Wendyl Nissen: Magnum Mini Loving Kiss Meringue et Fruits Rouges

Morsels of delight tick enough good-food boxes to offset feelings about guilty pleasure.

My family has been going crazy over these morsels of delight. We have had a string of family birthdays and when we all get together there are 12 of us.

My husband came up with the bright idea of serving these for dessert and bought in a selection. These come in other delicious sounding flavours.

These are small enough to give a sweet treat without feeling like you are blowing out, and in my case, enough of a reason to break my sugar-free lifestyle to sample one.

I think providing sweet treats in this size is great for people practising moderation and for kids who really don't need those huge ice creams like a full-sized Magnum.

Dairy ingredients

Reconstituted skim milk and/or reconstituted buttermilk, milk solids. These are all healthy ingredients that all come from milk.

Sugar

These little darlings are high in sugar. For each 51g of icecream, which looks about half the size of a normal Magnum on a stick, you will get 18g of sugar, just over four teaspoons.

Cocoa

This is Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa, which means the Rainforest Alliance has been working with smallholder cocoa farmers training them to conserve natural resources, increase productivity and secure decent living/working conditions.

Raspberry puree

Nice to see a natural fruit puree in here instead of a jelly simply coloured to look and flavoured to taste like raspberry.

Water

Butter oil

This is an oil extracted from milk.

Cranberry pieces

Nice to see real fruit pieces in here.

Vegetable oil

Not sure what oil this is.

Invert sugar syrup

This is another form of sugar.

Glucose-fructose syrup (from wheat)

More sugar.

Stabilisers (1442, 410, 407, 414, 415)

These are hydroxyl-propyl-distarch-phosphate (1442), locust bean gum (410), carrageenan (407), acacia gum (414) and xanthan gum (415). All are natural ingredients.

Emulsifiers (471, soy lecithin, 476)

These are mono and diglycerides of fatty acids (471) which are made from hydrogenated soya bean oil, soy lecithin and polyglycerol polyricinoleate (476), made by combining polyglycerol and castor oil.

Egg white

This will be to make the little pieces of meringue in the ice cream.

Fruit concentrates (blackberry, blue berry, lemon, elderberry)

Nice to see natural fruit concentrates used in here.

Flavours

Not so nice to see artificial flavour, but with all the natural fruit in here I'm hoping there aren't too many. Better still would be none.

Citric acid

This is a natural preservative.

Wheat starch

This is a thickener, similar to cornstarch.

Gelling agent (904)

This is shellac which is a natural, organic resin.

Colour (160a)

This is carotene which is a natural orange-yellow colour.

My recommendation

As a Jelly Tip fan from way back, I was pleased to see that the red fruit in this icecream is actually red fruit, not a flavoured and coloured jelly.

The colour used is also natural and you've got to love the fact that their cocoa comes from the Rainforest Alliance. One negativeis that there are just over four teaspoons of sugar in each serve, but if you're going to have a sweet treat, that isn't too excessive. And they use an artificial flavour. These are also made in Germany, so are not a choice for those concerned with food miles.

At 171 calories per ice cream these are fine as an occasional treat.

Highlights
• Just over four teaspoons of sugar per serve.
• Uses natural fruits.
• Natural colour but artificial flavour.