Everybody likes to be a revel! (Mars Revels)

Member Name: SweetTooth93

Product:	Mars Revels
Date:	07/07/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: coffee and orange cremes, rasins, versatility

Disadvantages: quantity, malteasers

Sitting in front of the television, I had the sudden craving for something sweet, something chocolaty. Tea had been eaten about two hours ago and I wasnt due to have my supper for another two or three hours. Perhaps I could hang off untill then, but knowing myself all too well- I knew this just wouldn't be the case. So off I trotted to the kitchen to dig out something to satisfy my somewhat annoying sweet tooth.





I rummaged through the freezer, checking if there was any ice cream my mum had bought in the past few days that I hadn't noticed. But no, there wasn't, so down I went too the fridge in search of chocolatey dessert or perhaps a sweet yougurt, but although there was some things that appealed, there definitly wasn't anything that jumped out at me to a great extent. So up I moped to the sweetie cupboard- damn how do I always end up there? And then I remembered. The previous day I had gotten a great offer in the Esso garage acorss the road from my house, and I had managed to purchase 8 bags of chocolate and bars of chocolate for £2.50. So far I had only indulged in one, and so there in the plastic bag sat 7 delicios products waiting to be eaten.



But which one too choose? This is and always has been one of my biggest problems when it comes to choccolate and sweets; I can never decide between them. At this precise moment I wasnt feeling too up to munching away on an actual bar of chocolate and so this narrowed my choices down a little. After much deliberation, I decided eventually on '''Revels'''. I pulled them out the carrier bag on off I returned to the television set clutching my bag of Revels.



I settled down and placed the packet on my knee for closer inspection. The bag has changed in recent years, I Cant remember what it used to look like but I do remember my mum was very upset and did stop purchasing them for a while. (This didn't last long, and shes now back onto at least two bags per week). Its quite eye catching and quite an unusual design- the bag is made up different coloured stripes- orange, brown, a darker orange, yellow, dark brown and back to orange again. Quite unusal I thought. Written ontop of the stripes is the word REVELS in large white block capital letters. The white writing in margained with a orange-ish/brown outline, and this all adds to the "standing out" and appeal of the bag.



Lifting up the bag ready to open, I suddenly got quite depressed. I hadn't noticed how light the bag actually was, and so I turned the packaging round to look for the actual weight. Well it didn't appear to be too light- in fact the bag was 35g, a pretty avereage weight for a small bag of chocolates like this. But no way did these Revels fee as heavy as a bag of minstrels say, or even a bag of malteasers. Oh well it should be about quality and not quantity, right? While I was looking at the back of the packaging my eyes were cast upon the nutrtition information- not delibaratly I may add as I dont normally bother about these things, however once checking them out I was pretty glad I did...



The back of the package tells me that one 35g bag of Revels contains 165 calories. This is definitly not the worst calorie wise- and after all, these are chocolate. The fat content is quite high, infact one bag contains 7.3g of fat- not overly high again, but obviously you cant expect them to be fat free! Sugar is looking to be on the high side aswell, 21.6g per bag. So overall looking at nutrition, these arent the most healthy snacks, however they probably contain the same amount of sugar and calories than a cereal bar, however they do seem to be alot "healthier" than some other products, such as a mars bar or a snickers.



After discovering the truth about what these were going to do to my body, I decided it was eventually time to wrip the bag open and dig in- not having had these in a couple of months I was sort of forgetting what to expect. However when I opened the bag and buried my nose in, the familiar smell of chocolate hit me and I was immediatly transported back to the times when I had enjoyed these everyday, week on end for several months (Yes I used to be obsessed). The smell wasn't totoally of chocolate, I did detect a slight orange smell, this was probably down to the orange creme incased in several of the chocolates. The orange smell wasnt to predominant and it was sort of mixed with a coffee smell aswell. Overall actually really nice.



I poked my nose into the bag further to take a look. There didnt seem to be an overly large of amount of chocolates in the bag, and I was getting more and more "depressed" as the experience went a long. I poured acouple into the palm of my hand for inspection and I was presented with quite a large vairety of different shapes and sizess. There was a couple of large malteaser-shaped sweets, and the sizes ranged all the way down to tiny balls and weird lopsided shapes. Now for the taste test... I hadnt forgotten much else about the revels apart from there taste and I was still fully aware of what flavours I was going to get- so what better way to inform you than write a bit about each different chocolate...



'''Toffee''' - The first one I was faced with was the toffee. It was one of the smaller sweets, sort of spherecal in shape, but also had a slight lopsided look to it. I popped it in my mouth, and firstly sucked off all the milk chocolate secreting the toffee centre. The chocolate was of a very familiar taste- similar to that of a mars bar etc. It was creamy and had a quite sweet taste after it was finished. Once the chocolated had melted, I was presented with a toffee centre. This was no soft toffee though, not by any means- In fact it was extremely chewy and took a few minutes after I had finished to pull the remaining peices out from my teeth. The toffee was quite sweet and sort of tasted like that you find insdie a mint humbug. Overall this wasn't my favourite sweet in the packet. 3/5.



'''Raisin'''- The next chocolate I tried was the smallest in the whole of the packet. It used to a peanut one, but in recent years it has changed to a chocolate raisin, and I am most thrilled. As a chocolate raisin lover I always hope to get lots of these in my packet, as there small and they probably make up one of the malteasers or cremes. They are almost identical to any other chocolate raisins you get in other shops and Pic & mixes, but i find them to be alot more chewy and definitly more juicy. Again the milk chocolate encasing the raisin is very creamy and of a very high standard. 4/5.



'''Malteaser''' - Now I personally am not a fan of malteasers and always try to swap these with others with my brothers and friends etc. I find something about the texture and the crunch of them horrible and cant stick the sticky honeycomb that gets left behind in your teeth afterwards. The malteasers in the packets, are in fact original malteasers. Which, if you haven't met them before is a honeycomb malt ball in a thin layer of mars milk chocolate. I usually pop them into my mouth, suck the chocolate off and then spit out theball. But for the sake of this review I managed to finish them. The malt honeycomb in the centre was very crunchy and very sweet. Sort of similar to that in a crunchy, but in my opinion a crunchie is alot nicer and has a nicer texture. Dont get me wrong these aren't "bad" sweets, they just dont appeal to me. 2/5.



'''Coffee Creme''' - I dont understand when people say they hate the coffee cremes and I always jump at the chance when people offer me them. The coffee creme is a coffee flavoured fondant, again in a smooth thin layer of milk chocolate. In fact the layer of chocolate isnt actually too thin- slightly thicker than that on the malteaser. As with all the chocoaltes in the bag I like to suck of the mily chocolate and then Im left with the creme centre. I'm not a fan of coffee flavour things usually, but these dont have too much of a coffee taste to them, I almost think they have a sort of fudge taste to them- which appeals very much. I usually use these ones till last and then savour every last suck, or bite of them. 4/5.



'''Orange creme''' - My favourite in the whole of the packet. Again I cannot understand when people tell me they don't like the orange creemes and always try to fob me off with them. (Which by the way I always take them up on theere offers..who likes to waste food..right?!). This one is extremely similar to the coffee creme- almost identical in fact. However obviously the coffee creme inside is not coffee flavoured, but is infact orange. The orange is tangy and very sweet, very unsimilar to a terrys chocolate orange. The creme is encased in a milk chocolate coating once again- the same thickness of the chocolate on the coffee creme, again milky yet sweet in flavour and melt deliciously on the tongue. 5/5.



'''Chocolate Disk'''- I hate it when people refer to these as minstrels. Yes they are similar in shape, and similar in taste, but they are definitly not misntrels. For starters have you ever seen a minstrel without a milk chocolate shell? No, didn't think so. Well that in so many words is what the chocolate disks in Revels are. Flat, yet slightly rounded disks of deliciously creamy galaxy milk chocolate.


These are another of my favoruites and they are oh so easy to eat. They literelly melt on your tongue and since there are no crunchy or bitty textures to munch through you can let it sit there and melt away quite happily. I alwasy try to save these ones till last, but sometimes the temptation is too much. 5/5.



Overall my favourite chocolates out of these are probably the orange creme and the milk chocolate disk, however the chocolate raisins are often a very competitive competiver. If you dont like surprises I'd reccomend you steer clear of these as you never know what your going too get. I also dont think these are the best options for young children, as most young children have particular hates when it comes to chocolate bars, and I can imagine the orange and coffee cremees, and infact the raisins wont appeal to them very much. They are perfect for a sweet treat though, or just happily munching on when you need a sugary pick me up.


***


Like I said, I purchased these as part of a 8 for £2.50 deal in my local garage. However the 35g packets can be bought from all good shops, newsagents and supermarkets, retailing from about 32-45p. Revels come in variety packets and larger bags aswell, and I checked out some of the prices ;

*35g bag from Asda- 38p
*4 x 35g bag from Asda- £1.20
*100g bag from Asda- 84p
*175g revels pouch from Asda - £1.43


So you do get quite a wide variety of different types. Personally I'd reccomend the large pouch because you do get a much larger amount inside and I do feel the amount in the standard size bags is pretty bad and you sometimes dont get as much for your money, espesically if there are certain types you are not too keen on. Revels are available from most places like I say, however if you are buying them from your local cinema, then you are too expect the price to be a substancial amount higher than supermarkets, sometimes as much as £2.50 for the pouch.


Revels are very versatile also, and they can be eaten in many different situations, here are some that I can think of;

*Partys- empty into a bowl and let the guests enjoy
*Cinema trips- I'd reccomend buying them before you get there
*Car jounreys- Though be careful they dont melt
*Pick me up- A small bag is ideal when your feeling slightly blue and want some chocolate with a difference
*Afternoon/Mid morning snack- Again a small bag is ideal
*Pig out- I'd reccomend the large pouch or several standard size bags.


***

Overall, this product I would give 3 stars. Although the tastes of the milk chocolates are absoloutly delicious, you cannot be sure of what you are going to discover inside. Antoher bad point to these sweets are that like i have mentioned perhaps too many times before- the contents is pretty stingy and you dont get a very large amount inside. Thirdly, the malteasers ones just dont tickle my fancy and I'd much prefer the were filled with a noguat, similar to that in a mars bar.


***


SweetTooth 93
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