Hot Chocolate Cubes (Cutting Cake Patisserie)

I would like to start with a big thank you to Katie from Leeds Grub who very kindly picked up these lovely hot chocolate cubes for me. Earlier in the year I tried Dairy Milk Hot Choc Chunks and as much I loved the concept found the drink to be a little flavourless for my taste buds, I had high hopes these might just be the dream product.
I actually purchased whole milk especially for these drinks, and ensured that I measured the correct proportions when making them (i.e. I put aside my huge Disney mug, and used a regular sized one instead)! I heated my mug of milk in the microwave, and added the hot chocolate cube on a stick. Both types took a few minutes for the chocolate to melt while I patiently stirred, but good things come to those who wait.
First up was the milk chocolate variety. I was very impressed by this; it gave the drink a wonderful sweet creamy flavour with a mellow cocoa taste. It wasn’t overly strong, but nobody could argue that the chocolate wasn’t present. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and found that it was perfect cure for any chocolate craving.
The dark chocolate variety on the other had had a stronger cocoa hit, and wasn’t as sweet, giving the flavour a more mature grown up taste. I loved the richness of this one, and felt that it was my favourite, but it was a close call!
Frankly, either would be perfect for a soothing winters night drink. Lovely stuff, thank you Katie!

Kit Kat Petit Strawberry (Cybercandy)

Well after writing about Kit Kat Ramune the other day, I pledged to bring you more flavours of Kit Kat which are hard to locate within this country. Next up is this mini tiny Strawberry version from Japan via Cybercandy. The Ramune Kit Kat was a mini Kit Kat, and this is a box full of tiny single sticks the same size, making them seem even smaller! They are really sweet to look at, and I think would make a lovely gift as they are so different.
There is no layer of strawberry inside this bar, but the chocolate coating smells sweet and fruity so that is where the flavour gets added. The taste isn’t as natural as it could be, but reminded me distinctly of strawberry milkshakes, as it has a creamy edge too. Strawberry and chocolate work really well together and I thought everything about this product was just lovely. I am enjoying tracking down all the different flavours available, and will be writing about other interesting Kit Kat varieties very soon!

Nik Naks Pickle ‘N’ Onion (Sainsbury’s)

I would like to start with a brief moan about the name of this new flavour. I realise that it is a tradition that Nik Naks have an ‘N’ in the middle of their name, eg Nice ‘N’ Spicy, and that is fine. Sometimes though you have to accept that it isn’t going to work. These crisps are not pickle (e.g. Branstons) and onion flavoured, they are pickled onion flavoured, it even says so in the small print on the back! Therefore calling them Pickle ‘N’ Onion just doesn’t seem right.
Okay, I have that off my chest, so I can continue. Every time I have tried Nik Naks previously I have always been taken by the strength of the flavour, so I was expecting an almighty hit of taste. Curiously enough these were actually quite mild in taste, there is a hint of vinegar with a gentle onion flavour and the crisps are really really nice. I was surprised though that I could even taste the corn, as it is so unusual to be able to do that with Nik Naks. If you have never tried Nik Naks these would be a good place to start, they have a lovely texture from the corn that is both crunchy and fluffy, which I think works really well. There is an impressively well balanced flavour on this new addition to the Nik Naks range.

PS Many thanks to David H for alerting me to this new product. I really appreciate all the emails I receive tipping me off about new/interesting items, it all enables me to do my daily update. So thank you all!

Kellogg’s Special K Chocolatey Pretzel (Cybercandy)

I guess this was a bit of strange find in Cybercandy. I usually associate the shop with sweets and chocolates, not cereal bars particularly, but I just couldn’t resist. I do like my cereal bars and tend to have them as a quick breakfast at work, so couldn’t resist these when I saw as they are such an unusual flavour.
The bars do have a fair bit of pretzel distributed on top of them visually, but I’d be lying if I said I thought they contributed very much to the flavour. They did add some though and they added crunchiness to the texture too which was nice. Having said that, these bars did taste different to regular Special K bars, notably I thought they tasted nutty, despite there being no obvious signs. I liked them as I could taste what I thought was peanut and toffee with my chocolate, and as those are flavour I just love, I really enjoyed the bars!

Kit Kat Ramune [Blue] (Cybercandy)

Some of you may have noticed my feelings on Kit Kat and their lack of interesting flavour here in the UK, well I think all the cool flavours are in Japan. Some of you may also remember the post I made back in January about the Japanese Ramune soft drink, which is a popular brand of a lemonade style pop. Well this Kit Kat is Ramune flavoured. Not only that, the Kit Kat itself is slightly blue in colour. Oh my. Thank you Cybercandy for bringing these lovely items to us here in the UK; where we have ‘Caramel’ as our most adventurous flavour.
Anyway, did I mention this Kit Kat is blue??? It is a little off putting, but only for a second or so! Essentially it is a white chocolate Kit Kat though, with a delicate hint of blue, and flavoured with Ramune, i.e. there is a sweet lemon and bubblegum flavour mixed in. Despite the potential I didn’t think it was at all sickly, but then I have an impressively sweet tooth! In fact the Ramune flavour is quite sweet but still very refreshing, which makes the whole bar work. I absolutely loved this mini Kit Kat and humbly ask Nestle to release some more interesting flavours for us to try in Britain. In the meantime though, I intended to do a little research and see what Japanese Kit Kats I can get my hands on. Watch this space for my finds!