The Licktators present Blur The Magic Whip

It feels like forever since I've had a new ice cream to try, it hasn't been that long really - Ben & Jerry's three new flavours didn't come out that long ago, but for me that's a lifetime! 

Ben & Jerry's are my go to boys but Mr.1T swears by The Licktators even though, as usual, they make him ill and normally he refuses any other brand. I've got a good track record with The Licktators and keep an eye out for whenever they're on special offer, this flavour grabbed my attention in my local Co-Op thanks to the strange packaging. It doesn't follow The Licktators usual theme of Sex Pistols style photos and statements stamped on the tub and I thought it was some weird Asian import!

The Magic Whip is a partnership with the band Blur, made to coincide with the release of their latest album and tour (yes I found this very late - it came out in July!)

THE MAGIC WHIP ICE CREAM is the reinvention of a classic ice cream favourite, vanilla custard ice cream rippled with raspberry sauce. 

The first thing I noticed was the black vanilla bean flecks dotted all throughout the ice cream. They don't stand out too much in the photos but I promise you they were there and there were lots of them! I hoped they would be an indication that the ice cream had a real, authentic vanilla flavour and I wasn't dissapointed. It tastes delicious and the custard ice cream is wonderfully thick and creamy, no different to any of the other Licktators ice creams I've tried. 

The raspberry sauce is consistent and there is a nice amount amongst the ice cream, more than enough to get a taste in every bite but not too much it overpowers the sweet vanilla. I was extremely pleased to find that the syrup swirl wasn't a pure liquid syrup, there were actual chunks of raspberry dotted about which not only gave an intensified flavour but added lovely little chewy bits here and there too. 

My one minor complaint, and please bear in mind I have zero patience with ice cream, was that for 3/4 of my tub the syrup swirl was still kind of frozen. Not frozen as in rock solid but just a little more solid than you'd expect a syrup to be although that could be explained away by the real fruit pieces. Once it had thawed out and softened up it was a lot more enjoyable, the taste didn't change at all but it just had a nicer mouthfeel. 

If you're a fan of Raspberry Ripple then you'd better find this fast! I'm pretty sure it's a limited edition and this is the grown up, luxurious, posh version of the old school favourite that's made with good quality ingredients. 

7/10 

Mr.1T has made me include a photo of his tub. He wanted to show how it looks when normal people eat it - not someone eating carefully to take a photo for a review.. Cheeky git. 

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 

Warheads Sour Chewy Cubes & Charms Blue Razz Berry Blow Pop - Taffy Mail

Warheads Sour Chewy Cubes 

The thing I liked about the Taffy Mail box was that it included smaller packets of sweets that I'd have liked to try but let's be honest, who's going to pay import prices on Amazon and the like, for small bags of sweets and lollipops! 

They wouldn't be American if there wasn't at least one neon blue sweet! 

I definitely wouldn't be paying for these from Amazon no matter how tasty they might have been once I saw how many were in the pack. That's all of them! 

I couldn't pick out a particular smell in the bag and there's no indication of flavours. 

They have a weird, very thick texture. It's chewy but a weird chew - like an extra thick, super solidified jelly. 

The orange cubes had a good strong flavour which I'm guessing was orange. It was strong but not instantly recognisable. The red had strong flavours at first which faded to nothing while chewing then left a sharp, sour aftertaste. I don't know what the blue or purpley-grey were supposed to be, they were quite plain and just tasted like sugar mainly. No real flavour I could pick out. 

None of these were sour enough to be called sour cubes, to be fair the packet has a little scale on the back ranking Tart-Sour-Super Sour-Extreme and these rate at just sour apparently, but 3/4 had no sourness at all. Coming after the strength of the previous sweets I was dissapointed. 

6/10 

Charms Blue Razz Berry Blow Pop

Last but not least was the blow pop, I didn't google it or pay it much thought as its a lollipop right? 

And more blue! 

The wrapper had come open a little but it still smelt quite strong considering. At first it had a pleasant blueberry taste that wasn't as artificial as I expected but the more I sucked (now now) the crazier it got. This was exactly what I expected and hoped for with the blow pop, very sugary, very fake tasting but very strong. The only thing I wasn't too keen on was the sugary film it left over my teeth - I was looking forward to brushing them while I was still eating it. 

Once you get through the lollipop the centre becomes a bubblegum, it was very juicy and incredibly strong but not even a minute after I started chewing the raspberry flavour was completely gone and it had that horrible flavour you get after you've had chewing gum for about 10 minutes - you might as well be chewing rubber. 

Such a shame as it was good up until that point! 

6/10 

Remember if you go to the original Taffy Mail post, there is a code for readers of the blog for 15% off your first box - I definitely reccomend! 

Fruit Shoot Sweets

I'm having another one of my phases, this time it's sweets! I really wanted some Monty Bojangles Bon Bons and their website is the only place I can seem to find them, a delivery charge seemed silly for 1 small box of Bon Bons so I treated myself to these three bags of Fruit Shoot sweets as well as the J20 Bon Bons and Robinsons Squash gums. 

Funky Fruits 

These are an assorted mix of fruit jellies and as with the Robinsons packet are vegetarian and made with natural colours and flavours. The little blurb says "We are so fixated with Fruitiness that for our new Fruit Shoot Funky Fruit jellies we are using the most lusciously mouth-watering soft and fruity recipe to create these fantastically fruity flavours".

Well they smelt lusciously fruity but I disagree with the description of soft jellies, they had more of a wine gum consistency; a pretty hard chew and were some of the stickiest sweets I've had in a long time - I was picking bits out of my teeth for ages! 

Summer fruits flavour is "all the sweet and sharp flavour of succulent strawberries & raspberries" and had a nice actual summery taste to it. The strawberry is slightly stronger but overall had a good mix of the two. Apple has "the sharp flavour of yummy apples" but really I found it to be quite mild to begin with. It had more of a sweet apple taste while chewing but to be fair there was a sharper aftertaste. Tropical is "bursting with the sun-soakingly delicious flavour of a pineapple and orange punch" and for some reason there were 2 different shapes with this flavour in my bag. It ended up being the plainest tasting of all but it did have a mild cocktail like flavour to it. I couldn't clearly taste the pineapple and after trying the orange in the bag realised I couldn't taste that either. Moving on to the actual Orange - "the zingy, zesty flavour of the fullest, juiciest oranges". I'm not a great lover of oranges and so the strong, natural flavour of these didn't do much for me. They were very sharp, very citrusy and almost bitter or tart at some points. A very clear orange flavour and while I wasn't too keen it was a good, long lasting one. Blackcurrant and apple "capture all the flavour of bucketloads of beautifully jammy blackcurrant a & apples" but really tasted just of blackcurrant. I couldn't taste the apple at all but I wasn't moaning - the blackcurrant is good! It's not too strong but has a natural, juicy flavour. 

Despite being made by Robinsons with, I'm guessing, the same natural flavours and colours these were a lot better. The flavours were stronger and tasted real, I was just annoyed at how sticky these were - it's a good job I have all my own teeth! 

7/10 

Fruit Shoot Mega Sour Mix 

The flavours in this bag are exactly the same as the Funky Fruits - just sour, apparently. 

They smelt better than Funky Fruits though, the same blend of fruity scents but a lot more vibrant and despite again only using natural colours or flavours. Nothing artificial again but these aren't suitable for vegetarians. The sweets have much more of a jelly texture than before and are very soft and fizzy feeling, nice and chewy and are so juicy I felt like they would burst if I gave them a squeeze. 

Summer fruits had a much better mix of the two flavours this time round, neither were stronger and it was very tasty. For a 'Mega Sour' mix, it was distinctly lacking in the sour front though. Tropical was as dissapointing as before. The plainest of all, neither flavour used is strong at all and it's generally quite mild. This flavour tasted like the worlds most watered down cocktail. Dull. 

Blackcurrant & Apple was another that was different from the Funky Fruits bag, the blackcurrant was nowhere near as overpowering as before and it's more of an even mix of the two. Sadly this meant it tasted a lot milder as the apple, which I could actually taste this time, just seemed to tone it all down a bit. There is a strong blackcurrant aftertaste but I preferred it previously, as the stronger, dominant flavour. The Apple alone seems completely different, it's quite strong and a nice apple flavour, just like with the Summer Fruits flavour and the apple in the Funky Fruits bag, is quite sweet rather than sour. It's very nice though. I left Orange till last again, and one again it's a sharp orange flavour. I much preferred it here though, the taste suits the fizzy, sugary texture much more and it ends with a slightly sour aftertaste. A lot better in this bag. 

I preferred this bag a lot and I think the texture and type of sweet is the reason why, it suits these flavour a lot more. All of them (except tropical) have a really nice flavour but none are mega sour as I was expecting. Tasty though. 

7/10 

Juicy Jellies 

Again the third and final Fruit Shoot bag, Juicy Jellies is (meant to have) the same five flavours in the bag however, while this bag is still made with natural flavours and ingredients, it doesn't say that no artificial flavours are used so I was interested to see how these would shape up against the purely natural ones. 

I noticed a difference before I'd even tried one, they had an overwhelming, very strong tropical scent to them - nothing like the previous bags and a bit ironic considering the tropical had no flavour in those! Although the name is Juicy Jellies, these are a mixture of completely harder gummy like sweets and half gummy half foam sweets. 

I ran into a problem with these sweets that I hadn't before, the other two had a good mix of all the flavours but with these I had 12 (yes I counted) Summer Fruits flavour, 2 and 4 Apple & Blackcurrent and Apple, 1 Tropical and no Orange! I know there's no guarantee of what sweets are inside each bag but at least one of each would be nice! The half foam sweets are quite soft like all sweets of this texture are with a nice chew and the others have a firmer, more solid chew. Again more like a slightly softer Wine Gum than a jelly. 

The half foam Summer Fruit tasted like a diluted version of the same flavour in the last two bags, all I could really taste was the foam bottom of the sweet - not that I can put into words the flavour but just plain. The same flavour in gummy form wasn't much better, there was a mixed berry aftertaste but to be truthful I only knew what flavour it was supposed to be because it was red and shaped like a strawberry. The half foam Apple was the complete opposite, the apple was very strong and was the nicest apple out of the three. It was very sweet and juicy - a very nice apple sweet. I ate the gummy version immediately after a foam and gave up trying to work these bags out. I'm assuming the same ingredients are used for the half foam but these tasted so plain, there was a slight lingering apple taste but nothing while I was actually chewing. The strength of the foam apple might not have helped but these just seemed dull. Blackcurrant & Apple in the half foam sweet was very plain again, like the summer fruits all I could taste was the marshmallow like foam on the bottom. Dissapointing. The same flavour in the gummy was slightly better, it was stronger tasting than the Summer Fruits was but still mild. It had an even mix of the two flavours but nothing impressive. I can't comment on Orange as I didn't have any but I did have one lonely Tropical half foam sweet - hallelujah! At last, this is how tropical was supposed to taste in the other bags. Fresh and fruity with a slight tart aftertaste - this one sweet had enough flavour to provide the tropical smell when I opened the bag! Lovely. 

I liked a couple in the Juicy Jellies bag but the rest were rubbish. It seems Apple and Tropical benefit from artificial flavours as these were the only vibrant, juicy sweets in the bag. 

5/10 

The Fruit Shoot sweets are pretty good - especially the first two if you're looking for natural sweets rather than lots of added nasties and they're only £1 for quite a big bag too. It was interesting to see that (with the exception of the Juicy Jellies) the same ingredients were used but the strength/tartness/juiciness varied so much between bags, it seems the type of sweet used really affects the flavour. 

The all round winner for me was the (not very sour) Mega Sours! 

Cadbury Biscuit Assortment

It's the 8th of October and I have my first Christmas related review! The worst part about it is all the Christmas sweets and chocolates have been in the shops for a good month now as well.

Normally I wait until it's actually Christmas to start on the big boxes of chocolates and biscuits as I think the prices in relation to number of pieces is a complete rip off and I'll wait for someone else to buy them. This box however is a good portion size for one person with one of each biscuit rather than three or four and was a bit of a bargain (for Cadbury Christmas biccies) in Poundland.

I did read online that Cadbury have released some new biscuits into their assortment boxes, I'm unsure if any of these are new as by the time I get my turn with the biscuit barrel at Christmas, the plain ones are the only ones left!!

An assortment of biscuits covered in Cadbury milk chocolate and dark chocolate. 

Before I get any further into the post, let me just say the only dark chocolate in the box are the thin squiggles across three of the biscuits - I think - I didn't taste any dark chocolate so there won't be any mention. As is usual for a box of biscuits, they were in a plastic tray sealed inside a plastic bag and ripping it open revealed the deceptive Cadbury smell. It smells like the good stuff, but wether it still tastes like it is debatable! 

The assortment includes one of each biscuit, except for the Crunchy Ring, bottom left and top centre. The chocolate coating is nice and thick and tastes like Cadbury (not Dairy Milk). These are actually made by Burtons Biscuits rather than Cadbury and I think it shows as the actual biscuits are good quality rather than just an afterthought to the chocolate. The Crunchy Ring has a shortcake/shortbread like biscuit inside, it has a lovely, very buttery flavour but is crunchier and crisper than an ordinary shortcake or bread. It's a round, crunchier version of one of my favourite old school Cadbury bars, the Cadbury Snack. 

The biscuit inside probably stood out the least in the Lemon Crisp, bottom centre. It had a nice enough taste and texture but the thick, stronger flavoured chocolate was what I noticed most. The lemon is nice and quite sweet but I found it a little weird. It was like the opposite of a mint chocolate if that makes sense and I wasn't that keen on it paired with the milk. Like a lot of mint chocolates it would probably have suited a dark chocolate better. 

The chocolate that I was kind of dissapointed in was the Chocolate Pillow, top right. I thought pillow = soft, maybe creamy but it was just a plain milk chocolate coating a biscuit. The chocolate seemed slightly thicker, and the biscuit was softer than the two previously but it didn't have much flavour to it. Certainly not the lovely buttery flavour like in the first. A little boring really. 

Milk Triangle, middle right, was one that surprised me. I expected what I got with the Chocolate Pillow, a plain boring biscuit and while it was plainer it wasn't boring. The biscuit used here was my favourite amongst them all, it had the lovely buttery flavour of the Crunchy Ring but was nice and soft (without feeling stale) too. It's very sweet, especially with the sweet Cadbury chocolate on top but as there was only one it was no problem. Very nice. 

The Raspberry Oat Crunch, top left, was intriguing. The biscuit was very, very crunchy and crisp and at first all I could taste were the oats. The raspberry flavour was soon noticable though and was good, concentrated raspberry pieces made from purée are used so it has quite a strong, realer (than some chocolate bars) flavour too. This biscuit was a bit like a harder, crisper Flapjack. 

I didn't know (and still don't) what the Hazelnut Flavour Crispette, bottom right, was. What is a Crispette? It wasn't that much crisper than the Lemon Crisp or Raspberry Oat Crunch, whatever it was. It had a slight hazelnut flavour but it was pretty overwhelmed by the Cadbury milk chocolate. 

I left the Simply Shortcake, centre, for last as I thought it would be most like a Cadbury Snack bar. It fell short though, it had a soft shortcake biscuit which wasn't as buttery as the first but still did have a little flavour. It was tasty but another slightly boring biscuit. 

This assortment box was OK, as I've always been recently I was slightly dissapointed with the Cadbury chocolate. I know it's the typical Christmas chocolate they use and not Dairy Milk but it was very sweet and had a waxy, sticky feel. The biscuits used are nice and the redeeming feature. I think if I came across these at Christmas and hadn't tried them before I'd have been happy with just one - they aren't a box you can't help yourself from keep dipping into but they're tasty enough. 

7/10 

J20 Bon Bons

I am officially on a mission to find the best tasting Bon Bons and thankfully for me, this retro sweet seems to be making a bit of a comeback. I've reviewed a few Bon Bons before, and the Sunkist ones are top of my leader board at the moment. I tend to stick to the more traditional flavours when it comes to a Bon Bon - strawberry, lemon and toffee and I like one with a good, solid chew. 

So with that in mind I thought I'd push the boat out and go for some more unusual flavours with these two J20 bags. 

Neither bag contain any artificial colourings or flavours, just remember this when you see what they look like!

J20 Exotic Fruit Dual Flavours 

A mix of dual colour and flavour chewy Bon Bons in your favorite J20 drink flavours - Apple & Blueberry, Apple & Mango, Orange & Passion fruit and  Apple & Raspberry

Lots of apple in this bag and come to think of it, I haven't actually tried an apple Bon Bon before. 

No single scent is immediately noticable, there is just an overall fruity smell to the sweets. 

They aren't the most appealing Bon Bons to look at, I think its all that green but I've not let appearances put me off before and I wasn't about to start now. The texture was spot on, a good, long lasting chew that stopped just short of jaw ache. 

The Orange & Passion Fruit were mainly orange to be truthful, I couldn't really taste the passion fruit but it wasnt quite a full on orange flavour - not as orange tasting as just an orange Bon Bon if that makes sense! Theres a hint of a little something else at the end of each sweet but it doesn't scream passion fruit. They are nice though. 

The Apple & Mango are very tasty, neither flavour is stronger than the other and again being completely honest neither were 100% identifiable as the fruit they were supposed to be but the mix together was lovely. 

In Apple & Raspberry the flavours were better. The raspberry is stronger than the apple but doesn't overpower it completely. I could still taste both in each Bon Bon. The two blend together nicely and were another I enjoyed. 

Apple & Blueberry were my least favorite out of the bag. I wasn't even sure I'd had one until I tried an apple & raspberry and realised by default these must have been the blueberry. The plainest out of the bag and a bit confusing considering I could clearly taste the apple in the other flavours. I couldn't taste the blueberry at all either.

I did like these sweets but my main issue with them was the fact three out of the four flavours were apple & something, it would have been nice to have a more varied mix of fruit. Although they didnt taste it at the time, they must have been mega sugary as I ended up with a sugar burnt tongue. I am the Queen of Pick'n'Mix and that never happens! 

6/10

J20 Glitter Berry 

Limited Edition Grape, Cherry & Spice Bon Bons 

I'm not sure whether these are three differently flavoured Bon Bons or each sweet is a mix of all three flavours and the packet (and taste) wasnt much help so this bag is reviewed as more of a whole rather than the individual flavours. 

The smell of cherry was most obvious in the bag, but they didn't smell very strong once I'd poured them out. 

They really dont look very nice do they.. But remember natural colours and ingredients so J20 (or Monty Bojangles, both are all over the pack?) should be applauded there. 

The chew was slightly different in this bag, some were as hard and chewy as before but some were a lot softer and after one or two chews seemed to dissolve away. Although I could kind of make out three differently coloured Bon Bons i couldnt taste much difference at all. Each one had a berry flavour, even though they smelt like cherry I could probably have been convinced it was a mild strawberry or even raspberry, just that general 'berry' flavour some sweets have. It was quite a dull taste anyway and quite boring to be honest. I expected the darker ones to have more flavour but they didnt taste any different from the lighter ones. 

I think (!) I tasted grape in one of the Bon Bons but it came and went so fast I pretty much missed it. It was like someone had forgotten to put the grape and spice flavour in the machine at the factory. I'd get a berry flavour which would disappear, and Id wait for the grape or spice to appear - it never did and then the berry would be back again. I had one small Bon Bon in the whole bag that was 100% cherry, no mistaking it but that was it. One solitary, small Bon Bon that seemed to have all the flavour concentrated in its tiny chewy shell. Who knows where the spice was!!

 Disappointing.  

5/10

  

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 

Marks & Spencer Halloween Sweets

It's September and for some reason this year all the Christmas chocolates and products seem to be out before the Halloween. I did manage to find a couple of Halloween themed bags of sweets in Marks and Spencers, there were chocolates too but the prices were extortionate - it seems you can charge whatever you like for tiny one bite chocolates now as long as you put them in a fancy Halloween box..

Wicked Witches Stockings 

Slithery raspberry and lime flavoured jelly sweets. 

It would be hard to miss these sweets as the orange packaging really stands out amongst all the Percy Pigs! 

The sweets look great, they're a mixture of pinky red and green and all I could think about while I was eating them was the witches feet under the house in the Wizard of Oz! 

The smelt fantastic, very vibrant and strong lime and raspberry scents and they had quite a chewy almost rubbery texture. 

I tried a lime juice witch stocking first and I have to say I was pretty dissapointed. It's a nice lime flavour - not overly sweet or sour but it is so much milder than the smell. The raspberry is the stronger flavour of the two, and again it's a good raspberry just mild compared to what I expected. The raspberry did get stronger as I worked through the bag but the lime stayed mild throughout. 

They're just quite dull in taste to be truthful, I'm trying to work out using the packet, if natural ingredients are used - it doesn't explicitly say so but I can't see any funny numbers or chemicals listed, so that might explain why. 

A shame they don't taste as good as they smell 

6/10 

Happy Owlloween 

Cola flavour jelly sweets. 

I really love the attention to detail Marks & Spencer put into how their sweets look, I know it's really about how they taste but it's nice to have something pleasing to look at too! 

As with the Witches Stockings they smelt good, a quite strong typical cola sweet scent. They're reasonably large and felt like they would be an ordinary foam sweet. 

But sneaky M&S have made it so the Owls bellies are little pockets with a jelly like filling. 

The cola flavour was good, the foam parts of the sweet have quite a mellow taste but the jelly part is nice and strong. I really liked the play on textures though, each bite was initially the chewy foam then the burst (that doesn't sound very nice but they are creepy Halloween sweets!) of the jelly pocket inside. 

It's a bit of a weird sensation, it felt like the jelly part popped but it's not liquid at all it's actually quite solid but either way the mix of the two consistencies was lovely especially with the more concentrated cola flavour. 

I really liked these and I'll stock up before the Halloween run ends! 

7/10 

Thorntons Candyfloss

Thorntons have three new chocolates out, Candyfloss, Toffee Apple Caramel and Toasted Marshmallow. All three are included in a selection box as well as in individual bags and they're being sold in the place I hate most at the moment - W.H.Smiths in a 2 for £1.60 offer. I got myself one of each and Mr.1T a bag of the Candyfloss too as white chocolate is his favourite. 

The Candyfloss chocolates are Candyfloss flavour parfait in white chocolate with pink sugar crystals. 

 I bought these at the weekend and before I had a chance to try them Kev over at Kevs Snack Reviews posted his review of the Candyfloss - read it here. Now I normally trust Kevs judgment but if you follow him on Twitter or his blog you'll know he has been sugar free, so I decided to give these a fair try as that may have influenced his opinion. 

There were eight large chocolates in the bag and they smelt incredibly sweet. The pink sugar crystal coating covered everything and they were quite sticky to touch, though that may be as I'd stored them in a quite warm cupboard. 

The parfait centre has a thick mousse like consistency and is Candyfloss and raspberry flavoured. It's extremely thick, super sweet and did actually taste like Candyfloss.

One difference I did notice between myself and Kev was that I could taste the white chocolate, this might be because my chocolates were all quite different in how thick the chocolate shell was or it could be because of Kevs sugar ban - the mega sweet centre might have overwhelmed the chocolate! Most of mine had a thick chocolate coating and it was also very sweet, every mouthful I had started with the taste of the Candyfloss filling, a short sweet white chocolate flavour then straight back to the Candyfloss/raspberry. 

The texture was a big bonus, crunchy sugar pieces, a thick chocolate shell with a decent bite and a thick creamy middle. An ideal mixture of a mouthfeel for me. 

To be honest these were nice and I enjoyed the first couple but they got too sweet too quickly. Even Mr.1T, who's motto is the sweeter the better, found them to be too sweet. I'd like these in the mixed box as one or two would be just right, especially eaten amongst some darker, richer chocolates but a whole bag - even though it's a small one and only has eight - was just too much. I'd be interested to try this filling with a milk or dark chocolate though. 

Rating

This bag as a whole - 6/10 

As part of mixed box - 7/10

E.Wedel Panna Cotta

Back to E.Wedel and Poland with this weeks world food review. It's a bar I've been eyeing up for a while but I'd only seen it in huge 200g bars, I managed to find a smaller single bar though so I grabbed it. 

This is a milk chocolate with Panna Cotta flavour filling. 

The Panna Cotta filling is a mixture of cream and raspberry and the raspberry is made with raspberry juice concentrate, it smelt very strong - as soon as I opened the wrapper all I could smell was the raspberry, no chocolate scent at all. The bars pretty cool looking and makes a change from a boring block of chocolate.

I snapped the first block off along the little indentations and all I could see was the cream, it had no noticable scent - I could still just smell the raspberry! 

Snapping that little block in half again revealed the source! Taking my first bite I felt the texture of the cream first, it was quite thick but I didn't notice too much flavour. Almost instantly the raspberry flavour kicked in and it was just as strong as the smell. I've found E.Wedel to be a bit hit and miss on fillings but the raspberry was pretty decent. It actually tastes fruity rather than an artificial chocolate bar filling - E.Wedel using real ingredients in their bars does pay off sometimes! It was very sweet but not too much and tasted summery and somewhat (for chocolate) refreshing. 

The chocolate was fine, same as with all the other bars but both the chocolate and cream were overwhelmed by the jam like, strong raspberry. 

Now if I'd left the review there it would be getting a 7/10 but the last two squares I ate had an awful acidic, sort of sour flavour in them. It was stronger than the raspberry which is saying something. I couldn't work out if it was the flavour of the cream appearing or something had gone a bit wrong with the jammy part but it was absoloutly disgusting. 

I'll give the bar the benefit of the doubt and assume something was wrong with the last two squares but it does knock the rating down a bit. 

Rating 6/10 

Mr Kipling limited edition Cocktail Fancies

I've said before I don't really like cakes, I'd normally walk straight past these Mr Kipling Fancies but a Daiquiri is my absolute favourite cocktail so I had to try the Cocktail fancies. 

There are eight to a box, a strange number if you ask me considering that gets you three of the cream coloured Piña Colada flavour, three of the orange Peach Bellini flavour and only two pink Raspberry Daiquiri. 

All three are your normal sponge Fancie with a vanilla flavoured topping but the cocktail flavours lie in the fondant icing. There is no alcohol in any of the cakes. Sadly. 

I don't like fondant. That is what it is with these type of cakes, I'll happily eat as many Fairy Cakes as you can put in front of me but that horrible icing you can keep thank you very much! 

The cakes were fluffy and moist, tasty for a mass produced cake, the vanilla cream was fine too - not too much and not too strong tasting, in fact it got lost a little but the texture was good with the sponge cake and the thick icing. 

I started with Peach Bellini, as I don't really care for peach so though I'd get the one I was least looking forward to eaten first. I'd read on other blogs (linked in the side bar >>) that people were quite disappointed as it wasn't very peachy. That wasn't the case with the one I picked out of the box at all! When I had all three cakes infront of me all I could smell was peach! The flavour was much the same, a sweet strong Peach, I couldn't taste any champagne though but the Peach could have overpowered it. Really tasty flavour, despite my usual dislike of peach! 8/10 

I then tried the Piña Colada flavour. While it had a nice summery taste to it I couldn't have picked out Pineapple or coconut at all. I even looked on the box to double check what this was supposed to be and I definitely couldn't taste either in my cake. It was nice but coming after the Peach Bellini it has to get a 6/10 

Last but not least (hopefully) was Raspberry Daiquiri. My Daiquiri of choice is banana if fresh ones are available, closely followed by strawberry but raspberry will do just fine. The raspberry was quite a mild flavour and left more of a lingering aftertaste rather than the flavour jolt the peach gave me. The flavour is described as raspberry Daiquiri rather than raspberry but I couldn't taste any rum flavour at all. Another light, tasty cake but not as strong as the flavour in the peach. rating 7/10 

Overall I really enjoyed these little Fancies, they tasted very summery and would go perfect with a glass of something sweet and fizzy on a warm evening in the garden! Hopefully they'll still be on sale by the time an evening like that rolls round in this country! 

Rating 7/10