramune lemonade there.
The place of purchase, Mount Fuji, is a Japanese shop and restaurant and this drink is a Japanese lemonade. I did as I was told and ordered a Pocari Sweat, and a shiny blue can arrived. A drink with the word "sweat" in the title isn't very appetising, but I put that down to a translation error of some description.
The packaging states that it is a sports drink designed to be the most efficient way of absorbing liquid. It does this by being as close to natural human body fluid as it can be. It turns out there was no translation error. There is something about the fact that it has ‘sweat’ in the title, and that it is trying to ‘mimic body fluid’ that made me feel a little queasy. However, it’s a clear drink and has a mild muted lemon flavour that I found quite pleasant and refreshing.

14 February 2009

Toffee Crisp Clusters (Sainsbury’s)


This is a new addition to the Nestle sharing bags currently on sale. Essentially they consist of milk chocolate covered caramel and rice crispies forming a small Toffee Crisp bites. I really like the different textures, the soft chocolate, crispy crispies (lol) and the chewy caramel, the flavours balance themselves well too. The caramel doesn’t seem as sweet as in a Toffee Crisp bar, but as a whole each cluster does remind me of them.
By the way, it is impossible to eat just one. By the time you have tasted the milk chocolate and chewed it is gone and it leaves you wanting another one. I swear it has the same magic addictive quality of Pringles.

Valentines Cookies (Handmade)


Happy Valentines!!!

I just wanted to show you these wonderful handmade biscuits. They are made by someone at my mum’s place of work, and are absolutely divine. The biscuit is wonderful, buttery and crunchy, and they are hand iced too. Heaven!!! He made some last year, and I have been looking forward to these ever since! Shop bought biscuits never have the flavour of handmade ones, there just is no comparison.

13 February 2009

Polly Waffle (Australia Via Cybercandy)



Here is another exciting bar from the haul I received from Cybercandy, and this is a curious one. Firstly though I love the name, Polly Waffle, as it's sort of satisfying to say! The bar itself is a tube of marshmallow, surrounded by a wafer with a waffle pattern on it, and then coated in milk chocolate.
Strangely enough after the first taste I wasn’t that impressed. It has a very odd texture, with its soft mallow, hard wafer, and milk chocolate. The chocolate crumbled everywhere, and the texture didn’t feel quite right. It’s strange but the chocolate also crumbled dangerously on the White Knight bar too, perhaps the Australians are better at dealing with these things. The second bite, of the Polly Waffle was easier than the first piece, as I was expecting the strange texture. The bar grew on me the more I ate, the flavours mingle well. It made me think that in the UK chocolate bars have very similar consistencies, and this may have caused my initial prejudice to this bar. In reality though the Australians are right, there is more to chocolate bars than soft nougat.

12 February 2009

Jammie Dodgers – Splat Snacks (Sainsbury’s)



Jammy Dodgers are an iconic biscuit in the UK, consisting of two layers of shortbread, stuck together with a splodge of raspberry jam.
This product is a mini strangely shaped version of Jammy Dodgers, consisting of biscuits shaped like splats, in small bags designed for the lunch boxes. There is just one layer of biscuit and it is embedded with raspberry bits, to add the flavour of the jam, and crisped rice to add crunch.
It is disappointing that they don’t have that distinctive Jammy Dodger jam, but the raspberry pieces do enhance the flavour. The biscuits have a good crunch, and they do have the expected golden taste too. A nice treat for a lunch box, as the whole bag only has 100 calories, but not a Jammy Dodger replacement.

11 February 2009

Milka Strawberry Yoghurt


Milka chocolate is the greatest isn’t it? It’s just wonderful stuff. It is really nice to find this brand becoming more and more available in the UK. Although I have to admit I have been unable to find this particular variety myself, it was sent to me by a very nice person from an import shop down London way.
The bar consists of thick Milka chocolate with a creamy strawberry yoghurt filling. The centre also has a slightly sharp edge due to some strawberry ‘bits’, which are like small crunchy sweet crystals. The strawberry yoghurt compliments the luscious Milka and makes for a rather lovely bar.

10 February 2009

Walkers Cajun Squirrel [Do Us A Flavour]

Walkers Cajun Squirrel Crisps Well here it is, the final flavour in the new Do Us A Flavour range, and it is the one I have had the most trouble locating. So, I would like to start off by sending a very big thank you to the very nice man from the NTSC-UK forum who sent me them.

I would also like to point out that I have no idea what ‘squirrel’ tastes like, so I will be unable to truly authenticate the flavour!! The crisps are vegetarian and do have a sweet note on the packet explaining that they don’t actually contain real squirrel – phew! So on with the crisps…

They had the lovely aroma of Paprika and Mexican spices when I opened the packet, and the crisps themselves remind me of chicken fajitas, with a gentle lemon aftertaste. I have to say I am not that fussed by the idea of a gimmicky flavour. Does anyone remember Hedgehog crisps that were popular in the eighties? They were actually pork flavoured crisps, made popular by their ‘shocking’ flavour. Some links to prove I’m not making them up: http://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory.php?memID=4286 http://i38.tinypic.com/1ze826x.png That kind of novelty worked for me as a small child, but less so now. Anyway, I am going off on a tangent so back to the crisps. I felt that they could have easily been made spicier, a pinch more chilli would have been an improvement. Although perfectly pleasant, the missing Cajun burn and attention seeking name of the crisps reduce their place in the rankings.

The FINAL rankings are:

1) Walkers Fish and Chips

2) Walkers Onion Bhaji

3) Walkers Duck in Hoisin

4) Walkers Cajun Squirrel

5) Walkers Builders Breakfast

6) Walkers Chilli and Chocolate

My vote is going for the yummy Fish and Chip flavour.

9 February 2009

Dandelion and Burdock Kali (Toot Sweets Confectionery Emporium, Shrewsbury)


While on a shopping trip to Shrewsbury recently I stumbled across a new and truly wonderful sweet shop. The sweet shop is filled from floor to ceiling with, well, everything you could think of, from toffee to marshmallows, but it was some kali I decided to purchase.
I have to admit, I’ve never seen Dandelion and Burdock flavoured Kali before. The purple crystals are sweet and zingy, and have a flavour which is somewhere between aniseed and the intended Dandelion and Burdock. Absolutely lovely, but I really should have purchased some liquorice sticks to dip in the crystals too.
If you are interested in trying some, but don’t live near Shrewsbury, take a look at their funky website: http://www.tootsweetsconfectionery.com and you can purchase online.

8 February 2009

Walkers Onion Bhaji [Do Us A Flavour] (Asda)

Wow!!! These smell absolutely gorgeous. Aromatic is an understatement, there is the gorgeous scent of Indian spices. They taste great too, and they aren’t too hot, but as they are onion bhaji crisps, I wouldn’t expect them to be.
So the positive side is that they are a very enjoyable spicy crisp. I was trying to decide for the ranking system whether or not I enjoyed these more or less than the Fish and Chip flavour, and in terms of enjoyment it is a close call. However I have decided to put these as a close second as they do have one small flaw, despite them being good crisps. If you were given them in a blind taste test, you would never be able to identify them as being Onion Bhaji flavoured. Spicey yes, and not overly hot, but there is no sweetness and no real similarity to the intended flavour. Don’t misunderstand me, they are good, but they just don’t taste of Onion Bhaji.

1) Walkers Fish and Chips
2) Walkers Onion Bhaji
3) Walkers Duck in Hoisin
4) Walkers Builders Breakfast
5) Walkers Chilli and Chocolate

7 February 2009

Nestle White Knight (Australia Via Cybercandy)


I am going to be reviewing several Australian treats over the next couple of weeks. Many thanks to the lovely person who sent me this Australian Gift Box, filled with wonders I have never seen before. There seems to be a theme that the Australians like their mint, but I can’t complain because I do too.

It seems fitting for the first review that I choose one of the minty items – a Nestle White Knight. There is quite a thick coating of milk chocolate covering a white mint chew. On first bite it was tougher than I thought it would be, it is a proper ‘chew’, not soft mint flavoured nougat. As the filling is quite firm, the chocolate crumbles when you bite it, which is dangerous to say the least. The mint has a good flavour, and when I got used to the texture and the concentration it took when eating it, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Looking forward to more of the other goodies tucked away in my gift box.

6 February 2009

Walkers Chilli and Chocolate [Do Us A Flavour] (Sainsbury’s)


Another find from the Walkers new selection and this certainly qualifies as a curious combination too. I’m not sure how I feel about the concept of chocolate and chilli in a crisp, but there is only one way to find out.
The smell is quite reminiscent of another of Walkers flavours; they are sweet and spicy like Worcester Sauce crisps. This is where the similarity ends as the taste is in no way comparable. There is the vaguest hint of chocolate and sweetness, and a light hint of chilli that does leave a tingle. I’m not impressed with these, it's not just that the idea is strange, but I don’t feel that it has been put together well either.

The current rankings:

1) Walkers Fish and Chips
2) Walkers Duck in Hoisin
3) Walkers Builders Breakfast
4) Walkers Chilli and Chocolate

5 February 2009

Leonidas (Selfridges)


Is there anything better than luxury Belgian chocolates? These are beautifully packaged, and wrapped in red paper. There is a lovely mismatch of goodies tucked away inside the box.




Included are pralines, solid chocolate discs shaped like coins (both milk and dark), and chocolates containing hazelnuts, crispy rice and coffee. Every chocolate is gorgeous, and made with thick rich Belgian chocolate which melts in the mouth. Proper luxury.
The only curious point is that there is no guide in the box explaining what each chocolate is. Maybe this is a deliberate gesture to promote the ‘mismatch’ style, or maybe I was just unlucky and mine got missed out of the box!

4 February 2009

Walkers Builders Breakfast [Do Us A Flavour] (Asda)


Its exciting, I’m finding more and more of the Do Us A Flavour Walkers selection. Next up is the Builder’s Breakfast – which is supposed to cover bacon, egg, ketchup, grilled tomato and sausage, which is no mean feat. That is an awfully large number of flavours to combine into one packet of crisps!

They smelt quite smokey when I opened them, quite a bit like smokey bacon crisps. In taste they are a fair bit saltier than I expected too, and the overpowering flavour is salty bacon. There is a hint of egg, which gives a slightly sulphur taste, and then there is the occasional sweetness which is either the ketchup or grilled tomato. I couldn’t taste any sausage flavourings at all. Pleasant enough, but not my winner.

The current rankings:

1) Walkers Fish and Chips
2) Walkers Duck in Hoisin
3) Walkers Builders Breakfast