ViBERi Pearl product reviews

I have always had a soft spot for blackcurrants from a very young age, especially blackcurrant juice and ice blocks. The previous round of KIWIreviews products to review, I was lucky enough to get some of the freeze-dried blackcurrants which I found delicious but overpowering eating by themselves. When I saw that KIWIreviews had the Viberi Pearl blackcurrants available to review I quickly jumped at the chance to request some.

The packet really stood out in my review box because of its eye catching design. In my opinion, the designers have thought long and hard about what would be visually appealing, the vibrant purple blackcurrant surrounded by the white chocolate covered ones is impressive, and what my eyes were drawn to first. The ziplock top is a wonderful feature to keep the freshness in, plus when I had them in my handbag they couldn't all roll out. I knew I was in for a treat because the packet said they are 'Wickedly Scrumptious'

After opening the packet and grabbing one of the Belgian white chocolate blackcurrants out, I noticed how smooth the chocolate was and the smell was simply heavenly. I bit down on the blackcurrant breaking the white chocolate she'll and was instantly greeted with the deliciousness of the blackcurrant. I found that the balance between the sharpness of the blackcurrant and the sweetness of the chocolate was absolutely perfect. The only downside was that now I think I am slightly addicted to eating these. I eat them by themselves, on top of some yoghurt or ice cream, or I made some cupcakes and popped a couple on the top of the icing.

I absolutely love this product and have decided that I shall have to place an order with Viberi to make sure I always have some in my pantry or handbag, for those busy days for a yummy treat.

If I had to review a product using only two or three words the words I would pick for this product would be "absolute gold!" These little balls of white chocolate blackcurrant goodness are among some of the best things I have ever eaten. I have previously tried the ViBERi freeze dried blackcurrants and enjoyed them so I was interested to see what they would be like coated in white chocolate.

Upon receiving the bag I noticed that the packaging was very similar to that of the freeze dried variety I tried. A very natural looking bag with a picture of the blackcurrants on the front. The packet clearly stated that they are New Zealand organic crispy blackcurrant berries rolled in white chocolate. It also mentioned that they are wickedly scrumptious - which is certainly very correct!

Reading the back of the packet I learnt that blackcurrants have an exceptional level of vitamin C in them. Being winter and there being a lot of colds and flu lurking around this was a welcome product to my pantry. Having a handful of these a day would certainly help to increase my level of Vitamin C and hopefully ward off any bugs. It is always a bonus when a tasty snack adds a good health benefit too.

Opening the packet I decided to try one of the berries just as they are. The white chocolate is smooth and silky and oh so tasty, and then you get the burst of the freeze dried blackcurrant on the inside. Eating them with the chocolate coating was quite different to eating them as plain freeze dried berries. When I had the freeze dried it seemed to stick in my teeth and the texture was a little unpleasant, but this variety didn't feel like that at all.

Oats is a standard go to breakfast for me and on this occasion, I thought I would try some of the ViBERi Pearl on top of my oats. I made up my oats as per the instructions and once they were cooked I added a little bit of cold milk before putting a small handful of the berries on top. I let them sit for a minute or two before trying it. Oh my goodness, the white chocolate started to melt so it was all soft and gooey and then the berry mixed with the oats, this was a breakfast sent from heaven! I had to try and spread the berries out over the whole bowl of oats to make them last, which was hard to do because all I wanted each mouthful was a ViBERi!

These are definitely a product I would buy again. I do think the price is reasonably high for the amount you get, but they are an amazing snack and a little splurge every now and then certainly won't hurt.

I could not have picked up this product for review at a better time. I had just developed a sore throat and totally lost my voice, so a good helping of Vitamin C was a perfect way to combat the bug. I checked the label for portion size and it was five servings per packet. That is an awful lot of berries as they weigh quite light, but on checking further I found that this amount is 72% of the daily intake of the vitamin. So I just went for it and ate my handful of berries!

This was not the arduous task it might have been as they were pretty good. I have tried the others in the range as they have become available, and I like some better than others, but I think this one is the best yet. I like white chocolate anyway, but the little rush of sourness you get when you have sucked away all the chocolate and have come up against the crisp inner is a sensation all on its own. Usually I find that the recommended serving size of most confectionery items is too much for me to eat in one go, but I had no difficulty this time round in finishing my handful. I even considered having some more but decided that would be silly!

I had some children coming around so I decided to try the berries out on them. Because children can be fussy eaters, I mixed the selected fifth-of-a-packet serving with some other lollies including licorice allsorts, coke bottles and jellybeans, plus a few nuts, then put them on the table without saying anything. When the children came in, they went straight to the table, drawn by the bright colours of the sweets. They all stood looking, trying to be polite, but I could see what they all wanted to do! I asked if they would like to try some. Six little boys, all aged seven or eight, nodded happily and then pounced as I called out "Take one at a time!"

The boys demolished everything on the plate, including the berries. Only then did I ask them if any of them had noticed the white chocolate berries. One little boy said he had eaten three because they were so yummy and much nicer than the other lollies on the plate, and he liked the way they crunched. One of his friends said he had eaten two because they were just as good as jellybeans. (High praise indeed!) The other four boys had all eaten at least one, but said they had liked ALL the lollies. Oh well - I guess that is good feedback in a way as the other items on the plate were not organic and undoubtedly contained lots of preservatives.

The moral is that kids will eat anything as long as it tastes good. It is up to the adults to offer food which is a healthy option as well as being attractively presented. Incidentally, after another two days eating the berries myself, my voice has come back and my throat is back to normal. More than I can say for a few of my colleagues who are still hoarse and hanging out till Friday. Whether it was the berries' influence or not, I don't know, but I would like to think so. In the meantime I still have the last fifth of the packet left to enjoy.

I have loved all of the Viberi products that I have been lucky enough to try through KIWIreviews with my absolute favourite so far being the Viberi Ruby, so when I saw the Pearl come up for review I was very excited to get the chance to try it as I knew it was more than likely going to be amazing and of course it was!

Unlike the Ruby the Pearl consists of crispy blackcurrants which are then rolled in white chocolate, they are not rolled in blackcurrant powder. After trying my first berry I knew I was in for a treat, the crispy crunch and tartness of the freeze dried berries surrounded by a rich and creamy belgian white chocolate was amazing and such a winning combination, unfortunately for me Miss 4 agreed that these tasted pretty good so I had to share! Reading the back of the packaging I was happy to see that VIberi products are made right here in NZ which means that buying these products means I am supporting NZ made, making me happy to pay a little bit more for this yummy little treat. I was also really interested to see that just 1 serve of these provides you with 72% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin C, who would have thought something so tasty could be so good for you?

As easy as it would have been to sit and eat the bag of these as they are I decided to put them to good use and baked up some cookies using them. I prepared my usual chocolate chip cookie dough and instead of putting in some chocolate chips I put in half a cup of white chocolate chunks and half a cup of the Viberi Pearl's. I was a little concerned that these may melt in the process but I found that they generally held their shape pretty well, they added a very yummy fruity flavour to the cookies which my work colleagues and family all loved.

With the rest of the packet remaining I used these over the course of a few days adding them to my breakfasts which consisted of yoghurts, porridge and cereal and I can happily say that these went down great in every way and were SOOOOO much better than using yoghurt coated raisins or the likes. They were a great way to entice Miss 4 to eat breakfast though she did spend a little of time trying to find these in her bowl so she could pick them out and eat them first.

Overall these are now my favourite Viberi product which I will be buying again soon, I love the great range of products which Viberi produce as there is something for every meal or occasion!

We are always being told that blackcurrants are good for us particularly as it is winter and that brings cold and flu season. I have just started a new job so can't afford to take any time off with sick kids or get sick myself. My kids are also the type that don't want to eat something is it might be good for them so dried blackcurrants covered in white chocolate sounded like a sneaky way to get vitamin C into them. According to the packet each serving is 72% of the recommended daily intake.

This is when I'll confess that I am not a white chocolate fan but I loved the ViBeri Pearls. It might be because it wasn't cheap compound chocolate but it was quality Belgian white organic chocolate. My children loved it too and always asked for more than their handful. The blackcurrant had a sweet tang that I was expecting but the addition of chocolate didn't make it over sweet.

There is only the thin layer of chocolate around the blackcurrant but it makes up 83% of the packet. This is probably because the blackcurrant has been dried so is missing the weight of its water. The blackcurrant has a nice crunch to it which surprised me because I was expecting more of a raisin consistency. This made it a good contrast in textures between the smooth chocolate outer and the currant inner.

The price means that this will not be a regular purchase for us but rather a low guilt indulgence. This would be a great addition to a gift basket especially for someone with the flu.

I enjoy the Viberi range. Ribena has always been my choice in "healthy" drinks (a.k.a. when I get told off for drinking too many energy drinks), as I really enjoy the blackcurrant flavour, and the levels of vitamin c in the products useful if dehydrated and feeling under the weather (read: hungover). So Viberi product definitely have an appeal as they provide snack options that involve blackcurrants.

The black currants are freeze dried, which means they retain their round shape, so the amount of chocolate is somewhat less than if it was soft dried (which tend to shrivel up and lose their shape a lot more. This thinner layer of white chocolate does mean that the colouring of the blackcurrant does often show through. The belgian white chocolate is very full flavoured though, and has almost a cream cheese texture and flavour to it, so the product doesn't need more chocolate in it.

Being freeze dried, the berries are very "airy" which gives the larger pieces an audible crunch to them which I always liken to that of a malteser if it had softer chocolate). The berry also has a nice burst of flavour that is consistent throughout the piece, not just concentrated in the centre. Interestingly though, I did find that the pieces were on average smaller than the other freeze dried variety. The flavour is much tarter for the larger pieces (the biggest pieces almost felt like they had a fizz to them), so the smaller pieces are smoother in flavour, and Viberi could be aiming for a product that is more towards the smooth side. But there's nothing wrong with smaller pieces; smaller pieces, means more pieces, which makes it easy to share, because everybody wants to try them.