Plamil So Free Organic White Chocolate Alternative

A mahoosive thankyou to Plamil Foods, who recently sent me a box of their Dairy Free, Organic, Gluten Free and Vegan-friendly chocolate range to review recently! It was like a gift from the Gods considering I had been avoiding the dairy-filled chocolates recently.

It's tricky finding decent dairy free alternatives in shops; there's the trusty dark chocolates from Lindt and G&B of course but sometimes you want something a bit more mellow. Thankfully Plamil have catered for all with their range - from White Chocolate to Milk Chocolate alternatives, to the more darker end of the cocoa spectrum. I thought I'd start with the White Chocolate Alternative first, since it's one of the most difficult products to find a Dairy Free version of.

Billed as Organic and containing 48% cocoa this sounded rather special indeed - it consists of a blend of cocoa butter, sugar and rice in place of milk.

Do forgive the broken appearance of the bar, I think in my excitement I may have dropped it - it didn't arrive that way, it was well wrapped in the post! The slab has a wavy pattern on it as well as the Plamil logo and another logo near the bottom of the bar, which appears to be birds?

I broke off a piece and took a bite. Mmmm, very melt in the mouth! Certainly different to the white chocolate anyone might be used to - the taste is more focused on the cocoa butter and melt in the mouth texture rather than the overly sweet milkiness you get with "dairy" white chocolates. It took some getting used to, especially since I haven't really tried anything like this before (with the exception of the fab Solkiki Toasted Coconut White which I can no longer find - booo!). But as I chewed on it it really grew on me, it has a comforting sweet vanilla hinted flavour that creeps up on you. It's even better with a cup of coffee - you can dip it in and it gets all melty and lovely. Yum!

Overall, for an alternative to white chocolate this has to be one of the better quality options I've tried. It's better than the supermarket own brands and feels more premium. If you're dairy free or vegan and miss white chocolate - this one is a must-try!

For more info and to buy: https://www.plamilfoods.co.uk/

Ingredients: cocoa butter, rice powder, raw cane sugar, natural vanilla flavouring.

Nutrition Information (per 100g): 638 calories, 48g fat, 48.7g carbohydrates, 26g sugars, 0.6g protein.

8 out of 10.

Tiana CocoTop Coconut Snacks Sweet & Savoury

A big thankyou to Tiana Fairtrade Organics for today's post, who kindly offered me some of their new CocoTop "Organic Coconut Snacks" to review, an offer I couldn't refuse! There's two varieties in the range, which is available from Amazon in 50g pots. You can buy both varities together or the Savoury and Sweet versions by themselves. Both contain only natural ingredients, are suitable for vegans, organic and gluten-free. They're lightly toasted to reduce fat content.

Tiana CocoTop Savoury:

I tried the Savoury variety first, which are coconut chips "lightly salted with unrefined sea salt". I do like the little tubs these come in, they're super handy, and unlike other coconut chips on the market you can re-seal them and save some for later. No messy bits falling out into your bag!

The coconut chips are nicely toasted and taste very fresh and good quality. They would certainly make for a nice salty cinema snack in place of popcorn, with a lot more nutrition in. I could imagine these being even better with some pepper or spices added.

7.5 out of 10.

Tiana CocoTop Sweet:

Now these were the ones I was most excited about. Because, sugar! Coconut nectar to be exact, which is a lot healthier and lower glycemic than white sugar, meaning you don't get the sugar crash later on. They had a lovely golden appearance and tasted seriously, seriously gorgeous; the coconut nectar gives a moreish caramel edge which is perfect blended with the toasted coconut chips. The perfect combination! As tasty as they were, I didn't feel the need to eat the whole tub because they felt very satisfying (also, no sugar crash, yay!).

8.5 out of 10.

Overall, I have to say Tiana are winning with these new CocoTop snacks! Not only are they super tasty they're perfectly portable and make for satisfying, nutritious and tasty eats. If these appear in any local shops I would definitely buy them regularly, they're actually much better than other brands of Coconut Chips I've tried thus far!

Doisy & Dam Coconut & Lucuma Dark Chocolate

I always love a new chocolate bar variety, so when I spotted this mini bar of Doisy and Dam Dark Chocolate in a local Sainsbury's Express recently, straight into my basket it went. Costing £1 for 25g it certainly ain't cheap, but that's because it contains organic cocoa and has won a Great Taste Award. I had high expectations, especially since I've reviewed Doisy & Dam before - do check out my Doisy & Dam Maple, Toasted Rice & Pink Salt Review.

This bar contains coconut flakes and vanilla as well as lucuma, which is a type of fruit with caramel undertones. There's 4 segments per mini bar.

Considering the price I was expecting something special from this, and luckily it didn't disappoint. The coconut chips add some nice toasty crunchiness, whilst the lucuma and vanilla both give it a smooth, sweet caramel-like flavour. This is balanced by the rich dark chocolate, which is good quality and has a finer taste than the likes of other dark chocolates such as Green & Blacks or Lindt.

Overall, I have to say I really enjoyed this bar! It may be small but it's super tasty. Suitable for vegans, dairy free and gluten free too. For more info and ingredients check out the Doisy and Dam website: https://doisyanddam.com/products/coconut-lucuma

8.5 out of 10. 

Seed & Bean Lemon and Cardamom Dark Chocolate

Today's review is for Seed and Bean, a brand I have featured on occasion before - I particularly loved their White Chocolate, Lemon & Poppyseed Bar. This time I've been trying out some of their dark chocolate varieties.

Their dark chocolates are suitable for vegans, fairtrade, dairy free and gluten free, as well as organic. This one contains 58% Cocoa and is flavoured with lemon and cardamom, a bit of a unique pairing for chocolate!

It tastes nice, with rich, good quality dark chocolate that has a slightly acidic edge. The cardamom certainly makes for an interesting flavour profile combined with the lemon. I enjoyed this bar, it's not something you'd want to eat on the regular, but for "something a bit different" at Christmas it would make a nice variation. I would recommend this to vegans or anyone dairy free looking for something a bit different.

I also like that it's organic since Green & Blacks seem to be downplaying their organic range now with their Velvet Editions, which surely isn't a good sign for the organic chocolate market. Please people, support organic products, not only are they good for the environment they're better for your health too!

8.5 out of 10.

Plenish Organic Dairy Free Coconut Milk Review

Today's review is for Plenish, a new Dairy Free Nut Milk brand stocked in the likes of Sainsbury's and Waitrose, whose milks are made with clean ingredients and zero fillers. Which is impressive since almost every brand has some kind of stabiliser added! I picked their Organic Coconut M*lk to try when I saw it on offer in Sainsbury's, since I'm avoiding nuts at the moment. I don't know why the word "milk" has an asterisk in place of the "i"...it makes me think it's a swear word or something!

This variety is unsweetened and made from a mixture of filtered water, organic coconut milk, rice and sea salt. Pretty simple ingredients right? Apparently this is the only coconut milk on the market made without additives. I shook the bottle well as advised on the carton, and poured some into a glass.

The milk looked very creamy, but there were some worrying lumps floating about in it, seemingly from the coconut. This didn't bother me too much since I've experienced the same with other coconut milks before.

The milk tasted very nice, and it might sound gross, but the coconut lumps were actually rather pleasant to chew on! The milk itself is creamy and slightly sweet from the rice, and would be perfect in drinks or smoothies. It's kind of light in texture, but creamier than regular rice milk. I'm not sure if I prefer it to Rude Health's Coconut Milk as it's pretty similar...maybe I should do a head to head taste test of them both.

Overall, for a coconut milk made with organic, clean ingredients this is excellent. Whilst not perfect due to the lumps, I would still buy it again over any other coconut milk with stabilisers in! If you're vegan or dairy intolerant I would recommend giving this a try.

As a side-note...did anyone else mistake the name as "Penis" rather than Plenish? Now there's a scary thought! 

Nutrition Information (per 100ml): 46 Calories, 1.6g Fat, 7.9g Carbohydrates, 4.6g Sugars, 0.2g Protein.

Ingredients: Filtered water, Coconut milk 9%, Rice, Sea Salt.

8 out of  10.