Foxes Cherry Cheesecake and Honeycomb-crunch Fingers

Guess what guys! Today's review is back to biscuits, okay wait before you flip your table in uproar at least hear me out. I do have a reason for going back on my statements from yesterdays review. Basically these two items are either on sale right now or limited edition. (coincidental tumbleweed of uncaring happens)

Fine! I know it is a feeble excuse for going back on my word, but you know what? I don't care, I love biscuits. Hell, I bet you love biscuits and anyway they aren't ginger biscuits again so at least there is some variety here.

 

Vinnie looks mighty proud of his "bisquits" (Advert reference)

The two items in question are completely different in their use too. One is aimed at snacking, pretty much to be shared in a group type function like an ambassador ball (or more likely film night). The other is more along the line of my usual biscuit binge, as an accompaniment to my caffeinated beverage at lunch.

I'll start with he biscuit that was on offer, mainly because it's not new just on offer so I get a sweet treat at a discount price. Win, win in my eyes. These are a sharing bag of Cadbury's mini fingers and not just any mini fingers but HONEYCOMB CRUNCH fingers. I know your excited now right. So without further ado or cup in hand I chomp down on these bizarre biscuit. They are definitely crunchy too, a great taste too when bitten into. The milk chocolate is sweet but not too sweet that the subtle honey flavour underneath can't get through. It has a nice toffee taste to it and is similar to the chocolate coated cinder toffee I tried before.

If left to melt you can fully enjoy the great Cabury's milk chocolate but with an added biscuit tinge. It's not quite as sweet as usual but this is as I've said good as it allows the honeycomb to step in. The biscuit beneath doesn't really do much on the tongue and isn't absorbent in any useful way for it to be dunked. Still a really nice biscuit great for sharing, especially with the re-seal able bag aspect. Although I doubt you will need it!

Next up with have one of Foxes new American orientated biscuits. Four limited edition flavours that Vinnie the Panda (Don't ask) hopes will invoke a taste of the Atlantic in our mouths. This is the flavour that most appealed to me and is Cherry cheesecake Jammy Dodgers. Which is odd as Jammy Dodgers are one of my least favorite biscuit around. Too much biscuit not enough filling. However, the idea of cherry cheesecake definitely appeals to me.

 

Amazingly exercised cross section display here... perfect separation

Am I glad it did catch my eye? You be I am! These taste great and I hope that they keep the range gong for a while or even add to them. The cream filling doesn't really taste cheesy, more like a vanilla butter-cream flavour. A bit too sweet on it's own. The jam has a very powerful and nicely tart cherry taste that compliments the creams sweetness. The digestive biscuit doesn't really have flavour of it's own but that's not a bad thing considering the mix already on offer.

Overall both of these biscuits are great. I would definitely recommend the American range whilst it is available. As for the fingers if you have a party coming up then these are bound to be favorites and enough to go around too.

Score 

Finger's 5 out of 11

Cherry Pie 8 out of 11

Found

Sainsbury's

Final Thoughts

Why does a Panda have an American gangster character type? Also why is a Panda the mascot for Foxe's bisquits?

Yo! Sushi coated Edame beans

Okay so I admit yesterdays review may have been a bit lazy. For starters I didn't pay for it, then factor in the fact that it concerned yet another ginger biscuit. If I'm not careful you guys and girls might stop reading. Hell if I keep boring myself I might stop writing. What a travesty for the world that would be right?

Anyway I thought I'd push the boat out a bit and get out there. The boat n question landed somewhere on the oriental shoreline it would seem judging by today's products. Added to this and to really spice things up one of today's items is a savoury snacking item. Wasabi peas to be precise (now go back re-read the spice it up comment and chuckle at my genius.) The other item is a bag of coated Edema beans another snacking bag but these are chocolate and yogurt coated and provide the usual sweetness to my post.

They don't look like much but really pack a punch!

So lets start with the savoury and talk about your P's and Q's. For those out of the know wasabi is a Japanese mustard like sauce, very hot and very spicy. Peas are small round vegetation that some people say is better for you than sugar! I love hot products so was rather excited hen I saw these for sale in my local cafe. Opening the bag I was struck by a very pungent mustard aroma, a sure fire sign for a heatwave ahead.

I popped one on my tongue and allowed the dusting to do its work. Wow are these spicy! With a definite taste of English mustard not too much to be overpowering and cause the familiar problem of mustard blowout leading to pain in the nasal cavities. The pea underneath is nicely roasted its got a great crunch to it and enough flavour on its own to curb boredom. I risked eating three at once and immediately regretted it. Too hot even for me and the result was a rather painful sneezing fit.

To recover and recuperate we shall move on to the sweet. These are roasted Edama beans coated in yogurt, milk chocolate and dark chocolate. This on the base of it seems like a very odd concept. Whenever I've seen Edama beans before they are at most in a salad coated in a soy sauce. They are very nice but not really for the realms of dessertery.

All bases covered here

First up the yoghurt coating, I let it melt on my tongue as per usual. It tastes subtly sweet with a nice plain milky flavour. Not to bad, may have worked better had it been coated in white chocolate. The bean underneath does add to the combination well, it's surprising how nice the combination is. There is a nice crunch and roasted flavour to these very similar to the peas.

Next I try the milk chocolate coated beans, I think these are going to be my favourite of the three. Allowing it to melt I get a pleasant sweet milk chocolate taste that is cheap but quite nice regardless. Not quite advent calender chocolate so no sickly sweetener aftertaste. The bean underneath again gives a nice savoury kick to the occasion that blends well. Lastly the dark chocolate, perhaps we should have the "dark" in quotes as it tastes more sweet than bitter. Clearly not a high cocoa content dark chocolate, rather just a slightly bitter plain chocolate.

Overall these are all nice in their own rights. Definitely the change from biscuits that I was aiming for too.   

Score

Wasabi Peas - 8 out of 11

Edama Beans - 7 out of 11

Found

The Wasabi peas in my local cafe and chocolate Edame from Yo! Sushi

Final Thought

Today has been very different, two whole types of vegetation in one review!

Poisonous Scorpions

Can you guess what todays review is. Regular readers will know it’s likely to be Halloween themed due to myself made Halloween challenge. Essentially I have been grabbing any and all Halloween tat I can find to get into the festivities. Really regular readers will have their suspicions that its product two of the Marks and Spencer offer I took advantage of. Lastly all of you will be expecting me to be reviewing something sugary and sweet right? Well you’re DEAD wrong!

Yeah smart guys your wrong. Today’s review isn’t a sweet at all in fact it’s a savoury item. I hope I haven’t lost some of you there down to pure shock. Let’s face it with my readership I can hardly afford to lose anyone. Anyway so yes todays review is savoury but don’t worry it’s not healthy that would be a step too far even for me wouldn’t it?

Scorpions are exactly the focal point weirdly.

Today’s item is a bag of poisonous scorpions. No not one of those bush tucker trial things that come out whenever ‘I’m a Celebrity’ comes back on tele. (although I wouldn’t mind eating bugs, just once to try. Twice, if I like it perhaps.) Nope these are crisps in the shape of scorpions, hopefully the poisonous is just an adjective and Mark’s aren’t trying to diminish the population. Although let’s face it as a rather middle class store the way they would do it is through their offers, so they can kill off the ‘riff raff’ like me.

These are described as pickled onion flavoured corn snacks, so essentially monster munch. I do love monster munch especially the pickled onion flavour so when these were on offer I snatched them up with glee. It’s a bit of an odd one though why have they decided that scorpions that are poisonous would best suit pickled onion. Also why is the main picture a mummy instead of you know… a scorpion? Pedantic picking aside let’s move on.

I burst open the bag and I’m instantly met with a strong punch of onion, great sign. Let’s face it if I can’t get this smell out my house in a week it’s a sign they have done their job. Several of my housemates who I was going to offer them to recoiled at the smell. Pickled onion is one of those love it, or hate it things I guess. The smell is pretty damn pungent as one of my friends walked out the room!

The photo doesn't show off how weirdly greenish these are!

The scorpions are quite nicely molded although they are worryingly pale. Monster munch have a nice golden colour to them these are very pale almost like glow in the dark paint. At the thought of this I got excited and thought Mark’s put authentic scorpion detail in and they glow in the dark. Unfortunately when I turned off the lights all I got was confusion as to where my snacks were.

I popped one in my mouth and chewed it well. Unfortunately I was immediately disappointed. These aren’t like Monster Munch; nope these are like the cheap crisps we get in newsagents. I think they are called Space Invaders and cost about thirty pence. These taste exactly like them but were about seven times the price. Yes its’ a bigger bag but not seven times it. They taste rather stale and have nowhere near enough potency for me.

I guess if these things truly are poisonous they probably don’t have enough kick to knock me out let alone kill me. They are crunchy, which is something I guess. It indicates they aren’t past their best. No it suggests they never had a best in the first place!

Overall these are rather disappointing on pretty much every level apart from smell and toxicity. I should have just gone for Monster Munch after all they are practically Halloween themed all year round.

Score

4 out of 11

Found

Mark and Spencer's

Final Thoughts

 I need to get me some authentic Monster Munch as an anti-venom.

Weekend wonder time!!!

So the weekend cometh, and to celebrate it’s off to the cinema. Now class other than sticky floors what does this mean? Yep, sweets and this leads me to today’s review. Now I may seem like a sucker in all things to do with money (especially if you read yesterday’s post.) but I can make clever decisions with money sometimes. After forking out the price of a few tickets I feel reluctant to pay over the odds for the cinema sweets, which are cheaper round the corner. Added to this, the shop round said corner does American sweets as well as cheaper chocs.

No nonsense packaging?

Now my plan fails however as I step foot into the shop and immediately spend much more than I would have in in said cinema. I do get that naughty secretive sensation of bringing outside food into their establishment (fight the power). So after much searching my sweet choice for the film was a pack of milk chocolate Flipz. I've had the white fudge Flipz before and was hooked, but in the interest of a varied life I went for these.

Then the hard part began, getting all the way back to the cinema without picking at these tasty morsels. Well dear readers I did it, I stayed strong and the pack stayed fresh until the moment I met my seat. Unfortunately due to excessive adverts and previews my two serving pack was a uno serving by the time the opening credits began playing. This is a good sign in some ways that I made the right choice.

Someone needs to show me where to find these peanut butter variety like now!!!

Now to the chocolate (are they chocolate? Are they pretzels? Are they chetzels? Does it matter?), and to my usual technique of suck & crunch. So when sucking on these you get the outside milk chocolate first, a good quality creamy chocolate if a bit dull. This is until you hit the outside of the pretzel and the hint of salt gives the chocolate a kick that makes me pay attention. The combination of sweet and salt is great and one that I’m beginning to love more often, with the popularity of salted caramel at the moment.  Now a dilemma, pretzel reacts to mouth moisture as bread in that it loses its structural integrity leaving mush behind. I preserve and the mush did taste good and the savoury contrasts well with the sweetness.

When crunched these lose something, the different layers can’t be appreciated and instead the experience is a mix of fleeting chocolate. In this the pretzel flavours strongest and overpowers the rest a bit more than I’d like. Therefore the perfect technique when dealing with this tricky conundrum is to suck them till the chocolates gone then crunch away at the pretzel. Overall I preferred the white fudge variety of these and I guess I’ll have to buy more of them to review for this blog (woe is me). Never the less these are excellent, but be warned they are very moreish!

Score

9 out of 11

Found

Sweet kingdom in lakeside shopping center.

Final thoughts

Why are these called Flipz, although Chetzels would probably cause as much confusion. Why must life be so complex?