Rowntrees new sharing bags review

Whenever the postman drops off a parcel, the girls come and hover expectantly to see what I've been asked to review and whether or not they can get involved in the testing. Well, they got all excited when this mysterious green parcel appeared.

They got even more excited when they carefully opened the paper – hold on, who am I kidding ?! when they ripped it to shreds in their haste to get inside ! - and discovered some lovely packets of Rowntrees sweeties inside ! Now, I could name you a long list of Rowntrees sweets that I love – Fruit Pastilles, Fruit Gums, Jelly Tots, Tooty Frooties … - but I have to admit, I didn't know any of these new products : Very Berry Jellies, Jelly Aliens, Sour Faces and Randoms. But that was about to change because the girls couldn't wait to get testing !

First up was the packet of Randoms which, as the name suggests, contains a variety of different shapes and textures. The concept reminded me a bit of Dolly Mixture and the girls said it was like a quicker and easier way of buying a selection of penny sweets like you get in the sweet shop with your pocket money. The bag we had contained twelve sweets, as you can see in the picture. Just enough for one reasonable sweet-eating session.

The Sour Faces were our favourites. They're fizzy and fruity but not as unpleasantly sour as the name suggests. They reminded us of a fruity version of fizzy cola bottles with just the right amount of acidity and they disappeared in double quick time. Yum ! Even better news is that they contain 50% fruit juice. One 7 sweet serving contains 86 calories and 14.6g of sugar.

Next on the testing block were the Very Berry Jelly sweets. They are lovely and soft with an intensely fruit flavour, but the girls said they would have liked a bigger selection of flavours and colours in each packet. They also contain 50% fruit juice and a 7 sweet serving contains 80 calories and 13.5g of sugar.

And finally, the Jelly Aliens, which are also lovely and soft and chewy with a lovely fruity flavour and above all a variety of cute alien shapes. Juliette liked lining them up in families and making them talk before popping them into her mouth one by one. (Which is hopefully a sign of how tasty they are and not the start of a sadistic streak !) They contain 25% fruit juice and a 7 sweet serving contains 80 calories and 13.5g of sugar.

But Rowntrees have gone one better than just asking us to review their sweets. I was just talking the other day about all the fun blogger challenges we've taken part in in the past. Well, Rowntrees have challenged bloggers to do three tasks based around the three new share bags of sweets. Here at The Madhouse, we say : Bring it on !!

Firstly, show us your most sour face. That's easy peasy - just pass the bag of Sour Faces !

Secondly, dress or act like a Jelly Alien. OK, yes, I admit I did have to bribe Juliette with a handful of Jelly Alien sweets to dress up like this !!

And finally draw the Very Berry trees that we pick to make our Very Berry Jellies so juicy.

There you go. I said we always rise to the challenge !

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Sweet Junkie

Garofalo La Giostra dei Bambini Children's Pasta review and recipe competition
Fruit Shoots Champion of the Playground Challenge