LoveCocoa - Honeycomb Milk Chocolate [@NLi10]

 Another lovely gift here - a tiny tiny slab of chocolate!

But what's this? It's honey comb too - how does that work?

And it's secretly a Cadbury family chocolate? Almost like the family are ashamed by what the factory puts out these days...

This looks rather special.  You can just about see the flecks of the honeycomb from the back.  No wonder I was gifted it.  It's good quality chocolate, but the honey is hard to find in every bite and I want them to stick out more.

It says they are based in London now though - not Birmingham which looses them points too!

Overall - the honeycomb bits are a little too slight - it needs a bit more crunchie and a bit less milky.  I don't know whether it's my tastes shifting over the years but I found it a little sweet too.

Bounty Snowballs (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I’m not sure why I’ve been tasked with this blog. First off, I’ve been ill for the last day or so due to some sort of bug or food poisoning. Second, I’m not that keen on coconut and chocolate.

Bounty Bars are generally the last bars I go for in a tub of celebrations. I don’t dislike them, but I’m not that fussed either. I did, however, eat and enjoy Snowballs when I was a kid. I sometimes had them in my lunchbox at school or for a lunchtime pudding at home.

These Bounty Snowballs by Mars seem a natural leap into Snowball territory. They seem smaller than regular Snowballs from when I was a kid. Either that, or I was smaller back then.

On opening the packet these chocolate coated mallows covered in desiccated coconut smelt just like regular Snowballs. They tasted as sticky as I remember them.

I know I haven’t had one for years, but these Bounty Snowballs tasted exactly like the Snowballs I had when I was a kid. That definitely wasn’t a bad thing at all.

Information o the packet; Each 13.5g Snowballs has 63 calories, with 2.8g of fat, 7g of sugar, and 0.01g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Now! Chocolate Bar (Marks and Spencer) By @Cinabar

This is another of the re-released retro bars from Marks and Spencer. Here we have Now!, where the exclamation mark comes as part of the brand name.

The packaging is wonderfully 80s retro, with its block colours of pink and yellow. The chocolate bar consists of a biscuit stick topped with caramel and coated in milk chocolate, which kind of makes you think there should be two of them, like a twin bar, in the packet. They are singular though.

I gave the chocolate a taste and the biscuit was crunchy, with a strong, wholesome wheat flavour. It was almost like a Hobnob, although the biscuit wasn’t crumbly like that. The caramel is thick and a little chewy, but in a good way, with plenty of flavour. It is a classic combination and it works well, but this is also worth picking up just to enjoy that wonderfully retro packaging.

Knoppers -new- Peanut Bar [@NLi10]

 We love Knoppers - and so when the option arose to try a new variation on their more normal Euro-bar I jumped at the chance. 

It's essentially a fluffy Snickers

You get three in a bag for a pound or so

Still has wafers, still has 'milk creme' but also has peanuts

Looks like a choc bar

But behold - it's a wafer bar!

The peanuts are not as chunky as I'd hoped, but otherwise it's a tasty but unremarkable bar.

I'd buy and eat these again, but then there are lots of other unhealthy bars to review too and I'm trying to cut back.

Nescafé Lion Mocha Flavour (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I’ve always loved Lion bars. That crunchy chewy chocolate sweet caramel goodness. I don’t particularly like instant coffee like Nescafé. I drink fresh coffee. I don’t drink instant coffee sachets, and I’m not that fussed about flavoured coffee. However, maybe, Nescafé Lion Mocha Flavour could change my mind.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a fair judgement if I didn’t have this Nescafé Lion Mocha Flavour as an afternoon drink, accompanied by a Nestlé Lion Bar. I mean, it would be rude not too.

I followed the instructions to a T. I stirred the mixture in twice from the sachet, and strangely tapped my mug on the surface three times. There was a chocolate caramel and a coffee aroma from the frothy liquid in my mug.

On taste of this Nescafé Lion Mocha Flavour, there was a sweet caramel taste of chocolate mixed with coffee. Of course, there wasn’t the crunchiness from a Nestlé Lion Bar, but the flavour of the drink was similar, asides the added coffee.

I must say, it did go rather well with my Nestlé Lion Bar, for an instant coffee sachet, that is.

Information on the box: Per mug is 77 calories, with 1.4g of fat, 11.2g of sugar, and 0.19g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Pick N Marks Blond Chocolate Malt Balls (Marks and Spencer) By @Cinabar

These new Blond Chocolate Malt Balls are part of the Pick N Marks range, which sounds like Pick N Mix, but isn’t mixed, just grab bags. Totally confusing, but there’s lots of chocolate in the range, so I’m still in.

Blond chocolate has been very popular, following on from the salted caramel trend, and as I have a sweet tooth, it definitely works for me. I opened the bag and the malt balls are a decent size. I bit into one and found a lovely layer of thick blond chocolate, followed by a really nice crispy crunch. The flavour was pure caramel, white chocolate and malty goodness. There was plenty of sweetness, with a bit of contrast from the malt and even a touch of salt. They’ve really maximised that sweet and salty balance, and it just works.

These are very moreish and tasty, and I can see this bag disappearing rather quickly.

There was a time a few years back when every ‘grab bag’ like this would have a resealable sticker, so you could have a few and seal them up for another day. That stopped being a thing for quite a few brands, and these don’t have one either. So, yeah, we’re just going to have to finish the bag tonight while watching a movie. What a shame!

You’re Paw Some [Chocolates] (M&S) by @cinabar

These You’re Paw Some chocolates caught my eye in M&S. From the box, I would guess these are meant as a gift, either for thanking someone or as a birthday treat, but you should know I bought these for myself to snack on. In my defence, there are only four in the box. They were just too cute to walk away from.

When I opened the pack, I found the chocolates beautifully moulded into the shape of sausage dogs, with lots of detail and looking fab. They actually look slightly better in real life than they do on the box, which never normally happens.

The chocolates are pure milk chocolate and are solid. The chocolate is decent, sweet with plenty of cocoa, and generally quite nice. I thought they could have used Belgian chocolate to make them a bit more special, or perhaps a caramel filling, as the chocolate doesn’t quite do all the work on its own.

The super-cute design is doing the heavy lifting here. I just wish they had backed it up with a little something extra in the taste.

Pistachio Big Daddy Bites (M&S) By @cinabar

I spotted these Pistachio Big Daddy Bites chocolates in a service station branch of M&S, which always cheers me up during a long journey. We didn’t eat them in the car though, we saved them for when we got home. I just love browsing M&S, especially since our town centre branch closed. We also managed to find some crisps that a recent blog commenter recommended, so it was a double win.

These bites are based on the big version of the Pistachio bar, which I thought was called Big Daddy because it was released around Father’s Day. Or perhaps it was simply because it was, well, big. Either way, these are considerably smaller but have kept the Big Daddy name, so who knows!

More importantly, what are they like?

They are chunky individual chocolates, filled with a pistachio filling and topped with caramel. I gave one a try and what a chocolatey, nutty triumph it is. The pistachio element is lovely and strong, almost like eating a bag of salted pistachios. There is a sweet creaminess from the white chocolate, followed by a layer of rich caramel and sweet milk chocolate.

They have just about perfected that sweet and salty combination, with the strong pistachio flavour making these wonderfully moreish. I genuinely loved them, and now I really want to try the proper Big Daddy bar too!

Belmont Biscuits Mini Waffle Cones with Milk Chocolate - Aldi UK [@NLi10]

The last bite of the Cornetto ice-cream is said to be the best.  It's the remainder of the cone, filled with soft chocolate and any sauce that may have run down the inside or outside.  It's the headline act to the festival of summer.

And now you can have a whole bag of them to yourself!

I've seen these in a few places - best implemented by the Norwegian waffle crisps we had in 2013 on our visit that I still think about.

These however are much more faithful to the ice-cream cone experience - and they sell it as nostalgia and reminiscence, purely because Cornetto are no longer the premium ice-cream they once were.

As usual the bag is half full to protect them during transport and they all look pretty in-tact so it's worked here.  The bag reseals too which is a premium feature and very much appreciated.

And they are fairly unassuming - very full of the chocolate and a little harder than their Wall's counterparts.  And frankly - not quite as good.  I think that I'd put this down to nostalgia but we had Cornettos in Wells recently as part of a Hot Fuzz visit, and while smaller it all still worked.

Here I think that to make it work as a snack they added too much choc, and it's not soft enough.  It also doesn't have the ice-cream chill to it that the real thing does.  Besides, they put it in to stop the juices soaking through the cone (which was choc coated all the way down) so it had a function unlike these which are pure indulgence.

In the end then this is like buying the medal for a marathon you didn't complete off eBay, the real prize was always the Cornetto and that last bite just the last step.  So - worth a try?  Absolutely, but don't be surprised if you get tempted to pop to the freezer and have a bowl of ice-cream with these on top as an indulgent treat.  I'd ahve probably done the same if it wasn't absolutely pouring with rain today!

St Michael Coconut Grove (M&S) By @Cinabar

A week or so ago, I wrote about Sparks, one of the other M&S re-releases of old bars from the 1980s, in near-identical packaging to when they originally came out. Here we have Coconut Grove, and this one too looks wonderfully retro.

I did a little bit of searching on the internet to try and find what the original packaging looked like for this one, but I couldn’t find a photo, which is weird. There are loads of photos of retro Cadbury and Mars chocolates dating back multiple decades, so for this one we will have to take their word for it that the packaging is similar to the original.

Talking of similarities, this bar consists of a milk chocolate coating around a soft coconut filling. It is similar in concept to another well-known high street bar, and if you were to list the similarities, I’m sure they would be quite bountiful!

Anyway, the milk chocolate is lovely and thick and has a good bite, while the coconut filling is full of flavour. It is firm but not too much, with a sweet and creamy coconut taste. I really enjoyed it.

It has a lovely tropical taste, and I always feel coconut is a bit underused in British confectionery, so it is nice to have more choices on the shelves.

Toblerone Crispy Salted Caramel (Tesco) By @cinabar

I’m just going to say it, Toblerone are a little late to the salted caramel party. The flavour peaked a few years ago! Still, it is always a good flavour, so I was keen to try this Toblerone Crispy Salted Caramel. When I bought it at the till, the lady serving me said it was her new favourite, so that sounded positive. It is also available in a bigger, giftable size, but I picked up the smaller bar as it was just for me.

I opened the bar and broke a piece off. It was surprisingly soft and broke really easily. Now, it is warm today, but at around 22°C, it shouldn’t have been quite that soft. I was expecting a bit more of a snap, so that was slightly weird.

The flavour was fab, though. This chocolate bar is packed with crispy caramel pieces and salt, giving it a proper sweet and savoury mix. The salt really makes the flavour pop. They may be late to the party, but they absolutely nailed it.

The melting point was weird, though, so I put what was left in the fridge.

Last week, having chocolate melt at room temperature made sense because the whole country was basically melting too! But today, it really should have been a little more solid. Still, the flavour more than makes up for the slightly strange melting point.

St Michael Sparks Bar (Marks and Spencer) By @Cinabar

This St Michael Sparks Bar came from a multipack bag of mini bars labelled as a treat selection. Reading between the lines, there’s a chance this is an early release for the Halloween season, when mini bars become much more readily available. As we’re still in a heatwave, I really can’t think about autumn yet. I’m still keeping my chocolate in the fridge!

The bar is called Sparks, and I just love the retro 1980s-style packaging. It’s super cute. I did try to investigate whether they were bringing back an old bar, but I think they’re simply going for the retro look.

I bit into the bar and found milk chocolate, soft nougat and a thick layer of caramel. It was surprisingly similar to a Mars, which seems rather curious given Marks and Spencer’s previous complaints about Aldi producing a cake similar to their Colin the Caterpillar. Aldi’s response on social media was hilarious, but it does seem slightly ironic for M&S to launch a new chocolate bar that bears such a resemblance to a Mars. Curious times!

Putting the similarity aside, this bar was lovely. The chocolate was sweet, the caramel soft and thick, and the nougat had a lovely soft texture. It was a delight and a proper treat.

For me, this is the perfect afternoon chocolate to have with my coffee. And, thankfully, without a trick-or-treater in sight.

Green & Black's Organic Hazelnut and Currant 50% Dark Chocolate Bar (Ocado) By @Cinabar

Sometimes you just fancy a really good fruit and nut chocolate bar, and I decided to go all out with this posh Green & Black's Organic Hazelnut and Currant 50% Dark Chocolate Bar. It's essentially fruit and nut, right?

I opened the bar and immediately liked the packaging. It comes in a paper wrapper with foil underneath, which felt properly old school in the best possible way.

The aroma was rich and chocolatey, and I could already see plenty of hazelnuts packed throughout the bar.

The first taste was excellent. Although it's a 50% dark chocolate, it is still smooth, creamy and sweet enough to be approachable. There's a rich cocoa flavour with an almost floral edge that makes it taste a little more sophisticated than your average chocolate bar.

The hazelnuts are fairly finely chopped, so you get their lovely nutty flavour in every bite rather than huge crunchy chunks. The currants add little bursts of fruity sweetness that balance the richness of the chocolate really well.

Sometimes you just need a classic flavour done properly, and Green & Black's have absolutely delivered here.

Nestlé Aero Milkybar (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I have a cheese, cold meats, baked bread and port meal tonight. I’m looking for something creamy and chocolatey to have with some ice cream for later.

These Nestlé Aero Milkybar sound like a creamy treat. On the packet they are described as white chocolate shells filled with vanilla flavoured bubbles. They sound ideal with a vanilla ice cream topped with squirty cream.

As you can see from the photograph, these Nestlé Aero Milkybar are white chocolate balls, similar to the Milkybar Crunchy Pops, I wrote about the other day.

On eating these Nestlé Aero Milkybar taste like aerated super creamy Milkybar white chocolate. They were ridiculously moreish, and didn’t last long, I can tell you.

Information on the bag: The 92g bag had 162 calories per 10 pieces, with 8.9g of fat, 17.8g of sugar, and 0.05g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Cadbury & More Caramel Nut Crunch (Tesco) By @Cinabar

The main problem with hot weather is that chocolate melts. I mean, there are plenty of problems: not being able to sleep, trying to stay cool and hydrated, worrying about sunburn... but as a food blogger, chocolate is a genuine concern.

Thankfully, this bar was tucked away in a cupboard where it was a little cooler, before being promoted to the fridge drawer once we remembered it during the peak of the heatwave. Honestly, I know the photo shows our bar looking a little less crisp than usual, but considering the temperature, the fact you can still almost read "Cadbury" on every piece feels like a small summer miracle. After chilling it, I finally opened the bar, and it is satisfyingly chunky. There's a generous amount of filling and, as someone who loves nuts and chocolate together, I couldn't wait to tuck in.

The standout flavours are the creamy Cadbury chocolate and crunchy hazelnuts, which work really well together. The caramel isn't particularly gooey, but it adds a pleasant sweetness that complements the nuts nicely. Personally, I would have preferred a pure flowing, gooey caramel filling, but I still enjoyed the combination of textures. The flavour also reminded me of an old chocolate bar. Wasn't there one called Nuts About Caramel, or something similar?

Anyway, fear not, dear reader. Our chocolate stash has now been given priority space in the fridge drawer, along with the chocolate biscuits. Move over, tomatoes, we're snack bloggers.

Miskets (mischievous biscuits) Biscuit Bites Strawberry [@NLi10]

 The little shop at the end of our road has been getting some exciting new things in recently.  We've had the Italian wafers, and the pretzels - and now the Biscuit Bites

These are basically big fat Maltesers but with ordinary biscuits - and red flavour chocolate!

Made in Türkiye,  but made with actual 'premium Belgian chocolate these should be pretty good

They are melting just like we are today! We saved the rest and popped them in the fridge.

Squidgy they are fine

Straight out the fridge they are crispy little wonder balls - and very welcome int he heat.  There is something slightly missing to the chocolate for the English taste buds - maybe some dried strawberry on the outside like Pocky? but these are really nice and eating the bag gradually when I visit the fridge to top up my water will be a pleasure

Kellogg's Starter Pokémon Cereal - Chocolate Squirtle [@NLi10]

 Way back in the Uni days of 1999 I returned after Christmas and got to my branch of GAME to pick up this weird Japanese game called Pokémon that all the Japanese magazines raved about. The store only had two copies - and one of them was my reserved one.  The guy managing the store was intrigued by why I'd want an obvious kids trash game and bought the second copy - and after playing that day immediately maxed out the orders for it to his store (as did the rest of the nation).  And the rest is history! I picked Pokémon Blue (still got it) - and this week my partner surprised me with the same but in cereal form.

In the actual game I chose Charmander as my starter - not knowing that you'd not be able to just get the rest later - it really was a total mystery to us.

Here we see a puzzle with the regular, great and ultra balls - I won't spoil the answer.

And of course with modern Pokémon you aren't limited by just your starter.

They even added Green (not released outside of Japan) and Yellow (where Pikachu stalks you which was my sister's first version).

Naturally it's all exactly the same cereal

And sadly it's the generic Kellogg's kids mix which barely has any texture or flavour - but works fine as a mixer with cornflakes or fruit to provide an actually nutritious breakfast (or starter meal).

Thinks like this are probably why Kellogg's are upset that cereal is being reclassified as junk food - but frankly it's also a big part of the reason.  Maybe if the kids cereals had dried fruit for the sweetness, actual whole grain for the body, with the fortified (sprayed-on) vitamins then it'd work.  Their big argument is that if you reduce the sugar much more then you'd taste the vitamins and it wouldn't be as popular with the kids.

I say try harder - you'll never beat Gary with that attitude.

Strawberry Flavour Meringue Bar (M&S) By @Cinabar

I have a sweet tooth, so when we stopped at a service station on the way home from an event for fuel, both for us and the car, I couldn't resist a wander around the M&S Food store. I picked up a few bits, and this looked like the perfect pick-me-up. It was sweet, but at only 100 calories it wasn't going to spoil my appetite for dinner later.

Inside the wrapper was a pink meringue bar coated in a thin layer of white chocolate. When I broke it in half, it snapped nicely, revealing an appealing pink centre. The flavour was sweet and pleasantly strawberry, but not overly strong or artificial like some strawberry sweets can be.

The texture was definitely the highlight. It combined a satisfying crunch with a soft, gooey centre, while the white chocolate held everything together nicely. I absolutely loved it. It was just the right treat after a long day on the road, giving me a little boost without putting me off the takeaway that was waiting for me once I got home.