Skinny Topcorn Sweet N' Salt (Popcorn) (Pret A Manger)

Back in December last year I first discovered Pret’s Chocolate Topcorn (that’s not a typo). It made a nice product, but the chocolate topping shattered and crunched. I liked the flavour but not the texture.
This is a new variety in Pret’s popcorn range, and is oddly flavoured as both sweet and salty. When you go to the cinema, the staff asks if you want sweet or salty popcorn, but I’d never considered both as an option before!
Firstly I was pleased to discover that there was no weird crunchy coating on this popcorn, it was just a bright white colour. Sadly the flavour did nothing for me. It seemed confused, vaguely sweet, vaguely salty and ultimately couldn’t make up its mind. I didn’t manage to finish the bag, as I felt it was just a bit bland and I got a bit bored of it. It’s by no means offensive, but I think its needs a stronger taste. It is a bit of shame, but it just didn’t work for me. Anyone else tried it?

Nestle Munchies Ice Cream Bar (Sainsbury’s)

I like Munchies as chocolates, and I like them because you can munch them – they are very satisfyingly crunchy. It is the bite of biscuit within them that makes them pleasurable to eat.
Now the problem with ice cream is that because it is moist, it is difficult to keep any sort of biscuit crunchy. Sadly this Munchies Ice Cream had no munch. There were some dispersed soft biscuit flavour bits, but there weren’t enough of them and they did add the texture associated with the regular product. In fact they weren’t very noticeable at all hidden away with the chocolate ice cream.
Well I guess I skipped straight to the negative section with these ice creams, but despite its lack of crunchy texture it did still have a lot going for it. The chocolate coating is sweet and pleasant, the chocolate ice cream within was creamy, lovely and chocolaty. The layer of caramel was sweet and tasty, and did the job. I did enjoy the ice creams, and as they are being sold at the bargain price of £1 for four they did have a lot going for them! I just wish they could have put some munch back into these Munchies.

Glico Pretz (Group 2) {by @Nli10} – (Sing Fat Supermarket, Birmingham)

Recap:

Glico (makers of Pocky) also make other products too. I guess that this makes sense as there are lots of similar style products to chocolate on a stick that you can make with the same set up - namely just chocolate, and just bread sticks. Glico Pretz are essentially just that - hard salted bread sticks without the chocolate. Around Chinese New Year I noticed that Sing Fat Birmingham had increased their range so bought nine boxes - one of each flavour I thought I could eat safely - and here is a selection.

We'll start on the left:

Salad Flavour

Salad. It isn't very exciting is it? You'd expect that you'd have bread sticks in salad, and not the other way round but Glico do things differently. Looking at their ingredients lists and ignoring all the standard things you'd expect this is what the manufacturers consider salad (in order):

Onion Powder
Onion
Tomato Paste
Sake Dregs
Chicken Seasoning (with real Chicken & onion juice)
Green vegetable powder
Carrot powder

They did say all food in the 21st Century would come in powder form, but I don't think that they expected it to be put into bread dough. And three kinds of onion is possibly a bit of overkill. And chicken in a salad? Nice for me, nasty hidden treat for the veggies.

Actually, while they do taste like tangy onion bread these aren't too bad and while they lack the sweetness of the tomato ones do have a nicely compelling quality to them. Must be the Sake dregs...


Butter Flavour

I think these are almost the 'plain' or ready salted of the Pretz range that I managed to find. They are fairly simple things and would go well with pretty much any food that you add butter to. Thanks to the generous flavour added these too are quite nice. It's like buttered breadsticks but without the mess.

As they are much less substantial than any normal food a good English boy would eat (toast, crumpets, muffins, more crumpets) they make me quite hungry. That said these ones don't taste of onions and don't have the gag reflex of the Sweet-corn Pretz (although this butter flavour is definitely used in that recipe too, just mixed with something truly evil) so I think I'd probably buy more of these too.

I need to inflict these on some willing participants to see what they think of them, but despite being one of the flavours I least looked forward to it actually captures the flavour quite well. It's not Kerry Gold but it's a start.


Curry Flavour

I hate "curry flavour". I hate it with a passion. Always have, always will. If something is just labelled as curry it's usually just some cheap meat with spices thrown at it. There are wonderful spiced dishes from all around the world, Korma, Dopiaza, Bhuna, Madras, Phaal, Thai red & green etc. all fantastic dishes that describe what they have in them, and they are all types of curry. BUT. The word curry, by itself, as a flavour for a product should be seen as a warning sign. Tandoori Chicken flavour is good, curry flavour is lazy and vague. Home grown meals that are curry are usually fine, it's just the pre-packaged stuff that I avoid.

I was hoping that Curry Taste Pretz would be not lazy in the recipe but lazy in the name, after-all what Japanese people see as a common Indian dish may not translate to the international market. After some very tentative openings of the package I was quite relieved when the smells that wafted out hinted of actual spices and not chemicals that taste a bit like spices. Pulling out the sticks is a treat as the dust falls away from them and you can smell the spices being released.

I really was apprehensive about this one (almost as much as the fish ones in the next set) but it's a joy to eat. Forget trying to make decent popadoms at home in the microwave and get these as starters for your dinner party. They are fairly strong in flavour but not too hot which is just how I like it (and how the curries I've had on the Indian sub-continent actually tasted).

If you hate curry you will hate them I guess, but there is enough difference in flavour from one bite to the next that it stays interesting and with a dip would be a fantastic conversation point. You only need 3 or 4 of these at a time really, so unless I had a party planned I don't think I would buy them regularly. I'll stick to my favourite Peach & Lychee curry from Spices Cuisine in Bromsgrove for now.

By Nli10

Linky to Group1

Sweet Chilli - Snack a Jacks [By Spectre] (Boots)

My quest for healthy snacks brings me to this sweet chilli rice and corn snack. It says 8% fat in a big font on the front of the packet and proudly states 107 calories as well as low salt, saturates and sugar levels. The sight of the red packet screamed “hot” to me, so I was expecting a nice heat when I tucked in. With the heat I was also expecting my whole body to be drained of moisture. It’s a true fact that with all Snack a Jacks’ flavours I’ve eaten in the past, I always need to drink a few litres of water to rehydrate.
I work in the IT Department of an NHS Trust, I know, I know… NHS IT, grrr, blah, blah… but on opening the packet I was quietly tempted to pop over to the actual hospital bit to find an attractive nurse to put me on a drip-feed, just in case my hydration levels became dangerously low. Distracted for a moment at the thought of attractive nurses, in and out of their uniforms, I stupidly popped the first round disk like snack in my mouth. Instantly regretting it, I felt the deadly sponge take effect. Dominated mainly by rice and corn flavour, these Snack a Jacks, like the others I have tasted in the past, have scarcely any discernable flavour. Though there was a pleasant hint of sweetness that tasted mildly of chilli, there was no big bang, and definitely no heat. The only reason I rushed for a pale of water on finishing the packet was that there was no liquid left in the entire building, let alone my own body! If you put a gun to my head and every flavour of Snack a Jacks in front of me. Then threatened me with death or rice and corn snack, I’m completely certain that I would find more moisture in hell! Though thinking about it… I’d grumpily pick the Sweet Chilli flavour…

By Spectre

Cadbury’s Fingers [Bournville Vs Dream] FoodStuffFight! (Sainsbury’s)

These two boxes of Cadbury’s fingers caught my eye in the supermarket. Especially that magic word on the box of white chocolate fingers – “new”. It left me puzzled, I’m sure I’ve had white chocolate fingers before, weren’t they a Christmas special a few years back? Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I’ve already tried dark chocolate fingers too.
It didn’t take me long to realise that what Cadbury’s had done is introduced the branding from their popular Dream and Bournville bars in order to create new look products. Oh well, any excuse...

Bournville Fingers
Bournville chocolate is what could be described as a mild dark chocolate that is still quite sweet. The chocolate added a nice flavour to this version, and to be honest anything darker would have been too intense. In fact I felt the chocolate was a little bit much with the delicate biscuit flavour.

Dream Fingers
Dream chocolate is a lovely creamy sweet white chocolate, and I thought it might be a bit sickly with the sweet vanilla biscuit. Thankfully I was wrong, the combination worked well, and enhanced the flavours of the white chocolate perfectly.

If I was to pick a winner, I would choose the Dream version hands down. The flavours of biscuit and white chocolate just went together really well, making them very easy to eat. The Bournville biscuits were nice, but the darker chocolate did conceal the biscuit taste a little.