Product Review: Aldi Belmont Jaffa Cakes

Today I will be reviewing these Belmont Jaffa Cakes from Aldi which has made me a regular buyer of these each time I visit Aldi

Appearance, packaging and more
The jaffa cakes come in a blue box clearly displaying each box contains 24 cakes and it also states they are made with real fruit juice which I will go into more detail on soon

Product, Taste Test and Ingredients
You get 24 jaffa cakes in each box split between 2 packs of 12 in clear plastic packaging, the box and other packaging is easy to open.

The sponge biscuit tastes delicately soft and fluffy when bitten into, this is topped with a crisp layer of plain chocolate which has a nice bite to it when eating them.

In between the sponge biscuit and chocolate is the slightly tangy, juicy and great tasting orange flavoured paste which according to the ingredients contains 11% orange juice from concentrate

Each jaffa cake is made of 55% filling, 28% sponge biscuit and 17% chocolate, each cake also contains 52 calories and 1.3g of fat

Here are the ingredients and other useful information

Verdict
These taste so good, I rarely used to buy jaffa cakes but now since buying these for the first time they taste like an award winning jaffa cake would and I now have to buy them almost every time I visit Aldi, Belmont got these jaffa cakes just right and hopefully they never change the ingredients as these are incredible and are also good value for money

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Product Review: Aldi Sunnyhills White Baguettes

Lunch is served

Appearance, Packaging and More
The packaging is clear and almost entirely see through so you get a clear view of the baguettes inside each pack, there are 2 baguettes in total

Clearly displayed on the front of the pack is specific baking temperatures and times, nutritional information and more

Product and Taste Test
Each baguette is soft so is easily cut before before baking, which I usually do, I usually make a slice through the middle of the baguette lengthways, I do not open it though until after it has finished baking in the oven which I usually cook for just under 8 minutes at 190 degrees with a fan oven

Each baguette crisps up nicely on the outer part of the baguette but remains soft inside, so when biting into it there is a crispy bite to it but at the same time is soft on the inside making for a lovely baguette each time you take a bite

Goes Well With
Try filling with a couple of slices of specially selected chicken, ham or beef and then fill generously with a handful of Freshleaf mixed salad, sliced cucumber and some mayonnaise

Verdict
At 39p you should give these a try whether you are new to buying part baked baguettes or usually just buy another brand, these go crisp on the outside and remain soft and delicate on the inside

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Product Review: Aldi Snackrite Monster Claws

Munch, munch, munch

Appearance, packaging and more
Here we have a giant purple bag with an image of a monsters claw, it also states that you get 10 packs of crisps inside the bag, consisting of 3x roast beef, 4x pickled onion and 3x flamin hot.

Each pack of Monster Claws is individually coloured with the roast beef pack having a yellow colour identical to that of a pack of roast beef Monster Munch, Pickled Onion has a dark purple colour pack and flamin hot has a dark red colour pack.

Product and Taste Test
For this part of the review I will review each flavour separately

Roast Beef
The flavour of the roast beef here is noticeable, obviously the taste is not the same as a Sunday roast beef dinner, but that is the same for Monster Munch in my  opinion, so the flavour is noticeable but Monster Munch has a slightly stronger flavour, Monster Munch also melts in the mouth slightly easier, which is the same for all flavours, so between the two brands there is not much difference

Pickled Onion
These have a nice pickled onion flavour, I would say it is in between not too weak and not too overpowering so the flavour is noticeable and strong enough that make these crisps great tasting

Flamin Hot
The spiciness of these will vary depending on what you see as too spicy, if I were to rate these between 1 to 5 where 1 would be a korma and a 5 would be a vindaloo I would give these a 2, so they are far from a weak flavour crisp but they are also not too spicy.

As mentioned in the roast beef part of the review Monster Munch melt in the mouth slightly easier compared to Monster Claws, Monster Munch roast beef flavour also has a slightly stronger taste than the Monster Claws roast beef, these have the same amount of crunch and bite to them you would expect from Monster Munch.

Verdict
You can munch on these just as easily as you can with Monster Munch and there is not too much difference in flavour, Monster Munch is slightly stronger with a couple of flavours and that is where the comparisons end, as for price comparison you get more for your money with Monster Claws, taste wise these taste almost just as great as Monster Munch do and you save money so these get a silver star and I recommend trying these if you have not already

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Product Review: Carlos Take Away Stuffed Crust Pizza

No need to ever order a take away pizza online or on the phone again, just take a trip to Aldi

Appearance and Packaging
The box is a mixture of nice colours with the brand name and also the name of the product itself clearly displayed.

Also mentioned is the fact that a garlic and herb dip is included in the box

The only dislike I have about the packaging is that there is no window on the front of the box so that you can see the pizza or part of it

Product Test
Removing the pizza from the box, the presentation of the pizza is great, it is topped with a very generous amount of mostly mozzarella and also cheddar, the cheese needs tidying up once you remove the plastic packaging around the pizza, personally I remove most of the cheese on the pizza as I find it kind of dry and does not melt as well as the pack of grated mozzarella I use as the replacement for the cheese I remove, maybe it has something to do with this pizza containing cheddar, however that does not mean it makes it a bad pizza, far from it, the cheese it comes with still melts well, the blend of mozzarella and cheddar goes nicely together

The cheese within the stuffed crust is amazing, it melts just enough that it is not too runny or not too much like a piece of rubber but in fact is nice, stringy and stretchy cheese that makes the stuffed crust taste just as good as the rest of the pizza

The pizza base itself is nice and tastes like they have used a good quality pizza dough

The garlic and herb dip I would personally not recommend, but who is going to buy this pizza for the dip? Thats right, nobody, and personally when I use a dip with this I use Snackrite Sour Cream and Chive dip which goes with the pizza much more nicely

Verdict
This pizza costs £2.49 and it may not beat a take away from Pizza Hut, or it may do, in my opinion it comes close to a pizza from Pizza Hut, but would you rather spend about £10 more on a pizza from Pizza Hut or spend £2.49 on this which tastes great, has a crust that is stuffed full of cheese, and once removed from the oven makes for a great meal for one of those nights when you fancy a nice treat.

Goes Well With
Champion Grade A French Fries, Four Seasons Battered Onion Rings

Price: £2.49
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Name Change

I do not make many of these posts, but it is times like this I feel it is necessary

Long time viewers of this blog will know it started as LidAld, a blog that contained reviews for Lidl and Aldi products

Just the other day I decided to make it an Aldi only blog, and mainly that was because I was rarely reviewing Lidl products and I did not want to give the wrong impression of what this blog was for, so as it contained so many Aldi product reviews and only a couple of Lidl product reviews I decided to rename this blog Aldilicious and stick with just reviewing Aldi products, and that is the only reason for the name change

Thank you for continuing to support my blog and I hope you can continue to do so, and how do you do that? Just visit the blog once a week, or more if you like

Kevin

Product Review: Four Seasons Battered Onion Rings

Crispy and juicy battered onion rings

Appearance and Packaging

On the front of the packet you are greeted with an image of the onion rings found within the bag, and when they are cooked they look very close to how they do on the photo on the packet which is nice

It also states the following on the front of the pack

No artificial colours flavours or preservatives

No hydrogenated oils

Suitable for vegetarians

Taste Test

After cooking them for between 12-15 minutes, personally I cook for them for 14-16 minutes at 190 degrees in my fan oven, they are ready to remove from the oven and serve

They taste great, previously to trying these onion rings I went through loads of packs of different brands of onion rings, Tesco, Asda, Aunt Bessies and Sainsburys onion rings with the Sainsburys ones being my other favourites, the Asda ones I thought were awful

These ones are very similar to the Sainsburys ones, these ones are crispy, it tastes like there is a generous percentage of onion in each ring, and they have a nice bite to them unlike some other brands of onion rings which you may find are soggy and not much onion inside the ring

Goes Well With

Pizza and fries or chips, juicy sirloin or rump steak

Verdict

These taste just as good as my previous favourite which is Sainsburys own brand ones, however these are much cheaper so I see no reason to go back to Sainsburys own brand ones unless Aldi stop selling these which hopefully does not happen as these onion rings taste great and are very affordable at just p for a 670g bag

Price: £0.

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Product Review: Saxon Shea Butter Toilet Tissue

One of the softest rolls of toilet tissue you will ever lay your hands on

Appearance and Packaging
The first thing that strikes you with the packaging is the cute baby tigers on the front of the packaging and the nice brownish goldish colouring of the packaging, other notable things are the pieces of information like being made in the UK and the FSC logo letting you know it is paper from responsible sources

The appearance of each roll is of very good quality, being light cream in color it may not go with every bathroom but if you are not bothered about that like me then that is fine, it has a lightly textured pattern which adds a slight touch of premium to it

Product Test
Pulling each sheet away from the rest of the roll is an easy enough process, I personally never manage to make any rips or tears when using it

This toilet roll has a light scent of which I imagine is shea butter, the scent I would describe as a mixture of a slightly sweet and nutty smell which lightly fills the bathroom with the light scent each roll gives off

The softness is some of the softest toilet tissue I have ever felt, to me it feels softer than any Andrex product I have ever used and I consider Andrex the brand with the softest toilet tissues, so it is super soft and still is great at what its intended uses are

Technical information
The image below contains information about each roll of this toilet tissue

Verdict
One of if not the softest ever toilet tissues you will feel, agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments

Price: Varies depending on pack size
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Product Review: Specially Selected 4 Slices British Butter Roast Chicken Breast

Appearance and packaging
The packaging has a premium look and feel thanks to its black packaging and stylish font used and with each of the 4 slices of chicken breast neatly resting on top of and next to eachother with clear product information on the front and back of the pack too advising you of the price and that they only use British freedom food chickens.

Taste Test
On the front and back of the pack they like to remind you that the chicken breast is slow cooked in butter for a tender and succulent taste, and what they state on the pack I have found is very true, i have been buying this product for many months and have it a couple of times a week paired with a part baked baguette that i bake in the oven for 8 minutes along with some mixed salad and cucumber and this product right here, makes ideal for a beautiful late breakfast or lunch

Each slice is indeed tender and succulent, there are no other words i can think of to describe the wonderful taste each slice contains and the fact it is british chicken is great to know too

Goes Well With
Part baked baguette baked until crispy, crispy mixed salad leaves, couple of slices of cucumber halved, couple of cherry tomatoes halved makes for an amazing tasting late breakfast or lunch

Verdict
Each slice of this chicken breast is succulent and tastes great and has many uses, in a sandwich, baguette or a light salad and at £1.79 a pack it may not be to everyones liking if you want more for your money, but one thing is for sure, you may not find such good quality slices of chicken at this price for the amount you get in each pack and because of that it gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Price: £1.79

Product Review: Bramwells Tomato Ketchup

A great partner for many meals, especially if chips are on the menu

The Packaging
On the front of the bottle there is an image of fresh tomatoes and on the back of the bottle is some useful information, letting you know this ketchup is made with 132g of tomatoes per 100g of ketchup

History of Bramwells Ketchup
After some searching on Google I was able to see the number of tomatoes used per 100g of ketchup used to be slightly higher with some people even complaining they did not like the taste since the change, some of the comments coming from a post on Facebook from November 2014, however having only switched to Bramwells a couple of months ago from previously only using Heinz if there are to be any comparisons here it will be compared to Heinz

Product and Taste Test
Firstly the bottle is a top down bottle so the ketchup is easily squeezed from the bottle onto your plate

Once that is done it is time for a taste test, if I were to compare Bramwells to Heinz I would say Bramwells has more of a tomato taste to it, compared to Heinz it has more of an acidic taste and there is a slight taste of vinegar in there too, however nothing too overpowering at all, and if I were too say which tasted closest to actual tomatoes I would say Bramwells thanks to how it tastes more like a tomato and the slightly more acidic taste must help it taste closer to an actual tomato too

Final Verdict
At a fraction of the price compared to what you would pay for Heinz and the unique taste Bramwells has that makes it taste more like an actual tomato than Heinz does, this is certainly a recommended bottle of great tasting ketchup and thanks to it only being 69p it has to be worth a try?

Price: £0.69
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Product Review: Champion Grade A French Fries

Great tasting fries at a fraction of the price compared to brand leaders such as McCain

Packaging

The fries are in a red bag which also clearly displays the product found within the bag along with other useful information such as being made with sunflower oil and each bag weighing 1kg

Product Test
Opening the bag is pretty easy with a knife or scissors, once inside i like to tip the fries onto my oven tray if i am handling other food at that time and am in a rush as the crispy coating can leave your hands feeling slightly greasy, I rarely find fries to be frozen together and whenever they are they are easily pulled apart without breaking, next I pre heat my Zannusi fan oven to 190 degrees and leave the fries to cook for between 14-16 minutes

Taste Test
These taste great and I put that down to the crispy coating, Lidl sell similar fries but if i remember the only ingredients for the Lidl ones are potato and sunflower oil and the taste difference is noticeable, these Champion fries taste much better as they have more bite and flavour than the Lidl ones which are kind of bland in comparison, but the Lidl ones are a good second option.

I think what makes the champion fries taste so good is obviously down to the crispy coating which consists of spice extracts and seasonings along with a couple of other ingredients which can all be found on the back of the pack

Final Verdict
At 59p for a 1kg bag of great tasting fries, I see no reason why someone should not give these a go, I have not tasted the brand leading fries in years so can not compare these to McCain but at 59p I would suggest you give them a try if you are looking for something new, great tasting and something affordable which is exactly what these fries are

Price: £0.59 as of January 2015
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