Leonidas Dark Chocolate Assortment Part 4

Oh no!! Very sadly (for me) it's the final four chocolates from the Leonidas Dark Chocolate Assortment Box. Part One, Two and Three have to be some of the tastiest chocolates I've eaten and this is certainly the best box of chocolates I've had in a very long time.

I know my normal modus operandi is to eat worst to best but I couldn't help myself with the chocolates in part three so I was left with four that while I knew they'd be good, if I had to share some, would probably have been the four I'd give up. 

I Love You

Awww, I love you too Leonidas! I'm not sure what lemon, a normally quite sharp and bitter taste has to do with love but what do I know? If you're up to date with my Leonidas posts you'll know citrus flavours aren't usually my cup of tea but Leonidas aren't playing by my rules so far.

It seems I might not have left the worst, in fact this could be one of the best! I did not expect to taste a delicious sweet lemon, I'd assumed a sharp tart flavour but it wasn't at all. The sweet fruity flavour was the perfect accompaniment to the rich dark chocolate.  

Tosca

As well as citrus flavours, I usually eat around the alcoholic ones too. Way back in part one there was a rum filled chocolate which I loved although there have been a few since then with the familiar harsh alcohol flavour I'm not too keen on. 

The chocolate casing seemed thicker than of late and was just as good as ever, a nice strong flavour until the Brandy kicked in. Wow, it's strong although maybe a little too authentic for me. It's very tasty and it's not that I disliked it, its just so... 'real' tasting that I think it'd need a proper Brandy fan to truly appreciate it. 

Mosaique

Cranberry is a fruit I shy away from, not because of a dislike but because it makes me think of things that do not need to be written about on a food blog thank you very much! 

The crispy praline is wonderful, a soft thick filling with crisp crunchy pieces dotted throughout. The flavours were good too, it tasted a lot sweeter overall than the vast majority of the other chocolates. One negative (or positive depending on where you stand) is that the flavour all came from the sweetened praline, not due to any cranberry. To tell you the truth I couldn't see, let alone taste any cranberry pieces but regardless it was good. 

Cerise Emballee

The very last chocolate in my whole box is the only wrapped one. 

I usually prefer my cherry to be of the sour variety, covered in sugar and in gummy form but I'll eat it in chocolate, if I have to... The attention to detail in the whole box has been lovely, from chocolates shaped like coffee beans to Greek characters embossed on top, they've thought of it all and the very last is the cherry on top...

..Literally! I can't go any further without saying, just look at that! If you read the description on the menu you might be thinking "that doesn't look like cherry liqueur cream?" And you'd be right, because I ate it. It was nice but nothing compared to what you can see above. 

The runny, sweet juices came from the whole Morello Cherry sitting nicely inside. Its large, juicy, a little chewy and sweet with the most vibrant cherry flavour. The liqueur cream left a very boozey aftertaste behind, but the good kind and I'll admit - I literally licked the plate clean afterwards. Incredible. 

Rating:

What a box of chocolates! There were lots of flavours I assumed I'd hate and some I thought I'd love. Some I was on the money and others surprised me but what I can say about every single chocolate is that what really shines through is the quality of the ingredients. Even if it was a flavour I normally hate, there was no denying the stuff's good.

 It's my birthday in a few months Mr.1T - I'll try the milk next time please!!

9/10

Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough 'Wich

Halle-freaking-lujah! After a loooong search I finally found the Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough 'Wich. I mentioned a while ago that the my blog evolved from an idea to try every single flavour and product from Ben & Jerry's. I first saw a Ben & Jerry's ice cream sandwich about 4 years ago in a shop on one of my jobs, I don't have the type of job where I can stop for an ice cream so I decided to go back on the way home from work. It was gone. And I've never seen it again until now! 

I wrote in my Ambrosia Frozen Custard review "more fool you if you pay full price for Ben & Jerry's".. Well I'm a mug because I paid a (disgusting) £4 for THREE small-ish ice cream sandwiches. Ouch, I kind of hoped they would be awful so I wouldn't be tempted to buy any more! 

Vanilla Ice Cream with Cookie Dough sandwiched between two Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies 

I say small-ish but that's greed, they're fairly sized, maybe not £4 fairly sized but pretty filling and big enough for a cookie and ice cream hit. 

I was fairly surprised at the amount of ice cream as it's a decent blob sitting in between the cookies. My cookies weren't swirled as is on the front of the box but half and half and pleasingly the two were on opposite sides so I got an even mouthful of each. It smelt a lot like Cookie Dough Ice Cream and that's nothing to scoff at - it might be an oldie but its definitely a goodie! B&J know better than to mess with the classics. 

As you may be aware, I don't rate Oreos so I've never had the Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich and I can't remember eating any before so I wasn't sure what to expect with the cookies themselves. Happily they were pretty much perfect. Not only were they absolutely delicious but they had a normal cookie texture - no frozen feel and no defrosted sogginess. The only acceptable time for a soggy biscuit is after dunking! 

The ice cream is as good as ever, B&J's usual quality with a wonderful vanilla flavour and large chewy cookie dough chunks - the same, I'm guessing, that are used in the Cookie Dough Ice Cream. 

One slight difference on the tubs is the consistency of the ice cream. I don't think I'd be able to physically chew the normal stuff straight out of the freezer but it was soft enough to in the 'Wich, it was just right actually, firm enough to stay nice and sturdy in the cookies right down to the last bite and no melting mess everywhere. I shouldn't be surprised really, Ben & Jerry's normally think everything through! 

Rating:

Very, very nice. Sadly as there isn't too much ice cream Mr.1T and his lactose intolerance managed it just fine and he's fighting me over the last one! I really hope they go on offer somewhere in the very near future. 

9/10

Carte D'or Sweet Strawberry Sorbet

This was another discovery made while looking for those bloody Ben & Jerry's 'Wich ice cream sandwiches! I was a lot more excited about these than the Frozen Custard though. I reckon during strawberry season I eat about four punnets a week (see I'm not completely unhealthy), I also like to freeze them - more on that later - and I'm always partial to a sorbet or two! 

I've been after a strawberry sorbet for a good couple of years now, lemon is lovely don't get me wrong but strawberry is king of the fruits in my opinion! Finally Carte D'or have released one, there's a lemon flavoured too and I'll be reviewing that very shortly. 

The tubs a funny one, it's a standard 500ml pint but rather than put it in the usual shaped container every other company uses, Carte D'or have made a medium sized version of the really tiny one portion and bigger family sized tubs. 

It's delicious. The sorbet is thick and creamy feeling, not quite like ice cream but not icy at all and nothing like the other sorbets I've tried from the supermarkets. Compared to this, those taste like Slush Puppies or flavoured ice - this has a real luxurious texture. 

The strawberry flavour was amazing. Strong and natural, it's made with mainly strawberry puree so it has a lovely authentic flavour and I was in heaven eating it. 

I would say it'd be perfect to make a strawberry daiquiri with but I think that would be a waste of good sorbet! Mr.1T enjoyed the flavour, but he said it was too much strawberry.. I'm not sure what he's on about - you can never have too much strawberry - and I don't know what else he expected from a strawberry sorbet but he is usually a lemon man anyway. 

As well as the sorbet being strawberry flavoured there were large real strawberry pieces throughout. As I mentioned, I like to freeze strawberries at home, it completely ruins the texture - they sort of freeze solid but melt quickly into a soft mushy blob but if you bite them like that they explode into a mouth full of fresh vibrant strawberry juices - but somehow Carte D'or have retained the usual unfrozen texture and they're packed full of flavour. 

Rating:

The nicest shop bought sorbet I've had and I've tried a fair few! 

9/10 

Glorious! SkinnyLicious Soup - Texan Four Bean Chilli

Today's review is the Glorious! SkinnyLicious Soup Texan Four Bean Chilli. I strayed from my usual pre-made soup brands as soon as I saw the Texan Four Bean Chilli. I love Chili Con Carne, I always order it if I see it on a restaurant menu but I rarely have the time to make a proper one at home. My favourite part of a Chili Con Carne is the thick blend of meat and beans and I wondered how this would translate over to a soup. 

From the heart of Cowboy country comes our SkinnyLicious Texan Four Bean Chilli Soup. Haricot, Red Kidney, Black Eye and Black Turtle Beans are cooked with real Texan spices such as Ancho chilli, paprika and cinnamon to create the flavour of horse riding through cacti as the sun sets over the desert sands. 

OK... I've eaten horse before, I had a Findus lasagne the day before they were recalled and I don't think I want my soup to taste like that! 

Texan Four Bean Chilli is vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free and half a pot is 1 of your 5 a day. 

I like to pretend I'm really cooking when I have these pre-made soups so I rarely microwave them. I chucked it in a saucepan on the hob and was pleased to find it looked like a watered down Chili Con Carne, By the time it was sufficiently heated it had thickened up nicely but still too soupy to chuck on top of rice or a jacket. 

The mixed beans were obvious but there were lots of other ingredients I could spy including rice. I know its named Texan Four Bean Chilli but the recipe stays truer to the more authentic Mexican Chilli and includes chocolate - not that it tastes of chocolate but it adds a real depth and richness to the flavours. 

I snuck a couple of mouthfuls while I was 'cooking' and felt it had a slight kick but it wasn't as spicy as I usually take my Chili. Once I'd bowled it all up and sat down things soon changed. 

I've never had vegetarian Chili, the more meat the better and at first I missed not so much the taste of the meat, more the texture but I soon found the chunky mix of the beans and rice and they were more than enough.

All the ingredients retained a good texture, no mushy beans or rice whatsoever. As mentioned the soup contains chocolate, in Chili Con Carne you aren't supposed to taste it but I've noticed whenever its used - it just adds an extra something special and the same goes here. I was really quite impressed with the flavours actually and then the spices kicked in! 

I said at first it wasn't very spicy but I take that back, my God it was hot and a good hot! Spicy hot not just ridiculously hot where you can't taste anything else, I might not have been able to feel my tongue but I could taste all the different flavours with an increasing addictive heat. 

Rating:

I ate this first on Thursday, then again on Monday and as soon as Asda get some more I'll be buying those too! One of the best pre-made soups I've tried.

9/10 

Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough S'Wich Up

I know I claim to have a lot of favourite foods, but when it comes down to it I have two great loves: Ice Cream and Pizza. In fact the whole reason this blog even exists is because of a very successful mission to eat my way through every flavour of Ben & Jerry's. 

I'm not exaggerating when I say we eat pizza three times a week and we always get Pizza Hut on a Sunday. I'm loyal to Pizza Hut, there is an authentic Italian pizza place near me but they don't deliver and due to a large Italian community it's impossible to inside the place to get a take-away or a table. The last time we went we counted 30 people queueing outside just to get in the door! Domino's we usually avoid like the plague, its too expensive and the pizzas are too small so I usually throw the untold amounts of leaflets we get straight in the bin. This week a strange photo of a tub of Ben & Jerry's caught my eye!

Cookie Dough S'Wich Up

Vanilla Ice Cream with a Chocolatey Cookie Swirl, Chocolatey Cookie Sandwiches & Cookie Dough Chunks. 

Cookie Dough S'Wich Up is a Domino's exclusive, limited edition flavour. It's only being sold until February so if you're after one you'd better make it quick, however the ingredients are in a few different European languages and it doesn't say anywhere exclusively made for Domino's. I'm waiting for a reply from Ben & Jerry's but hopefully its having a limited run in Domino's then being rolled out across the country. 

Look:

It looks a lot like Clever Cookies due to darker biscuits being used, the usual cookie dough chunks are still included in abundance and the light brown, creamy dough pops out against the grey mix of black biscuit and vanilla ice cream. 

Smell: 

It smells like Bourbon biscuits. And that's me sold. Bourbons smash Oreos, I don't care. An Oreo is fine when I'm in the mood, but for a chocolate cream biscuit it's all about the Bourbon. Why are we all so hung up on Oreos anyway, they're just a branded Romany/Gypsy Cream with a less racist name..

Taste:

There are 4 individual parts to this flavour, the first is one of the least used, most under-appreciated and actually faintest tasting in this particular pint - vanilla ice cream. There isn't too much I can say that I've not said in every other B&J review, its thick and creamy with a delicious flavour that would still be as delicious without any additional extras in the pint. I'm mainly going by previous experience though as it was totally overwhelmed by everything else. Vanilla was the perfect choice for Cookie Dough S'wich Up as a stronger flavoured base would be pointless. 

In the standard Cookie Dough flavour its all about the chunks of actual cookie dough, in S'wich Up they're lagging at the bottom of the ingredients list - this pint only includes 3%. They are exactly the same as the original; a delicious cookie flavour with a wonderful gritty and perfect doughy texture. 

A chocolatey cookie swirl takes up another 5% and this is where the Bourbon Biscuit scent came from. It's nothing like the core in the What-A-Lotta-Chocolate Cookie Core, that was more of a chocolate core with bits of cookie included whereas this is pure chocolate biscuit ground up and swirled throughout the ice cream. It's gritty and crunchy and tastes like actual chocolate biscuit not chocolate with little bits of biscuit included. 

Last but definitely not least, are the chocolatey sandwich cookies. I know Ben & Jerry's have a very well earned reputation for not scrimping on the ingredients but this is ridiculous, I had four or five full sized Oreo style biscuits! I don't think they're actual Oreo as I'm sure it'd be printed all over the tubs and stamped on the biscuit itself but the taste was pretty much the same. I don't know how they manage it but the consistency stayed spot on, I'd expect a biscuit from a packet to go soggy if I left it to sit in some rapidly melting ice cream but it retained a perfectly crunchy bite and I could even distinguish between the firm biscuits, soft ice cream and creamy 'sandwich cookie' filling. 

This is a biscuit lovers dream. The mixture of 3 different types of biscuit or cookie seems like it should be too much but I couldn't get enough, all three have delicious individual flavours and contrasting textures. I'd buy ice cream flavoured with any of the three alone but one with all Bourbon biscuits, cookie dough and Oreos together? I'm in heaven!! 

This was the last one in my local Domino's so I'm off to find another store!

9/10 

Choco Café - Skorice Cinnamon

I've got my mum and dad trained well. It used to be, whenever they went away they'd come back with a souvenir for me - fridge magnets, little decorative statues, a nice handbag or perfume from duty free. They've finally learnt though, the only way to buy my love is through good old chocolate.

Just before Christmas they went to Prague and while the Czech Republic isn't really known worldwide for its chocolate, I had heard some good things. 

This holiday's little treat comes from Choco Café (www.choco-cafe.cz), a place where - you guessed it - the menu revolves around chocolate. Take a look at the menu on their website, I especially would like to try the home made Chocolate Blob!! I've seen photographs of the breakfast, chocolate croissants, chocolate cakes and the most indulgent looking hot chocolate - my mum in particular recommends it to anyone travelling to Prague. 

They very kindly grabbed me a 72% dark chocolate with cinnamon and thankfully there is an English description: exclusive cocoa beans from central South America and Madagascar . Great character, intense taste, smooth slight acidity with fruit and spice bouquet. Home made chocolate bar. 

Theres a basic ingredients list- 

 Gluten free, made only with cocoa butter. 

Cocoa: Min 72%

Sugar: Max 27% 

Cocoa Butter: Min 44%

Emulsifier: Soy Lecithin

Aroma: Natural vanilla 

Nut/Fruit Content (according to flavour): Min 20%

Spices: Min 1%

I really like that there's no set recipe - it all depends on who is making your chocolate and how they're feeling at the time to how much you get of each.

The chocolate is quite charming in a funny way. Its in a plastic (non-sealed, no machinery here) envelope inside, which is then wrapped in foil and a paper label. All neatly tied together with a piece of straw. Its sweet and old fashioned and a real novelty in times of mass produced crap! I felt like a fraud and a pretender opening it up after clearing the reduced Christmas shelves in Tesco.. 

The scent was undeniably dark chocolate, that familiar smell I absolutely love. The chocolate had a strange feel to it, velvety smooth to the point of almost being like a plastic bar - I was a little concerned but as long as it didn't taste like plastic, I'd be happy! 

 I broke a square off and my fears were put to rest. A deep, dark, rich chocolate flavour that wasn't quite bitter but was not sweet at all. While the outside felt smooth to the touch, it had an almost gritty texture in my mouth, it was smooth enough to melt but had a very pleasing bite and chew to it too. 

I know I demand uniform and even flavouring in bars from big brands but I'd be a fool to expect it in a home made bar. That said, the first square I tried was the only without any cinnamon flavour. It was delicious, and the best way to describe it is the taste of Christmas. It isn't a very strong cinnamon which I think is a positive as both cinnamon and dark chocolate are strong, distinctive flavours. The chocolate is such a lovely quality it would be a shame to drown it out with a strong cinnamon taste. Its enough though and noticeable throughout but I do think that even non-cinnamon lovers would manage to enjoy this, rather than it being a completely separate taste it just seems to add another layer to the flavour. 

I was surprised to find it was a sweeter cinnamon though, instead of the warm almost spicy flavours it provided some needed (depending on who you ask!) sweetness, it doesn't taste like sugar though like in most chocolate bars and I doubt I'd have noticed the sweeter squares had the first one not been exclusively chocolate. 

One downside to mum and dad bringing me home foreign goodies is that when I find one as tasty as this, its near enough impossible to get anymore!

They're off to Mexico next - I've never tried Mexican chocolate..... 

The first world food Wednesday of 2016 is a solid

9/10

Ritter Sport Alpine Milk Chocolate

When I'm reviewing foreign brands, I like to find what would be considered the British version too. If Milka can be called the Europe wide Cadbury, then Ritter Sport would be the German equivalent. That's being generous to Cadbury - Ritter Sport are sold absoloutly everywhere in Germany in lots of different flavours just like Cadbury are here but the quality of the chocolates are worlds apart. It'd be like comparing Spam to steak! 

I've tried a large number of Ritter Sport bars (still nowhere near all of the flavours) but never a plain milk chocolate. This isn't just a milk chocolate though, this is Alpine Milk Chocolate - made with 100% milk from The Alps. 

Of all the brands I've tried Ritter Sport probably have my favourite mould - thick, chunky little squares that are very satisfying to take a big bite out of.

I could smell the chocolate immediately and it smelt absolutely amazing. I'm sure it's not confirmation bias as I asked Mr.1T to give it a sniff too but it smelt so milky, the strength was like when you open a chocolate scented body butter and far stronger than any other chocolate I've eaten recently. 

It was just as impressive in flavour, incredibly milky tasting and wonderfully smooth. I'm not normally keen on smooth chocolate but I loved the thick, velvety feel here. It still had a lovely chocolate flavour as well as the milkiness due to 30% cocoa solids. It's like Ritter have taken all the desirable factors of other popular bars - the milkiness of (original) Dairy Milk and the smoothness of Galaxy and added it to the delicious, proper chocolate flavour found in most Ritter Sport bars. 

The amount of Cocoa Solids meant that this is a rich chocolate that a couple of squares would be enough, but the sweet milky taste means that it's perfectly easy to eat the whole bar too. 

This was bloody lovely! My local One Stop are selling them for £1 at the moment and so I'll be stocking up - I think I've found my new go-to milk chocolate bar. 

9/10 

Joe Delucci's Hazelnut & Chocolate

Mr.1T had the bright idea for us to have Frozen Thursday to go with our Pizza Friday and Sweets & Vodka Saturday's.. I think he forgot he's lactose intolerant. 

For our first week we chose two Joe Delucci's Gelato flavours, he went for Creme Caramel and I chose Hazelnut & Chocolate. I've heard a few people raving about Joe Delucci's but I've always overlooked it as the previous pink and white packaging and the cheaper price made me think it would be a lower end more of a frozen dessert than ice cream - plus I like my mix ins and these are more of a 'plain' ice cream. 

First of all, the actual ice cream is incredible. Thick and creamy, more like the most indulgent, luxurious mousse you can imagine than ice cream. It was perfectly scoopable immediately but although it was soft, in the time it took me to devour the whole pint it still never melted into that puddle of ice cream I usually end up with. 

Both flavours are delicious, the chocolate isn't as intense as I've had with other brands but it's still a rich deep chocolate. The hazelnut is out of this world. Beautifully rich and with a wonderful hazelnut flavour; fans of Ben & Jerry's All Or Nutting - this is a must and as much as it pains me to say this (sorry boys!) this is much better. 

Chocolate and hazelnut will always be a winning combination but both individual flavours here are so good that this pint is another level. This is how you do 'plain' ice cream. 

Just to touch on the quality of the ice cream again, Mr.1T's lactose intolerance isn't too bad. He's fine with low fat cheese and yoghurt, any milk is generally a no-no but own brand and cheaper brand ice creams he's usually fine with. Ben & Jerry's give him a belly ache but the Joe Delucci's Creme Caramel gave him one of the worst reactions he's ever had - on par with the time he threw a strop and ordered Pizza Hut Cheesey Bites, cheesey garlic bread on the side and all washed down with a pint of Ben & Jerry's Pumpkin Cheesecake! He was so annoyed this morning, I asked why thinking it was because of the migraine, stomach pains and flu like symptoms.. Nope! Turns out he's gutted he won't be able to have Joe Delucci's again! 

9/10

Butterkist Limited Edition Gingerbread Popcorn

I thought I didn't like gingerbread but I've changed my mind, my new love of gingerbread, cinnamon, spice and all things nice couldn't have come at a better time - just as every company are releasing their Halloween and Christmas products! 

Butterkist have a good track record as of late, I loved the Pulled Pork Popcorn and convinced Mr.1T to try it - he's five bags in and has another two in the cupboard! So a combination of Butterkist popcorn and gingerbread was one I couldn't turn down. 

This is popcorn coated with a cinnamon & ginger flavour toffee. 

This smelt like run of the mill sweet popcorn, I expected a stronger gingerbread or cinnamon scent as they're both quite powerful flavours but never mind. 

As you can see in the photo there wasn't really an even coating, the toffee is the sticky glaze on the popcorn and I had quite a few plain pieces. Unfortunately these were the kernels I tried first and they tasted how they smelt, just a plain sweet popcorn. I'd learnt from the Pulled Pork flavour that these aren't to be eaten in a dignified manner - the flavour is strongest with a good, full handful but my next again had pretty much no flavouring, there was a small trace of cinnamon that hinted at the good stuff to come but nothing too major. 

None of this sounds great but once I ate through the plain stragglers (these would have been at the bottom of the bag but I'd dumped it out into my popcorn holder) the rest of the bag was delicious. 

The unflavoured pieces might as well have been a completely different bag to the kernels with the glaze on, the gingerbread flavour is immense. Texture aside, I could well have been eating actual gingerbread. It's nice and strong, quite sweet, has a slight toffee flavour and a little warm kick from the cinnamon. Lovely!

The pieces that aren't gingerbread flavoured are still good - they're sweet with a slight toffee flavour and are perfectly tasty but the gingerbread kernels are amazing. 

I really want to give this a 9/10, it was so addictive and the whole bag didn't last me long at all, I'd just have liked all of the pieces to taste like that - if I wanted toffee or sweet popcorn I'd have bought a bag of that. I think I'll give Butterkist the benefit of the doubt on the plainer ones, the Gingerbread is good and I wish I hadn't eaten them all last night now! 

Monty Bojangles Bon Bonanza

Am I the only person who seems to get addicted, for want of a better word, to certain things? I'm on a bit of a Bon Bon binge at the moment - next week it will probably be all chocolate!

After the two J20 Bon Bons (which are advertised and sold by Monty Bojangles) I didn't have high hopes for the Bon Bonanza box, this coupled with the fact I had some truffles from Monty Bojangles last year that I never got try try as they melted into a lovely messy puddle meant I wasnt very excited. 

An assortment of Salted Caramel, Clotted Cream and Strawberry flavoured traditional toffee centred Bon Bons. 

Well they look much nicer than the J20 ones! 

There was an uneven mix of the three in my bag, about 15 Strawberry, half that of the Clotted Cream and one lonely Salted Caramel. They smelt mainly of strawberry but despite the smaller numbers, I could still smell the other two flavours too and all three smelt delicious. 

Minus one or two baby Bon Bons, these were very large - much bigger than I'm used to and they had a brilliant texture. There is an 'outer shell' of a thick powdered sugar that crumbles away and leaves a hard, chewy toffee center. I loved this, I know I've said before that I want Bon Bons to just be hard and chewy but that's all changed after trying these. 

The Strawberry is beautiful. A lovely, natural, fruity strawberry that tastes real. It's obviously still a sweet flavouring so there is still that sugary taste but nothing like the crazy, artificial, sickly sweet or sour strawberry Bon Bons I've had previously. High praise here - probably the nicest strawberry Bon Bon I've ever had. 

The Clotted Cream were new to me and more a flavour I associate with fudge or proper toffee than a Bon Bon. After tasting these, that shouldn't be the case! They have a lovely sweet, creamy flavour that at times was almost milky. Again the taste was real and to my untrained tongue could probably pass for homemade rather than mass produced. They're quite mild while I was waiting for the sugary coating to melt away and have a strong clotted cream aftertaste. This isn't a bad thing at all, the lack of overpowering, fake flavours made this feel like a more grown up sweet and a bit of a luxury. Very, very nice and if the strawberry wasn't included, would have jumped straight to the top of my all time leader board. 

Last but not least I tried my one lonely Salted Caramel. I thought that only having one to try would mean I wouldn't get much to go on for the review but I couldn't have been more wrong. The flavour is spot on. It was a little strange having such a concentrated salted caramel flavour in a hard chewy sweet - it tasted like it should have been a liquid center in the middle of a chocolate bar. Rich, slightly salty but still sweet, beautiful caramel. I was absolutely gutted I only had one.   

I didnt expect much from these three and it just shows I should never listen to myself as they now occupy first, second and third place in my Bon Bon rankings. 

I ate these 10 hours ago and I've already ordered another bag. 

9/10 

Sorry Monty, you'd be 10/10 if I didn't only get one Salted Caramel... If the next bag has more you'll get a revised rating!

Edit - the next bag had plenty of salted caramel so up you go Monty!

Otis Spunkmeyer Chocolate Chip Muffin

I posted on Wednesday about how Otis Spunkmeyer very generously sent me 25 muffins, they say it was to make up for the delay in getting back to me regarding stockists close to me, I think it was to shut up my incessant bugging them about my love of the Triple Chocolate muffin. The amazing box they sent me not only contained 10 of my beloved but a mixture of all the other flavour muffins they sell. 

Now I'll be honest, I've never tried any of the other Otis Spunkmeyer muffins - my love of the Triple Chocolate meant I picked that flavour always. So today is my first try of the Chocolate Chip Muffin. I wasn't too worried that I wouldn't enjoy it, the muffin itself more than proved itself previously but I did wonder how the flavour would stand up against my favourite. 

It's another very decently sized treat, no mini muffins here and again it's packed with large chocolate chunks. I've actually gone back to the bag since and this is the muffin with the least amount of chunks in it - some of them have close to double! With the amount of chocolate chunks, I thought that this would smell chocolatey but out of the packet it smelt extremely buttery. As expected the muffin itself had a lovely moist, soft texture though whilst eating, it had a slightly firmer chew and felt denser to hold. 

The muffin had a lovely buttery flavour that was so moreish and again was just right on the richness. I thought this would be a typical chocolate muffin - milk chocolate chips, but this has milk chocolate chunks and dark chocolate chips. I wondered what the difference between chunk and chip was but it became evident once I'd started eating. The milk chocolate chunks are the larger ones on the top - massive,sweet and milky. The dark chocolate chips are around half the size and for good reason, the chocolate used is of a good quality and is a rich, deep dark chocolate, if they were the same size as the milk they'd be too much. It really improves the muffin that decent chocolates are used, rather than just having an overall chocolate flavour it's easy to pick out the two different tastes and the sweet milk and rich dark taste so good with the buttery muffin. 

On the one hand I'm pleased I never tried these first as I'd probably have never got round to trying the Triple Chocolate, but on the other hand I've been missing out and now I've only got three of these left! Eek! 

Rating 9/10.

Walkers Marmite Crisps

I know I've mentioned my love of Marmite on this blog before. Marmite anything, you name it if it's Marmite related I'll devour it. Except that is, for the Marmite crisps. 

I'm pretty sure I've spoke of my love for the original Marmite crisps on here before aswell. Note the word original, from 2002 till 2009 Walkers made Marmite crisps and my god they were delicious. However in 2009 the licence ran out and Unilever took over production alongside the Marmite flavoured peanuts, cashews, rice cakes etc. In my opinion (and that of everyone else I've spoken to) the new Marmite crisps are an inferior version - while the nuts I've tried are lovely, the crisp itself isn't as nice as the Walkers and the flavour is just not as nice.

Fast forward 6 years and finally, finally Walkers have rereleased their version as part of a 'Bring it back' campaign - also including Beef & onion, Cheese & chive, Lamb & mint, Barbecue and Toasted cheese - where you vote for which discontinued flavour you'd like to see return.

I had the impression that Marmite was one of the flavours you could vote for, so when I saw them in Londis I literally bought every bag they had on the shelves. It turns out (and I have absolutely no problem with making this mistake!) that Marmite are already back for good and the voting is to choose what flavour is to return with it. 

I was nervous before I opened it that they wouldn't live up to the memories I had, I could remember exactly how they tasted even six years later! But as soon as I opened the bag I knew I had nothing to worry about. They smelt identical to my memories and they tasted exactly as I remembered. 

They aren't ridiculously Marmitey, less so than the Unilever version but I think that's better as its a much nicer flavour. There's not too much to write about, Walkers usual crisps just with a delicious salty, umami Marmitey coating. Although they aren't overly flavoured, you'd better like Marmite as the taste hangs around - I can still taste them an hour after I've eaten them! 

Can you tell how excited I am that these are back? 

9/10

Deluxe Loukoumi with Cocoa & Hazelnut

I reviewed another flavour of Loukoumi earlier this week here, that was a freebie I wasn't too impressed with but this is one I chose and paid for. 

Loukoumi is the Greek version of Turkish delight, they are very similar but the Greeks tend to flavour more to my tastes. 

I chose the Cocoa & Hazelnut flavoured, it was all packaged very neatly and looked like a deluxe product even though it managed to survive the beating my suitcase received on the way home either at Heraklion or Gatwick airport! 

Loukoumi as with Turkish delight is basically pure sugar - the ingredients here listed in order are 'sugar, Crokan (hazelnut, sugar, brandy) 4% cornstarch, cocoa 23%, glucose syrup and citric acid' so sugar, sugar and some brandy? I'm guessing Crokan is the name for the jelly type substance that is Loukoumi. 

They looked like some truffles I tried last year and once I'd peeled the plastic seal back I couldn't wait to try these - the cocoa smelt delicious and was very strong. Although they were just as coated in the cocoa as the previous were in sugar, they were a lot less messy and anyhow it's more normal to eat all the leftover cocoa than pure sugar right.... 

It was very hard to get a clear picture of the centre as that cocoa powder was so thick but biting into one I was very pleased with my choice! The centre, despite being I suppose a jelly, was thick and firmer than before with a beautiful hazelnut flavour that went so well with the actually decent tasting cocoa. This really reminded me of a just as tasty but less rich truffle. I found them smoother than a truffle actually as the jelly type stuff inside isn't grainy or gritty at all, just smooth, hazelnut flavoured thick, chewy jelly. 

I can honestly say this is the best snack I've eaten in a long time. I've even been googling but no one sells this brand in the UK. So they loose a point on the rating scale for that and that only. 

Rating 9/10