New Tesco Cereals

As I've said before I'm a compplete cereal addict and it usually ends my day as an evening snack as well beginning a day. No matter how many boxes and kinds I have at home, I can't help but always wander down the cereal aisle just to see what's new. There's a fair few new ones appearing including some interesting Tesco own label ones

I love bitesize shredded wheat and these two new versions with mutli grains initially caught my eye. Until I saw they 15% sugar. Considering normal bitesize shredded wheat has no sugar, I don't see why I'd swap to these. Either be healthy or be treaty like a good granola. There's a rye and quinoa one and a barley and spelt one

Similarly on the naughty cereal partners theme, there's the new Shreddies Max Protein granola tapping into the trend for all things protein. But again, it's pretty sugary and there are far healthier granola out there that also come in bigger boxes and are better value.

Luckily Tesco realise we want less sugary cereals with their new reduced sugar cranberry and almond granola. This is something I definitely want to try once i run down my existing granola stock.

As is this super grains and seeds granola with Oat and spelt flakes with puffed quinoa sweetened with honey, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and linseed. Yum.

Quaker are also getting in on the healthier eating with a new range of oat muesis with no added sugar including a nuts and seeds and a strawberry version. Quaker are synonymous with porridge and oats so I would be interested in trying their take on muesli

Whereas the Kelloggs Ancient Legends is making the move the other way. From their granolas and mueslis there is new Kelloggs Ancient Legends porridge - there's a plain one with no added sugar in and also a coconut one that is slightly sweetened although the sugar content is a lower than other porridges. Both are a mix of oats, barley, chia and spelt for a mix of grains. I do quite want to try these but there is no way I'm paying £1.99 for 6 tiny portions when a box of oats is £1 with enough breakfasts for weeks.

And finally if you want breakfast a little sweeter Tesco have launched golden syrup malt wheats  - a golden syrup take on Shreddies.

So many cereals, so little space in my cereal cupboard....there's just so much here I want to try.

Charbrew Pineapple and Vanilla Tea

Since I received a Holland and Barrett gift card and they currently have one of their buy one get one half price on everything events, I decided to splash out on a few pricier items that I wouldn't usually get - one of which is the pineapple and vanilla tea. I don't really drink your standard builder's brew but have a vast collection of green teas, coconut teas, herbal teas and fruit teas with lots of different brands. I love having the variety of flavours depending on my mood and the time of day.

Usually I wouldn't really pay about £2.50 for tea and at £3.49 for just 15 bags, I did initially think they were pricey. However, the promise of the 'perfect balance of fresh zingy pineapple and smooth vanilla, fresh and fruity without being too sweet' sounded really intriguing and I hadn't ever seen a tea like this before. Plus Charbrew's tea pyramids are made from a fine biodegradable mesh, delivering a superior infusion and the ingredients list is really high quality ingredients rather than flavouring. 

Apple, rosehip shells, Pinapple cubes, orange peel, vanilla flavouring , vanilla pieces 

So there's actual pineapple cubes in the bag and real vanilla pieces! As soon as I opened the box, the smell completely blew me away. It is so appetising - geninely tropical, really vanilla and actually reminds of me of pineapple flavoured fudge or pineapple sweets!

I could also see the pieces in the bag were great big chunks of real ingredients rather than dust and as I let it brew, the smell was just incredible. I let it steep for a full five minutes and left the bag in as I drank from it and I can say this is one of those fruit teas where the taste actually delivers in relation to the smell.

Super creamy and sweet from the vanilla but also fresh and fruity from the pineapple, it's a delicious combination that genuinely feels a bit treaty. I've been using these to curb sweet cravings and these do the job really nicely. I'm a big fan of these now and actually would pay the £3.49 for them. They also have a chocolate and orange one, which I'm interested in trying

Price: £3.49
Bought at: Holland and Barrett

Score: 8/10

Tesco Smoked Ham Egg Omlette Wrap

So if you follow any diet trends, bread and carbs are very much out and protein is in. Everyone seems to be adding more protein to their products from cereals to yogurts but Tesco have comepletely written the rules on sandwiches and wraps by ditching all the bread completely and instead making an omlette wrap. It's certainly different and caught my eye when looking for something that would fill me up and sustain me.

Inside of a standard wrap, the filling is held together by an egg crepe.Eggs obviously mean protein and to up it even a more the filling is protein based with smoked ham and yet more egg! There's also a bit of carrot, spinach and tomato chucked in there to try and add some veg into quite an egg and animal based product and then some full fat cream cheese to add some much needed moistness and again to make it even more filling. What this adds up to is a product that is 13% protein and only 3.8% carbs. Per pack that works out at as a total of 6.3g carbs and a whopping 21g protein for 226 calories.

I wasn't sure what to expect. The first doubt I had is whether an omlette wrap would even hold together and keep the filling inside. Actually it works pretty well, it didn't rip at all, the filling stayed in and it holds together nicely although it is slightly strange holding an omelette as the vehicle to get it to your mouth.

On a taste perspective, it's not bad. I wouldn't go as far as to say delicious and if you're after something tasty, you'd be better off with a normal sandwich but if you pick this you're probably after protein and nutrition not taste. It's maybe a little dry. When you get a good blob of cream cheese it really helps so a bit more of this wouldn't go amiss. However, it tastes nice enough and I guess the best way of putting it is that it tastes of a cold omlette - make of that what you will. I certainly think it's quite original and it's great Tesco are responding to what people are looking for.

Price: £2.35
Bought at:Tesco
Nutrition per pack: 226 calories, 12.4g fat, 5.3g sat fat, 6.3g carbs, 2.5g sugar, 21.6g protein, 1.1g salt

Score: 7/10

Marks and Spencer Spirit of Summer Milk Chocolate Smothered Crunchy Jumbo Salted Corn

Although Spirit of Summer at M&S is on its way out now, I managed to grab a couple bits from the range before they disappear including these chocolate coated pieces of salted corn. Sweet and savoury is something that really works for me with chocolate coated pretzels being one of my favourite treats. I’ve seen pretty favourable reviews of these including at Kev’s Snack Reviews so felt they were a pretty safe bet.

I was surprised by how big the actual pieces are. It says jumbo on the pack but from the image they show on pack, I was expecting chocolate raisin sized pieces – they are a lot bigger than that, almost the size of malteasers. They smelt really chocolatey as soon as I opened the bag and I imagined the chocolate would be pretty good as M&S do a decent milk chocolate that is not overly sweet and nice and creamy. It uses their exclusive British milk chocolate recipe and considering only 19% of the product is the salted corn, they are very generously coated in thick chocolate.

Initially when I bit I was a little disappointed as the salted corn is quite small and actually fairly hard and crunchy rather than a more softer popcorn texture I was expecting. However, they become curiously moreish and addictive and once you’ve had a couple, it’s very hard to stop eating them.

It’s not really that salty but it does work against the creamy, sweet chocolate very well and because the corn is so crispy and crunchy against the melt in the mouth chocolate you also get a good mix of texture as well flavour. The chocolate is really gorgeous and pairs nicely against a salted snack but the salted corn isn’t the best vehicle for a savoury/sweet mish mash as I still prefer chocolate pretzels or even chocolate crisps. Like I said these are seriously addictive and very enjoyable and I’m glad I got a chance to try them but I’ve tasted nicer chocolate coated savoury items.

Bought at: Marks and Spencer
Nutrition per 1/3 bag: 259 calories

Score: 7/10

Marks and Spencer Gingerbread Teacakes

Well my self control at not buying these until at least November lasted barely a couple of days. After seeing all the delicious new cakes and treats in M&S last time I was there, it was these gingerbread teacakes that really played on my mind. Gingerbread is one of my favourite things whether in the form of a spicy biscuit, sticky loaf cake or as a flavoured latte. It is a rich, warming, spicy scent, which is tied to Christmas and the cold for me so it seems a little odd M&S have launched this as an autumn treat as I'm sure they'll be even more treats coming out in a few months time for Christmas as well.

Like I said, these played on my mind ever since I saw them as I just love all those cinnamon, treacle, and ginger notes and I also love traditional stodgy, rainy afteroon, teatime British treats and so teacakes are another of my great loves. A wet day, snuggled up inside with a good book or film, a cup of tea and a teacake is a glorious thing.

 This teacake shuns the traditional currants and fruits instead opting for 14% toffee pieces as the only inclusion along with the cinnamonm,ginger and spices. Opening the pack, the lack of ginerbread scent conerned me. Yes, you can kind of get a faint glimmer of spice if you really sniff it but it's weak at best. The teacakes looked very attractive though with a glossy dome and they cut nicely in two with a good teacake texture.

As I toasted them, the gingerbread smell I wanted increased a little but it's certainly not strong. Cinnamon bagels have more warming scent to them than these. However, they toasted beautifully with a slightly crisp top with a soft, luscious bread underneath.

The texture of these is great but that is the best I can say as the gingerbread flavour is so weak it's barely there at all. You barely can detect any spice at all yet alone getting any hint of the sticky, gingery treat I wanted. The toffee is completely lost and I wouldn't notice it was there at all unless I was told. No cinnamon or ginger is identifiable. It's not sweet, which is what I want and expect from a teacake and as a teacake it's okay...except it's missing the fruit. In the end I had to put some banana peanut butter on it just to give it some flavour.

I am so disappointed with these - the base is right but this is no gingerbread teacake. I appreciate as a teacake it's not supposed to be sticky or sugary but there isn't even spice. I guess I'll have to wait until November for the proper gingerbread to come around. I've seen other people like Nibbles N Scribbles have really enjoyed this so maybe it's just me?

Price: £1.00
Bought at: Marks and Spencer
Nutrition per teacake: 175 calories, 3.8g fat, 1.2g sat fat, 8.2g sugars, 0.33g salt

Score: 5/10

Nakd Peanut Delight Review

The new apricot crunch and the carrot cake Nakd bars have both been winners with me (although I don't think any Nakd bar I've ever tried hasn't been delicious) and now it's time for the third and last of the new trio - peanut delight.

Peanut butter is a great flavour for snack bars anywhere but I was interested to see Nakd's take on peanut. This is actually only peanut delight rather than peanut butter and it has probably the simplest ingredients of any Nakd bar - dates, peanuts and a pinch of sea salt. And that is literally it so totally plant based, vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, gluten free, wheat free and with no added sugar. All in all a pretty healthy, wholesome snack in my opinion.

I've seen mixed reviews of these with some enjoying it and others who feel let down. I have to say I'm a really big fan of this bar. It is the one I put off until I finished all my other ones simply because the ingredients list is so short, it just didn't seem very exciting. But actually it's simplicity really works.

One big thing is just how chunky the peanuts are - these aren't your normal nuts smooshed down and dotted throughout the other Nakd bars. They are a lot more noticeable here with a chunkier texture, which I quite like as I prefer my snack bars to feel a bit more substantial. Taste wise it's not really peanut butter or even peanutty in taste as such. It's more of a peanut and date mish mash. This sounds a pretty obvious point but with no natural flavouring in this bar, the date taste is stronger than others where it is is masked to taste like coffee/ bakewell tart/ carrot cake. This is another reason for some of the negative reviews but I liked the simplicity.

The touch of sea salt adds a very, very, very faint savouriness which complements the natural date sweetness and just brings out the peanut taste a little more. It felt satisfying to eat and I think this could be a regular Nakd bar for me. It's not so much a treat as the carrot cake one which really is like eating carrot cake but what this offers is a much more crunchy, nuttier Nakd than any of the others.

It's another success by Nakd and whilst carrot cake is maybe the best of the three new flavours (such a shame it's limited edition) apricot crunch and peanut delight are both absolutely delicious as well. Get all three of them, variety is always a good thing!

Nutrition per bar: 149 calories, 7.5g fat, 1.4g sat fat, 13.6g sugars, 4.8g protein

Score: 8/10

Marks and Spencer Taste Japan Mushroom Onigiri

Along with all kinds of new goodies, M&S are going big on their Taste range - an exotic collection of tastes from the East with a focus on Japan and Thailand. It's all 20% off at the moment so a good time to try some new things. Some of it is a return of products from last year but there's lots of new things as well. I went for these Mushroom Onigiri from Japan.

Onigiri are filled rice balls with a crispy panko crumb - in this case filled with shiitake and oyster mushroom (along with some straw and black cup mushroms). The product looks pretty authentic with sake, soy sauce, spring onions, ginger and yellow miso part of the Japanese inspired ingredients.

It's a well designed tray that protects each ball and keeps them seperate They cook in 12 mins in the oven and smelt good as they came out. The first nice surprise was that the outing was actually crispy. It was crumbly with a thick panko crunch and you could feel its fried texture even by cutting in.

Inside is a nice creamy, soft mushroom filling that is slightly gooey and pairs well with the soft rice and there's a nice crunch from chesnuts for a contrast in textures.

It's a pretty nice little nibble and would be good as part of a sharing table along with some other nibbles and some sauces to dip into. It has a nice rich umami flavour that isn't overly salty and the contrast between crisp crumb and gooeyish filling makes for a pleasant eat.

Price: £2.00 (£1.60 with current 20% off offer)
Bought at: Marks and Spencer
Nutrition per 100g: 199 calories, 6.4g fat, 1.1g sat fat, 2g sugars, 0.88g salt

Score: 7/10