Kinder Surprise Father Christmas (Tesco) By @Cinabar

Kinder has gone full festive with these Father Christmas shaped Surprise chocolates, and I couldn’t resist picking one up. The wrapper looks brilliant, with Santa cheerfully holding a present, and the familiar Kinder Surprise branding hinting that there’s still a toy to build inside. I’m an adult on paper, but these things will always pull me in.

Once unwrapped, the chocolate itself was a bit of a let-down in terms of presentation. Under the Santa foil there was no detailed moulding, just a simple shape with the Kinder logo. It’s clearly the packaging doing the heavy lifting here. Still, the important part is the chocolate, and that was exactly as it should be. The classic mix of milk and white chocolate is ridiculously nostalgic, super sweet and creamy, and it instantly took me back to childhood.

Inside was the yellow capsule, and with it a little toy to assemble. Mine turned out to be a skiing reindeer that glows in the dark, and it even doubles as a Christmas tree ornament. Our tree isn’t up yet, but this might be the push I need.

A fun seasonal treat. Even if the chocolate isn’t as decorative as the wrapper suggests, the taste and the toy hit all the right notes for this time of year.

Kinder Milky Caramel Bunny (Ocado) By @Cinabar

It is nearly Easter, and I hope everyone is looking forward to the long bank holiday weekend. I also hope the weather brightens up a bit. We had some lovely sunshine recently, but as soon as there is a holiday, Britain has a habit of making sure the rain arrives.

In the meantime, I thought I should try out an Easter product. I spotted this Kinder Milky Caramel Bunny online and decided to see what the chocolate was like.

I opened up the foil, and the aroma was next level. It was very sweet and creamy, and it reminded me of Caramac in scent. I broke a piece off and could see that the chocolate had a decent thickness and was lined with white chocolate too, as you would expect from most Kinder products. What was missing was a toy. I think there would have been room to sneak in a traditional Kinder Egg toy somewhere, but the bunny was hollow.

I tasted the chocolate and was taken aback a little. It really is incredibly sweet. Don’t worry, I could handle it. It was as if someone said Caramac was not sweet enough and decided to add even more white chocolate. The flavour was lovely. I really enjoyed the mix of caramel and white chocolate, with an almost icing sugar-like taste.

After eating a couple of ears, I did need a sip of coffee to bring some balance, but I still absolutely loved this sweet Easter treat.

Marvel Kinder Egg Maxi (Asda) By @Cinabar

I bought myself a giant Kinder Egg, and I have no regrets. I love Kinder Eggs, so when I spotted this Kinder Egg Maxi in Asda, I inexplicably wanted it. The child in me loves the daft toy, and the adult with a sweet tooth enjoys the super-sweet chocolate. The next time we were in Asda, I popped one in my basket and treated myself.

I didn’t even bother waiting until Easter to open it. I just couldn’t resist. I convinced myself that this wasn’t an Easter egg, just a large regular Kinder Egg, so there was no issue opening it straight away.

These Kinder Egg Maxi editions contain Marvel toys, with several to collect. I unwrapped mine and was pleased to see the usual yellow capsule inside, just in giant form. The chocolate was the usual sweet Kinder blend: milk chocolate lined with white. I love the flavour, it is sweet and soothing.

Inside the capsule, I found my toy to build. Captain Marvel! I put her together and even got a bracelet too. Now, I’m an adult, but one thing you should know about me is that I have freakishly small wrists. So, believe it or not, the tiny bracelet included with the toy actually fit me! I shall wear it with pride at my next Comic Con.

Funko Harry Potter Kinder Joy (Morrisons) by @Cinabar

I've always been a fan of Kinder Eggs; the combination of a toy and some chocolate appealed to me as a kid, and it's still something I pick up from time to time for a bit of nostalgia. Never grow up, right? These new Funko Harry Potter Kinder Joy eggs had their own display stand in Morrisons, and the kid in me couldn’t resist adding one to my basket.

This isn’t technically a Kinder Egg; it’s a Kinder Joy, which is a slight variation. Here, the egg is split into two sealed halves, with no yellow container.

When I peeled back the first wrapper, I discovered the chocolate section: two wafer balls nestled in a chocolate hazelnut spread mixed with white chocolate.

 

They even included a little scoop to make eating it easier. The taste was fantastic, with lots of chocolate, a bit of nuttiness, and a lovely texture, awesome!

The other half contained the toy, which had a curious design. I attached a small rubber band to the plastic, popped it onto a pen, and clipped the second part on. It was a Dobby pencil topper, and the band made it wobble, a super cool effect! I’m really pleased with both the chocolate and the toy, so I’ll definitely pick up another Funko Harry Potter Kinder Joy next time I’m at the shop.

Kinder Bueno Coconut (Tesco) By @Cinabar

I spotted this new Kinder Bueno Coconut bar in our local Tesco by the tills. It is a very small branch of the shop but seems to be remarkably good at getting new products, I’ve picked quite a few nice things from there, the shop manager seems to have a sweet tooth like me.

So I have had Kinder Bueno before but this bar is coconut and white chocolate. Inside the pack are bars which are individually wrapped so could be used as portion control where you could have just one and keep the other bar fresh. I opened up the first stick and coconut went everywhere. I mean everywhere. This is a messy bar and that was before I broke the first piece off. The flavours are lovely though, there is coconut, hazelnut and white chocolate and the pleasing light crunch of wafer. It is a really nice bar of chocolate with good textures. The problem with my local Tesco is that they probably won’t have these when I go there next week as they change stock so regularly which is such a shame because despite the coconut crumbs, I would happily buy them again.

Kinder Cards - not collectable, but delectable (@NLi10)

Kinder make things with surprises in them.  In this case the surprise is that there is no surprise.  Kinder cards do not contain any collectable cards or toys!

You get 5 packs of 2 'cards' in a box for about 2 Euro - I got these in Munich Germany.

And they are all very nicely presented so that your kinder (me) can have them with their lunch (for breakfast) 

So what are they? Unusually it's not trying to be chocolate - it's two wafer style things with some goo in the middle.

And it's quite delicious.

Like a kinder Beuno without quite so much goo and with both colours in the centre you get a fun mix of things that won't melt and will satisfy.  You need to eat both biscuits to be happy, but still at 40c a portion it's not really that bad.

You may be able to find them in the import Supermarkets in the UK, but it's not really hot enough to need something like this that survives well.

Kinder Ice Cream Sticks (Asda) By @Cinabar

I used to love milk stick ice lollies when I was a kid, there always seemed to be some in a box in the freezer. When I saw these new Kinder Ice Cream Sticks in Asda I immediately thought of those, and was keen to try the Kinder twist on a classic. I realise that one of the purposes of milk lollies is to encourage kids to drink more milk, but it good for grown ups too. Also each ice cream is only 62 calories so it is a guilt free way to cool down in this weather.
There are 10 Kinder Ice Cream Sticks in the box which are individually wrapped. The ice lollies are part covered in milk chocolate, but it is just a thin layer, on what it a tall thin ice cream stick. I liked the addition of the Kinder chocolate but Spectre thought it wasn’t necessary as it drew away from the flavour he remembered from his childhood. For me adding chocolate to most things is a bonus, so I liked. It also tasted distinctively Kinder like and reminded me of Kinder Egg chocolate. The milk base is sweet and creamy and surprisingly refreshing. It was a nice mini treat after our lunch while enjoying the sunshine and without too much guilt. These are by no means the luxury Magnum end of the ice cream spectrum, but as a low calorie small treat I’m looking forward to eating the rest of these Kinder Ice Cream Sticks.

Dissapointment Wars - Knock-off Festive Tat Eggs Edition (@NLi10)

Nothing says Christmas like disappointment, and nothing says disappointment like knock-off 3rd party surprise eggs!  It's time for Disappointment Wars - the rules are the same, we guess which will be the most disappointing (and least) of the below themed Kinder Wow knock offs and then see if we are correct.

Here are the usual pictures to protect you from spoilers, and indeed our guesses!

As you can guess by the timing these were 'borrowed' from my little cousin's Santa Sack having been lovingly provided by the big man himself.  She will also provide guesses.

Turns out they are all the same brand so it's going to be pretty much pot luck - or if you prefer disappointment roulette. 

The 'food portion' is very ignorable.  A room full of people on Christmas day didn't finish the one of these we opened...

Little cousin said Hello Kitty would be the best & Pokemon the worst.  I guessed that Spongebob would be the best and Frozen the worst - just to cover all the bases.

First up - spongebob round egg.  We got a plane.  Little cousin was disappointed but I thought this was fairly cool.  I'd have put this in the Monopoly set as a playing piece or similar.  She was already trying to open Kitty.

Greetings Cat contained a pink plastic ring.  Very disappointing to me, but Little cousin put it on immediately and kept blowing it round all evening.  She still had it the following day which was a surprise to me.  Tough for anything to beat this for her.

Snow Girls had a little basket that was immediately discarded.  I pointed out that she got a sylvanian families grocery set for Christmas and then it got put with that.  Not fun by itself, but surprisingly useful.

Pikamon had a solider.  Well, just about.  That moulding is possibly the worst i've seen. Especially considering it's made by the same people as the above plastic tat.  Again I'd put this with a board game to amuse myself, but it was completely ignored by little cousin. She was happy because it meant that both of her guesses were correct.  She's clearly a witch (or at least pre-arranged this with Santa).

This is a chart of most disappointing to least from top to bottom.

I still quite liked the plane, but not enough to keep tabs on it and now it's probably been binned.  As far as I know the ring and basket made it into the Sylvanians play set and the spoons were binned as is appropriate.

Hope your Christmases were as full of surprises, but actually edible ones.

Disappointment Wars: Gusto Mega Surprise Vs Pokemon Go Egg (@NLi10)

Occasionally on Food Stuff Finds I come across items in the store that I know are going to be disappointing, the only question is the exact nature of that disappointment and it's scale.  A slightly different multi nationality store has opened up near me in Cape Hill, Birmingham and instead of buying all the wonderful Turkish baked goods, and even passing up 4 fresh naan for a pound I went for the children snacks.  

Up for review then in today's Disappointment Wars is a bag of Romanian crisps with a toy, and a knock off Pokemon Go surprise egg.  Both were around the same price of 50p.  The challenge is this - which has the most disappointing food element, and which has the most disappointing toy element?  Would either actually be considered good value?

Place your bets now!

Gusto I've not seen before, the internet assures me that it's Romanian. This is essentially a bag of puffed up crisps, where the single appealing factor on the packaging is the Mega Surprise toy.  The bag is 59p though - and it's pretty large too.  Factoring in the price of the crisps, and that some poor lorry driver had to drive these over from the mainland the prizes seem unrealistic.

If I got a pound-shop Barbie, a knock off Toy Story set - or the holy grail - a Gusto Lorry and then the crisps are worth 9p then that's got to be a win, right?  Surely it's not in their best interest to show these things unless they are actually in the bag.  At this point I'm assuming that they are tiny, and made of that really cheap brittle plastic.

This Pokemon Go themed egg is not made by Kinder, or Nintendo or Niantic or anyone associated with anything other than cutting and pasting pictures off the internet.  For a start the two Pokemon pictured aren't in the game yet - Piplup & Smugleaf are Gen 5 Pokemon and they are on Gen 2!

There were other wrappers available (indeed some of them were non Pokemon themed which means I'm not holding out for a knock off plastic Charmander) I think those were Disney style things.  I'll bet these are a more normal import and can be found in many corner shops so there may be less money going into import here and could lead to higher quality goods.

So lets open them up!

And here is the first surprise - this thing is pretty large! Yes it's cheap plastic, and the detail is all fairly basic, but this actually looks like a toy.  If you'd gotten one of the plastic cars then It'd be fairly basic but OK.  The lorry (and the tank that was hiding at the bottom) would have been pretty cool desk toys.  This is a little babyish and doesn't really bob up and down as it's supposed to do when you wheel it.  If you gave this to a child under 6 it would at least hold their attention on the drive home from the supermarket.  Confusing, but not a disappointment!

The crisps are essentially packing peanuts, with a little salt. They dissolve in the mouth and the aftertaste isn't offensive.  I wouldn't really pay 10p for the bag of them though.  I will probably put these in the communal snack area at work to generate confusion.

Interestingly though, their appearance and the size of the toy means they could rebrand this as an unboxing! You get your pretend Amazon parcel and rummage through the packing peanuts to find out what gift you got. Oh! It's a child's beetle toy! And you can even eat the packing peanuts if you really want to.  

I'm sure this has been imported due to some nostalgia value and not as I initially hoped because the crisps are good.  Seems a quick google confirms this - I suspect that over 90% of the crisps end up in the bin.  

59p then is fair. I mean - you wouldn't actually buy the toy for 50p if you saw it, or the crisps for 10p if you'd tried them.  I don't feel ripped off, and I was mildly surprised by the prize.

Score: Mild Surprise

You can watch someone open a whole load of the bags here. I'd say looking that their ten toys that mine was one of the worst available - they had Marvel AND Pokemon rip-offs on offer. Pretty much any of those toys would have risen the score sharply and caused repeat purchases.  Still tempting.

The prize from the Pokemon Go egg was a three piece construction project that gave you this football pencil topper.  I put it on a pencil *liberated* from the Aston Villa football hospitality suite during a conference, but even AVFC's poor run of form doesn't deserve this.  Even if you found a person that liked football, and whose team played in the odd choice of blue and yellow (I can't think of one?), and still uses pencils I think they'd be disappointed. The capsule was so flimsy it went straight in the recycling - not even sturdy enough to give to the cats.  I may have to drop the whole thing int he recycling - it's not something I could assign any value to at all.

And yet. Somehow..

The chocolate is actually worse...!

It looks like chocolate, but it tastes like it's made with oil and sugar and artificial brown.  I'd feel bad letting the people at work eat this (I let my partner try some to confirm I wasn't being a chocolate snob, some-day she may forgive me).  This makes the Gusto packing peanuts seem more like food.  I'm not even labelling this review with the tag chocolate because frankly it isn't chocolate. This brown goo would make children cry.

All of the 50p asking price seems to have gone on the foil. The foil is very pretty - in fact the most suitable way to deal with this product is to smooth out the foil, keep that and to bin everything that it contained!

Score: Abject Disappointment

The only reason I can't score this lower was that my expectations were pretty low going in.  And the item still was disappointing.

So this means that it's a landslide victory for the Gusto offering. Even though I got no pleasure, only surprise, and don't intend to eat the actual food.

I'm off to watch more Gusto pack opening videos on YouTube and to lament that I got a toddler's beetle toy and not the Hulk Vs Batman rip-off playset (an actual prize in the video!)