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Like many people I work in a busy office environment in a job where my day-to-day workings are changing at an ever gathering pace. One thing I can always count on however is that on any given weekday at roughly 4:00 pm in the afternoon it's tea time. At this point in the day the energy levels are enhanced with caffeine and normally a small sugary snack (well for me anyway!). This week I've been treating myself to a new range from GU puds - these 'Anytime' cakes.
The 'Anytime' cakes are essentially 'snack pack' portions of GU's 'Naughties' cakes range I have featured on ChocolateMission before (you will see the links below). I found these three variants in Tesco last week at £1.00 a pack, sitting next to the likes of Mr Kipling and the Cadbury cake bars etc. At that price I felt like the single serve packs (which claim to be for sole indulgence) were hitting a premium price point that some my find off putting - what do you guys think?
Below are links to my original reviews of both the Rocky Road and Millionaire Flapjacks flavours. They remained consistently good from the big tub formats, so it is the Hazelnut Chocolate Squares we will focus mainly on today.
GU Anytime Millionaire's Flapjacks - See HERE
GU Anytime Rocky Road - See HERE
GU Anytime Chocolate Hazelnut Squares
Kcal 270 Fat 12.0g Fat(sats) 5.0g Carbs 31.0g (per 3 squares)
To my knowledge these Chocolate Hazelnut Squares are solely being made for this new 'Anytime' range so you wont be finding them in any of the larger tub formats like seen for the two variants above. On pack these came described as (surprise-surprise!) 'Chocolate hazelnut squares, sprinkled with crunchy hazelnut pieces'. I should have heeded this as a warning as when I opened the packet I was met with a mass exodus of tiny hazelnut fragments, most of which are still stuck in-between the keyboard keys of the laptop I'm using right now.
Following a brief clean up, one of the squares finally made it's way in to my mouth - a comfortable fit given it's perfect one mouthful size. Unfortunately I have to report what followed was a largely underwhelming experience, as taste wise these didn't deliver. Chocolate flavour hit wise, these were a more than adequate set of cakes. They seemed to bring a degree of rich chocolatey flavours to the party initially, however even these came across as limited latter on in the flavour development as a layer sugary chocolate caramel interjected with a generic sweet sugary flavour input. Forgetting that, what I found most disappointing about these cakes was the lack of presence of the hazelnut in the taste. Despite the smattering of hazelnuts adourning the top of the piece, neither the bottom layer of cake or upper coating of chocolate established any sort of nutty flavours. This ultimately left me feeling very underwhelmed by these supposed Chocolate Hazelnut Squares.
6.2 out of 10
Overall I would say the Millionaire's Flapjacks and Rocky Road cakes are just about there in terms of pulling off the £1.00 price point but as far as the Chocolate Hazelnut Squares go I would seriously reconsider your purchase before investing. Have any of you guys come across these yet? Thoughts and opinions are of course most welcome.
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52 comments:
Whats with the double post today? Please tell me your going bak to giving us a review a day. That would be mega sweet dude.
It would of been nice to get a bits and bobs post this week but im happy to settle for this because the photos are yummu looking lol.
Im more of a rocky road girl than I am a hazelnut one so im not too bothered by that one being the crummy one out of all three. I like some of the things GU have been doing recently, they appear to be expanding very rapidly.
lucked out on these totally the other day. All three flavours were sitting in the tesco reduced section marked at half price so Ive had the chance to try all three for just 1.50.
My favourites were the millionaires but I didn't think the hazelnut squares were half as bad as you make them out to be.
So much for this being a 'good diet day'. You have just put me back weeks on my plan now J. Im not going to survive lunch without some form of cake now lol.
Dx
Gr8 rev mate. Have you seen some of the new puds that GU are doing now? Seriously some of them look very tasty. Im just waiting for a time when they are on offer so I can try a few out before I pay fully for them. As with most GU thingies they aren't too friendly on the food budget.
Those Gu tubs are such a rip off. The best ones are the tubs from marks and spencers. Their chocolate swiss rolls are just to die for.
The buttercream bit in them is just sensationally good.
Im so buying some of these this weekend. I like that they break them into three small pieces. It means you don't have to eat it all at once and you can keep some for later.
Have you given any clarification on when you plan to announce the competition winner yet? I'm looking forward to hearing I have my ritter gianduja bar in the post for monday ;) lol j/k
Fine work here again hun. I don't have anything in particular against gu but ive never bought any of their chocolates or puddings because ive always thought they are too epensive. Their puddings are tiny and for such piddly things I dont think they justify costing as much as they do. I also saw those reviews of their chocs that you did and wasn't impressed by when you said they were rubbish. If I saw these I might consider giving the rocky road a try but the other two aren't my sort of thing anyway. Have a lovely weekend hun.
Rxxx
If anyone is reading this and like key lime pie the GU ones you can get in the supermarket are highly recommendable. I hadn't eaten KL pie for years but my partner and I got them as part of the tesco meal deal for £10 last weekend and we both really like them.
Jim I finally got one of those triple choc mars bars. Lol I wish I could say it was worth the wait. I prefer the normal one lol.
GU chocolate tortes FTW man. Serious review those puppies for snack of the week or something.
Im not always sure about the quality of their products but one thing I do like about gu is their packaging. No one can deny that it doesn't look ultra classy. They do stand out from the rest as being posh when they sit alongside all those cheaper things in the chiller cabinets.
I never know what to make of gu. Half of what they do is fantastic whilst some of the other stuff they make is just not lol. Perfect examples are their brownies and their tiffin slices. The brownies are wicked but the tiffin slices are rubbish lol. I hate companies like that, I just wish they could settle on being either good or bad, its frustrating (and not to mention costly) finding out what they make is good or not.
Jim whereabouts in the shop are they selling these? I usually keep an eye on the biscuit section but these aren't something I have come across yet.
BTW I saw that cadburys have these new heat and serve sponge puddings. They do a caramel one ;) you will be well keen to review that wont you lol.
I keep meaning to try more from these guys but I always just revert to their brownies cause they are tried and tested. Lol I once bought one of their big packs and passed them off to my friends as home baked lol.
These are a cool idea. Gu seem to be doing a load of new stuff lately.
It doesn't bother me that the hazelnut ones arent great. I would have been straight on the caramel flapjacks anyway to be honest with you so its no skin off my nose that they don't match up. I know one thing for sure and thats I wouldn't have ever bought the rocky roads. I cannot stand cherries, not even in a flavouring.
The ritter competition is still open yeah Jim? Did you say when you were going to announce a winner? Sorry I've not been able to read much this week so im catching up on everything.
Ahhh now there must be some clever people at this lot. These are going to be a good way to to give people the chance of trying out what they sell in those bigger packs they do. One might say that a company has used their common sense here ;) dangerous to say I know, whatever next lol.
What a disappointment those hazelnut squares must have been. I expect you must of been thinking that they were going to be just as good as other two. Judging by your score they didn't even get close.
They must feel pretty confident that these small packs are going to be liked by people. They could end up getting all the people that were buying the big ones just buying these smaller ones now meaning they get less money overall. I love their confidence but I don't think I would have done it if I were them lol.
Great reviews as norm Jimbo. Thanks for sticking in the photos of the other two whilst you were there. I said it the other day when you reviewed that usa caramel bar again that your photos are getting so much better these days compared to the old ones. Whats so different?
I think the cakes look amazing but they wouldn't be something I would buy everyday. Lol my waistline and my purse will be thankful hearing that.
Jim I would love to hear your thoughts on the chocolate sponge cakes that GU do. They come in the big tubs exactly like the ones you reviewed that millionaire and rocky road in. They are the ones I buy most of the time.
Anyone who doesn't bother clicking on your older reviews is going to think you have a negative view on these. I hope for Gu's sake that everyone bothers looking at the millionaires and rocky r's to see they got high 8's. For some reason I well like gu. I think its cause I did a bit of coursework on them for my business studies gcse and I had to do a lot of research on them. I got a good mark in the end lol.
GU <3 <3 <3 Loves their chessecakes <3 <3 <3
I think my plans for a healthy weekend just went out of the window =) I think something GU is going to have to be bought to satisfy my cravings now. This site will be the end of me I swear.
Its about time gu recognised that people dont always have as much money to spend on things like snacks. Talk about overdue.
I just checked online and they have the GU melting puddings at half price in Tesco. I hope that deal is still running this weekend. I think I might have to give them a test run.
You should get involved with the chocolate cakes that come in the purple GU tubs. Me and just one of my friends ate our way through a whole one the other night. It cost around 3 pounds but that was nothing between the two of us. ive made us sounds right fatties lol.
Gu were the cause of big time embarassment for me once. I bought a pack of their chocolate truffles once for a friends birthday and made out that they were uber expensive. Anyways my friend thought they were so bad that she actually bothered to tell me not to buy them for anyone else lol.
Shes not normally rude or anything so for her to say that means that they must have been pretty bad. It was so cringe because I made out that they were so special. I wont buy gu ever again now.
This site is such a bad influence on me. Im going to need to buy some cakes now today. I might settle for one of the cookies that waitrose are doing at the mo.
I dont have anything against Gu but i generally think what they make is over priced for what they are. Nothing I've ever bought from them has ever come across as being that special. I saw you rated them highly but I thought their brownies were very disappointing.
Ack wrong brand. I tell you what, Thorntons are the people who need to get involved with something like these.
Their brownies and millionaire shortbreads that they do in those large supermarket packs are so nice. If they did them in mini packs of 3 that would be so good. I wouldn't need to think twice before buying either of them.
Its a bit of a shame those hazelnut squares aren't better but out of three they would of been the last on my to try list so it doesn't bother me all that much. I'm a mark for anything labelled rocky road as I love anything with marshmallows in. Have you ever tried that American stuff called Fluff Jim? Its this spreadable marshmallow stuff its really nice. You can get it from most yank importers, you should make it a snack of the week sometime.
Great week of posts Jim. Nice to see you return to the Uk food after doing the german ritter in the week. I find it frustrating when there are too many of the foriegn ones in a row.
These dont work in to my plan of spending less on snacks. Like someones already said you can buy a whole pack of kit kats or toffee crisp biscuit bars for just one of these. Perhaps these are better just buying every now and again as a treat.
I would be nice to see some reviews of some of the GU puddings if you ever get the time. The only kind ive bought myself are the banioffee pots which I recall being v nice. Im not sure why I haven't explored any of their other desserts yet cause im forever hearing good things about them.
I know these dont contain chocolate but GU;s carrot cakes are gorgeous. If you aren't adverse to reviewing them I think a review would be exciting to see.
Does anyone know what country Gu are from? My mind tell me they are British but the accents above the name are indicating they are foriegn.
Great post today. Thank you for linking in the older reviews aswell, they were before my time so i'd not ever read them before. Loving the pics btw. Once again you've outdone yourself on that front, they are even better than the older ones comparing them.
Gu have never done the business for me. I remember we once bought their melt in the middle chocolate puddings and they turned out to be rock solid. We cooked them fully to instructions so it wasn't like we did anything wrong to make them do that.
Like everything these days all you have to do with GU is be patient and hold out until they go on offer. Unless you are impatient and don't like waiting you can find them on some kind of deal every couple of week, you just have to learn to wait it out.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention its always worth checking the reduced to clear shelves in the supermarkets if it is the desserts you are after. Quite a few times now i've seen their chilled desserts being sold cheaper in there because they are approachin their best before dates.
I just looked at that review of the salted caramels of theirs you did b4 Jim. I had not seen that one before, the score is a shocker for a brand that is supposed to be high quality, so much for that claim.
Also it doesn't appear like those cookies of their's lasted very long.
Lmao you are obsessed with anything new aren't you.
£1 isn't exactly cheap for a one of snack pack of stuff. You can get whole packs of biscuits for that nowadays. Lol the equivalent is being able to buy 9 of the two finger kit kats. Lol soz im a kit kat fanatic.
I refuse to pay gu prices for cakes. I would rather just go buy some from local bakery and support them instead. Not only are they cheaper, but they are also proper fresh. No doubt these will have a shed load of additives in them to keep them in a 'fresh' state.
I think we can let him off the no bits and bobs guys. He even did us photos of the cakes he has already reviewed here. Looking at all three of these I think the millionaire flapjacks are the standout ones.
Hi All,
Just a quick response today as im travelling on the move posting from my iphone.
Thank you for all the responses and thoughts about what I should review from GU in the future. If it were the hazelnut slices alone I wouldn't be too thrilled at their future prospects but considering the two that went previously I think I can forgive them this one time haha :D
Apologies for the lack of bits and bobs post this week. I will endeavour to make sure you get one next week, its not as if I haven't been writing them ... they are all just waiting their turn.
Sorry to be short but have great weekends. See you Monday!
JIM
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