1. Seeded Bread £2 // 2. Macaroons £1.15 // 3. Porridge £2 // 4. White Baguettes £1.85 // 5. Cheese & Tomato Pizza £2.50
Recently I was asked to review some food. How could I say no! My excitement soon faded when I found out it was special dietary food. Almost instantly I decided it'd all be bland and tasteless and quite a disappointing review. However I was pleasantly surprised!
1. Tesco's 'Free From' seeded bread is gluten, wheat and milk free. It was so tasty, I honestly would never have known it was free from anything! I expected it to be doughy and missing the 'bready-ness' of bread, but I was very wrong I actually prefer it to my normal bread! I'll definitely be choosing it in my weekly shop.
2. Mrs Crimble's chocolate macaroons were also very tasty (or so I'm told!). I'm not a fan of coconut but my husband and daughters managed to finish the whole box after their lunch one day! I hadn't mentioned that they were gluten-free and ideal for coeliacs, everyone was none the wiser.
3. Perkier fruity berry porridge was a complete let down. I followed the simple instructions and once it was ready it smelled delicious. However the smell and the quirky packaging were the only things I liked. The texture was sticky and gloopy like wallpaper paste and left the inside of my mouth coated in a thick layer of stodge! The taste was just as bad! It was really bland and tasteless. Such a disappointment after having the gorgeous smell fill my kitchen.
4. The Newburn Bakehouse range by Warburtons is gluten and wheat free. My first impressions of the baguettes were that they seemed stale! They felt stale to touch and I really wasn't looking forward to trying them. I'd read on the packet that it was best to re-heat them in the oven for around 5 minutes after sprinkling some water on them. When they were ready they felt much better, softer and less rubbery. I cut them open and the bread was white and fluffy and soft. They cooled down quite quickly and by the time I'd filled them and was ready to eat they felt hard, rubbery and stale once again. Disappointed, I took my first mouthful and actually, it wasn't as bad as they seemed. In fact I really enjoyed their taste. They had a slightly sweet taste to the bread. It wasn't chewy like it felt it 'should be' and far from stale. So I'm not sure where I stand on these baguettes! The taste was great, it went really well with my cheese and tomato. But if I was in the bread aisle and picked these up, I'd be putting them straight back down, thinking they were past their best, which is such a shame!
5. Tesco's 'Free From' cheese and tomato pizza wasn't as great as I'd expected. It looked amazing, and I was really pleased with the amount of cheese topping on it (usually frozen pizza skimp on the cheese). Once it had cooked it didn't smell like pizza. It wasn't a bad smell, not at all. It just wasn't a doughy smell! Taste wise, it wasn't anything special. I'd certainly not choose it over my usual pizzas, but as a pizza replacement to people with intolerance's I feel it would probably work for them!
To Sum it up, I think Tesco's range of 'free from' food is excellent, there's a wide choice of food that suit so many different needs. Some, of course, are disappointing and tasteless... but isn't that the case with all food? Taste is a hard topic to review, so many people have completely different tastes and there's no way to please them all. I've tried to compare the products to items that aren't free from, and the porridge was the only item I really wouldn't recommend. However I do feel that almost all of the 'free from' range is quite pricey. If I had bad intolerance's I'd probably just avoid the item altogether rather than pay up to twice as much as the 'normal' version.
What Tesco say about their range...
Tesco has a whole lot to offer within their Free From range. Currently, they provide over 200 products that contain a mix of Tesco’s own Free From label, established Free From brands like Mrs Crimble’s and Warburtons, plus new brands to the Free From market such as Perk!er. With teams dedicated entirely to Free From, Tesco is consistently seeking out innovative new Free From products to ensure you never miss out on the foods you love.
Check out this list of grocery areas covered by the Free From Range — or you can browse specific products on Tesco.com.
- Bakery: Bread and Pastries
- Savoury Biscuits, Crackers and Rice Cakes
- Sweet Biscuits, Bars and Chocolate
- Cakes, Pies and Tarts
- Pasta and Noodles
- Cereal, Flour and Bread & Cake Mixes
- Soup, Sauces and Boxed Meals
- Beer and Lager
- Frozen Sides, Desserts and Prepared Meals
- Chilled Dairy-Free: Yogurt, Soya, Coconut Milk, Cheese, Spreads.
