El Almendro Turrón Crocanti con Chocolate

Today's Wednesday world food review comes to you from Spain via T.K.Maxx. 

I had no plans to buy any more snacks, if you follow me on Twitter (@OneTreat) you might have seen I have more than enough goodies to see me through a while, but as always I went into T.K.Maxx to buy a purse and ended up leaving with a purse, two wallets, two watches and this Almond Turrón. 

A little tip - if you do want to buy one, check T.K.Maxx first, I got this for £1.99 and they're anywhere from £4 for one this sized to £20 for the more full sized on Amazon, without delivery!

Turrón is also known as torró (Catalan), torrone (Italian, Brazilian Portuguese), turrone (Sardinian),  torrão (European Portuguese) or nougat and is typically made of honey, sugar, egg whites and toasted almonds or other nuts. The Spanish variety usually comes in two types, hard or soft. 

This pack, the Crocanti con Chocolate is made up of 53% almonds, honey and 7.5% of the bar is chocolate with a 35% cocoa minimum. 

It smelt delicious -  very nutty, chocolatey and sweet. Everything I look for! The Turrón itself was in a plastic wrapper inside the box and removing it was hard, it's extremely sticky to touch as there is a lovely honey coating all over the top. 

If you suffer in any way at all with your teeth and were planning on trying this I'd stop right here! Crunchy would be an understatement, the almonds are thick enough but the honey on top adds another level of chew to each mouthful, it was quite a jaw workout trying to chew threw the nuts and avoid the whole thing sticking to my teeth! The honey not only adds stickiness to the Turrón but seriously ups the sweetness. Touch wood I have no problems with my teeth, but before I'd even swallowed my first bite my teeth were stinging (hopefully you'll know what I mean with that!). 

The almonds were the first flavour I noticed, then the honey. The chocolate was quite uneven across the bottom so it was noticeably absent in taste for the first part of my bar, I was trying to taste it but the other two flavours were quite overpowering anyway. 

The more of this I ate, the more my teeth hurt -  it was a bit too addictive to stop because of a little pain though! 

I finally got to a section with a thicker layer of chocolate and it's a shame it's so thin across the bottom - they've used good stuff. The chocolate flavour actually ended up stronger than the honey and it was delicious, I'd happily eat a bar of the chocolate alone. 

Strangely this is advertised as a snack pack, it's 75g so about three quarters the size of a 'sharing' block of chocolate but there is no way I could have eaten a larger sized bar of this - my teeth would have fallen out!! 

Very moreish, I'd like to try one with a bit thicker chocolate though. 

Rating 7/10 

Loy Koy Maki

I won't lie, I had no clue what this was until I ate it. Loy Koy Maki is ungoogleable apparently and was part of the little welcome pack we got in the hotel we stayed in but I did see identical boxes without the hotel logo on sold in every shop out there. I'm pretty sure it's Loukoumi, the Greek version of Turkish delight. 

I had 2 smallish sized pieces in my box both separately wrapped, I was going to try one but ripped both open and as it turns out that was a good choice! They were extremely messy - that white sugar dusting is all over my clothes, the table, the dog... And very soft and squidgy. 

I went for the smaller first as everyone knows you leave the biggest till last! Texture wise it was like Turkish Delight, with quite a soft jelly but still enough to give a little chew. The taste was a bit of a let down, it was sweet and nice enough but I couldn't tell you what flavour it's supposed to be. 

Then I had the second, the box clearly says this is honey mix nuts and there was definitely none of that in the first I tried so it looks like I got a bit of a mix up! This one had a firmer texture and was a lot thicker to chew through even the bites without any nuts. The flavour was a decent honey, not too strong but noticable and the nuts were crunchy and it all made for an interesting chew. 

That said, there was something not quite right with the honey nuts one, I can't quite put my finger on what, but I do prefer the unknown flavoured square. 

I understand this is a cheap, mass produced version of the authentic stuff and while I'm quite glad I didn't pay for this it has encouraged me to try the real deal now. 

Rating 6/10 

Greek Kataifi

I've just returned from my honeymoon, a beautiful week in Crete where I didn't actually eat many sweet things at all - it must say something when me and my husband (aaaah!!) with the worlds sweetest teeth turn down the dessert buffet in favour of more of what must be the worlds freshest fruit, vegetables, salad, fish and meats. I made sure to bring home some Cretan goodies though to make up for missing out and I'm glad I did - the 'fresh' food I'm buying back home now tastes like cardboard in comparison! 

The first souvenir I opened was handmade nuts and chocolate Kataifi. The box describes Kataifi as 'a sweet made of Kataifi pastry and contains a filling of nuts, usually pistachios, walnuts or almonds; it is sweetened with honey'  So really a Greek version of baklava and I chose the nuts and chocolate variety. 

The box contained three decently sized rectangular blocks which were all individually wrapped.  I don't know anything really about the company which produced these - Greek Horizons - other than they're a Greek company based in Crete, I'm guessing their market is mainly tourists based on the types of shops I saw these boxes being sold but despite this they smelt and felt very fresh and luxurious once I'd removed them. 

They smelt extremely sweet, but not artificially sugary sweet more of a lovely honey scent. The pastry was very sticky and flaky and I made more than a mess plating them up!! 

The pastry itself is crisp yet still soft and chewy. It didn't leave me with a dry mouth at all unlike other types of pastry and this wouldn't actually need any filling to be perfectly delicious on its own. The traditional Kataifi is made with honey, this mass produced version uses a mixture of vegetable oils and sugars but a mixture of flavours, including cinnamon curiously, gave the flavour of honey though I did find it to taste extremely sweet - even for me! 

The assorted nuts take up 5% and the chocolate only 3% so the flavour was mild but noticeable with each mouthful. They were overpowered by the syrupy sweetness for the majority of each bite though. At first I was disappointed there was only three in a pack but by the time I'd eaten those I was quite glad for it, anymore would be too much and these are definitely an in moderation treat or they would get too sickly. 

Rating 6/10 

Tasty but I'm not even really a Baklava or pastry anything fan usually.