Merry Xmas Everyone

Apologies for going MIA for a while, I have many upcoming reviews to post in the very near future.

Wishing all my readers a very merry snack filled christmas xoxo

Cadbury Little Wishes

The Make A Wish Foundation is a wonderful organisation that grants wishes to children with life threatening illnesses. Cadbury has recently released these Little Wishes to support the organisation, with 5 cents from every pack going to Make A Wish.

The product is a thick star like product, chocolate outer layer incasing a layer of bubbly chocolate (think aero) and a layer of chocolate truffle.

If you like Cadbury chocolate, then you'll like this.

Rating: Not the most exciting new product but for a great cause, 8/10

McDonalds Smoky BBQ Bandit

One of two limited edition burgers released by McDonalds yesterday is the Smoky BBQ Bandit.

The Smoky BBQ Bandit is a beef burger with bacon, onion rings, cheese, BBQ sauce and mayonnaise.

The overwhelming taste was of the smoky BBQ sauce. On the whole I liked the burger but I would make a few minor changes: less BBQ sauce, more mayo and an extra slice of cheese on the bottom. I did like the addition of the onion rings (but then again, I habitually put fries in my cheeseburgers) and was impressed to find that they were made from actual onion rings rather than an onion mash in a ring like shape.

Rating: Good idea but lacks a little in execution, 6/10

McDonalds Scorcher Peri Peri

McDonalds released two new burgers yesterday, one of which is the Scorcher Peri Peri, a spicy chicken burger. Given my dislike of chilli in all its forms, I probably should have left the tasting of this burger to one of my friends or family, but for some reason standing there in McDonalds I convinced myself it wouldn't be that hot.Silly me!

Let's face it, the warning signs were there, the use of 'Scorcher' in the name of the burger, the above description mentioning 'turning up the heat', 'spicy', 'chilli coated', 'hot combo', the pictures of chillies on the menu, and yet I persisted.

More warning signs as I opened the box, I could smell the chilli, the chicken was an angry, red, chilli-coated colour to it. Still, I took a bite, and I have to say the flavours were delicious, and yes it was hot although if you like burn your mouth heat, I don't think this will deliver.

Rating: Great flavours, too hot for me and probably not hot enough for some, 8/10

Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted

On the same promotional shelf as the Cadbury Starbar, I found the Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted, a chocolate bar version of the popular Easter staple, the Cadbury Creme Egg.

I really liked the shape of this bar, I guess appearance doesn't really effect the taste of the product (as shown by the "deliciously ugly" Cadbury Picnic), but I appreciated the effort none-the-less.

Given my enjoyment of the Cadbury Screme Egg, I was eager to tuck in. I did like it, I think the ratio of chocolate to filling is better than the egg. I do find the filling extremely sweet though, so half a bar was enough for me.

Rating: An improvement on the egg version but still extremely sweet, 8/10

Cadbury Starbar

A new product on shelves is the Cadbury Starbar. The wrapper describes the product as "A chewy cosmos of caramel & peanuts covered in Cadbury milk chocolate".

The Starbar looks like a standard chocolate bar, some caramel oozing out the end (I have no problem with this!).

The Starbar reminds me a bit of a Boost bar, the caramel surrounding a crunchy peanut butter-esque paste in the center. I was hoping for something similar to a Snickers, but the peanut butter center didn't really do it for me. As usual with Cadbury products, the caramel and chocolate were excellent.

Rating: Nice enough but not terribly exciting, too much peanut filling, 6/10

McDonald's Frozen Coke McFloat

I've been waiting for a nice, warm Melbourne day so I can rush out and try this latest Maccas offering. I love frozen coke, I love coke floats/spiders, surely this would be my refreshment of choice for the summer? Sadly, no :( On their own, the frozen coke and soft serve tasted as they always do, but that's not the point of this drink to me so I tried to mix it up a little and eat the combo. Sadly, no matter how much frozen coke I got and how little soft serve I got, all I could taste was the soft serve. Maybe they should use the frozen coke syrup as a soft serve topping???? I reckon that would work...

Rating: Sound in theory but fails in practice, 4/10

Halloween - Ghost Drops

On doing a bit of research for this review, I was surprised to find that these lollies have been available in Australia for quite some time.

While not technically a Halloween candy, I figured it was a case of near enough is good enough given the limited choices I have here.

Ghost drops are hard boiled lollies and come individually wrapped in four different flavours: apple (green), blueberry (blue), cherry (red) and tropical punch (black/purple). As an added bonus, the candies stain your tongue the colour of the candy. I will confess straight out that I did not try the cherry flavour, I hate cherry flavour and will never be reviewing anything cherry on this site (unless I get someone else to try it). But all the other flavours were absolutely delicious.

Rating: A great product, would make any trick-or-treater happy, 8/10

Halloween - Liquid Strawberry "Blood Bag"

This is exactly the sort of novelty product I love (I've seen on some American sites that you can get candy urine samples in a sample jar, candy pus filled ears, candy pimples you can pop, those sorts of things speak to my sense of humour!). So, unless this product makes me vomit, it's going to get a pretty high rating.

The verdict??? Yummo! The strawberry liquid is delicious, not too sweet, a nice tang to it. I would struggle to eat the whole thing but I can see kids enjoying this. My only complaint would be that I think a thicker syrup would be more enjoyable.

A special thanks to my friend Alison for finding this for me (my friends know me so well).

Rating: Love it! Keep pushing the boundaries of decency candy makers! 9/10

Halloween - Eyeball Gummy Candy

Another Halloween candy I picked up, also by Amos Sweets, were these Gummy Eyeballs.

As with the gummy skulls, the eyeballs come individually wrapped in four different colours: green (apple), blue (???), orange (mango) and red (watermelon).

I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to gummy flavours: citrus, berries and (rarely) pineapple. Needless to say, the flavours in this pack did not grab me at all, with the exception of the unidentifiable blue flavour.

Rating: Hooray for Halloween products on Australian shelves, but the flavours are perhaps better suited to those of you who like Jelly Joiners ;) 5/10

Halloween - Gummy Skulls

One of the few Halloween candies I managed to pick up in Australian stores were these Gummy Skulls produced by Amos Sweets.

The skulls come individually wrapped, which is great for trick or treaters (not that I see any). The gummies are strawberry flavoured with a cream gummy on top. I like the look, and the taste was actually surprisingly good, a nice sweet strawberry flavour that wasn't overly dulled down by the cream gummy.

Rating: Hurrah for halloween candy that is also edible! 7/10

Tru Blood O Positive Carbonated Drink

While not technically a Halloween product, I thought it fitting to try this Tru Blood "O Positive" Carbonated Drink at this time of year.

This Tru Blood product is a Blood Orange flavoured soft drink presented in a deep red bottle to sell the whole idea of drinking blood.

The drink itself wasn't quite as red you expect a fake blood product to be. The flavour was nice but the drink didn't have a lot of fizz to it, not sure if that's because this is an import or if that's just how the product is. So it was nice, but really I'm drinking it more for the novelty more than anything else.

Rating: A bit more fizz and it would have been worth it, 6/10

Tabasco Spicy Chocolate

There are some foods I just won't review as I know from my tastes, no matter how good the product might be, I just won't enjoy it. For example anything cherry flavoured and anything with a hint of chilli heat. I figured Tasbasco Spicy Chocolate would fall into the latter category so I enlisted a friend, who just happens to but Tabasco sauce on everything, to taste test this for me.

I loved the packaging, the chocolate inside a lovely, round tin and presented in 8 wedge segments. My friend loved the combination of dark chocolate and whatever was used for heat, although noted that she couldn't pick up on any Tabasco flavouring.

Rating: A winner for chocolate/chilli lovers but don't expect to taste Tabasco, 7/10

Halloween: Cadbury Screme Egg

Halloween is hardly a big affair here in Australia, I keep hoping it will catch on (a holiday where you dress up and eat candy, sign me up!!!!). I'm going to try my best to come up with some Halloween candy, but it is quite scarce. The first Halloween candy I stumbled upon Cadbury Screme Egg, a variation on the Creme Egg we get at Easter.

The difference between this version and the Easter version is that the Halloween version has green goo in its center, otherwise it is much the same, that is to say, yummy!

Rating: Bonus points to Cadbury for acknowledging Halloween, 8/10

Cadbury Raspberry Chocolate Mousse

Cadbury has recently released a range of "Mousse" blocks of chocolate. As well as a plain mousse in chocolate, caramel or hazelnut, there is also raspberry chocolate and double chocolate which have a layer of raspberry or chocolate coulis. I couldn't quite face trying them all, so I opted for the raspberry chocolate as this sounded the most intriguing to me.

I loved it! The raspberry coulis tasted like that fake jam you get in hot jam donuts and although it overpowered the taste of the chocolate, that was fine by me. The coulis wasn't overly sweet and had a nice tang to it, which always wins my vote. Oh yeah, the mousse was nice too :)

Rating: Well done Cadbury, well done. 9/10

Strawberry Mentos

I've been a bit slack keeping up with all the recent limited edition Mentos flavours such as watermelon and blackcurrant, but I'm back in the zone and picked up the latest offering of strawberry mentos.

Aside from cola, I've never been a big mentos eater so I can't compare the strawberry flavour with what you might get in the Mentos Rainbow package, but I really enjoyed the strawberry flavour and happily chomped through the entire package.

Rating: Exactly what you would expect from strawberry flavoured Mentos, 8/10

Pepsi Max Kick

Another new Pepsi product to hit the shelves is Pepsi Max Kick. Pepsi's take on an energy drink boasts twice the caffeine (85mg).

I was never a fan of Pepsi Max, despite my sweet tooth I find Pepsi Max too sweet and found the same problem with Pepsi Max Kick.

Rating: If you like Pepsi Max and are looking for more caffeine, this is for you. Not my cup of tea, 5/10

Pepsi Next

Pepsi Next is a new product from Pepsi, not quite regular Pepsi, not quite Diet Pepsi, it uses the natural sweetener Stevia to reduce the sugar levels by 30% compared to regular Pepsi.

I haven't drank Pepsi in a while, I prefer Coke products personally, but I wasn't disappointed with this product. I think it's a smart move use a natural sweetener as some people are averse to artificial sweeteners, and the end product, to me, is indistinguishable from regular Pepsi.

Rating: A well done reduced calorie product, great for those who like Pepsi, 7/10

Chocolatier Once Upon a Plate

Chocolatier Once Upon a Plate Chocolates are a collection of five distinctly Australian based flavoured chocolates.

The flavours include Apple Crumble, Lemon Tart, Vanilla Slice, Coconut Ice and Lamington.

 Apple Crumble

 

 Lemon Tart

 

 Vanilla Slice

 

 Coconut Ice

 

Lamington

While intrigued by the flavours, I was a little bit wary trying these as I am a devoted Cadburys girl and find that gourmet chocolates don't always agree with my tastebuds. I shouldn't have worried, each of these was delicious. The only mild disappointment was the apple crumble, while still delicious, I didn't pick up the apple flavour at all. I think these chocolates will be part of my regular junkfood rotation from now on.

Rating: Wow. Just wow. Not a bad flavour in the bunch. 10/10

Mentos 3D Mystery Sugarfree Gum

Another mystery-flavoured product has hit the shelves here in Australia, following on the heels of their Mystery Mentos, Mentos has released a mystery-flavoured version of their 3D Sugarfree Gums.

As soon as I took the plastic wrapping off, I smelt a strong, peach-like scent. Unwrapping a stick, the gum has two pink-speckled outer layers, with a deep pink central layer. Popping it in my mouth I immediately got the peach flavour, with what seemed like a faint strawberry hint (the central layer???). So that's my guess, peach/strawberry.

Rating: I'm loving the fun of mystery flavours, but find the peach flavour a little off putting, 7/10