August 5th: 'Bits n Bobs' - Cereal & Biscuit Bar Assortment # 2

After the positive response I got to last months Cereal, Biscuit & Cake Bar 'Bits n Bobs'(See HERE), I thought it only right to follow up with another B&B post with some of the products that were suggested and requested by readers from the first one. In the line up today I have some pretty well renowned biscuit bars from Nestle & McVitie's, a rather ghastly cereal bar and another offering from Bahlsen's biscuit range. If you are unfamiliar with the 'Bits n Bobs' posting format, this is where I write shorter, quickfire reviews for several products at a time.

Lets get cracking ....

McVitie's Taxi - Kcal 131 Fat 6.9 Fat(sats) 4.9g Carbs 16.3g

'caramel wafers and chocolate cream covered in milk chocolate'

Before today I hadn't ever tasted a McVitie's Taxi so I had no prior experiences from my childhood to call upon like I had with CLUB, Breakaway, Kit Kat etc - what a deprived childhood I must have led eh!? ;) Presentation wise the product was dressed in a typical looking McVitie's wrapper, though I was more excited by the look of the woven wafers and inner cream layers in the actual bar. I have to admit I was expecting a pretty boring, generic like wafer product, but I was actually pretty impressed by the taste. The chocolate constituents did nothing particularly special, yet the coating was flavoursome enough with it's sweet milky flavours. My enjoyment of this product was mostly driven by the caramel and inner cream layers, which brought a very welcome chewiness and viscosity to the crisp wafers. Whilst adding interest to the textures, the caramel also added a forthcoming toffee flavour hit to the taste. Colour me impressed McVitie's - I don't tend to by biscuit bars, but I will buy these again in the future.

7.8 out of 10

Monster Puffs Cereal Milk & Chocolate Bar - Kcal 86 Fat 2.6g Carbs 14.6g

'Sugar Puffs cereal and milk chocolate bar'

Despite being of the opinion that parents who feed their kids Sugar Puffs should be shot :D I just couldn't help myself when I saw these discounted down to 50p for a four bar multipack in my local Tesco. Despite the vibrant foil packaging I was less impressed by the actual cereal bar, which when it wasn't sticking to the wrapper was equally unimpressive with it's modest looking (putting it nicely!) chocolate layer. As you can see from my picture the drizzle of milk chocolate was woefully portioned so it probably wont surprise you that it barely managed to register in the taste. The combination of the puffed wheat cereal and syrup that bound it together wasn't unpleasant in any manner, but it was neither very tasty. The 20.0g constituents provided a pretty poor sized snack. I don't think these will be around for long.

5.8 out of 10

Bahlsen Choco Leibniz Dark - Kcal 138 Fat 7.1g Fat(sats) 4.5g Carbs 17.0g (per 2 biscuits)

After my review of Bahlsen's Jaffas a few weeks ago, a number of readers indicated that I should try their Choco Leibniz biscuits. If I roll the years back a bit, I can remember buying these biscuits when my family used to go to France - I was never a big lover of them myself, but they were certainly liked by other members of my household. Bahlsen biscuits are being promoted quite heavily in UK supermarkets at the moment, so I was pretty delighted when I found these very posh looking biscuits on a £1 deal in my local Tesco. Favouring the prospect of the dark chocolates ones I didn't wait long before testing them out with an after dinner coffee. In terms of taste these reminded me of the Ritter Sport Butter Biscuit chocolate bar, but just with plain unsweetened chocolate combining with the buttery crisp biscuit below. I didn't think that either the chocolate or biscuit were particularly exceptional, but like in the Ritter bar they made for a fantastic synergy. These didn't last long when I offered them round to the rest of my work colleagues.

8.0 out of 10

Nestle Breakaway - Kcal 99 Fat 5.0g Fat(sats) 2.5g Carbs 12.0g

Normally when I know I don't like a product I do try my best not to review it, but I couldn't avoid the number of requests that came in asking me to review the Nestle Breakaway. I have always perceived the Nestle Breakaway as quite a bland offering - my heart always used to sink when my parents bought these back from the supermarket instead of the usual Kit Kat or Twix bars. That said I was willing to give them another chance - especially considering that a pack of 6 only set me back £1 in Tesco. Aesthetically I couldn't see many differences from how I remembered them - even the bars were decorated with the same checkboard patterns. Unfortunately the taste was just how I remembered aswell, with the mild tasting milk chocolate and non-descript flavoured biscuit generating very little excitement for me. If anything I think the biscuit part may have even got less flavoursome than it used to be - the two bars I ate today failed to bring any noteworthy flavours to the party, which resultingly made for a boring, bland tasting experience. I know these contain only 99 calories but I personally wouldn't waste your time on them.

5.8 out of 10

Got any ideas of products you want to see reviewed next month? Drop me a comment with your requests ...