Crosta & Mollica Quoti Biscotti Cocoa & Chocolate

This is another product I probably wouldn't have bought had I seen it in a supermarket yet it found its way into my Ocado basket quite easily! 

These are Cocoa & Chocolate Biscotti 

Intense dark cocoa biscuits with chocolate pieces.. 

Our signature Crosta & Mollica Italian 'Quote Mark' biscuits are made with Italian ingredients to our own recipe and are slowly baked for a delicious crumbly and delicate texture. These everyday biscuits can be enjoyed at any time of the day and are even better when dipped in a cappuccino. 

Apparently it's not only my postman who hates me but my Ocado delivery driver too - just a heads up! 

Look:

They (mostly) looked like little quote or speech marks! I don't really understand why but Crosta & Mollica said they would and they do. Except for a few that didn't survive the journey from the warehouse to my house.. They are very dark and I couldn't see any of the promised dark chocolate drops from the surface. 

Smell:

Delicious. They have a strong cocoa scent that isn't dissimilar to Bourbon Biscuits, that is if you were sniffing the most indulgent, luxurious Bourbon Biscuit known to man. 

Taste:

As good as they smelt! The biscuits are thick and crumbly with a light texture and extremely addictive. The cocoa flavour is strong, rich and gives a decadent, intense chocolate hit. 

The promised dark chocolate drops were hidden inside and although there weren't too many and it's chocolate on chocolate, they still stood out against the cocoa biscuit. Initially it was the change in texture that made me notice, a soft, silky square against the quite firm biscuit but the flavours soon popped out. They do taste like dark chocolate but have a slight sweetness too - they certainly went down very well.

 It could well have been a chocolate overload but they were just right. In the future I'd go with Crosta & Mollica's suggestion of serving with a cappuccino as they do become a little dry, that's probably down to my greediness as I polished the lot off but I did find myself reaching for a drink. Extremely addictive, the grown up, civilised version of a Bourbon Biscuit! 

7/10

Good 4 U - Super Bites Banana & Cocoa

I was so pleased when I found the Tesco Fruity Bars, their version of the Nakd style bars. I was even happier when I found these Good 4 U super bites - "naturally nutritious & delicious superfood truffles" - little balls extremely similar to the Nakd Nibbles. 

 The company are called Good 4 U, and the name is pretty apt. This small 40g bag is 1 of your 5 a day, rich in fibre and calcium, low in saturated fat, has no added sugar, is a source of magnesium (23% of your RDA to be exact, which contributes to a reduction in tiredness and fatigue) and is 100% vegan and gluten free. Phew!

We found two flavours; Coconut and Banana & Cocoa. I chose the latter, obviously and Mr.1T went for coconut. 

These type of snacks never look very nice do they?

They're bigger than the Nakd Nibbles and there was a decent amount in the smallish bag. The smell was pretty even, some smelling strongly of banana and some with a cocoa scent. 

Taking a bite the texture was similar to Nakd but I'd definitely be able to tell the difference, the Good 4 U are softer and chewier without any of the grittier pieces found in the Nakd. 

The nutritional aspects, and the size were pleasing but they were let down slightly by the flavour. They were quite plain generally with a sort of earthy flavour. The ingredients are 40% dates, milled sunflower seeds, raisins, reduced fat cocoa powder, dietary fibre, chia seeds, red algae seaweed, freeze dried banana, brown rice flour and natural flavouring. So you can imagine - the ingredients are all brown and it just tastes.. brown?

It is reminiscent of the base flavour of Nakd bars, probably due to the dates, but the Good 4 U are missing the fruity, bright, vibrant flavours that round it all off in Nakd. 

I could taste the banana and the cocoa. The cocoa is very mild, its not pretending to be chocolate - its proper cocoa, and it is tasty but not very strong at all. The banana is better,  its an authentic tasting banana but isn't very prominent at all and had a strange slightly bitter or almost gone off after-taste.

So it probably doesn't make much sense at all that I'm going to say these aren't actually that bad!  With the Nakd bags, I like to sit and pick at them but I couldn't enjoy these eaten that way. Shoved in like the greedy pig I really am, the flavours do end up a little more pronounced and the soft, squidgy texture is enjoyable. Honestly though, I wouldn't buy these for the flavour but the nutritional aspects do make it appealing - it's an easy way to get a vitamin and mineral hit. Mr.1T thoroughly enjoyed the coconut balls though and for someone who avoids health food as a rule and someone I've never noticed have a general like for coconut, that's pretty impressive! 

6/10

For a slightly different experience, take a look at Amys blog, Seeks New Treats! 

Wawel Chocolate Bars

Wawel are a Polish company and I've reviewed a few of their chocolates before.

Polish chocolate bars are sold near enough everywhere in the UK now and all the supermarkets and smaller shops near me are rammed full of either Wawel or E.Wedel chocolate bars. Asda had a huge display on the end of the world food aisle pushing four new Wawel chocolate bars, the two I've got to review today and two which didn't really appeal to me - though most people on my Twitter at least would disagree - ordinary dark chocolate and a filled peanut butter bar. 

Fresh & Fruity 

Milk chocolate with jelly. 

This was the first bar to catch my eye. It's a 100g bar with nice thick squares as seems to be standard for Wawel, no 89/90g mucking about like Cadbury! I was suprised opening the wrapper that I couldn't smell chocolate at all - not even a tiny whiff - the only thing to be smelt was a fruity jelly. 

I tried a square which had no jelly pieces first though there was a gap where some must have been before I'd snapped it off. Strangely it had no chocolate flavour at all (the packet has stated in bold that this bar contains vegetable fats as well as cocoa butter, I wonder if that contributed) instead, it just had a hint of jelly like taste to it. It really didn't taste like chocolate. 

I picked this bar as I thought it would combine two of my loves - chocolate and jelly bean/sweets. But no these aren't jelly sweets at all, they're actual lumps of jelly! Not only did they have a weird texture, as in where's the custard to go with this wobbly jelly texture, but most had absoloutly no flavour. In the photo above you should be able to see two different coloured jellies, the red had a nice fruity flavour but most of my pieces were the clear/white jelly which was plain. 

So add the wibbly wobbly jelly on a plate texture, the mostly plain flavour of the jelly and the complete absence of chocolate taste and it all adds up to an unimpressive bar. 

I had one square with no jelly and none that seemed to be touching it and the chocolate had a little flavour there, quite milky and creamy but nothing I'd go out of my way to buy. 

5/10

Cocoa Mousse Limited Edition 

Chocolate with cocoa filling (28%) and chocolate filling (20%)

Like when I opened the Fresh & Fruity bar the chocolate scent took a back seat, instead of awful jelly there was a delicious cocoa smell this time round. 

I broke a piece of just chocolate off to see if this one had any flavour and pleasingly it did. It's 55% so not very dark but not too sweet or milky and was perfectly tasty alone. 

The cocoa filling is the star of the show though, I know mousse is in the name, and it's described as filling but this was so thick it was almost like a paste - and for once I didn't refrigerate the bar so there's no chance of it thickening up because it was cold. It has a beautiful rich cocoa flavour, I wish I knew what they used I'd like to buy a tub of purely that! 

There's also a chocolate filling, if you look carefully in the photo you'll be able to see two different colours in the paste centre. To be honest it takes a back seat to the cocoa flavour and blends in with the actual chocolate but it does add some sweetness that I didn't notice when I tried the chocolate alone. 

Overall the bar is fairly sweet but the cocoa filling is what stands out the most. It's such an intense, creamy, rich flavour but manages to stop short of being too much which I think is due to the sweeter chocolate filling balancing it out. Polar opposite to the Fresh & Fruity bar! 

8/10 

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 

Magnum signature chocolate dark with cocoa nibs

I'm not sure if you've noticed at the side of the page I have a blog roll of other reviewers I like to follow, both their blogs and on Instagram (@1treatatatime) and Kevs Snack Reviews Instagrammed a picture of some Magnum chocolate he found in B&M. The next time I was shopping in there I saw they had a dark version and I couldn't pass that up! 

This is Magnum signature chocolate dark with cocoa nibs. There is a long blurb on the back about how the cocoa Magnum use is fair trade Ecuadorian which is a pleasant bonus. The bar has minimum 50% cocoa solids so not too dark and contains 3% cocoa nibs. 

The packaging has a luxurious touch and is very similar to the Lindt Hello.. bars, first packed in a neat little cardboard envelope then with a shiny foil wrapper inside. The chocolate itself in looks and snap reminded me of the Green and Blacks THIN bars, although it's 10g smaller at 90g it's longer and wider than other block bars. It's not sectioned off into serving sizes but 3 large squares. The cocoa nibs are clearly visible through the bar of the bar and it looked like there was a fair few throughout. 

My first bite was of a section that must have had most of the nibs in as the crunch was at first more noticeable than the flavour. The taste soon arrived though and it was one I quite enjoyed. My cocoa percentage preference in dark chocolate hovers around 70% depending on my mood, so this wasn't really dark enough for me while I was looking at it as a 'dark bar'. Once I'd pushed that notion away and took it for what it was I did like the taste of this. It's not too rich yet not too milky or sweet but manages to be just a little of both (that's probably the reasoning behind 50%, why have I just realised that!). The overall flavour is very nice and does have a darker note to it. 

The nibs were a little disappointing overall, despite appearances most of my bar didn't have many, the 3% listed is probably about right for what I had. They're quite small so in flavour they got a little bit lost in the dark chocolate. My first and last bite (typical) has the most in and they were great - a crunchy chewy texture in the thinner chocolate really bumped this up in my enjoyment. 

I was quite surprised that even though this was one of the thinnest bars I've eaten it didn't melt quickly, usually when I put darker stuff on a plate I end up with smears of melted chocolate all over it but had nothing here. The thinness also gave it such a satisfying snap and bite - I love it when you get a good crack with chocolate! If I had it my way I would up the cocoa percentage on this bar a little - but that is complete personal preference. It's not a dark chocolate you can only eat a couple of little squares at a time, I found it very moreish and happily ate the lot in one go, so even if you prefer milk I'd give this a go. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy this if I fancied dark chocolate but I wouldn't turn it down if someone wanted to get me another... (Coughcough I know you're reading this)

Rating 6/10

Nakd Fruit & Nut Bits

Last week when I blogged about the Nakd nibbles I wrote that I wished they were in a bigger bag, well it turns out they exist and I was just oblivious! There are three versions available, Berry Delight, Cocoa Delight and Cocoa Orange, I grabbed myself the first two in sainsburys. 

I wanted to try the Cocoa Delight first but once I got home I found the berry bag had split, I stuck it in a Tupperware box for the time being but figured I should probably eat the open one. 

Berry Delight is made up of 49% dates, 31% cashews, 17% raisins, 3% raspberries, rice flour and a hint of berry flavouring. The whole reason I realised the bag had split was because as soon as I opened the boot of my car to get the shopping out I could smell the berries!! The scent is seriously strong and doesn't smell artificial. 

Once I got round to trying these the first thing I noticed was the texture, they're soft, chewy but my favourite part is that they are a bit gritty if that makes sense - what must be the cashews add a lovely little crunch to each little block.

At first the berry  wasn't very strong which surprised me considering the smell and the fact you can actually see chunks of raspberries, with the first few mouthfuls it was more of an aftertaste but I'm putting that down to the fact my bag split as there is no reason and going by past experiences with Nakd that these few lacked flavour. They are addictive though and I'm glad I finished the bag in one go as they definitely became stronger in taste and beautifully fruity the more I ate. I had such high hopes for a strong flavour with this bag and I'm annoyed I picked up a faulty pack. Going by this one I don't think I can rate it properly. If I had to I'd give it a 6 but I'm going to buy another packet and update this review.  

Next up was Cocoa Delight - 48% dates, 29% cashews, 17% raisins, 6% cocoa and again rice flour and a hint of natural flavouring. 

If I thought Berry Delight smelt strong I was wrong - the cocoa scent is overwhelming and they smell delicious, I defy anyone to open these and manage to not eat some straight away! The texture is a little firmer than the Berry, and from working out the percentage in the ingredients I'm wondering if there's slightly more rice flour used. They're not hard by any means though, just slightly less chewy and gritty and have a bit more resistance to each bite. 

Thankfully (and this means I really have to retry the Berry Delight) the cocoa taste is just as present as the smell. It's a really lovely flavour and incredibly moreish, as I worked my way through them they started to remind me of soft Bourbon biscuits except the taste is a definite cocoa and not chocolate. These didn't feel like a 'healthy treat' in any way, shape or form and even though they're one of your five a day they seem like a naughty treat. 

I need another bag now and I'd even go as far as saying these are the nicest Nakd product I've had and I'm a die hard Banana Bread addict. 

Rating 8/10 

Wawel chocolates

I have two chocolate bars in this post, I'm not sure if they're new bars completely or just new to Asda when I bought them. They're both Wawel bars and judging by the company address and language it's all written in this is a Polish brand. 

Firstly I tried (I think) the Kaszstanki bar. It's a dark chocolate which went down well, it's not too dark so I didn't feel it was too much after one or two squares but it doesn't taste milky. 

The centre has a lovely texture, it was creamy yet still crunchy and had a delicious rich cocoa flavour. 

Despite being a darker bar it's very moreish and this didn't last long at all, I enjoyed the fact it was a filled bar whereas I find the flavoured fillings are usually paired with milk chocolate and the nut/whole pieces in the darks. 

Rating 7/10 

The other bar I had is, again, I think called Krówkokwa. It's milk chocolate with 36% caramel filling (I managed to hang on to the wrapper to get the translation here!) 

The chocolate isn't great to be honest, it seemed quite greasy and waxy - not that I'd have noticed the taste against the filling - but I ended up with smeared chocolate everywhere.

The filling I did not enjoy at all at the beginning of the bar. My first few bites I couldn't taste caramel, just pure sugar. Eventually the flavour did come through a bit, it's very buttery and still extremely sweet. I just couldn't get into it as it was too sweet even for me! I think this filling could be OK if they used it in a dark bar - at least over 70%. Maybe then the sugar and bitterness could balance each other out but with milk it's just too much. 

Rating 5/10