New! Quality Street 'Mini Matchmakers' Zingy Orange

Well, technically these chocolate treats aren't 'new' to the market they are simply 'miniature' versions of the well loved Nestle Matchmaker brand....so when I saw this treat bag of mini Matchmakers in my local Asda at the introductory price of £1 I thought it only fair to try them!

'86 Kcal each 12 stick serving'

To be honest I'm quite glad Nestle have decided to bring out this 'share' bag of miniature Matchmakers as I much prefer the mini 'sticks' to the large ones in the original packs.
 The 'mini' Matchmakers seem to be approximately 1/4 of the size of the regular Matchmakers and contain 86 calories every 12 stick serving.
Described as 'Orange flavoured chocolates with skimmed milk chocolate, dark chocolate and boiled sugar pieces' .....they are incredibly tasty!

These mini Matchmakers are incredibly moreish....especially considering their small size! The chocolate sticks are covered in milk and dark chocolate which is incredibly smooth and then infused with orange sugar pieces that give each little stick a nice crunch and certainly live up to their 'zingy orange' name!
 Overall, I love that Nestle have brought out these miniature versions of their 'Matchmakers' and that even though they are mini in size they still contain the same zingy orange flavour that we expect from the regular sized version!

Would I buy this again? YES

New! Quality Street 'My Green Bar'

So recently whenever I've been popping into my local newsagents or corner shop I've been picking up whatever new little product they have on display at the tills....and today I'm reviewing Nestle's introduction of the Quality Street 'My Green Bar'.

"Hazelnut Praline in milk chocolate centre"

Last year Nestle decided to make a chocolate bar out of the popular 'Purple' sweet in the Quality Street tins and named it 'My Purple Bar'...and unfortunately for me I'm not too fond of the Purple ones in the tin so that bar didn't tempt me! However....In my family the Green Triangles are one of the sweets to be snapped up immediately! So when I saw this bar at the till of my local Tesco on offer at 2 for £1 you could definitely say I was itching to get my hands on this bar!

First appearances show this bar to be made up of four of the green triangle segments stuck upon a long chocolate base. The shape of the bar is convenient for snapping up into the individual triangles....and then seeing how long you can last without scoffing them all within five minutes!

 Described as 'Hazelnut praline in milk chocolate' this bar contains 98 calories per half of the bar....which doesn't half make me feel guilty because c'mon....who's going to be able to resist and only eat two of the four triangles?

"98 Kcal per half bar"

In terms of taste these triangular segments are gorgeous! They are each coated in a layer of milk chocolate covering the segment and contained within is a soft and smooth nutty praline centre....is your mouth watering yet? The chocolate coating is deliciously creamy and makes this bar very sweet and surprisingly filling!

  Overall, I am so thankful Nestle have decided to bring out the 'My Green Bar' alongside the 'My Purple Bar' as even though I'm not a fan of the purple version, they are both delicious sweets and rightly deserve their own bar!

.....However, I will be holding out hope that Nestle decided to bring out either the Strawberry or Orange creme (preferably both!) Quality Street sweets in bar shape form for next year as they would be extremely popular...especially in my household!

Would I buy this again? YES 

NEW! *Limited Edition* Cadbury Dairy Milk 'Winter Wonderland' bar

Hi Guys!

Now if you follow me on twitter you'd know just how excited I've been to taste and review this new limited edition Cadbury bar!
After weeks of scouring the shelves in numerous local supermarkets I've FINALLY found the bar in my local Co-Op for the introductory price of £1.
Onto the pictures!

"Tree-shaped milk & white chocolate bar"

This new chocolate creation from Cadbury is a fantastic combination of both milk and white chocolate, and comes in adorable Christmas tree segments!

133 kcal per 1/4 of the bar

How amazing does that picture look?
I think this is a fantastic creation from Cadbury for Christmas this year, and I'm positive that this bar is going to do extremely well!

I will admit that at first I was apprehensive as to how the bar would be broken up and shared, as Cadbury's other new 'Marvellous Creations' bars are shaped in an assortment of different chunks and therefore are not particularly easy to divide up! However, thankfully this bar easily breaks off into nice little diagonal rows!

In terms of taste....the bar is wonderful! The chocolate tastes like the typical Cadbury Dairy Milk that we all know and love, so it's definitely got that classic creamy taste......and is very moreish!
 If I had to be critical, I would have liked a thicker layer of white chocolate on the 'white chocolate tree segments' just so there would have been a stronger taste of the creamy white chocolate...as at times it was overpowered by the milk chocolate.

Overall, this new limited edition bar from Cadbury for Christmas is a fantastic novelty product! The taste is the classic Dairy Milk chocolate that we already love so we know that it's going to taste good! The unique aspect of this bar is the shape! The concept of having these alternate chocolate Christmas tree segments is a wonderful idea for the Christmas market and is incredibly appealing to customers!
I would definitely recommend this bar to everyone...just for the simple fact that my pictures don't do this bar justice! It's an amazing Christmas treat....and even if it's out a little early for Christmas it's fantastic to share with the family!

Would I buy this again? 100% YES

Cadbury Wishes: 'Little Wishes'

 Today's review is another Christmas themed product brought out by Cadbury to target the Christmas market!
This time it's miniature versions of the 'Cadbury Wishes Chocolate Star' that we saw last year at Christmas time!

128g packet...contains 175kcal per 1/4 bag

I've got to say before even opening the packet, the fact that Cadbury have teamed up with the 'Make a Wish' foundation and 10% of all profits from this brand of their chocolate goes to the foundation pretty much sold me on this chocolate! Especially at Christmas time, I think this partnership is amazing and hopefully the profits will go a long way in making seriously ill children's wishes come true!

These 'Little Wishes' are essentially mini versions of the larger Cadbury Wish except that there are two kinds of mini stars. Pure Milk Chocolate or Milk Chocolate with a truffle centre....sounds intriguing!

Inside the bag there is definitely a fair amount of chocolate, so well worth my money! Each bag weighs in at 128g and contains 175 calories per quarter of the bag...so a perfect evening treat! Currently these chocolates are reasonably priced at £1 and can be found in all major supermarkets.

First appearances, these little stars look very cute....and dangerously tempting! As mentioned above, there are two separate fillings and these can be recognised by the two different designs on the front of the stars. The 'Pure milk chocolate' star can be recognised by another star bordering the inside edges (shown on the left above), and the 'Milk chocolate with truffle filling' star can be recognised by three smaller stars in the centre (shown on the right above).
 Whilst I found the Large 'Cadbury Wishes Star' from last year very enjoyable, this bag of mini 'Little Wishes' is much more my style as these last longer and can be shared with family and friends...which I think is nice especially around Christmas!
Truthfully, there isn't much difference between the two different fillings apart from the 'truffle filled' star tasting softer and smoother than the 'pure milk chocolate' star.

Overall, these 'Little Wishes' taste like the Cadbury chocolate we know and love (very soft and creamy) and are extremely moreish...one handful turns into two, then three...and so on till they're gone! The best part of these 'Christmas themed chocolates' for me is that 10% goes to the Make-a-Wish foundation...this partnership with Cadbury shows fantastic Christmas spirit...so I urge you all to treat yourself to some Cadbury chocolate...and to take the guilt away by knowing that you're donating to the Make-a-Wish foundation!

Furthermore, if you feel like doing some baking and incorporating these fabulous Little Wishes here's a fantastic little recipe from the Make-a-Wish website:

The following recipe serves approximately 12 people. Preparation take around 20 minutes, and cooking time should be about 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 100g unsalter butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 100g self-raising flour, sieved
• 12 Cadbury Little Wishes, chopped
• 12 cupcake cases
• 200g Dairy Milk, melted
• 12 Cadbury Little Wishes

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5, 190°C and place 12 paper cases into a 12 hold tray.
2. In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy, add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Fold in the sieved flour and the chopped  Little Wishes and divide the mixture between the cases. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, until well risen and golden brown. 
3. Leave to cool.
4. Prepare the topping by melting the Cadbury Dairy Milk and then spreading the mixture on each cake.
5. Decorate the tops with the individual Cadbury Little Wishes, one on top of each cake when the topping is still warm.
6. Serve to guests at a Bake-a-Wish event.

-Above recipe & picture attributed to the Make-a-Wish foundation and can be found here.

'Merryteaser' Reindeer

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

......And I can't believe all the stores are starting to stock up with Christmas items when we haven't even hit Halloween yet! The shelves in all major supermarkets are being filled with tins of Quality Streets and Celebrations and we're being introduced to a whole new range of Christmas products such as; 'Popping Candy' Freddo's, Dairy Milk's 'Mousse Snowman', Galaxy's white chocolate version of the 'a gift you to you' range and now Malteser's 'Merryteaser Reindeer'...

29g per Reindeer....contains 156Kcal

This new Christmas creation from Maltesers called the 'Merryteaser' comes in the shape of a cute little reindeer and is described as a 'Milk chocolate reindeer with a crunchy & creamy Maltesers centre'.
Weighing in at 29g this adorable chocolate creation contains only 156 calories, and is the perfect treat to get you in that Christmass-y mood! Especially since they are only 70p each or 2 for £1 in the Co-Op!

First appearances......WHERE ARE MY POOR REINDEER'S EYES?? Truthfully, the shape and presentation of my reindeer is slightly poor! I mean other than the antlers and huge nose (and the fact that this is coming out at Christmas) I probably wouldn't be able to guess straight away this is a reindeer!

Apart from the slightly dodgy appearance....It tasted amazing! As you can see in the picture above the crunchy & creamy Malteser centre is covered in a nice thick layer of milk chocolate that melts straight away in the mouth and is as nice and smooth as you would hope it to be!
The Malteser centre isn't really 'crunchy' as it's described on the label....but is most definitely creamy! The centre tastes exactly like a regular Malteser but without the hard crunch, and instead tastes like smooth and creamy honeycomb....perfect!

Overall, I think this little 'Merryteaser Reindeer' is adorable and perfect for Christmas as either a stocking filler or a cheeky treat here and there! The presentation of the Reindeer is lacking a bit, but the taste more than certainly makes up for that! So I would definitely recommend everyone buying at least one to taste!

Would I buy this again? YES!

New! Nanobytes -Strawberry, Bubblegum & Cola Sweets

"Some time ago, far far away in space....The sky was filled with edible planets drifting dangerously close to the stars. Planet Nano was made up of 3 earth-shattering flavours.

Strawberry, Bubblegum and Cola.

When Planet Nano collided with a star it exploded, Filling the sky with lots and lots of little sweets.

Project Nano astronauts were sent out to collect these rare and delicious chewy sweets, and now they've brought them back home to Earth, for you to enjoy the delicious flavours too.

Available in 25g treat-size packs and larger 65g space-age resealable bags.

Nanobytes are the tastiest things we've discovered in the Universe so far".

-www.lotsoflittlesweets.com 

Recently I was sent these new 'Nanobytes' sweets, that are being introduced into stores this month to review! This exciting new, space themed product is available in two separate sizes 25g and 65g packets and come in three different flavours; Bubblegum, Cola and Strawberry.

What I find very appealing with this product, is that the larger 65g packets are resealable which is incredibly helpful nowadays! I can't count how many times I've ripped open a bag of sweets and then had them spill out in the cupboard once I've put them back because I can't seal them up properly....so this concept is definitely a godsend for me!
And the 'resealable' concept isn't that silly, fussy 'fold the packet down and place the sticker on top'....these resealable packets are the real deal! They have the proper zip-lock style seal on the brim so are well worth the money paid as you could probably re-use them if you liked!

65g Resealable packet

The packaging for these sweets is bright and colourful, and I love the metallic look to them and I can't say that any other sweets on the market right now have this kind of design, so they are very aesthetically appealing!
The 'Nanobytes' are essentially; small round sweets, that have a slightly crunchy shell on the outside but are soft and chewy on the inside.
These new sweets do remind me of a revamped version of the 'Millions' that we used to have when we were younger, except these 'Nanobytes' taste chewier and have a much more defined flavour!

Bubblegum Flavour:
Upon opening the bag, I found this particular flavour to have the strongest aroma of all three, and almost immediately after opening the packet I got the strong whiff of bubblegum that had my taste buds tingling. The taste I found matched the smell perfectly. I found you definitely needed a handful of these little shells to get a nice full flavour in your mouth! But these sweets definitely taste of bubblegum as it says on the packet and they taste gorgeous as a nice little snack!

Cola Flavour:
Out of all three flavours I think I liked this flavour the least. The Cola flavour of these shells I believe tastes a little too sweet for my liking, but I still found myself reaching over and grabbing another handful until the packet was empty! So although this flavour was my least favourite, they are incredibly moreish and do taste nice. So I would still buy this cola version in stores if the Bubblegum and Strawberry weren't in stock!

Strawberry Flavour:
Finally, we come onto the strawberry flavour...my favourite of them all! Whilst on first appearance they may look slightly like the bubblegum flavour however, the colour of these sweets are a slightly darker, dustier pink. The taste of these strawberry sweets was sweet and left that lingering fruity taste in my mouth long after I had finished the packet which I quite enjoyed!

Overall, I think this is a fantastic new product that has an awesome and easily relatable story behind it that is sure to attract the children to this brand! The fact that the sweets taste amazing and are also; gluten free, GMO free and suitable for vegetarians should be a huge plus for the parents too! PLUS these Nanobytes aren't expensive! For just 25p for the small 25g packets and 69p for the larger 65g resealable packets...I don't think you'll find a better deal than that in the sweet market today!

For more information on this product about when it'll be available in stores etc... you can visit the website here. On the website you can also find free games for the children, competitions and a free unique downloadable activity pack! For even more information you can also contact them via facebook here or via Twitter here.

I definitely recommend buying and tasting all three of these products as the price for them are absolutely amazing...and they do taste 'out of this world' (sorry for the pun....couldn't resist!).



I recieved this product in order to produce an honest review, and all views/opinions expressed are completely my own.


Would I buy this product? YES

'Freddo Faces'

Just a quick review today!
Cadbury have been rolling out some new products for a while on the run up to Christmas, one of which includes the new take on 'Freddo' bars called 'Freddo Faces'.

"A 72g tube, made up of three small 24g packets of faces"

On a recent trip to Morrisons, I noticed that they had started stocking in the Christmas items (already you ask? yep I thought the same!).
And I came across this Christmas tube of Freddo Faces for £1.
For Christmas this year Cadbury have announced they will be 'putting on it's Christmas jumper', by creating this new 'knitted' style packaging across it's seasonal range....which I do find adorable and a nice seasonal touch!

"Delicious Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate in a range of cheeky Freddo Faces"

Inside the tube was three small packets containing a small amount of Freddo Faces which seemed like a reasonable amount for the £1 paid!
I know that Freddo Faces are available in smaller 35g bags (at a price of 50p each), if you're not fond of the tube version! If you'd like a review of the small 'Freddo Faces' bag, a friend of mine has done a great review of them here!

125Kcal per small packet

Each small bag contained exactly seven 'faces'...so although that isn't much they are consistent! Each 24g packet contains 125 calories...which isn't too unhealthy for a nice afternoon or evening snack!
Or a quick treat for the children! Especially due to the funny facial expressions engraved on the chocolate including confused, happy, grumpy etc...

Onto the taste......to be honest, these chocolates aren't anything special! They are made of the delicious Dairy Milk chocolate that we all know and love so they do taste very good (and are quite moreish!) but apart from that they are just a different take on the 'Freddo' out to target the Christmas market.

Overall, these Freddo faces taste like the usual Dairy Milk chocolate range so are very enjoyable and are a perfect stocking filler for Christmas! Especially at the reasonable price of  £1 ....I would however, like to see a caramel version of the Freddo faces soon!

Would I buy this product again? YES.

GU 'Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake' Puddings

So my review today is these luxurious 'After Dark' GU puddings I picked up in my local ASDA.

Normally, these puddings retail for £3.59 but are currently on offer for £2......and these looked WAY too tempting to pass up!

Aesthetically, the pack looks very posh and has a sleek artistic design painted on each packet to add to the uniqueness of this product. Inside each pack, contains two Chocolate and Vanilla cheesecakes weighing in at 90g each and are served in individual glass ramekins.

I love the idea of these desserts coming in the glass ramekins as they can be washed and re-used again (and help compensate for the price!).
 I love using them for baking, and when having guests over, using them as little dipping pots for sauces such as, sweet chilli dips, tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and for having little snacks out such as; nuts, jellies, crisps etc... the possibilities are endless!
 Each ramekin is sealed with a peel away foil lid, which helps maintain the freshness of the dessert and keep the cheesecake nice and fresh!

The product is described on the GU website (very fancily) as:

"This is a case of 1+1=3. Alone, our vanilla cheesecake is a dreamy combination of buttery biscuit base and endlessly soft cream cheese. And our gu-ey chocoloate ganache made with 53% Belgian chocolate is a force to be reckoned with, a taste sensation that will knock you sideways. Add them together and they create something totally new: so perfectly rich, so sensationally smooth that it might just mess with the laws of the universe".

.....Now with a description like that how can you say no to this product??

'Chocolately biscuit base, covered in a smooth Madagascan vanilla cheesecake and our signature chocolate ganache'

Onto the taste! Digging my spoon in, initially I went to scoop a taste of all three layers....and I tell you now not many puddings make me close my eyes and sigh in absolute bliss!
These puddings are so heavenly and taste absolutely divine! The dessert on a whole is very rich, so having the small ramekins help control the portion size and make it the ideal treat for the weekend or special occasion.

Each 90g glass ramekin contains 323Kcal

The chocolate ganache is simply amazing. You can tell immediately it's made with good high quality cocoa as it's smooth texture melts in the mouth leaving you craving for more...following this you begin to get a hint of the creamy, soft vanilla cheesecake and the combination of these two flavours is simply elevated by the crunchiness the biscuit base brings!
I can't fully put across to you guys how amazing this pudding actually tastes! I would even go as far as saying this is the best pudding I've ever had!
Fellow chocoholics....if you haven't tasted this dessert then you have not lived and cannot honestly call yourself a true chocoholic!

Overall, the price when not on offer (£3.59) is a little steep and the calorie content per dessert is very high..but these desserts are so indulgent and blissful that I would be willing to pay that price on special occasions as these puddings are quite posh and would be perfect for special events or that unique treat every now and again!
I would 100% recommend this product to ANYONE reading as I can't fully put across to you how absolutely amazing this dessert is until you've tried it yourself! So get down to your local supermarket and treat yourself for once...you deserve it!

Below are some examples of how to re-use the ramekins I found on the 'GU' facebook page! If you would like more ideas you can check out their facebook page here or their twitter page here. 

Would I buy this product again? 100% YES