A big thankyou to Ape Snacks for today's review, they kindly reached out and offered me some samples from their new range of Coconut & Rice Puffs to try, and as a big fan of their snacks I certainly wasn't going to say no! The last new product they launched were the Chocolate Crunchy Coconut Bites I reviewed over Summer, but I had no idea they had plans to further expand their range. So it was a lovely surprise to see these new Coconut & Rice puffs appear recently! They're like a healthy, vegan, gluten free version of puffed maize snacks without added sugar, vegetable oils, dairy or artificial flavourings - just clean ingredients! You can buy them from Ape Snacks website, plus they're available from Sainsbury's, Ocado.com and WH Smiths.
I thought I'd start with the Cheese Flavour, which is special because it's actually dairy free and vegan friendly! How is that possible I hear you ask?! Well, like many cheesy flavoured crisps it uses yeast extract to give it a cheesy flavour without any dairy. The puffs are also made with rice flour, coconut oil, coconut flour, salt, and natural flavours. There's 112 Calories and 4.2g Fat per 24g bag.
Opening the pack, they certainly had a nice strong cheesy aroma, and reminded a little of Wotsits (although less strong, obviously). I took a bite, and boy are they moreish! They're perfectly crunchy and I really couldn't tell much difference between these and regular puffed corn snacks, although, they seemed a bit more filling and substantial. The yeast extract cheese flavour is subtle and not too overpowering, but definitely enough to make them moreish. It didn't take long to get through the bag!
Overall, as a vegan, dairy and gluten free snack these really tick all boxes! I'm so glad that products like this keep coming out, it's about time there was more choice for those needing to avoid gluten/dairy etc. Bravo Ape Snacks, and please keep up the good work! And stay tuned everyone for my review of their Lightly Salted and Thai Chilli flavours...
8.5 out of 10.
Ingredients: Rice flour, coconut oil, coconut flour, salt, onion powder, yeast extract, natural flavourings, garlic powder, natural colour paprika extract, lactic acid.
Nutritonal Information (per 24g): 112 Calories, 4.7g Fat, 15.2g Carbohydrates, 0.4g Sugars, 0.7g Fibre, 1.9g Protein.
