Blood 'N' Bones Ice Scream

Happy Halloween! 

When I think of Halloween, I think of chocolate, sweets, pumpkins etc - Vanilla ice cream with a raspberry ripple, marshmallows and white chocolate curls don't scream that it's the spooky season but you know me, I'll never turn down ice cream. 

I thought this was a Co-Op own brand ice cream but that doesn't seem to be the case looking at the tub.

As I thought it was own brand I wasn't suprised to find the ice cream, to put it nicely, was a bit crap. I find there are two types of vanilla ice cream in the world; the first actual vanilla flavoured and the second more of a plain, neutral flavour that doesn't taste of much at all. The vanilla base here was annoyingly the latter. Texturally it wasn't too bad, nothing like your thick luxurious Haagen Dazs or Ben & Jerry's, a bit thicker and creamier than I expected but there was no real vanilla flavour. 

I came to the marshmallow pieces first, they were nice - soft and squidgy but again lacking any outright marshmallow flavour, though I did notice each mouthful got slightly sweeter if there were marshmallows included. 

They don't stand out too much in the photo and they didn't in person either, but the slightly yellower parts of the pint are the tiny white chocolate curls. They followed suit and added nothing in terms of taste. One small bonus of the ice cream being of a lower quality was that it melted quite quickly, the chocolate curls were still frozen so while I didn't notice the flavour, I could at least feel the crunch against the smoother ice cream. 

The saviour of the pint was the raspberry ripple. Strong and sweet, it had a lovely raspberry flavour. It wasn't very thick but still managed to be syrup-y and was the most enjoyable element of the pint. I can't help but think though that the reason I liked the ripple was because the rest of the tub was so plain tasting, in any other ice cream I have a feeling I'd be moaning it was too thin and sugary rather than pure raspberry. It didn't seem that way at the time but the rest was so boring. 

I'm not too annoyed about Blood'N'Bones. Sure it had no flavour whatsoever but the texture was pretty nice - quite creamy with soft squidgy marshmallows, crunchy chocolate and slightly thicker sauce - it just didn't taste of much. Still, I bought it for the novelty factor, although I am wondering what any of it has to do with Halloween... 

4/10 

Annabelle's Rocky Road S'mores & Sour Apple Laffy Taffy - Taffy Mail

Handmade milk chocolate coated marshmallow with real Graham Cracker and cashews. 

First out of my Taffy Mail box and the one I was looking most forward to was the Annabelle's Rocky Road S'mores. A s'more is "a traditional nighttime campfire treat popular in the USA and Canada consisting of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham cracker" and a graham cracker from what I can see online is like a thinner slightly sweet digestive biscuit. 

It's a big old bar that smelt delicious, a sweet mixture of marshmallow and chocolate and it had a real handmade authentic look to it. 

The marshmallow had a lovely sweet flavour and is soft, fluffy and gooey - stretching between the two halves when I snapped it. It isn't like chewing a proper marshmallow though, it's much lighter than that but it is thicker and chewier than marshmallow fluff. 

The chocolate isn't so much of an aftertaste, it has a stronger flavour than that but I couldn't really taste it until the marshmallow had melted in my mouth. It's not bad chocolate actually - one of the better American chocolates I've tried though it's still mega sweet! 

One of the three ingredients in S'mores are the Graham Crackers so I expected them to be more prominent here and I probably would have noticed it more had there been two layers, both on the top and bottom of the bar rather than just the top. 

Once I got a mouthful with sufficient marshmallow, chocolate and biscuit/cracker though, it was amazing. Sweet, chewy, chocolatey, crunchy goodness! The marshmallow stood out the most which I expected as it takes up easily three quarters of the bar. I forgot until writing this review that there were supposed to be cashews, I'm guessing they are what gives the bar it's nobbly appearance and what made some parts a lot crunchier than others but they weren't very noticable and I didn't really taste anything nutty. However I'll let that slide as they're all handmade apparently so the consistency of the cashews can be forgiven! 

The marshmallow itself is very tasty, the chocolate and crackers are nice enough but all three together were pretty damn good. If you aren't a bit of a sugar fiend like me though be warned, this is a very sweet treat but one I recommend! 

7/10 

Next was another from my Amazon wish list - Sour Apple Laffy Taffy Rope. Apologies for the terrible photo, this was so long it was impossible to photo the whole thing. I'll hand it over to Wikipedia to explain what Taffy is. 

Taffy, or chews, are a type of candy similar to toffee. Taffy is often sold alongside bubblegum and hard candy. Taffy is made by stretching or pulling a sticky mass of boiled sugar, butter or vegetable oil, flavorings, and coloring until it becomes aerated (meaning that tiny air bubbles are produced, resulting in a light, fluffy and chewy candy.

Laffy Taffy get their name from the fact jokes are printed on the wrapper, I won't bother telling you what they are - they're worse than the Penguin wrapper jokes! 

The photo doesn't so justice to how neon green this was and if smellovision existed, I have no doubt I'd still be able to smell the super strong apple even now hours later - I know I can from the wrapper in the bin!! 

Wikipedia may claim it's similar to toffee but I've never had such a soft toffee in my life, not that it's a bad thing - I really liked the texture. It was extremely sticky, smooth and soft but was still nice and chewy. Once I'd chewed a section (seriously it's longer than my placemats) it seemed to melt away in my mouth. 

The apple flavour is intense; very strong and although it wasn't scrunch my face up sour, still sour enough to be called sour apple. I dread to think what crazy E numbers are used but this is what a proper sour sweet should taste like. The banana flavour is already in my shopping basket. 

8/10 

Ben & Jerry's Save Our Swirled

Oh Ben & Jerry's I love you and I love you even more when you're for a good cause so I can totally justify buying you in bulk... 

'Raspberry ice cream with Marshmallow & Raspberry-Blackberry swirls & Chocolatey cone pieces' 

This pint is raising awareness of climate change, hence the Save Our Swirled name and the Ben & Jerry's cow is holding a little sign saying "if it's melted it's ruined!". You can find more info at www.benjerry.com/climate 

The ice cream is raspberry flavoured and it's lovely. It's not too strong but in no way is it plain or mild tasting and has a lovely fruity, fresh flavour while still being thick and creamy as is standard with Ben & Jerry's. 

I love the additions to Ben & Jerry's ice creams, they're never just bits of chocolate chucked in and there's always attention to detail. Here is no exception - little ice cream cones with a dark chocolate cone and white chocolate ice cream shaped top. The darker chocolate is the stronger of the two with a lovely rich flavour that stands out against the sweet ice cream, together the two chocolates are a nice mix and very tasty - if Ben & Jerry's sold bags of these as chocolates I'd buy a few! 

The raspberry-blackberry swirl is a bit strange in consistency, it's thick but not as thick as the caramel cores and not really a syrup or a jam but you really feel it against the ice cream. It's very rich, sweet and has a strong flavour. I noticed three different tastes in the swirl; a mix of the two, a strong raspberry but quite a bit was mainly blackberry - I think all round it is a fair mix of the two but against the raspberry ice cream the blackberry really pops out. Either way it's delicious. 

As white marshmallows are used they were quite hard to see at the start of the pint but as the ice cream melted they really stood out. Even before I could see them (I love nothing more than Ben & Jerry's infront of a film, lights off, PJs on) I could taste the marshmallow swirl. It's not as strong as I've had in other marshmallow ice creams but it's definitely there and has a lovely sweet taste. The texture is spot on for what the marshmallow represents, the melted ice caps and feels as it would if you melted some marshmallows down - runny, thick and gooey! How they keep that texture even after freezing I don't quite understand! 

Overall Save Our Swirled is quite sweet, the dark chocolate is a good choice and really suits the fruity swirls and ice cream. Ben & Jerry's are one of the more premium brands you can buy in supermarkets and as always each aspect of the pint, be it the chocolate, swirls or ice cream more than met Ben & Jerry's usual quality. 

And it's all for a good cause! 

8/10 

Thorntons Toasted Marshmallow

Following on from yesterday's Candyfloss review, today is the turn of Toasted Marshmallow. 

'Marshmallow flavour truffle dipped in dark and milk chocolate sprinkled with coconut'

Of the three this was probably the one I was least looking forward to as I'm not too keen on coconut, I find it to have a very overwhelming flavour - if there's even a hint of coconut it's all I'll taste, so this didn't bode well. 

There were seven decently sized chocolates in my bag and things started to seem a little brighter when the only scent I could really detect was a mixture of the milk and dark chocolates. The coconut sprinkles got everywhere and most fell off of the chocolate in the middle when I emptied them out of the bag so I decided to try that one first. 

Now bearing in mind this had practically no flakes of coconut, the mix of chocolates were the main flavour. I really enjoyed them together and they had a lovely mix of the sweeter milk and richer dark. It had a good flavour and was thick enough to give a nice bite and crunch against the truffle centre. The filling itself was quite thick and creamy but still managed to be fluffy with a whipped like texture. I can't say I noticed much marshmallow flavour, just a sweetness that contrasted nicely against the slightly thicker dark chocolate. There were a couple of very small coconut flakes on top, not enough to give much flavour (thankfully for me) but enough to notice the crunchiness against the creamy chocolate and soft centre. So far so good. 

Then I ate the rest. I expected the coconut to be apparent but I didn't think it would be so dominant! To be perfectly truthful I just didn't enjoy the others, the coconut is strong and there were so many pieces coating the rest of the chocolates it was all I could taste. It certainly overwhelmed the truffle centre and was as strong as if not stronger than the chocolate. 

To be fair I really don't like coconut, I'd taste it in miniscule amounts so this was always going to be an unfair review. One for the coconut lovers though. 

I want to say 5/10 but it's not Thorntons fault I don't like Coconut. So 5 to my tastes but I'll try to be fair and give it a 7/10 

Ptasie Mleczko waniliow (Dark chocolate coated marshmallow)

This afternoons Wednesday World food review is another from Poland and E.Wedel. It's called Ptasie Mleczko waniliowe and is a dark chocolate covered vanilla marshmallow bar.

It's helpfully portioned into two individual fingers should you wish to share and the total weight of the pack is 50g - they're actually pretty heavy considering its marshmallow inside. 

They smelt good, not too dark though but it's only 47% so still quite sweet and milky and I could smell the sweetness. 

The chocolate coating is very thin and to be truthful some mouthfuls I didn't taste chocolate at all and some it was more of an aftertaste. As an overall bar I could taste the chocolate but the marshmallow is the dominant flavour. That said the marshmallow is vanilla apparently but I didn't really pick up on that. It was quite sweet, not overly so but had more of a general/generic marshmallow flavour. 

The marshmallow was quite thick and heavy but still soft and fluffy somehow. At first I had to chew it but it melted away to a smoother fluff like texture - like the spread. I'd actually refrigerated this and I'm glad I did as the chocolate coating had a lovely crisp bite to it. 

It was so so. Not bad, not great. It made for a change from what I've been eating recently which was nice but it really could have done with a thicker chocolate coating. 

Rating 6/10 

Cadbury Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations Rocky Mallow Road

Another day another new product for Cadbury, the new bar is from the Marvellous Creations line and is replacing the banana bar and the cookie bar (I believe). The Marvellous Creations range seem to be Cadburys take on Willy Wonka and feature all kinds of strange mash ups in chocolate bars, bags and ice creams - please please please Cadbury bring the entire Australlian Marvellous Creations to the UK especially Rainbow Rockin' Bears!! 

This chocolate bar is Rocky Mallow Road, each country apparently has its own take on Rocky Road according to Wikipedia, the U.K ingredients are chocolate, marshmallow, biscuit, raisins and sultanas. Australia's are chocolate, marshmallow, desiccated coconut, glacé cherries, nuts, and Turkish delight(?). Finally the USA's are chocolate, marshmallows and walnuts or almonds. Cadburys Rocky Mallow Road has milk chocolate with marshmallow, strawberry flavour jellies and shortcake biscuit. Where the strawberry jellies came from who knows, but there you have it.

The bar looks identical from the outside to the previous Marvellous Creations bars, oddly shaped blocks and lumps and bumps where it's full of extra ingredients. The chocolate used is Dairy Milk and I think most people have tried that before so I'll skip describing that part. 

I fully expected the usual smell of Dairy Milk when I opened the wrapper so I was a bit surprised to first and foremostly smell strawberry and the sweet sugary smell of marshmallow. 

Taking a bite was the same case, sure I had the texture of chocolate in my mouth but even though visibly they seem the least in the bar, all I could taste was the strawberry jelly. It's very strong! I assumed the jelly pieces would be similar to jelly beans but they're actually little squares of jelly!! While this gives a stronger flavour it makes for a strange texture as once the chocolate has melted away you're left with a very sticky, chewy jelly that ended up stuck in my teeth. The marshmallows are also very chewy, the strawberry tended to drown it out a little but as there are more of the marshmallows in each bar, they did make themselves known soon enough. I didn't have that much biscuit in mine and while it didn't have too much of a noticable flavour they provided a very welcome texture change to smooth chocolate and chewy jellies and marshmallows.

The wrapper claims 7% marshmallows, 5% strawberry jelly and 5% biscuits but I found that hard to believe, it must be a low estimate because the bar I got was absolutely jam packed full of pieces, so much so I struggled to taste the chocolate at times! The strawberry jelly was by far the most dominant flavour and texture, it tastes nothing like other strawberry filled chocolate bars I've tried - it legitimately tastes like strawberry jelly. The flavours all went well with the Dairy Milk - I know there's a lot going on here and for some it might be a bit much but I really did like it, it's fun if that makes sense, I said on Twitter it's like a fairground in a chocolate bar! 

If you don't like strawberry, or you don't like chewy in a chocolate bar you won't like this. If you're into darker, more grown up chocolate you won't like this. But if you take it for what it is, a bit of fun, probably a bit too sweet and a bit weird all round you should enjoy it! 

Rating 7/10 

The Lickators Marshmallow Law marshmallow ice cream

I can't tell you how excited I was to try this ice cream. I've bought it on my last three or four Ocado orders but the first time round I made the mistake of letting my other half try it before me. He decided it was his favourite thing ever and it's barely made it in the freezer every other time. I could never justify paying £10 for two 500ml tubs so I've never managed to try it, however it appears The Co-Op have started stocking Lickator ice creams now at a much more reasonable £3 and the ice cream thief appeared home with two tubs so I finally got a look in!

This tub is called Marshmallow Law Marshmallow ice cream - a marshmallow flavour dairy ice cream with pink and white marshmallows. 

The ice cream is more of a baby pink than a bright neon and didn't smell too strong so before I'd eaten any I was a bit skeptical. Although I couldn't smell too much marshmallow the flavour was certainly there, it's a pretty strong flavour without being too sweet. It has quite a deep, warm taste if that makes sense and while I've never actually tried toasted marshmallows it's exactly how I'd expect them to taste. Most recently I tried the Cadbury marshmallow ice cream and you can't compare the two - the ice cream flavour is much nicer and the quality is much better. It's lovely and creamy, thick and while still quite firm was scoopable straight away. The ice cream has a lovely melt, it's quite rich but again without being too much. I should probably point out the other half/ice cream thief is actually lactose intolerant and very rarely ate ice cream, if he did he never finishes it but this tub doesn't last half an hour! 

There were lots of marshmallows in my pint, all evenly distributed and they're very reasonably sized - no mini marshmallows here. To be honest it's quite hard to distinguish the difference in flavour of the ice cream and marshmallows, they aren't flavourless but the ice cream is spot on so the two taste the same. I didn't mind though as for me it's all about the texture. There were no frozen marshmallows, everyone I got was soft, fluffy and chewy and compliment that thick ice cream well. 

This is a very moreish ice cream! Hopefully the other flavours are just as nice because I have a custard and doughnut waiting in the freezer for me... 

Rating 8/10 

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 

CHOC+ Rocky Road Scrumble

I didn’t get my own photo of this as I ate it while the boxing was on Saturday night and got a bit caught up in the excitement.

This is a bag from CHOC+ purchased in sainsburys in a “sharing size” bag (pssshh yeah right!) which weighs in at 100 grams. The company says they use only 100% natural ingredients and have 3 of these sharing pick and mix style bags. If anyone knows where I can get my hands on the banoffee one please let me know!! 

This is rocky road scrumble, crunchy biscuit pieces in finest milk chocolate, white chocolate chunks, soft caramel and mini marshmallows. They make a nice mix together, I seemed to get a bag filled mainly with marshmallows and white chocolate, but hey ho. The biscuit pieces are lovely – like teeny tiny malteasers, the white chocolate is good quality and I got some large chunks! The caramel is the stand out part of this bag though they are very similar to the thorntons vanilla fudge, in size wise and consistency I just wish there were more. The marshmallows were my least favourite, they didn’t really taste of anything but they gave a nice change to the crunch of chocolateness of the bag! I really enjoyed this.

8/10 I would definitely buy this again I have high hopes for the other bags! 

P.s I don’t call them marshmallows I say mellow, but this editor is really playing up and won’t let me write it!! Hmmph :-(