So after a couple of ops on totally unhealthy things, I thought I ought get back to being a healthy body beautiful! This is something I generally get during my pilgrimage to the great Asda. I find this is really useful thing to keep in the cupboard.
** What are they? **
Asda extra special Taste of New England dried fruit mix, is just that it is a packet of dried fruit, you can eat them straight from the packet (my favoured option) you can add them to your morning cereal, or you could use them in a cake mix!
** What’s the pack like? **
Incredible the product is called “Taste of New England”, which I take to be the USA, but on the back of the packet says produce of more than one country! The front of the pack has a really nice picture of the fresh fruit, which I must admit looks really nice. The pack is 250g of fruit, and that 250g will cost you £1.38, I certainly think that it is money well spent.
Ingredients wise, it is just fruit (see the next section to find what is in there)
They are gluten free, there are no colours, and they are packaged in a “protective environment” whatever that might mean!
Nutritionally they contain 316 cals per 100 g and 1.2 g of fat, there is a big yellow line which gives the values per 1/5 of a pack 158 cals 0.6g of fat.
To get to them, you have to tear off the top of the pack, the pack has one of those press to seal tops (I’m not too sure of the technical term for it), but anyway it is there to keep the contents fresh after opening.
** What are they like? **
Once you open the pack, have a deep smell, you get a lovely scent of dried fruit, a little like a fruit compote, but a little sweeter. I wouldn’t say that any one smell stands out over any of the others.
When you tip some of the fruit out onto a plate, you get a really nice waft of the dried fruit. Looking at the contents, you can see all colours, red, dark brown, very dark blue (almost black) and some orange colours. I found the combination of colours is almost an art form in itself. Looking at them, you can see that they complement each other really well. For the taste test, I have picked each ingredient, and I’ll try to give an idea of what they are like (the % sign next to each one shows how much of each is in the pack) I did actually find it to be really difficult to describe each flavour, but hopefully I’ve given you some idea.
Golden Jumbo Sultanas 35%
These are very large!! They are a deep yellow, almost orange colour, and quite moist, they have a really sweet taste to them
Flame jumbo raisins 30%
A really rich taste, quite strong, and quite moist, I would use the word mellow to describe this one! The raisins are really rich brown colour
Sweetened dried cranberries 15%
These are a deep red colour, and have quite a strong tang to them, it is quite a bitter taste, but it is one that I really like, in fact I would say this was my favourite individual flavour out of the pack.
Dried sour cherries 10%
These are quite large too, they have quite a sour taste, but it is not too sour. They are a lovely deep red colour
Dried blueberries 10%
These are very small, and almost black in colour. They have the most amazing sweet rich taste to them.
I find that the flavours of the different fruits really compliment each other; they seem to blend well together, the bitter and the sweet, the rich and the mellow, to give a really nice taste. Fruit wise I think that the mix is just right.
I can’t vouch for how they turn out in a cake, as mine never last long enough to be used for that!!
So there you have it, a really health great tasting nibble, or cereal topping. I really like them, and always have a pack in the cupboard for that time when you get the munchies, but don’t want anything too heavy.
Thanks for reading this, and if you get them I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
