Nibblish - Gently Baked Mango product reviews

Dried fruit is often used as a between-meals pick-me-up in our house. It is a great alternative to fresh fruit, which lasts longer, has less mess and is easily transportable. Our usual go-to are raisins and dates, but these bags of more tropical dried fruits from Nibblish grabbed my attention. In particular, this dried mango was really appealing. We love the taste of fresh mango, but the hassle of peeling and getting incredibly sticky eating and preparing it means that we eat much less that we would probably like. This seemed like a great way to get the mango we love, with less stress and fuss.

The first thing that I noticed about this product was the smell. Unbeknown to me, when I opened my review parcel containing this delicious treat, I had accidentally pierced the packet. The delicious scent of juicy ripe mangoes filled my room, and I began to salivate. The packaging was really effective for the product. Despite my faux-pas with over-enthusiastic scissors, the packet kept the mango nice and fresh, and it never lost any quality despite taking a week to use it all. The packaging design was very distinctive, and I could certainly find it easily in the cupboard amongst my other packets of dried fruit.

It didn't take me long to rip into the bag- something which smells that good is just inviting you to eat it. I was really happy to find that the taste matched to the smell- it was soft and aromatic, just missing most of the liquid that would be found in a fresh mango. I have often been disappointed by other dried products which have lost their flavour in drying. In this case, the flavour seems to have been intensified, with the result being an intense mango hit.

We found the portion size to be very generous. With the intense mango flavour, one piece is often enough for each snack, meaning that the bag lasted much longer than I was expecting. I was also really impressed with how the fruit appealed to my whole family. Even my relatively fussy two year old wolfed this down, and it was great knowing that I was getting some much needed nutrition and fibre into her without having to resort to a smoothie.

Overall, such a great product. Truly delicious, and great for snacking in a wide variety of locations. It will definitely be making a regular appearance in our pantry, and I am excited to try some of the other fruits which Nibblish have on offer.

It is certainly a pleasure to be able to eat mangoes without the fuss of having to peel them. I always end up trying to get the last of the flesh off the inner seed, and getting myself covered in pulp. It usually ends with me or someone else sucking the last bit off the seed so that none of the juice is wasted. Fine if you at home or in the garden; not so useful if you are out and about, or - perish the thought - at work! At my last workplace, curry and strong fish lunches were banned because a few people did not like the smell. Yet nobody banned messy items like mangos although that would have made far more sense.

As a snack food these mango pieces are great. We took some to a cinema and found they were perfect for the surroundings. No drips, no sticky bits, no cheap packet to split and disgorge the contents on to the floor. They are chewy so you don't eat them too fast - important when you are hungry because you are not tempted to over-indulge. (We were heading off for dinner at the end of the movie so did not want to eat too much beforehand.) And they taste authentic too, so you do get the full mango experience.

One way I wanted to try them was in a smoothie. We often have smoothies for lunch, and I add whatever fruit we happen to have available. However, I had never tried making one with dried fruit before. As I was not sure how finely the pieces would grind down, I first chopped them as small as possible using heavy duty kitchen scissors. I added a tablespoon of pieces, a small piece of banana, and one drop of cardamom oil per person to the yoghurt base, and gave the mixture a good long blast on the smoothie maker. As I had expected, the pieces were still evident in places - most had mixed in, but there were tiny pieces here and there. That only served to make the concoction more interesting, and I added a few of the chopped pieces to the top of each glass for decoration. It was not quite the same as the fresh mango lassi that we buy from our local Indian takeaway but it was not too far off it.

I added the last of the packet to a quinoa and radish salad along with almond slivers and raspberry vinegar. Again, I chopped the mango pieces into smaller bits so they would mix in better. We ate this salad with cold roast pork, accompanied by an ice cold shandy. A perfect meal for a hot summer evening, and the mango added a welcome hint of sweetness to the meat.

After being completely shocked at the pineapple varieties almost deceitful contrast between the brightly coloured packaging and the product inside, I had a better idea of what to expect with this mango product. The packaging is bright and eye-catching, with some very basic fruit images on the front that almost gives the product a baby food vibe to it. I did actually have a bit of confusion when I first saw the product unsure if this was some kind of baby food fruit puree, or something else because it looks like the packaging is targeting very young children. Otherwise, the packaging is very well designed. It has modern wording with its basic ingredient list (surprise, there is only one ingredient), and a secret message on the bottom. It is very upfront about containing only naturally occurring sugar (it is mentioned 3 times that there is no added sugar, twice emphasising that there are mangoes and nothing else).

It's great as well that the product comes in a resealable foil pack to keep it fresh for longer. The fruit pieces are on average about 3 cm long and are thin dried pieces of mango. They have twisted, flattened, and browned in the baking process, so they do look a little bit odd. Unlike the pineapple variety which was absolutely overflowing with pineapple aroma, this mango variety is almost completely devoid of the mango smell. They are also a little bit tougher than the pineapple variety, with the mango seemingly sealing itself up during the baking process.

The flavour is delicious though, and that is the most important thing. Comparing to the pineapple again (sorry!) the flavour isn't as intense as I was expecting. It is almost as if some of the flavours were lost during the baking process. Still delicious, but a much more subtle flavour, perfect for those people that prefer a snack that is not so sweet. The (naturally occurring) sugars in the product are still around the 56% range which is interesting for a product with such a reserved flavour, but it does make the product very moreish, and if you aren't careful all 4.5 servings will be gobbled up in a single sitting.