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.

Ritter Sport White Chocolate & Cornflakes (Weiss + Crisp)

A big thankyou to Monster Sweets who kindly sent me this Ritter Sport Weiss + Crisp (White chocolate and Cornflakes) bar to review recently. Monster Sweets are a company specializing in European and American snacks, and have one of the largest Ritter Sport ranges available in the UK, plus cheap postage to boot! For more info check out their banner on the side of this blog or visit their website here:
http://www.monstersweets.co.uk/

I'm a big fan of Ritter Sport's white chocolate - their White Whole Hazelnuts Bar is perfection - so I had high hopes for this Weiss + Crisp. And it far surpassed them, it was even better than the White Whole Hazelnuts!

Opening the wrapper the chocolate looked and smelled great, with a lovely vanilla hinted aroma (apologies for my dark-looking picture but there was a serious lack of light at the time!).

Biting into a piece I was first met with a vanilla hit from the white chocolate - it tasted superbly creamy and really good quality. The cornflakes were crunchy and had a slightly salty, savoury edge to them. Combined with the creamy white chocolate they made this bar very moreish, and it didn't take me long to munch through it all because I kept coming back for another piece! It really was that addictive!

My conclusion is that this one of Ritter Sport's best chocolate bars. Which is high praise because I also thought their Coconut and Crema Catalana bars were pretty amazing too!

Overall, I would highly recommend this bar if you're a fan of Ritter Sport, white chocolate and cornflakes. Ritter do this combination amazingly well, but be warned because once you start eating this bar you will find it hard to stop! Fans of the Ritter Sport White Whole Hazelnuts should check this out especially.

Price: £1.55 from Monster Sweets. You can check out the rest of their Ritter Sport range here: http://www.monstersweets.co.uk/ritter-sport-16-c.asp

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*Monster Sweets sent me this bar for an honest review and all views expressed are my own. 

Meerkats Jelly Sweets

"Oh no, they've turned them into sweets now!" was my first thought when I saw these Meerkats Jellies in B&M bargains.

If you're from the UK I'm sure you'll know what I mean. Meerkats have become a "thing" here thanks to those annoying "Compare the meerkat" adverts (there's even a wikipedia page for them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compare_the_Meerkat). As if the adverts weren't enough, they've branched out into soft toys, t-shirts, posters, books and other such rubbish. And now sweets!

Despite hating the adverts I grudgingly bought these just to see if they tasted any good. I wish I hadn't bothered because they turned out to be as bad as the adverts!

Opening the pack I knew something was wrong because they smelled very chemically. Which is odd, because on the front of the pack it says they contain natural colours and flavours. Yet the ingredients lists several different E-numbers. I never realized E-numbers could be considered natural!

They tasted very chemically and had an unpleasant after-taste. They were also annoyingly chewy which didn't help matters. I tried tasting each flavour individually and some were ok; the green and red one had a nice apple flavoured sour tang and the yellow one tasted of citrus. But the chemical aftertaste quickly ruined the flavour.

Overall, these are one to avoid. They're simply a cheap product cashing in on the meerkat "thing" and there are far better sweets for a similar price sold in most discount stores, including B&M. Simples!

Price: 89p.
Made by: Mackay Sweets who are based in Holland.
Ingredients: Sugar, e-numbers, nettle and spinach extracts, vegetable oil. Contains wheat starch.

Cadbury Pots of Joy - White Chocolate Buttons Review

After reading Grocery Gems review of these new Pots of Joy I've been on the hunt for them ever since. I found the twin packs in the Co-Op, but for some odd reason they didn't have any of the white chocolate buttons variety - the ones I wanted to try the most! So I bided my time, and it's just as well I did because I found them on offer in Asda a few days later at £1 for a 4 pack! Bargain! I bought these and the caramel variety.

One thing I wasn't quite expecting, despite reading Grocery Gems' reviews, was just how small they would be. There wasn't much more than two spoonfuls in a pot! Before I knew it I'd eaten it all and had to break into a second pot to feel like I'd eaten something (I'm sure this is a trick to get people to consume more!).

Taste-wise they were very creamy and smooth, and being white chocolate flavoured they were also quite sweet. A little bit too sweet for me, infact. The white chocolate flavour was nice but I thought it could have been a bit stronger. The smoothness of these desserts more than made up for the sweetness though - they were ridiculously smooth and creamy.

Overall I thought these were nice desserts, they're very smooth and creamy and if you like white chocolate you're bound to enjoy them. They were just a little bit too sweet for me though, as well as being too small. That said, I would still buy them again if I wanted a white chocolate fix in dessert form.

Price: £1 for 4 pots at Asda.
Ingredients: Contains gelatine - not suitable for vegetarians!
Allergy information: Contains milk and soya.
Calories: 160 Calories and 6.6g fat per 70g pot.