Nestlé Studentská Dark Blackcurrant (Limited Edition)

Here we have the Nestlé Orion Studentská Pecet Dark Blackcurrant. I found this Limited Edition in my local European import store, and there weren't many bars left so I quickly snapped one up . From what I can gather online this bar was only produced for a limited period during 2012, and for 2013 Nestlé are doing a different batch of limited edition Studentská varieties (which I'll be reviewing later).

Orion is a Czech Nestlé brand that apparently has a lot of history behind it. Studentská bars are part of that brand and they come in Milk, Dark, Cherry, and White Chocolate versions (I've reviewed the White Chocolate Studentská here). 

This Limited Edition version consists of dark chocolate, blackcurrant jelly pieces, peanuts and raisins. The blocks are very chunky, and several have the Nestlé "heart" logo going across them:

I like that it was wrapped in foil and paper rather than plastic like most chocolate bars are these days. It's one of those little things I miss from my childhood, and I'm sure chocolate tastes better when it's foil-wrapped!

The chocolate tasted very sweet and not really like proper "dark" chocolate, more like a basic sweet plain chocolate. Which is fine, because combined with the other ingredients it works. The nuts, raisins and jelly pieces are what really brings this bar alive. The peanuts were fantastic; they had a lovely savoury, almost salty edge to them. Combined with the raisins and dark chocolate they made this a very moreish bar; I couldn't stop eating it even though it's quite a thick slab! The only thing that let it down in my opinion were the blackcurrant jelly pieces - the blackcurrant flavour was a bit odd and didn't really go with the chocolate. Still I'm glad I tried this bar because it's very unique and a change from the norm.

I'm gradually becoming a big fan of Nestlé Studentská bars, I love any kind of chocolate with peanuts and fruit in so this is always a winning idea in my book! I've got more Studentská reviews to come so please stay tuned for them!

Price: £2.45.
Found at: European import store.
Made by: Nestle.ch.

Ion Break - Greek chocolate from Tesco

A hat-tip to Marcus who does the fantastic Choc It Out! video series on Youtube for alerting me to this bar. He found one in Sainsbury's and ever since he mentioned it on Twitter I've been on the lookout for one. Alas, my local Sainsbury's didn't seem to stock them but luckily I found some in the world food's section of Tesco instead.

Ion is a Greek chocolate brand with a range of different bars, but the ones available at Tesco were this Milk Chocolate with raisins, almonds and hazelnuts, as well as a plain Milk Chocolate bar.

This bar comes in a square block similar to Ritter Sport bars, and each chunk has the word "Ion" printed on it. The chocolate smelled very nice when I opened the wrapper - sweet and milky.

Taste-wise it was nice but nothing groundbreaking. The chocolate was milky and rich but also quite sweet. The raisins were tangy, and the almonds and hazelnuts added a nice crunch. But to be honest I didn't think the chocolate was all that special; it tasted a bit like supermarket own-label chocolate. Which is no bad thing, but it lacks that "je ne sais quai" to make it stand out over other chocolate bars.

Overall, a nice chocolate bar but unless they bring out other flavours in the UK I'm not sure I would buy one again. It was worth trying the once though and it's certainly not a bad chocolate; it just lacks any truly distinguishing features.

Price: £1 at Tesco.
Ingredients: Contains 10% raisins, 3% almonds & 3% hazelnuts. Cocoa solids: 29% min.
Allergy advice: Contains milk & soya, may contain traces of wheat and other nuts.

Peanut Butter M&M's

A big thankyou to Monster Sweets who sent me these M&M's recently. You can get most of the M&M's range as well as many American and European snacks from their site here:
http://www.monstersweets.co.uk/

I've tried Peanut Butter M&M's in the past, but haven't bought them much since because of the high prices. I wish they were widely available in the UK because I think they taste amazing, the best M&M's I've ever eaten infact. Why these aren't widely available is a big mystery to me. I guess the UK still isn't ready to accept peanut butter as a mainstream flavour like they do in America. Sigh.

These M&M's contain a peanut butter centre coated in milk chocolate and a crunchy coloured shell.

Taste-wise they were chocolatey, salty, peanutty, crunchy...and very very moreish! The textures and flavours all work perfectly together and I was left wanting more once I had finished the packet.

Overall, these are a great snack which should be made widely available in the UK, preferably in large bags! I'm not usually a fan of M&M's but would buy these regularly if I could.

Luckily they're available from Monster Sweets for £1.25 a bag which is cheaper than most import stores, plus they have other M&M flavours such as Coconut (reviewed here by Grocery Gems), Pretzel, Dark Chocolate and even Almond M&M's!:

http://www.monstersweets.co.uk/mms-17-c.asp

*Monster Sweets sent me these M&M's for an honest review and all views expressed here are my own.

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Tango Blue Balls!

When I spotted bags of these Tango Blue Balls sweets in Discount UK, I was intrigued. I'm sure most people have heard of the term "blue balls" before so I needn't explain anything! The picture on the wrapper is supposed to be of two blue raspberries, but considering the name of this product I think they're meant to resemble something else..?

The sweets are described as "Blue raspberry flavour chewy bonbons", and are basically hard chewy sugar bonbons with flavourings and colours.

The wrapper says "No pain - no gain!" which had me thinking they would be extremely sour. It also describes them as "Tongue painters" as they turn your tongue bright blue, and I can confirm they did indeed have this effect. However they weren't very sour at all so I'm not sure where the "pain" aspect comes in.

They tasted slightly of raspberries, but the overriding flavour was of chemicals and sugar. They weren't very pleasant. They were also far, far too hard and chewy. Presumably the main selling point is supposed to be the blue tongue effect, which they are certainly very effective at, but why anyone would buy sweets to make their tongue blue is beyond me!

Overall I wasn't really a fan of these. They tasted a bit cheap and artificial, and leave your tongue looking like you've snogged a smurf. The makers have used some dodgy marketing to sell them and once the novelty wears off, all you're left with is a cheap product!

There's also Orange Tango Bonbons available from Discount UK, which oddly (but perhaps wisely) aren't called Tango Orange Balls.

Price: £1 at Discount UK.
Ingredients: Sugar, glucose syrup, vegetable oil, pork gelatine, colours and flavours. Not suitable for vegetarians.

Have you tried Tango Blue Balls? If so what did you think of them? 

Maltesers Teasers Bar Review

It's been a busy few months in new chocolate news. We've had the new Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations bars from Cadbury, Magnum extended their ice cream brand into chocolate bars, and even Nestlé made a bid for extra sales with their 5 finger version of Kitkat.

Mars have also gotten in on the act and released this new Maltesers Teasers bar, which is basically the Malteser chocolate from Celebrations in bar form. I've always said Mars should make a Maltesers chocolate bar and I'm surprised it took them this long to be honest!

As you can see in this pic the bar is split into weird "bubble sections". I'm not sure what that's all about but it's certainly a unique look for a chocolate bar! It reminded me of the new Aero "bubble shaped" bars.

Taste-wise, this bar was very different from regular Maltesers, and actually much nicer in my opinion. As good as Maltesers are I find their crunchiness a little bit annoying, especially when you get a build-up of the malty bits in your mouth if you eat too many. This bar solves that problem and just gives little crunchy bits of malt in a creamy tasting chocolate bar. It's a much more convenient way to eat Maltesers! The chocolate contains 25% cocoa solids, which gives it a decent standard chocolatey taste. I enjoyed my bar with a cup of coffee which it went perfectly with.

Overall, this is a delicious chocolate bar and one I would happily buy again. It's also available in a big block size which sounds a bit dangerous to me - I would be tempted to eat the whole thing!

Price: 57p at Asda & Tesco.
Nutrition information: Contains 186 calories and 10g fat per bar.
Allergy advice: Contains wheat, gluten, milk and soya. Suitable for vegetarians. Kosher.

Ülker Ҫikolata - Turkish Hazelnut Chocolate

Whilst browsing a local Turkish store I came across this bar of "Ülker Ҫikolata Findikli", which is a milk chocolate bar containing chopped hazelnuts. I'm always interested in foreign brands I've never heard of before so decided to give it a try. Unfortunately I hadn't checked the date and it turned out that it was very close to the sell-by date. It also cost £1.49, which considering the small size of the bar is a lot of money for something that's stale! I seem to be cursed with buying out of date chocolate bars, when will I learn?!

Anyway, when I opened the wrapper the chocolate at least smelled very nice. And it looked pretty attractive too with it's gold foil wrapper and interesting shaped blocks:

Unfortunately it tasted horrible. The chopped hazelnuts were stale and tasted rancid, completely ruining the bar. I had to throw it in the bin after a few bites.

Overall I was very disappointed with this bar, it's such a shame it wasn't in date as I'd really like to see how Turkish chocolate compares to our British stuff. If I come across another Ülker bar in future I'll give one a try as long as it's in date!

For a more positive Ülker product review do check out Grocery Gems' post on Ülker Cokomel Banana Marshmallow Chocolates, they sound a lot more appetizing than this bar!

Wrigley's 5 Turbulence Watermelon Gum

I'm not usually a big fan of chewing gum apart from the fruity ones like Hubba Bubba (technically bubble gum, but I still see it as the same thing!), but when I spotted this Watermelon flavour from Wrigley's 5 I thought it unique enough to try. Wrigley's 5 is a chewing gum range with stronger and more intense flavours than regular chewing gums; I've tried some of their range in the past and thought they were very successful as far as gum goes.

This Watermelon flavour was just as good as the others in the range, it had a strong and realistic watermelon taste which was very refreshing. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a nice way to get a breath freshening hit. The flavour is more intense and lasts longer than regular gums, which is exactly what you want if you're buying gum in my opinion. Nothing annoys me more than gum which tastes nice for the first few bites and then loses it's flavour!

Overall, I can only recommend this gum, it gives a refreshing watermelon taste and goes further than most regular, boring chewing gums!

Price: 59p from local newsagent.
Ingredients: Contains sweeteners, soya, and a source of phenylalanine. Suitable for vegetarians.