Tesco Pigs in mud

Last night I'd planned on polishing off some of my Easter chocolate, but as it was the first real nice day of the year it had to be ice cream! I'm holding out on the very last limited edition Ben and Jerry's I have in the freezer so I decided to go for Tesco's limited edition and not too appetisingly named Pigs in mud. 

Tesco seem to be following Cadburys lead in flavours and additions and Pigs in mud is chocolate and marshmallow flavour ice creams swirled with marshmallow sauce, chocolate flavour pig shaped pieces and mini marshmallows. 

Firstly I noticed the ice creams are quite mild. In the top part of the tub I could taste the chocolate, there's no mistaking it's a supermarket flavour rather than a higher end brand but the marshmallow I could easily have mistaken for a vanilla. My first few scoops contained the actual marshmallows too, although they're mini ones they didn't feel it to me - not only was there plenty of them they actually stayed soft and marshmallow textured. 

The chocolate shaped pigs came next, and Tesco have managed just fine where Cadbury failed. While obviously harder than normal chocolate they didn't freeze into solid unedible chunks, they have a nice crunchy bite but still melt in the mouth soon enough. They are smaller than any chocolate pieces you'd find in a Ben & Jerry's but they are quite thick - they reminded me of Freddo Faces in size and shape actually. 

This is quite a soft ice cream, it was scoopable immediately but as it slowly melted the flavours got noticeably stronger - mainly the chocolate side but the marshmallow was very bold in places too. The description does say it has a marshmallow sauce and while I didn't actually see any, it could well have been the same colour as the ice cream and that would explain the extra marshmallow taste every now and then. 

I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did, being completely honest it's not great quality ice cream but for the price (£2) and the fact everything stayed how it should (Cadbury!!) I'll be buying this again.

Rating 7/10 

Cookies, Thorntons and Angel Delight

Chips Ahoy Crispy Choco Caramel

These have been out for a while, at first in Asda I think but they're everywhere now and I finally picked some up. I do enjoy biscuits but cookies aren't at the top of my list, I'm quite partial to chocolate digestives (preferably dark chocolate), cookies I can take or leave. After trying the Cadbury Chips Ahoy bar and reading all the hype about the original cookie in America I wanted to try them and while we for some reason don't have the original cookie we do have this Crispy Choco Caramel version as well as a popcorn one.

The packs quite big and there are 12 cookies in each pack, while they're not that wide these are thick chunky cookies.

Chocolate is definitely the main flavour in this cookie but the caramel shines through too. This is a rich, sweet, moist cookie, sometimes I find cookies a bit dry which is why I tend to avoid them but this isn't at all and the crispy pieces add a bit of extra texture. These are incredibly moreish, I really hope Chips Ahoy bring out the original version!

Rating 8/10 

Thorntons Fabulous Fudge

This is one of two new(ish) bar from Thorntons, the other being milk chocolate with toffee pieces. As far as I'm aware they're only sold in W H Smiths at the moment and have been for a while, it's taken me this long to find a W H Smiths where they don't keep the chocolate bars only at the tills -  why do they do that? Sometimes I just want to buy chocolate and I'm not queuing up incase there's none I like!

This is a standard 100g bar, separated into even blocks of 3 apart from 1 larger block at the end which could be a little annoying if you're portioning this out but I ate it all in one go so…  

This isn't advertised on the Thorntons website and my lovely fiancée managed to throw the wrapper away before I'd even finished this so I don't have the specifics on this but I'm pretty sure it's a fudge flavoured milk chocolate with extra fudge pieces inside. The chocolate is nice and sweet and the fudge pieces are a lovely add in. Once the chocolate has melted in your mouth you're left with chewy fudge, a nice change from the usual crunch that's added to bars. I really like the flavours and textures of this, and the fact it only cost me £1 made it even better.

Rating 7/10

Thorntons Special Toffee Milk Choclolate.

I do like toffee but if it came head to head with fudge it would lose every time. Normally.

This is the other Thorntons sharing block, the basics are the same as the as the fudge bar -  once again my OCD fiancée had thrown the packet away before I'd even finished the bar so I can't give you the finer details.

There are toffee pieces dotted throughout, I had a generous and evenly spaced amount - sometimes, like ice cream, I find some parts have more and others none but that wasn't the case here. The toffee flavour is good, I enjoy Thorntons fudge and toffee anyway and I think this is the same recipe used in the bar. As with the fudge bar the chocolate melts away to leave crunchy chewy toffee pieces and for the first time this beats fudge for me!

Rating 8/10

Angel Delight Bubblegum Flavour

I absolutely loved Angel Delight as a kid, my mum used to make it for me and my sister and we had special fancy glass bowls she used to dish it up in, looking back now they were just ordinary glass bowls but I remember feeling very grown up! I still eat Angel Delight from time to time now, I'll write online it's nostalgic but really I think it's still quite nice ;-).

I picked this up in Tesco about a week and a half ago and I put it off for a while because after I'd thought about it I didn't really fancy the idea of a bubblegum flavour, it's strange to me.

Anyway I opened this up and they've got the smell spot on, it's very strong, very overpowering and very bubblegum. Infact it's so bubblegum-y that it actually put me off a bit. It smells just like Hubba Buuba, artificial and I swear you can just smell the sugar and I couldn't really see how that would be nice in a mousse/dessert/whatever Angel Delight is classed as nowadays.

Fortunately (unfortunately?)  after I made this and was leaving it for the five minutes to set someone came round so I popped it in the fridge and didn't get back to it for 2 hours. When I opened the fridge everything smelt of bubblegum, the smell had just overtaken everything and despite really not wanting this I got stuck in.

I'm not sure if it's because I left it a lot longer to set than you're supposed to or if it's because I put it in the fridge or maybe it's just like this, but the taste was extremely muted compared to the smell. This was a good thing for me! I could taste the bubblegum but it was very dull, I wonder if this is the same base as the strawberry version just with added flavour because every now and then it tasted very similar.

This was Ok but it's not something I'd buy again, if anyone has tried it and has a different experience to me please let me know as I really think the two hour gap affected it.

Rating 6/10

Odds And Sods

I've tried a couple of bits over the last few months that didn't really warrant a whole post of their own so I've decided to lump them all together in one random post here.

E. Wedel Leśny Duet.

When I purchased this bar in Tesco I assumed it was the strawberry bar I had seen online - I really should learn to look properly before I buy things! It turns out this is a milk chocolate with blueberry and wild strawberry filling. According to the ingredients on the back the filling contains 0.6% blueberry juice and 0.3% wild strawberry pulp.

 The bar itself looks like the E. Wedel bars I've had before and I enjoyed the filling in those bars so I was looking forward to trying this one.

I was very surprised to find a sort of jelly inside, I was expecting more of a cream but I am glad it wasn't. The jelly is a great textural difference to most other filled bars and there is a generous amount inside each square. I wouldn't say one flavour overpowered the other but considering there is more blueberry than strawberry I could taste the strawberry a little more - maybe that's because it is pulp rather than juice.

I enjoyed this and from what I can see on the packet there are two more in this range - one looks like pear and grape (?!) and I can't work out what the other picture is for the life of me but I'll be keeping my eyes peeled!

Rating 7/10

Toffee Crisp Sharing Block

I'm very very late with the review for this bar, I actually ate it in September but I didn't bother with my review as I'm pretty sure everyone on my blog roll (>>> have a look!) has reviewed this as soon as it was out.

I liked this as a stand alone bar, it definitely tastes like Toffee Crisp but I do prefer the original, it's crunchier and I think these flavours work better in a nice thick block rather than a thin bar. That said if I'd tried this before I'd ever had an original Toffee Crisp the rating would easily be an 8 based on flavour.

Rating another 7/10

Heinz Tuscan Beanz

I didn't get a photo of these once they were plated up I got stuck right in! I had them for a while but I wasn't too sure what to serve them with, the Heinz website suggests poured over chicken or with pork chops but I didn't fancy that. Instead I had them with a cheap bit of frying steak (I would never ruin my good steak with beans!!).

I actually really enjoyed these, the sauce was still a tomato sauce but there were peppers mixed in too aswell as roasted garlic and basil. These felt like a more grown up tin of beans to me - they wouldn't go well on toast or even a jacket potato in my opinion. They're more of a side to a Mediterranean style dish, and go nicely with a "proper" dinner.

Rating 8/10

Double Chocolate Fudge Brownie Cookie Dough Bites

I hunted these down after trying the dark chocolate cookie dough bites and finally got them in a MR Simms Emporium shop, although Tesco have started restocking them now - typical!

Once open they really smell of fudge brownie. That part is spot on - they smell like Ben and Jerrys Chocolate Fudge Brownie without the ice cream if that makes sense. Sadly they don't really taste like they smell.

These are just as moreish as the Dark Chocolate version, and they are pretty tasty but they taste of chocolate bites. I can't even compare them to anything, imagine a ball of maybe chocolate button but with a bit of crunch inside? They're basically the same as the first version I tried but milk chocolate instead of dark and kind of missing the cookie dough - replaced instead with a nice smelling but non existent tasting fudge brownie filling. I've confused myself so I'm probably confusing anyone reading this but after the lovely smell the lack of taste in the filling was dissapointing. I would rename these solid chocolate crunchie bites.

Rating 6/10

The Collective Dairy Russian Fudge

I've tried this yogurt before, it's not new or a limited edition but it's too good not to make a post on it. This flavour is Russian fudge and according to The Collective Dairy this is a New Zealand sweet (otherwise known to us as Scottish Tablet? I just always assumed that was fudge).  It’s a live gourmet plan yogurt with fudge swirled throughout, though it's not really a swirl more like a giant splattering.

The keep fresh seal made me smile.

In this photo it looks quite watery, I probably should have given it a stir but I wanted to show how much fudge is dumped in this! The flavour is just pure fudge, just like real fudge not the cheap stuff you get in a pick and mix or the sweet shop. Good buttery creamy fudge. Mixed with the plain yogurt this is delicious.

And it's not just a layer at the top or bottom like other yogurts, this fudge is all the way through. I absolutely love it.

Rating 9/10

A special mention to the Banoffi flavour too, it's only available in 150g tubs and I'm afraid I ate that before I even thought of reviewing it.

Ben & Jerry's Joy To The Swirled

This is the second of three new flavours Ben & Jerrys have released this week, the first being Satisfy My Bowl and the third which I haven't tried yet Minter Wonderland. This is a bit different from the normal pint in that it is chunk free! I was a little apprehensive about this as the chunks are my favourite part normally in a pint of Ben & Jerrys, they're such good quality compared to some other brands and they never scrimp on the quantity! Anyway this is a vanilla ice cream with swirls of caramel and chocolate fudge. 

I don't think I've actually had just a plain vanilla from Ben & Jerry before, but as usual it's a great base flavour. It's very luxurious tasting and creamy, although it might be a little boring on its own - I'll let you know once I manage to tick plain vanilla from a scoop shop off my list. 

The chocolate fudge and caramel swirls are delicious. The first swirl really tastes and smells of fudge -  there is clearly chocolate there too but the fudge is the stand out flavour surprisingly considering how easy it is for chocolate to overpower. The caramel swirls are just as good, thick gooey caramel that was getting stuck to the spoon - perfect! 

The swirls aren't just in the top like some other brands (mentioning no names!!) but if anything there seems to be more of them the further you get into the pint. Infact the very bottom of my pint was 80% caramel, not that I'm complaining I could eat bowlfuls of that stuff!!

This is a really nice ice cream, I'm not sure if this is a limited run too I hope not as I think this could sell well, especially for people who aren't too keen on add ins. I know I didn't actually miss them in this pint.

I'd give this a 9 if I hadn't tried Satisfy My Bowl 48 hours before.

Rating 8/10