New M&S British Isles Range...and Salt & Vinegar Caramels?!

Usually it's random companies that go balls to the wall with weird and wacky new flavours, but this time it's good old "British" institution M&S that have brought out a range of not just any new treats, but a "Taste of the British Isles" range, sure to make any Brexiteer dance with joy. It includes products like the Sea Salt and Vinegar Caramels shown above. Wrong, just wrong! What next, fish and chip truffles? (they probably do exist somewhere!)

In more weirdness, they're also selling not just any nuts but British Beer Coated Peanuts!

Plus they're doing a variety of alcoholic sweets, such as Milk Chocolate Truffles made with Somerset Matured Vintage Cider.

Plus a Gin Chocolate Collection for the gin lovers...

As well as Craft Beer Fudge!

Plus, Fruity Summer Punch Mallows...

And Rum and Raisin Toffees. Now these sound more up my street!

There's also Mocktail Jellies...

And the non-alcoholic and pure Unicorns Jellies...

Plus jelly Watermelons!

A new variety of Whip - Summer Fruits Whips!

Ooh - these look nice, Neapolitan Inspired Popcorn Bites!

As do these Sticky Toffee Pudding Bites!

You can't go wrong with Sea Salt Fudge Bites.

They're even getting in on the Speculoos train with these Speculoos Biscuit Truffles.

These sound lovely - Cornish White Chocolate Clotted Cream Truffles with a Cornish clotted cream ganache.

There's also this Sticky Toffee Pudding Bar, if you don't fancy sharing the bites!

Plus a Nostalgic British Fudge collection, with flavours like Eton Mess and Raspberry Fool.

Plus Ice Cream Inspired Toffees with raspberry ripple, mint chocolate and banana split flavours. Woo!

And plain Mint Toffees, made in York.

Gourmet Caramels, with strawberry, blackberry, mango & passionfruit flavours.

A Chocolate Maltball Selection - aka Maltesers - with salted caramel, dark chocolate and milk chocolate flavours.

Handmade Toffee Nut Brittle - made to a classic recipe with almond and pecan pieces.

Taste of The British Isles box - featuring Scottish Raspberry, English spring honey, Welsh sea salted caramel, and Irish cream liquer.

English toffee and milk chocolate drizzle cookies. Yum!

Last, but not least - Milk Chocolate Emotions. Because M&S are too posh for emojis...

Well, that's all for today's post - there were a few other new things in at M&S but I've included the most interesting here. If you try any of these treats, as always do let me know in the comments!

Holdsworth Mini Sea Salted Caramel Eggs

A big thankyou to Holdsworth Chocolates for today's review, they sent me this lovely box of their Sea Salted Caramel Eggs some time ago now and I absolutely loved them. Just a heads up - I will be doing a competition with Holdsworth soon, so you'll be able to win a hamper of some of their delicious chocolates - stay tuned! In the meantime do check out their lovely range online.

You can find Holdsworth Chocolates from John Lewis stores or buy them online. Their chocolates are handmade in Derbyshire using only quality ingredients, and all I've tried so far have been top notch! (FYI they do some amazing looking Peanut Butter Caramel Truffles!).

These Salted Caramel Mini Eggs come in a lovely box complete with a fun bunny design - it made me chuckle quite a bit. They would make a fantastic gift.

Opening the wrapper the eggs looked like typical mini chocolate eggs and had a lovely milky aroma. The salted caramel is in two halves inside the eggs - I tried to split one open to get a shot but it proved a little tricky!

They tasted AH-MAH-ZING. The chocolate is creamy and rich and clearly good quality (33% cocoa solids). The soft caramel too is great quality - it tastes homemade and authentic, soft, buttery, sweet, salty, and very very moreish! I loved these eggs, they're quite rich and satisfying so you won't want to eat too many at once, and are definitely worth the money. The caramel is also probably one of the best I've had in terms of sweet and salty balance - it was just right.

Overall, I think these are fantastic mini eggs and would make a great gift for anyone who likes good quality chocolates. If you need a last minute gift for a special someone you can't go wrong with a box of these this Easter.

9 out of 10.

I'll be doing a competition to win a hamper of Holdsworth Chocolates very soon - do stay tuned via my Instagram and Twitter feeds for that!

Kitkat Senses to return with Salted Caramel, Hazelnut & Double Chocolate!

A quick post today with some interesting snacks news: Nestle are going to relaunch their axed Kitkat Senses brand in a miniature version, which will come boxed and contains Kitkat wafers with three different fillings: Salted Caramel, Hazelnut and Double Chocolate. The boxes will retail at £3.99, containing 20 bars and will be available in Tesco in the next week, and other supermarkets in March. This is intended to be a permanent release and not limited edition. The Salted Caramel variety will contain a layer of caramel and crunchy sugar shards, the hazelnut a layer of praline and crunchy pieces of nut, and the double chocolate will have a layer of ganache and cocoa nibs.

The bars are being launched in box format to meet the demand for sharing products and will be situated next to products like Ferrero Rocher and Maltesers. A hazelnut only version will also be launched.

Are you excited? Do you remember the original Kitkat Senses bars? Which flavour takes your fancy the most? Let me know in the comments!

Nestle L'atelier Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Review

Recently, Nestle launched their range of premium chocolated Les Recettes De L'Atelier into Sainsbury's stores. This range has proven very popular in Europe so they are testing the waters in the UK it seems. There's some interesting flavours in the range, most notably L'atelier Blonde Chocolate with Roasted Almonds and Hazelnuts, although at £3.50 per large bar I have been put off trying it. A bit more reasonably priced is this thinner Dark Chocolate Sharing Bar with Salted Caramel pieces, usually £2 but reduced to £1.50 per 115g bar recently.

Most of the bars in the range have the added ingredients clearly visible on top, with the salted caramel pieces clearly visible on this one:

The bar can be broken into 5 pieces, although it's a bit difficult to get a clean split.

The underside has an unusual pattern on it, presumably due to how it is moulded:

Unfortunately, despite being dark chocolate this bar isn't suitable for vegans as it contains butterfat and cream, boo! The percentage of cocoa solids is listed as 54% minimum.

Taking a bite, it has a nice sweet flavour and was quite rich and flavoursome, moreso than I was expecting for such a low percentage of cocoa. The butterfat adds a pleasant buttery creaminess, with the caramel pieces providing bursts of sweet crunch whilst eating. They didn't taste particularly like salted caramel although there was the faintest hint of salt there. Overall, this is a pretty nice tasting bar and the salted caramel definitely makes it a bit different from most types of dark chocolate, although I'm not sure it's better than Lindt Dark Crunchy Caramel.

All in all, not a bad bar and this looks visually interesting but it's not something I would say justifies a very high price tag. £1.50 is about right as a standard price so I would only recommend buying this when it's on special offer.

Ingredients: cocoa mass, sugar, salted caramel pieces (8%) (sugar, cream powder, whole milk powder, salt, cocoa butter, whey powder, natural flavouring), butterfat, emulsifier sunflower lecithin. 

Nutrition (per 100g): 547 Calories, 34.5g Fat, 47.2g Carbohydrates, 44g Sugars, 7.8g Protein.

8 out of 10.

Almond Dream Salted Caramel Non Dairy Ice Cream

Since Ben & Jerry's launched their Non Dairy Ice Creams in the UK (check out my review of the Non Dairy Chunky Monkey here), it seems that Vegan and Dairy Free products are finally making it into the mainstream. The options are variable, with the Ben & Jerry's Non Dairy range being pretty good, whilst the Alpro Non Dairy Ice Creams are rather poor in my opinion. So how does this Non Dairy Ice Cream from Almond Dream compare? The range comprises of a few varieties, such as Mint Chocolate Chip and Velvety Vanilla, and is available from supermarkets such as Morrisons, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Asda and Ocado.com.

I saw the Salted Caramel variety reduced to £3 in Sainsbury's recently (it's usually between £4- £5) so thought I would give it a try. It's made with almonds, cane sugar, maltodextrin (from tapioca) and a few other fillers. I'm not a big fan of fillers in ice cream but I suppose being non-dairy it needs to be bulked up with something.

When I opened the tub, I was surprised to find a layer of hard caramel at the top. Is that the salted caramel? I wasn''t sure so I dug in with a spoon...it's a strange, semi-brittle texture that tastes vaguely of caramel but not quite. It tasted ok but the texture was just odd.

The ice cream below was fairly uniform, it all tasted the same with a sweet and vaguely salty butterscotch flavour. It was pretty good; it melts in the mouth nicely and is very creamy, but it was lacking something. I think this tub would be much better with ripples of salted caramel sauce running through it, rather than the hard layer of brittle on the top. But maybe it's hard to make dairy free salted caramel? Who knows!

Overall, this isn't one of my favourite Dairy Free ice creams but it's not one of the worst either. I would buy it again if there were no other dairy-free options, but I think the Mint Choc Chip might be better. This one was let down by the weird layer of caramel "brittle" on top...they need to have a re-think of that in my opinion.

Ingredients: Water, cane sugar, almonds 5%, tapioca maltodextrin, vegetable oil: safflower, brown rice syrup, stabilisers: guar gum, locust bean gum, carageenan, emulsifiers: sunflower lecithin, soya lecithin, natural flavouring, salt 0.3%, colour: plain caramel, cocoa butter, soya protein, thickener: pectin. 

Nutrition Information (per quarter of pack): 119 Calories, 5.2g Fat, 16.8g Carbohydrates, 12.4g Sugars, 0.9g Protein.

7 out of 10. 

Biona Salted Caramel Coconut Bliss

When I'm on a health kick I do enjoy eating a lot of coconut butter. It's a healthy paleo fat that tastes sweet and is very filling to boot. I usually eat it right from the spoon, but sometimes I'll mix it with cocoa powder and make chocolatey snacks from it too.

I've never known of any flavoured varieties so I was super dooper excited when I spotted this Salted Caramel Coconut Bliss made by Biona, in my local vegan store recently. It costs £4.93 which is a standard price for coconut butter, and is described as "our Salted Caramel Coconut Bliss is made from high quality coconut flesh blended with coconut milk, coconut nectar and pink Himalayan salt".

A natural salted caramel coconut product, sounds like heaven!

Since it's now Winter it was of course rock solid in the jar, and some of the fat had separated from the coconut nectar leaving unpleasant looking lumpy bits. I took a spoonful whilst on the bus as I couldn't wait to try it and....it didn't taste good. I was so disappointed. I could only describe the flavour as somewhat meaty, sickly and unpleasant. I suspected the problem was the separation of the coconut nectar from the fat, so when I got home I melted it down in a pan into more of a liquid, fudgey paste.

And it tasted a lot better! In fact it tasted lovely, like a caramel coconut fudge of sorts, and was super easy to eat from the spoon. Yum! I will admit, I ate a bit too much, although compared to real fudge with tons of sugar and dairy, this was a lot more filling and satisfying. I was able to actually put it down and stop eating, haha!

Overall, I'm glad I put aside my initial reaction to this and saved the day by melting it down - in liquid form it's lovely and makes for a nice natural fudge substitute. I can see a lot of potential for using this to make various vegan and dairy free sweets, if you add nuts, dried fruit or seeds to it. Definitely worth a try if you're vegan, paleo or into healthier eating!

8 out of 10. 

Nestle Quality Street Matchmakers Salted Caramel Review

The Salted Caramel trend has been going for at least a few years now, and it seems that companies are determined to put it in everything. Galaxy Salted Caramel is a few years old, and more recently we got Salted Caramel Kettle Chips. Nestle have got in on the act too and added a Salted Caramel variety to their Matchmakers range (which now bizarrely has been lumped under the Quality Street brand, even though Matchmakers never had anything to do with Quality Street). This is no doubt a replacement for the Matchmakers Yummy Honeycomb which is still available in Home Bargains, although it could be old stock.

You can pick these up for around £1 in most shops currently - Tesco have them at half price and they're also in Poundland and other discount stores for £1.

They're described as "salted caramel flavoured chocolates with skimmed milk chocolate, dark chocolate and boiled sugar pieces". Yum - boiled sugar, sounds so enticing!

Opening the box they had a super strong butterscotch-like aroma, so strong there was no way it can be natural. It's so overpowering.

The sticks are the classic Matchmakers, perfect for nibbling on or stuffing as many in your mouth as you can fit! You get a good amount to munch on, which has always been one of the best things about Matchmakers in my opinion - they're great value for money.

They taste strongly of salted caramel, too strongly in fact. This isn't the sort of salted caramel that sits there on the fence - it's full on SALTY, strong and butterscotch like, and quite frankly after a few sticks these were too much. I did enjoy them but they become too overpowering and I think the fault lies in the strong artificial flavour (although the ingredients list "natural flavouring", hmmmm I wonder what it is?).

Overall, these aren't bad and I'm sure they'll go down a storm over the festive season if you like salty caramel flavours. They certainly make a nice alternative to the usual Mint and Orange Matchmakers. But they're a bit too much for me personally.

Ingredients: Sugar, cocoa mass, glucose syrup, cocoa butter, skimmed milk powder, vegetable fat, lactose and proteins from whey, whey powder, natural flavouring, emulsifier sunflower lecithin, salt.

Suitable for vegetarians. 

Nutrition (per 4 sticks): 71 Calories, 3.1g Fat, 10.2g Carbohydrates, 9.2g Sugars, 0.5g Protein. 

7 out of 10. 

Kettle Discoveries Salted Caramel & Double Cream

When I first saw these new Salted Caramel flavour Kettle Chips I laughed. It seems a bit ridiculous to put the Flavour Du Jour (which is fast becoming the Flavour Du Yesterday!) on crisps, I mean who wants sweet crisps? Is it a new trend? (Tesco seem to think so - their latest weird Christmas flavour is Tesco Finest Candy Cane crisps - click for my review!)

I'm glad I put my reservations aside and gave these a shot though. They're only £1 in Tesco at the moment, and I thought they would at least make for an interesting review. They're described as "Hand cooked potato chips with salted caramel and double cream seasoning", and are Gluten Free as well as suitable for vegetarians.

I tipped the bag right into a bowl and dug straight in - no messing about! They had a vague toffee-like aroma that seemed more savoury than sweet. Intriguing!

And they tasted...rather amazing! Now I don't really know how to describe these other than moreish - they're sort of cheesy, possibly owing to the double cream, with a strong savoury edge and saltiness. There's a very slight buttery sweetness there under the surface from the salted caramel - which is apparently Tiptree Salted Caramel Spread. I couldn't stop myself from eating one after the other...they're soooo good!

Overall, should you try these? Yes, yes you should! Like the Chocolate Coated Cinnamon Tortilla Rolls from M&S they're a snack sure to get people talking this Christmas, and one that will no doubt be a big surprise to all. You may even want to buy an extra bag so you can have one all to yourself...

Nutrition per 100g: 26.1g Fat, 59.3g Carbohydrates, 3.2g Sugars, 4.5g Fibre, 5g Protein.

Ingredients: Select potatoes, sunflower oil, salted caramel and double cream seasoning (dried salted caramel spread extract, golden syrup, condensed skimmed milk, butter, double cream, sea salt, dried cream, demerera sugar, sugar, dried buttermilk, sea salt, dried caramel syrup, dried dorset cream, salt, natural flavouring).

8.5 out of 10.

Have you tried these Salted Caramel Kettle Chips? Did you love them as much as me? Let me know in the comments!

New Products: Kinder Bueno Coconut, Poundland Twin Peaks, Pringles Street Food & More!

It's been a while since I did a Spotted In Shops post, but since there's so many new products out lately I thought it about time for a revival - rejoice everyone!

One of the most important new product launches is of course the Kinder Bueno Coconut, one for the coconutters out there, and one I can't eat due to gluten. Boo! I do hope to see a review from my favourite Coconutter aka Reaching For Refreshment though. Please take one for the team Cupcake! Spotted in Superdrug.

One product that I'm eager for but seems to be having some legal trouble with Toblerone is Poundland's Twin Peaks bar. It is of course very similar in design, with "twin peak" shaped blocks rather than the triangular ones on a Toblerone. It actually contains more chocolate too.

Since Mondelez drastically altered the spacing of Toblerone blocks last year (check out my review for the pics!) we've all been crying out for something better value, and looks like this could be it! Let's hope they get the go ahead for this bar soon - I'll be sure to do a review once it's on shelves!

Reese's Stuffed with Pieces Cups:

I was surprised to see these Reese's Stuffed with Pieces in Sainsbury's recently, I had assumed they were an American only product but it seems we are getting them over here now, hurrah!

Tic Tac Banana & Tangerine:

An unusual flavour combination for Tic Tac, to tie in with the new Minions Despicable Me 3 film. Spotted in The Co Op.

Kinder Surprise Despicable Me 3:

Kinder Surprise eggs with Despicable Me 3 toys. Perfect for kids...or big kids! Spotted in The Co Op.

Oreo Cookies & Cream Cake:

Available only in Iceland currently, this Oreo cake contains a biscuit base with a creamy layer and crushed Oreo cookies on top.

Nestle Dairy Box Classic Collection with new chocolates:

Nestle have updated the packaging for their classic Dairy Box chocolate collection again, and included some new Rose chocolates and Orange chocolate truffles. Spotted in Tesco.

Limited Edition Quality Street Matchmakers Salted Caramel:

I'm not sure how long this is limited edition for but let's hope it sticks around till at least Christmas. Available in most supermarkets.

Maryland Cookies Thins:

I don't know whats with this trend of making cookies thinner lately, does it just mean you can scoff more at once? Spotted in The Co Op and Tesco. Also available in a Salted Caramel variety.

Jammie Dodgers Strawberry Sundae Limited Edition:

These looks suspiciously similar to a variety that was out many years ago, and I suspect they are just a recycled idea. Try something new, Burtons! Available at Asda, Tesco etc.

Oreo with Strawberry Yogurt:

Not long after launching plain Yogurt with crushed Oreo, Mondelez have now launched a strawberry version. Innovation at its finest. Available from Asda, Tesco etc.

McVitie's Digestives Banoffee Caramel:

Now these sound a bit more innovative! Available from Asda, Tesco etc.

McVitie's Digestives Nibbles Orange:

Yet another variety of McVitie's Digestives Nibbles, this time in Chocolate Orange. They sound yummy! Spotted in Asda.

McVitie's Penguin Cookies & Cream Cake Crunchies:

New cake bars based on Penguin biscuits, containing crunchy biscuit or "cookie" pieces within the cream layer. Available from Asda.

McVitie's Trio Toffee Cake Crunchies:

And another variety, based on the newly relaunched McVitie's Trio bars. Also available from Asda.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Big Taste Triple Choc Sensation Desserts:

Cadbury have converted one of their Big Taste bars into dessert form, I'm just puzzled why it wasn't the Toffee Whole Nut or Peanut Caramel Crisp varieties? Available from most supermarkets.

Jacobs Cheddars with a hint of pickle:

Not content with bacon flavour, Jacob's have further expanded their Cheddars range with this new limited ediiton Pickle flavour. Spotted in Asda.

Jacobs Mini Cheddars Stilton (Choose Your Cheese):

Jacobs are doing a new competition for Mini Cheddars to "choose your cheese" from three different cheese flavours, including Stilton...

Jacobs Mini Cheddars Smoked Applewood: 

and Smoked Applewood...

Jacobs Mini Cheddars Red Leicester:

And last but not least, red leicester. All these varieties are available at Asda. Which cheese will you choose?

Maynards Bassetts Jelly Babies Tropical:

A new tropical twist on Jelly Babies! Spotted in Morrisons.

Haribo Jelly Babies & Wine Gums Mix:

Can't decide whether to go for Jelly Babies or Wine Gums? Now you can have both in the same bag thanks to Haribo! Available at Asda.

Haribo Jelly Babies Double Trouble:

Eat two Jelly Babies at once with these new doubled-up Jelly Babies. A good excuse to eat more! Available at Asda.

Milkybar with Smarties Sharing Bar:

In the early 2000's Nestle did a white chocolate Smarties bar, but now they've resurrected it as Milkybar with Smarties! Available from Asda, Morrisons etc.

Jameson's Peppermint Ruffle:

The classic vegan coconutty chocolates are now available in a mint version. I wonder how they compare to Raspberry Ruffles? Available from Asda.

Asda Blackcurrant Bakewells:

A new tangy twist on the classic bakewell tart from Asda, complete with a sweet on top. One for the sweet-toothed for sure!

Asda Cherry Bakewell Milk:

A unique milk drink flavour from Asda here, well done for innovation! Limited edition.

Asda Make Your Own Ice Cream Caramel Delight:

Asda have brought out a new range of "Make your own ice creams", in chocolate, caramel and vanilla varieties. You just add milk, and they come with added mix-ins. Pointless, but fun. Probably.

The Co Op Sugar Free Fruit Salad Chews:

Sugar free products are becoming ever more popular and it's nice to see The Co Op doing some sugar free chews, even if they do contain artificial sweetener.

Also available in the interesting Rhubarb and Rosehip flavour. I can't say I've ever tasted rosehip before!

Pringles Thai Green Curry Street Food Edition:

There's so many new Pringles varieties in shops at the moment it's hard to keep track. The main new official editions for the UK are these Street Food flavours, in Thai Green Curry...

Pringles Spicy BBQ Ribs Street Food Edition:

Spicy barbecue...

Pringles Hot Chilli Sauce Street Food Edition:

Hot chilli sauce...

Pringles Mac & Cheese Street Food Edition:

...and the rather amazing sounding Mac & Cheese! All are available from most supermarkets.

Pringles Ketchup:

Not an official UK variety, these only seem to be available from discount stores. Spotted in Bargain Buys.

Nature Valley Popcorn Peanut & Sunflower Seed:

Nature Valley are still expanding their UK bar range, with this nutty popcorn variety, available from Morrisons and Sainsbury's...

Nature Valley Protein Coconut & Almond:

...and also a Coconut & Almond Protein variety. Spotted in Sainsbury's.

Go Ahead Crunchy Dippers Creamy Coconut:

These sound rather nice...crunchy breadsticks with a creamy coconut dipping sauce. Spotted in Tesco.

Go Ahead Crunchy Dippers Salted Caramel:

Also available with Salted Caramel sauce. Spotted in Tesco.

Rude Health Porridge with Almond Butter & Sea Salt:

Tesco Expresses are now selling these "just add water" Rude Health porridge pots, complete with almond butter. Yummy! Also available with Hazelnut Butter and Cacao.

Quaker Oats Porridge To Go Breakfast Squares:

Some new oaty breakfast bakes from Quaker, available in Golden Syrup and Strawberry, Raspberry & Cranberry varieties. Spotted in Tesco Express.

Deliciously Ella Original Granola:

The Deliciously Ella brand has branched out into breakfast cereal, with both an Original Granola containing seeds and coconut, as well as Bircher Muesli. Both are gluten and dairy free. Spotted in Waitrose.

Lee's Caramel Teacakes:

A new varety of Tecakes from Lee's, with a caramel flavour mallow filling. Spotted in Morrisons.

Bailey's Iced Coffee Latte:

Fancy a boozy coffee milky drink? Bailey's to the rescue! Spotted in Tesco.

Jim Beam Apple & Honey:

Some new Jim Beam flavours are out in  Asda in time for the Summer months. Perfect for barbecues...if we see any more sun this Summer that is!

Cadbury Mandolin Bars:

I've left this for last because it's not very widely available at all - you'll be lucky to find a bar, but if you have a Poundstretcher nearby do have a look for these - they're made by Cadbury Egypt and are like a Cadbury version of Twix. Currently on offer at 5 for £1!

Well, that's all folks...do stay tuned for more Spotted In Shops and Snack News posts, I'll be doing a lot more in the coming months. Happy Snacking! :)