Mr Kipling Breakfast Bakes Blueberry (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I admit that I was looking in the cake section of the supermarket for treats rather than the cereal aisle for breakfast goodies. These might sound like cakes, but they are clearly labelled, so when I ate one of these Mr Kipling Breakfast Bakes first thing this morning my conscience was clear.

When I opened the box I found there were four bakes inside, each individually wrapped. They are square in shape rather than the more traditional bar style.

The bake (for that is what it is) has visible blueberries and oats sprinkled on top. The texture is soft, and there are plenty of blueberries mixed in, giving a lovely flavour. They aren’t overly sweet, but just enough to still feel like a bit of a treat. The oats add a little texture, though the bake is mostly soft.

I really enjoyed this with my morning coffee, and I want to go back to see if there are any other flavours, just so I can mix up what I eat when I need a quick breakfast on the go.

Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Strawberry Sundae Squares (Iceland) By @Cinabar

It has been ages since I last saw a new version of these snacks, so I was pleased to pick up these Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Strawberry Sundae Squares in the shop. The regular version of Squares are readily available, but as you know from the blog, my favourite finds are the new or limited editions of things. And these sounded very American and interesting.

I opened up the wrapper and couldn’t help but smile when I saw the bright pink decorations on top of the Rice Krispies Square. These were Barbie pink! The flavour was very strong strawberry and creamy too, the flavour was full-on but fun, which is what it was supposed to be. The Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Strawberry Sundae Square tasted more like strawberry sweets than the promised Strawberry Sundae, but I’m not complaining, as I did enjoy them. Perhaps there was a hint of vanilla somewhere in the background too. The texture was nice too. The mallow-soaked Krispies were lightly crunchy and sticky, and the bright pink sprinkles on top actually added some crunch. They are a lovely summer edition. 

Soreen Raspberry & White Chocolate Mini Loaves (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

I have a Soreen mini loaf every lunch time without fail. Cinabar orders plenty Soreen mini loafs in and I eat whatever there is in date order. I've been doing this for a few years now. The original Soreen mini loaves go well with a cup of tea after my sandwich and crisps, and then I move on to whatever fruit and protein yoghurt I have that day. So as you can tell I'm quite the fan of Soreen mini loaves.

I've written about plenty of different Soreen mini loaf flavours in the past. As far as I can remember I've generally liked every flavour I've tried. I'm particularly excited about these Soreen Raspberry & White Chocolate mini loaves that have been brought out for Easter. I do like raspberry in cakes and I have a big love for all things white chocolate. I've half a mind to try one of these mini loaves with a mug of white hot chocolate too.

I could see a few red pieces of raspberry and some blobs of melted white chocolate in the first mini loaf as I unwrapped it. There was quite a tart raspberry flavour on first bite, followed by the usual mini loaf flavour and also a little creaminess from the blobs of white chocolate. I thought these Soreen Raspberry & White Chocolate mini loaves were very tasty indeed. I'd definitely have them in on a regular basis as a mid-lunch treat. I will have to put one of them aside to try with a white hot chocolate drink one evening.

Information on the packet;
Each mini loaf contains 99 calories, with 1.3g of fat, 5.9g of sugar, and 0.17g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Pop Tarts Bites - Frosted Strawberry Banana (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

I’ll start by saying what we are all wondering. You don’t have to toast them. I rarely buy Pop Tarts these days, I do like them I just question when to eat them. Pop tarts are a little too sweet for breakfast and a bit weird as a treat during the day, so I end up not buying them unless some limited edition catches my eye. These Pop Tarts Bites with Frosted Strawberry Banana did catch my eye and I picked them up from the import shop. The flavour sounded nice but it was the size that made me curious about them. I liked the idea of a cute little bag of mini pop tarts to have with lunch.

I opened up the bag and found the pop tarts to be small but fairly thick and with a decent amount of frosting. The icing is a smart bright pink, but the biscuit/sponge base is a weird yellow in colour. I might be over thinking about the colour issue.

The flavour though is lovely and sweet, with strawberry being the majority taste and banana following in the after taste which reminds me of banana foam sweets. I have a sweet tooth and thoroughly enjoyed these soft bites. The calories are pretty low for the bag (150 calories), so despite the sugar hit, they weren’t too guilt-inducing. I’d happily have these Pop Tarts Bites with Frosted Strawberry Banana with my lunch again, I just need to see if anywhere more mainstream stock them?

Kellogg's Krave Stix (Iceland) By @Cinabar

Even though I’m not commuting at present I still buy and eat cereal bars for breakfast, possibly because it turns out I’m just lazy and maybe because I also like them with a morning cup of coffee. I do regular orders with Iceland and they are not the best supplier of interesting cereal bars (I like Eat Natural) but I still always find some to buy. This week I spotted these new ones Krave Stix based on the Krave breakfast cereal, so I ordered a box to try.

Inside each packet are two “stix” which look like elongated versions of the Krave cereal, in fact they looked exactly the same just longer. I tried a bit of the first one and my initial thought was that is was a little dry, and well that it needed milk. I know right, who would have thought it. I took a further bite and got used to the dryness especially as the chocolate centre became more prominent and then found myself quite enjoy the bars. I had them with a morning cup of coffee but part of me thinks maybe I should have had them with a glass of milk, for some reason I suspect that would have worked.

Scream - Toffee Apple Soreen (Sainsburys) By @SpectreUK

It's the run up to Halloween and of course there's nothing that inspires blind terror more, enough in fact to make me Scream - as Toffee Apple Soreen. There's not just one of them in the packet, there's five individually wrapped critters after me. I blogged about Soreen Scream Chocolate & Blood Orange a few years ago. These terrifying Toffee Apple loafs help with the run up to Guy Fawkes Bonfire Night, where Toffee Apples are traditional wiped all over young and old peoples' faces whilst they try to eat them off a stick in front of a huge fire, whilst also not blowing themselves up with fireworks at the same time.

Blind terror aside I braved opening the first of the five Scream Toffee Apple Soreen loafs…. I suddenly heard a shrill terrible shriek outside the house. To be fair it was probably the hawk that keeps flying around and nabbing the odd pigeon and small bird. I saw it the other day take a little bird out of one of the bushes in the garden. The snatch and grab took all of three seconds and the hawk was away with its lunch. Terrible indeed, but also a natural fact of life… we all have to eat, and my treat right now is a Scream Toffee Apple Soreen. There was a sweet taste of apple on biting into the small brown loaf, with a complementary added toffee sweetness towards the back of the flavour. Not particularly scary, though it was very tasty indeed and I can't help looking forward to the other four loafs!

Information on the packet;
Each of the five 30g loafs have 98 calories, with 1.5g of fat, 6.4g of sugar, and 0.2g of salt. A good source of fibre, so please see the ingredients in the photograph below.

Rice Krispies Squares - Dragon Creation (Sainsbury) By @Cinabar

So this is the latest snack review in our mythological creatures series. We have been trying out various products with varieties inspired by unicorns and etc, to see how these translate into foodstuffs. Generally speaking they have all sounded far more exciting than they are and left rather ordinary flavours and designs despite the potential. The latest item to join the category are these Rice Krispies Squares Dragon Creation edition an dI’m hoping there is a bit of magic. The packaging looks fairly bright and interesting and I was keen to see how the product looked outside the packaging.

I have to say I was really impressed when I opened up the wrapper, the bars do look very impressive. There are obviously lots of marshmallow Rice Krispies, but there are chocolate bits (dragon eggs I think) and smart looking candy dragon flames. There was actually some effort in the appearance and I have too say I liked the way they looked. As someone who likes interesting textures I also liked there added crunch and it made it fun to eat. I wish there was an added flavour to make it truly special, they should have gone with cinnamon flames, but the taste was quite plain and just sugar. Dragons don’t really say usual vanilla marshmallow Krispies to me, but at least there was some imagination used in the decoration.

KIND Dark Chocolate Almond Mint Bar (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I do like chocolate and mint, but I just wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it for breakfast. This KIND Dark Chocolate Almond Mint Bar was spotted in Waitrose in amongst the breakfast foods and I tried it out one morning with my cup of coffee. I unwrapped the bar and could see that there were loads of nuts which was pleasing, but initially there wasn’t too much aroma from the mint which was surprising. The atom of mint is usually overpowering, its why most peppermint creams in boxed chocolates are wrapped in foil. Anyway the mint flavour of this KIND bar is fairly delicate, the mint is present, but certainly not over the top. The chocolate is dark, and this worked well with the peppermint. I liked the strong cocoa, but the almonds were a little over powered in terms of flavour by the chocolate and to some extent by the mint as well. What I did love was the texture of this bar, it was a pleasure to eat. The nuts were firm the chocolate drizzle all meant each bite was interesting. Ultimately this is a lovely way to have a chocolate mint fix for breakfast and still get plenty of nutrients from the nuts too. It was well balanced and a nice change to have a very different flavour like this KIND Dark Chocolate Almond Mint in a breakfast bar format.

Lion Breakfast Cereal Bar (Poundland) by @Cinabar

First there was the Lion Chocolate Bar, then there was the Lion Breakfast Cereal and now we have the obvious natural progression the Lion Breakfast Cereal Bar. From Lion Bar straight to cereal bar would be a bit weird but since the breakfast cereal got released this seems quite normal. I found these in Poundland by the way, which is always home to some interesting new items and this wasn’t the only new breakfast cereal bars I purchased. More on that next week.
So these Lion Breakfast Cereal Bars look like they have compressed the Lion breakfast cereal together and semi coat the bar in a milk coating. I gave it a try and was impressed by the caramel flavour, this is the taste that stood out and it was sweet and creamy all at once. The chocolate flavour was milder, but added enough to the bar to give it a rich feeling. The texture was neither crisp and crunchy or too soft, but it didn’t quite feel as satisfying as I had hoped. The Lion chocolate bar is such a substantial thing I think I had hoped some of that would have come through in this version, but this was just simply easy to eat. I did like the flavour though, it was pleasingly sweet.
I’m not sure I can really tell you that if you like Lion Chocolate Bars that you will love these, they have an interpretation of the flavour but are quite a different product really. I think if you like the Lion breakfast cereal you should find these a good portable version. I find them handy to take to work and have with a morning coffee.

Belvita Breakfast Soft Bakes - Choco Hazelnut Flavour - @NLi10

Mornings can be particularly stressful...

We were gifted a breakfast biscuit from Belvita in a little box

The idea being that it brings a little sunshine to a dreary morning

Nothing like a good stretch in the morning though

In fairness they do suggest that you eat this with a proper breakfast, which I guess means it just replaces the cereal part, not the tea and fruit.

And it does look and taste reasonably appetising - not all that filling though as you'd expect.  The middle is a bit like Nutella, but not so much that you could prosecute.

I think the best thing for these Spring mornings is to just have a stretch and a lie in instead, then have a normal breakfast a bit later.

Soreen Scream Chocolate & Blood Orange (Morrisons) By @SpectreUK

Something scary was going on in my lunchbox today. I was almost frightened to death on opening my overly large Tupperware box. I’m sure I heard some distant thunder as the usual downpour of rain lashed the window nearby. These new Soreen Scream Chocolate and Blood Orange mini loaves are a spooky festive edition with a vampiric theme.

They are rammed full of chocolate chips running through the mini loaves and a fangtastic blood orange flavouring. On tearing open the packet with my specially sharpened teeth I found the chocolate chips went very well with the blood orange flavour. This left a chocolaty orange flavour in my mouth as an aftertaste. The first mini loaf went down very easily in a couple of tasty bites and was washed down with a good cup not-very-scary afternoon tea. There are five individually wrapped mini loaves in a pack for things that go bump in the middle of the day.

Information on the packet;

Each 30g bar has 104 calories, 2.4g of fat, 7.6g of sugar and 0.2g of salt. See photograph for ingredients.

Alpen Green Tea and Dark Chocolate Mixed Cereal Bars (Poundland) [By @cinabar]

I like to have a browse in Poundland for potential Foodstuff Finds goodies. They are surprisingly good at getting some new products earlier than elsewhere, and they often have import goodies at reasonable prices. For example I picked up a large box of Reese’s Pieces for £1 while I was there. I thought these Alpen Green Tea and Dark Chocolate Cereal Bars were an import product when I saw them, there is clearly a lot of foreign writing on the box, so I popped a couple of packets into my basket to try.

When I got home and took a closer look at the box I realised that these cereal bars were made a lot closer to home, here in the UK, with the intention of them then being exported to China. I can only assume that Alpen had excess this month and instead of exporting them they ending up in the local pound shop. Funny to think that these Green Tea cereal bars were made in Britain without them expecting to hit UK shelves. Green Tea is a big flavour in the East, with many products (including cakes) being flavoured with it fairly standardly over there.

I opened up the packet to have a look at the bar. The bar isn’t pale green or anything, it just looks like a regular Alpen bar, with a neat drizzle of dark chocolate decorating the top. The bar is a nice texture, firm but bitty and the hint of herby bitterness from the Green Tea contrasts nicely with the sweet dark chocolate.  I really enjoyed the flavour, it felt fresh and different and worked well. I’m not sure how the UK market will take to these bars, but I’d be grateful for a wider release of them here in the UK as it is so nice to see something so different work so well.

By Cinabar

Eat Natural Light & Lovely - Red Apple and Chia Seeds (Waitrose) [By @Cinabar]

When I buy Eat Natural cereal bars, I tend to buy the ones that contain chocolate. That won’t be surprising for those that know me, I have a sweet tooth and a love of chocolate. However the January post Christmas guilt has kicked in and I thought I’d give the light version of their bars a go.

The bars are called Light and Lovely and it flavour is Red Apple and Chia Seeds. I’ve seen quite a bit about Chia seeds on websites and in magazines, they are a very “on trend” in the health food world. I can’t comment on that really, but they seem to be a good source of vitamins and minerals at the very least. Dotted into my cereal bar they give the bar a bit of a weird crunch. It's not a satisfying crunch, it is a bitty crunch. The firm sticky texture of the bar is fine, but the Chia makes me feel like I’m going to get them stuck in my teeth.
The bar doesn’t have the sweet treat feel of the chocolate based ones. The apple is pleasant, and there is a nice hint of cinnamon which should win me over, but isn’t strong enough for my tastes. Its fruity and easy to eat, but it's not one of the bars I’d look forward to having with a coffee. Having said all that it's only 115 calories, so works well for those cutting back in January.
Will I be buying them post January? I’ll be switching back to the chocolate options I’m afraid.

By Cinabar

McVities Breakfast Oaty Breaks (Sainsburys) [By @Cinabar]

I don't eat a proper breakfast as such before I go to work, don't lecture me I know the importance of a good start to the day, it is just that I never seem to have the time. I do however try to have some sustenance, and my usual choice is a quick cereal bar. I have tried lots of different ones and breakfast biscuits too. When I saw the latest new biscuits from Mcvities, I found myself popping these cinnamon and raisins ones into the basket. I generally favour chocolate, but my favourite spice is cinnamon so I couldn't resist.
The biscuits inside the box are packaged in clear plastic, which is a little lack lustre but it does the job. There is one breakfast biscuit in the wrapper, but it is easily breakable down the middle to produce to sticks. I ate both in one sitting with my morning coffee, I'm not sure anyone would want just one stick as their full portion?
The texture was firm and crunchy but not too hard, almost airy, with the raisins adding a soft slight stickiness to the biscuit. The flavour was spot on, with its porridge oats flavour, and a heavier than expected taste of sweet cinnamon I was in heaven. The raisins added extra sweetness, and the whole biscuit tasted really good. I like the oat flavour, these reminded me of a healthier version on the oat cookies you get in Subway. Not as indulgent though, obviosuly! :-D
They do make a chocolate version of these Breakfast Oaty Breaks, which I will pick up next time.

By Cinabar

Raspberry Jam and Toast Flavour Muffin (Greggs) [By @Cinabar]

At breakfast time you may have pondered the choice as to what to have. Do you fancy jam and toast or a breakfast muffin, decisions decisions. Well not any more. This new product from Greggs actually consists of both, it is a Jam and Toast flavoured Muffin the creativity of which really made me smile. The muffin is packaged in a bright red wrapper and has a crumble like topping. This topping turned out to taste like toast, it was oat like and bizarrely bread like. The flavour of the sponge was like this too, it wasn’t that sweet but did remind me of toast and butter. It was pleasant and fun, but also very tasty. Texture wise it was a lovely light sponge and not heavy like you might have thought from the suggestion of toast. When I got to the middle of the muffin there was a huge dollop of raspberry jam sitting in the middle. This was a little runny, but not messy.

It was packed with a lovely burst of berry flavours that sweetened up the overall taste of the toast like flavour. As you can imagine the jam and toast flavours worked very well together.  I found the muffin really satisfying, spot on for a fun quick breakfast with a nice hot coffee. Yes I know I’m easily sold on a novelty, but this actually works, wholesome toast flavours and a sweet jam centre all packaged in a fluffy sponge – heaven.
If you’re looking at something more filling I noticed Greggs have started doing egg as an addition to the breakfast range, so I’m looking forward to trying their bacon and egg sandwich next.

By Cinabar

Belvita Breakfast Tops - Strawberry & Choco-Hazelnuts [@NLi10]

 The business model for "breakfast biscuits" is as follows - the only people interested are those people who like buying new and unusual things.  If we keep releasing more variations then each of those people will buy all the flavours while they are on special offer.  If we can hook 1% of those people to keep buying them then we win.

The latest crazy biscuit idea is this. Put the filling on the top.  Now - cynical people may suggest this is just the sandwich versions of the biscuits without the top half.  Cynical people are probably right, only these are a slightly different shape and the toppings are more dried on and less sticky.

I got both the red and brown flavours.

As usual they aren't as perfect as on the packaging, but by this point that's not too relevant.  These ones taste like jammy breakfast biscuits, the other ones taste like ones with Nutella on them.

They are best eaten upside down (the biscuit, not you) so that the topping hits the tastebuds first.  As a child I quite liked spreading Nutella on biscuits so that version is my favourite.  Otherwise these are just the standard non-crumbly version of the breakfast biscuits - AND you only get three per portion instead of 4 which is mildly disappointing if you've got used to the 4 packs.

Best eaten with a cup of tea at 3pm, but these are still good quality biscuits and worth picking up while on special price offers.

Soreen Halloween Edition - Toffee Apple Scream [By @Cinabar]

Sometimes being a blogger is fun and lovely companies send you goodies to try. Sometimes companies fill a box with plastic spiders and make you jump half a mile when you go to open it!!! :-D Soreen wanted us to try out their new Toffee Apple edition bars in time for Halloween and sent me a suitably decorated parcel of goodies, complete with an array of black plastic spiders sitting in a web! One of the plastic spiders unbeknownst to me jumped from the box and settled down the side of the sofa, giving me a second fright later in the evening! Oh my, I do get jumpy when it comes to spiders, alive or plastic as it happens! Oh how the folks from Soreen would have laughed…
Anyway once the adrenaline levels had returned to normal, and I had calmed down I decided it was time to try out the new treat. The Toffee Apple Soreen will be available in lunch box sized pieces, individually wrapped. When the wrapper was off, they smelt really nice with a sweet air of toffee about them. Although the colour is lighter and they look more like a cake bar, the texture is still heavy and almost sticky like regular Soreen, you have to remember this is a fruit loaf not a cake.
The flavour was lovely, there was plenty of apple, which worked rather well with the rich tastes, and the toffee aftertaste was spot on, strong and rich. I hope they keep this flavour going for a while after Halloween as it such a nice new addition to the range, and one that you’ll be wanting all autumn.

By Cinabar

Oat So Simple - Morning Bar - Raspberry & Pomegranate [by @NLi10]

This week I'm on holiday in Norway (or at least I was - these will go up when I get back) and this is the perfect opportunity to try local snacks, and to save money by eating cereal bars instead of having actual meals.

Here is one of the latter - it's branded as a breakfast bar so that like the biscuits we are reminded of extra times in the day we can eat food.  While this seems somewhat unnecessary as I've said before the more people that have breakfast the better.

This is a fairly standard bar of oats and things with dried fruit in it.

These things are raspberry and pomegranate which are my two favourite things to put in any snack food.  They aren't here in massive quantities but do add a little zing to what could otherwise be a dull snack.  

Solid then, but not one to change your morning routine around!

Kellog's All-Bran Breakfast Biscuits (Asda) [by @NLi10]

It's breakfast time again and that means biscuits!  Not the fun and fruity biscuits that we are now used to with milk and raspberries though - it's time for some roughage!

All joking aside if you want to eat a large amount of fibre then all-bran (or bran flakes) are the most tasty way to do it.  They have the recipe down pat and add the right amount of B vitamins to make it taste a little tangy and still be good for you.  And now they've made biscuits.

These are quite a heavy affair as you'd guess, but not as chocolatey as I'd expected.  They remind me of chocolate Shreddies (more fibre) which I did used to eat without milk sometimes due to their snacky nature.  This is similar in that it's quite tough and hard, but still quite nice.  I think these have less sweetness to them than most chocolate biscuits, but the flavour is still nice.

You get two in a pack in theory, but they are stuck together as one big biscuit which doesn't crumble too much so you could eat it on the bus or at your desk without making your keyboard too crunchy.

And that's all you can say really - it's more filling and a little more chocolatey than a typical breakfast biscuit but as you'd expect from the sensible part of the cereal aisle it just does it's job in a very unexciting way.  If you like normal All Bran then you'll probably like this.

Honey Monster Stix Marshmallow Vanilla (Tesco @HoneyMonsterUK) [By @cinabar]

I was busy compiling an online order with Tesco and was searching for Honey Monster / Sugar Puff cereals and these caught my eye. I couldn’t quite work out if there were biscuits or cereal bars, but added them to the basket anyway as they were both new and on offer, my favourite combination! When they arrived I realised they were cereal bars and then feared that Stix mean that they were going to be tiny and thin. Although they are smaller than a lot of other cereal bars, they are by no means too small and they felt like they were a nice lunch box treat size to me.
The bars looked quite pretty; they were full of Honey Monster sugar puff cereals and were smartly decorated with pink and white marshmallow bits on top too. It looks like there is a coating of white chocolate on the base, but it is in fact a healthier vanilla yoghurt flavour layer. The bars are lovely and sweet, and did feel like a proper treat to eat. The texture is pleasant, the cereals give it depth and it is a little bit sticky too, but in a good way. I know the bars are smaller than some cereals bars, but not so much and they come in at just 60 calories which is impressively low.
Although they contain breakfast cereals, I had one in my lunch box but saved for an afternoon treat. It gave me a pleasant sugar fix, it felt naughtier than it was and was so low in calories there was no guilt either. They hit the spot perfectly.

By Cinabar