Cranberry and Red Fruit Smoothie bar (Tescos)

I don’t get to go to Tesco’s much, so am not the best person to comment on their own-brands, but I can spot a ‘new’ label at fifty paces, so these caught my eye.
It seems that one of the keywords for summer seems to be ‘smoothie’, we have had Galaxy ‘Smoothie’ Milkshake, Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream ‘Smoothie’ and now ‘Smoothie’ bars.
I picked up a box of cranberry and red fruit smoothie bars, and was very impressed by them. They are quite soft in texture rather like a very soft nougat. The texture is very slightly grainy though too, and has bits of berries mixed in. The bar is very pretty to look at as it is presented in two different colours, pink and half covered in a cream coating. My photograph doesn’t quite do it justice! The cream section is yoghurt flavoured, and the pink is the fruit section. This bar is definitely one for the sweet toothed (like me).Initially you get a hit of cranberry, followed by an aftertaste of strawberries. It is sweet and zingy, and has wonderful fruit flavours that remind me of sweets or candy. It is indeed a very summery bar, and one to give a try as refreshing change to regular cereal bars.

Gű American Choc Banoffees [Chocolate Puds] (Sainsbury’s)

Although Gu have had a Banoffee dessert available for some time, it has recently had a make-over, according to the packet to become Americanised. It seems that this makeover means that it has had a layer of chocolate ganache added to the mix, which is never a bad thing!
The bottom layer of this pudding is a soft biscuit crumble, which reminds me of digestive biscuits, and makes a nice base. On top of this is the banana layer, which is sweet like caramel and has a gentle banana flavour, which isn’t at all overpowering. On top of this is a creamy layer of mascarpone, which is natural in flavour and lovely and fluffy. Finally the top layer is the chocolate layer, which is gorgeous, rich cocoa presented in a light and fluffy texture, and genuinely fantastic addition to the dessert. Together the layers complement each other perfectly.
One of the things that surprised me most was the overall mildness of the banana. You tend to find with Banoffee dessert that they are quite sickly strong with artificial banana, but this pudding is sweet but mild and proves that less is more.

Marmite Oven Baked Cashews (Selfridges)

Firstly I would like to apologise for covering two Marmite products in one week, but these really were too good to make you all wait.
The product consists of cashew nuts dusted in a marmite flavour powder, and my word these two flavours go well together. Obviously nuts and salt go well together, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Marmite with its salty zingy taste makes a match made in heaven when mixed with cashew nuts. This is just about the nicest of the Marmite products I have tried, and I can’t emphasise how well the combination of flavours work. If you have the a slightest bit of love for Marmite in your heart, you really ought to give these a try.

Weetabix – Oaty Bars [Milk Chocolate / White Chocolate] (Sainsbury’s)

It seems that a lot of cereal companies now make cereal bars too. I guess this makes sense as I know I like to have a cereal bar as a quick and easy breakfast some days. Weetabix is the latest company to jump on this market and have released three new cereal bars. I am going to be writing about the two chocolate varieties, but will update you when I get hold of the other strawberry edition.
These bars don’t seem to have a noticeable Weetabix flavour, but do taste nice, sweet and oaty and have a good firm texture. The chocolate on both bars is drizzled in a zigzag design on the surface of each bar. The milk chocolate bar had a fairly messy zigzag of chocolate, that was smudged and drizzled off the edge, but this didn’t affect the taste! In both bars the chocolate taste isn’t that pronounced, but is enough to add a nice hint of flavour to the bar. The white chocolate was creamy with a vanilla edge, and the milk chocolate sweet and but with a better defined cocoa flavour. One of the good things about this bar was that it had just 85 calories, making it a nice low calories start to the day, or indeed guilt free snack between meals.

Lindt Hazelnut Mousse [Mousse Au Chocolat] (Tesco)

Am I the only one that thinks the image on the packaging is a little, how shall I put it, unattractive? If I was to be brutal, I could say that it looked like something a dog might leave behind. Surely I’m not the only one that thinks this? Let me know your thoughts below!
The image distracted me a little, but let me tell you about the chocolate instead. This bar consists of Lindt milk chocolate covering a whipped chocolate hazelnut mousse. As regular readers will know, I love nuts and chocolate, and thought that this bar provided a good mix of those flavours. The shell of chocolate around the centre is just the right thickness and cracks satisfyingly when you bite it. Each cube is actually quite chunky, and the mousse inside is really light and fluffy, making it almost melt in the mouth. Inside the mousse there are also tiny bits of hazelnuts which add to the flavour, but do slightly divert from the smoothness of the chocolate. Over all a lovely bar, my only complaint being the image on the packaging!