Wonka Magic Hats (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

It is not often we get a whole new and different selection box of chocolates to try. We always have a decent choice, and my local supermarket stocks everything from the retro Black Magic to Hotel Chocolat, but these Wonka Magic Hats are something completely new.

They are part of the relaunched Wonka chocolate range, and not only are they new, but the flavours are pretty cool too. The chocolates look great, designed to resemble top hats, and they are chunky, colourful and fun.

All the chocolates are seriously good, with each one offering something a little different. It is so nice to see something new on the market, and I love that they were brave enough to include a blue chocolate with a filling called Bubblegum Joy. It was sweet and really did taste of bubblegum, making me smile with its excellent burst of flavour.

My other favourite unusual chocolate was Chocolate Fizz, with its cola and popping candy filling. I loved the cola flavour, which worked surprisingly well with the milk chocolate. The popping candy delivered a gentle fizz, but again, it was enough to make me smile.

I really enjoyed these. It is a box of chocolates filled with joy, and perfect for anyone who likes something a little unusual. I guess that is exactly why they landed so well with me!

10 Haunted Head Milk Chocolate Lollies (M&S) By @Cinabar

I found these cute lollies in the Halloween section of an M&S Food Hall. I was thinking they would be great for trick or treaters, but couldn’t help sampling one, you know, for quality assurance. I hope our neighbours realise how thorough I am and how seriously I take Halloween snacking!

Inside the pack was a good range of cute lollies, with different coloured foils and some lovely designs. I particularly liked the cute bat, although there was only one of those. They are all milk chocolate, so the different wrappers don’t signify different flavours. Once I removed the wrapper, I noticed the lolly itself had a simple line design rather than a haunted head, as suggested by the product name.

The chocolate was nice, sweet and creamy. It wasn’t quite up to the standard of M&S’s Belgian chocolate, but it was certainly very nice. I enjoyed my sample, and I do hope any trick or treaters appreciate the rigorous testing I’ve put these through. Honestly, I really am a star!

Nightmare Before Christmas Chocolate (Home Bargains) By @Cinabar

This Nightmare Before Christmas novelty chocolate was a complete impulse buy, spotted in a display box at the end of an aisle. I bought a couple, as they looked rather nice, although they seemed a little too good to give to Trick or Treaters. Don't worry, I do have a mixed bag of treat-size chocolates for them, but these Nightmare Before Christmas choccies are all for me!

I opened the packet to find Jack quite nicely moulded in chocolate. He looks a little small compared to the size of the packet, but what you can't see so well from the photo is how chunky he is. In fact, he fills the packet quite well.

I broke Jack in half and found a good amount of filling inside, too. The chocolate had a lovely sweet flavour. It wasn't as creamy as some chocolate, but it had plenty of cocoa flavour, which I enjoyed. The filling was good, too, thick and truffle-like, with crispy bits running through it. I always like a bit of crunch, and the mix of textures worked really well.

These Nightmare Before Christmas chocolates are cute, tasty and a fun little Halloween treat. They were never going to last until Halloween, let alone make it into the Trick or Treat bowl!

McVitie’s Penguin Bar (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

This McVitie’s Penguin Bar is a penguin-shaped chocolate bar from Penguin, who usually make biscuit bars. I’d say that was confusing, but to be honest, after their sideways offering of Penguin salt and vinegar crisps, this feels a lot more on brand! Arguably, this is what everyone who has ever bought a pack of Penguin biscuit bars hoped they would look like. This, however, was sold as an individual chocolate bar rather than a whole new redesign.

I opened the wrapper and have to say this is a cute-looking bar. The smiling chocolate penguin made me smile too, as it’s a lovely design. Of course, I had to give it a try, and it was unmistakably Penguin biscuit bar flavoured. There’s the milk chocolate, which is nice and thick, with a decent layer of fondant-like filling. Mixed into this are biscuit balls, rather than a solid biscuit, but there are enough of them to add crunch and make the texture fun and interesting.

I really like this! It might not fit in my lunchbox in the same way as the regular bars, but it’s definitely something I’d pick up as an impulse buy for a little treat. I’d probably buy these more often than the regular biscuit bars, and certainly more often than the salt and vinegar crisps!

Moser Roth Smooth Praline Belgian Milk Chocolate (Aldi) By @Cinabar

Sometimes you just need a bit of chocolate and a bit of a treat. Work has been draining, so I thought I’d have a look for one of my favourite chocolate fillings, praline, and spotted this smart-looking Moser Roth Smooth Praline Belgian Milk Chocolate bar in Aldi. Nothing says after-work treat quite like a big bar of chocolate. I love nuts and chocolate, so this had to end up in my basket.

I opened the wrapper and it is a proper hefty bar, definitely not one for a single serving, but you know, I’ll try my best. The chocolate has a lovely wave pattern marking out the chunks to break off, so I broke off a strip.

I gave the chocolate a try and it really did hit the spot. The milk chocolate is thick and generous, while the praline is rich and full of delicious hazelnut flavour. The texture is what really wins me over, though, as it is super silky. The chocolate stays thick as it melts and properly coats the tongue. Bliss.

Although it is nutty, there are no bits, so it stays lovely and smooth. It feels like a substantial chocolate bar and a proper treat, which was exactly what I needed at the end of a long day.

Baileys Chocolate Caramel Whirls (Tesco) By @Cinabar

I spotted these at the supermarket and thought they looked nice. There have been a few Baileys-flavoured products come out over the last year or so, but it is always nice to see a new one. Here we have three Baileys Chocolate Caramel Whirls, all individually wrapped and in a box, so they would be perfect as a stocking filler. Apologies for hinting at Christmas this early!

The box is light, so I wasn’t expecting the chocolates to be too big, but they are still surprisingly small, they only weigh 24g each. The individual packaging is useful for keeping them fresh, but it does mean there is more plastic, and unfortunately it isn’t easy to recycle.

I cut one in half because I was curious to see how they looked inside. It isn’t the best photo, but you can see the nice layers inside.

I gave it a try and it reminded me a little of a Walnut Whip (minus the walnut, obviously), with a nice hint of Baileys. The chocolates look pretty too, as they are nicely moulded. The chocolate and Irish cream flavour work well together, and the Baileys isn’t too strong, but gives it just enough extra flavour to make it interesting.

The chocolate is a reasonable thickness and is sweet and tasty. They are a nice little treat, and I think they would make a lovely stocking filler.

Reese’s Strawberry PB&J Big Cup (Home Bargains) By @Cinabar

There has been an increase over the years in products that combine peanut butter and chocolate in the UK, and we’ve even had a mainstream Kit Kat in the flavour. I would say, though, that we haven’t really taken on PB&J over here (for those wondering, that’s peanut butter and jelly). Apparently, it is a popular sandwich filling across the pond. However, I found this Reese’s Strawberry PB&J Big Cup in the shop and couldn’t wait to give it a try.

There are two of the larger cups inside the packet, but they are still in the usual paper cases. They are a decent size, and when I bit into one, I found they packed in a good amount of filling too. The flavour was very sweet, and the strawberry jelly (jam) gave a lovely hit of sweet fruitiness. The chocolate was also lovely and sweet, while the peanut butter added that more savoury, nutty taste with just a touch of salt. It worked really well, and I particularly liked the strawberry addition to the combination.

This may be more in the American taste palette than the UK, but I loved the fruity twist with chocolate and peanut butter. It’s definitely a combination I’d be happy to see more of over here.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Skeletons (Ocado) By @Cinabar

It is official, we are hitting autumn and the Halloween snacks are in the shops. Naturally, I am using this as an excuse to stock up on all the seasonal sweets, and as someone who loves chocolate and peanut butter, these Reese’s Peanut Butter Skeletons were high on my list of ‘essential’ purchases.

In the pack, we have nicely decorated, foil-covered chocolates with a cute skeleton design. They look great. They are wrapped too, so they are perfect for sharing, but let’s be honest, these are going to be eaten long before anyone knocks on the door wanting to trick or treat.

I gave one a try, and the ratio is different compared to a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. There is more chocolate and a smaller portion of peanut butter. The flavour is therefore more about the sweet chocolate, but there is still enough peanut butter to give plenty of nutty flavour. Purists may prefer the more full-on taste of a peanut butter cup, though.

I still really like these. They are sweet, nutty and easy to eat, and they also look adorable emptied into a bowl. A fun Halloween twist on one of my favourite chocolate and peanut butter combinations.

Harry Specters Luxe Chocolates Box (Gifted) By @Cinabar

We were very kindly gifted this box of Harry Specters Luxe Chocolates for review, and I have to say, I was seriously impressed. Harry Specters has a lovely ethos, using ethical cocoa and natural ingredients, as well as creating employment opportunities for autistic young adults. The founder's son is autistic, and the company is particularly focused on being autism-friendly and creating opportunities and support for autistic people. 

They also make some really interesting chocolate flavours, which was the bit that really caught my attention. I couldn't wait to try them. I opened the box and the first thing that came to mind was wow. These are seriously beautiful chocolates. Each one is individually decorated and they look like little chocolate gems sitting in the box. They are almost too pretty to eat. Almost. I had no idea where to start, so I went with my usual tactic of finding the nutty ones first.

Peanut Butter - The chocolate is sweet and full of flavour, with 40% cocoa, while the peanut butter filling is thick and a little sticky. Peanut butter and chocolate is one of my favourite combinations, and this was absolutely spot on.

Maple and Pecan - Again, we have smooth chocolate, this time with a smooth, sweet and nutty filling. The maple comes from proper Canadian Maple Butter, which gives it a lovely rich sweetness. Pure yum.

Intense Coffee - Here we have strong coffee paired with a 60% cocoa chocolate covering. The flavour is full-on rich coffee and chocolate, and it really is a proper kick of flavour sensation. Seriously, I would eat a whole bar of this.

Apple Cinnamon - I decided to go for a fruity one next, and being a cinnamon lover, this was the natural choice. It uses 40% cocoa chocolate, proper fruity apple purée and just enough cinnamon to give a lovely little hit of warmth. Pure heaven.

These chocolates are next level. I honestly wasn't expecting to be quite so blown away by them, but every one I tried was absolutely delicious. They look beautiful, the flavours are interesting, and the chocolate itself is excellent. These are the sort of chocolates that make you stop after the first bite and think, wow. They deserve to be in every supermarket.

Flipz - Cinnamon Bun - Danish Pastry Flavour Pretzels [@NLi10]

 We've just got back from Denmark/Sweden and I ate a lot of good pastries on the trip.  To remember it my partner picked up these Flipz!

  

We've had a lot of these over the years, but this may be the perfect flavour - it's basically pretzel flavoured pretzels.  Well - with the sugar and cinnamon on the top anyway.

Standard ingredients.  

Standard appearance (although this is quite a bad picture - sorry!) but they have the crunch and sweetness with the lovely spices on top.  Perfect (home) cinema snack and something I'd be tempted to pay full price for!

Ritter Sport Haribo Balla Bites (Ocado) By @cinabar

Gosh, I was super excited when I heard about this bar and crossover: a Ritter Sport chocolate filled with Haribo Balla Bites. And just look at the packaging, and how wonderfully colourful and fun the chocolate looks. May I never grow up, but more than ten years into doing this blog and I still get super excited about something like this.

Ritter Sport often has fun and quirky flavours, so this is right up my street. I opened up the wrapper and, apart from a few Haribo Balla Bites poking through, it looked much like a regular Ritter Sport. I broke a line off, waiting for the colour explosion, but there was none. So I bit into the top-right piece and discovered that particular cube was pure milk chocolate.

I broke the bar up some more and could see some Haribo sweets, so I deliberately tried a piece with a sweet in it, and that was awesome. It was lime, and the fruity gummy flavour was fab with the chocolate, as was the chewy, fun gummy texture. Another piece shared a Haribo with a neighbouring cube of chocolate, and that was a bright berry taste that worked really well too.

The pieces of chocolate with the sweets in them were fun and brilliant, and everything I hoped for. There just weren’t enough sweets mixed in. I know it would probably be a manufacturing nightmare, but each cube should have had one Haribo Balla Bite in it, just like the packaging suggests, to make every piece that colourful and fun.”

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!