Alexandra's Rice Pudding - Chocolate and Blueberry product reviews

Myself and my kiddies love rice pudding,it is a winter favourite but I never have tried adding many other flavours. The sound of chocolate and blueberries was too good to pass up and looking at the other flavours they looked just as good but the simpleness of this one appealed to my family's taste.

Our first impression was how pretty it looked in the packaging almost too pretty to eat and the boys loved that they could see all the different ingredients and layers. The instructions were simple and straightforward and it was great only having to only add one extra ingredient being1 litre of milk. My 7 year old managed to make this with my supervision the only down side is waiting 25 minutes as it smells so delicious!

Once cooked we dished up and served it with a cheeky bit of greek yoghurt on the side, it was very rich but warm and filling no complaints at all from my bunch. The flavours were balanced nicely and it had just the right amount of sweetness and the leftovers for breakfast cold the next day was still super yummy. At around $7 this is a very affordable desert for my family it fed 2 adults and 2 kids with leftovers definitely getting this again! Thank you Alexandra's we have found a new family favourite.

Thanks Alexandra and KIWIreviews I think I have just found a new favourite dessert. After trying it just over a week ago I have already have more sitting in my cupboard! I have never been a huge fan of rice pudding it's one of those things which is very hit and miss for me. The only rice pudding I tend to like it homemade rice pudding and I don't make it very often. When I saw the chocolate and blueberry one up for review I was keen to give it a try as it sounded delicious.

Receiving my parcel I decided we were having dessert that night. I was impressed how quick and easy it was to make, just before serving up dinner I started it off and then left it simmering while I went and ate dinner. I got up a couple of times to stir it but it was pretty much a start and forget dish. So super easy and the taste was amazing. You could tell it was going to be jam packed with flavour as soon as you saw the deep chocolate colour of the dish. The mixture had the right amount of chocolate, spice and nice plump blueberries.

The packet says serves four but three of us had it for dessert and there was heaps left over. I took some of the leftovers with me to work the next day and found it just as tasty cold as I did hot. The fact it is gluten free is an added bonus for me as I have a few friends who are gluten free so it will be a nice easy dish to have on hand when they come to visit.

I love rice puddings but I'm too lazy to make them from scratch and the tinned ones are so full of sugar that it is hard to taste anything else. It was exciting to see Alexandra's had given KIWIreviews a selection of their rice puddings for us to review. I looked through the different flavours and decided that the others were too exotic for my family's tastes. The chocolate and blueberry sounded like the perfect fit for us.

My first impression when I received my packet of pudding was how well it was presented. The ingredients were all beautifully layered in one cellophane bag. My daughters (6 and 7.5 years old) were excited to see the chocolate drops and blueberries on top of the rice. The instructions were very simple, add the mix to a litre of milk in a large pot and simmer for about 25 minutes. Even I couldn't botch that up.

When it was cooked it was a case of dishing it into bowls and waiting for it to cool a little for us to eat. My 6 year old loved it and ate until she was full. My eldest was reluctant as it was rice but I loved it as well. It was just the right ratios of sugar, chocolate and spices (cinnamon and I'm not sure what else). Since it was so filling we had plenty of leftovers. I noticed that the cold pudding was a very different consistency to the warm pudding but was also an enjoyable lunch time treat.

I will be recommending this rice pudding to others and will be adding it to gift hampers as it looks so appealing and is so easy to prepare.

The sound of chocolate and blueberry rice pudding sounded absolutely divine and like it would be a perfect desert for the colder winter weather. After seeing this product for the first time here on KIWIreviews I made it my mission to go out and find this as I just had to try it, this proved not to be such a easy task, as I thought would have been as my local supermarkets didn't stock it, though during a shop at Pak N Save I was lucky to find it.

The packaging for the chocolate and blueberry rice pudding is very well presented and I just love that I am able to see the ingredients through the clear plastic bag before buying, this shows me the quality ingredients that I am paying for but also the generosity in the portions of ingredients particularly those of the chocolate and blueberries as these are where the taste is to come from.

Best of all and like most Alexandra's products this is so simple to make and all that needed to be added was 1 litre of milk. After mixing the 2 ingredients together you leave them to do work there magic, although this does require regular stirring and so I was very careful not to leave it more than a minute between stirring, so peeled some vegetables in between this, I didn't want to go to far from the stove in case I got disrupted from a little person and forgot to go back to it, this dish sounded way to good to mess up! The end result about 30 minutes later was a lovely smooth and creamy rice pudding. The colour of it looked lovely and chocolaty and it was nice to see that the blueberries had plumped back to life from the addition of the liquid as I was a tad concerned about having chewy blueberries throughout my pudding!

My partner and I absolutely loved the taste of this pudding, and Miss 3 didn't mind it to much either, it had the perfect balance of chocolate blueberries and spice. It was rather rich so we only needed a small amount each, which meant there was enough for 2 nights in a row, even better. We served this up with some vanilla ice cream and some thick and creamy vanilla bean custard and the flavours went so well together, the creaminess of the ice cream and custard made an even creamier rice pudding texture, delicious!

This is something I will certainly be looking to buy again a great price for such a yummy and easy to prepare product. I think I may even suggest that my local New World gets this in as I see they have a lot of the other products in the Alexandra's range in stock.

Now I love rice pudding and so does my gluten free daughter. I make all our rice puddings but have never had a chocolate and blueberry one so this was a great way to give something different a go. The packet I do have to say is cute and really simple to read and understand what is needed. I'm not the best person to stand and stir so this was a hardish concept for me, but I did get there. Now after opening the packet with scissors cause it is sealed very well, the smell of spices hits you hard, but not a bad way if you like your spices.

The only ingredient you need to buy is a litre of milk which if you get the right one doesn't have to cost alot. Pour the milk into a pot and then tip in the rice pudding mix which already has the rice, spices, chocolate and blueberries all packed in. While I was stiring this, you could smell those spices in the kitchen and it was smelling pretty good. Watching the milk turn from white to brown, and turning into a chocolate rice pudding was really good. Now as I said I'm not the best person to be standing and stiring but I managed it this time around only because my mum was in the kitchen talking with me so I had something else to do. If I left it to simmer like the packet said it would boil (the stove is really old).

The pudding took approx 20-25mins to start thickening up, enough to take it off the stove and let sit to thicken up more and it really did thicken up. I served this to 4 people with icecream. We all agreed it was more like a instant pudding not a rice pudding because of the texture and taste of it. My mum, daughter and I enjoyed it and the flavours, my sister only could eat a few spoonfuls saying it was to rich in chocolate flavour. My daughter loved it but said the blueberries tasted funny and the only thing I can think of when it was cooking the blueberries absorb a lot of the spices flavour which she didn't like too much, but ate everything else expect the blueberries.

The rice pudding was thick and a very dark colour brown, I enjoyed all aspects of it but would do a smaller amount in my plate next time, but in saying that with icecream gave it a different flavour and took away some of the richness of chocolate. There was enough left for another 2-3 people to eat it, so we tried it cold the next day, I really didn't enjoy it cold and neither did my daughter so it would prob need to be reheated or put with something like custard which is nice and hot. This is a very easy quick pudding for those with less time on their hands or if we went away I would buy it at almost $7 and then another $2 for a milk giving it about $9 for a pudding that could feed 6-8 people depending on how much each want to eat.

When I saw this product, I figured that the combination of chocolate and blueberry was something that I was bound to love. I was absolutely correct. It isn't that often that we do puddings as such in our house. We usually do fruit and yogurt, if anything. It is always nice to have a few good options of a hot pudding, especially as winter is coming on.

When I opened the packet (it required scissors), I was hit with an aroma which was very pleasing to my senses. I was rather excited about what it would be like when it was cooked. The spice is what I could smell but I wasn't sure what exact spice it was.

The cooking process was easy and simply involved adding one litre of milk.That is really the only thought you need to have prior to putting the pudding together. A heat source is the other requirement! I cooked the pudding while I was in the kitchen doing the dishes. It required regular stirring and I figured that if I was in the kitchen anyway I was more likely to actually stir it. I have been known to walk away from things on the stove and end up with a mess stuck to the pot. I set the timer to constantly remind me to stir it. This worked very well for me. I was impressed with the fact that it didn't stick to the pot and as I stirred it, it moved away from the sides of the pot nicely. As it cooked, it formed a nice skin and the texture got creamier and thicker as it came closer to being ready. I couldn't wait to sample it! Around 25 minutes of cooking and the pudding was ready. This was true to the instructions on the packet.

The taste, oh the taste! I have got to say that this is a pudding that I will have to find again. I think it could work well in my packing for when out family goes to the beach in the winter time. Mr 6 didn't like it at all. He has a big problem with rice and it was not surprising that he wasn't at all interested in the pudding. His loss I have got to say!! Miss Four was on my side and loved it too!!

There was a good level of spice added to the mix. We couldn't work out quite which spices were used but we were all satisfied with the mix of chocolate, blueberries and spice. Perhaps a few more blueberries would be nice though. The blueberries were dehydrated in the pack and they rehydrated nicely during the cooking process. They were nice and sweet too. The spice wasn't overpowering, however it really made the pudding. What a perfect amount they added to the mix!

We found that the pudding was quite rich and we were glad that we served it in small bowls. I think that you could easily serve five or six people with the rice pudding if it was served with some fresh fruit, yogurt or ice-cream. The flavour was not too sweet but gave enough sweetness to be very nice to eat.

This would be a great winter pudding to have in the cupboard for those nights when we need a little more to warm us up after dinner. I will be searching for this one in the supermarket.

I was given the chance to review another flavour of this rice pudding and was blown away on how easy this was to prepare and tasty. Because of this I could not wait to try this flavour which meant hunting it down in a local supermarket to be able to give it a try. I like the way that Alexandra's package their products so that you can see the ingredients and that all packaging can be recycled.

I once again used a full raw milk to make this and was quite surprised when tipping the contents into the pot that there was actually whole chocolate chunks as well as cocoa. You could smell the spices that were also added which at first I thought was a very unusual combination with chocolate and blueberry. This didn't stop me however drooling over the pot watching the chocolate melt and the blueberries swell up. After the 25 minutes cooking I was able to taste this. I was quite surprised at the flavours. In tasting the rice you could taste the chocolate, but it was not as strong a flavour as I had hoped. I thought at first that the spices that I had smelt during cooking must have just blended in until I ate a blueberry. I found that the blueberries had absorbed all the spices and to me this did spoil the overall taste of this pudding.

Overall I was disappointed in the flavour of this rice pudding and will be sticking to the raisin and almond one for now which I have gone out to purchase more of. What I would like to see is the blueberries taken out of this and for the chocolate to be a bit richer. Because I have only found one supermarket in our city that stocks the rice pudding range I will be asking my local New World to add to their collection of Alexandra's products as I feel that they are great value for money and easy to make.

The secret to a yummy meal in this house is the less effort I need to put in to it the better. I hate cooking and spending ages in the kitchen and prefer nice, fast, yummy meals and nothing can be simplier than Alexandra's Rice Pudding. Seriously they are a god send - so magical. Everything you need is in the bag, well excluding the milk that is. But in less than half an hour you have a delicious looking brown chocolately pudding waiting for you.

I was actually surprised at how brown it was for some reason I was still expecting to have a white rice pudding waiting for me but instead got a rich chocolate look to it. Must of been having a blonde moment as assumed the chocolate would stay intact but instead the cocoa and chocolate melt into the mixture and it mixes in beautifully as you stir it over a medium heat. After I got the consistancy I wanted I left it for about ten minutes and let it thicken quite a bit. You can't have a chocolate pudding without cream and this time I remembered to take the picture before adding the final touch to the dessert.

It actually does not taste like rice pudding but more a chocolate pudding instead. I only use small bowls and in this case I was glad of the fact as it is actually quite rich. The first couple of spoons I was loving it but by the end of the bowl it was a bit of a force as the taste does not change at all. I think, like with the Raisin and Toasted Almond it could do with more extras in this case the Blueberries it needs something to break up that consistancy and repetative taste. You do not need a lot and I am glad we have some left over so can eat tomorrow night as well as the serving will be smaller.

I think the price is great for what it is and for the servings you receive, you can get out a lot of the packet. The price is also awesome considering how easy it is to make, just the stirring takes a while.