I was lucky enough to be sent some samples of the new Deliciously Ella energy balls.
These balls launched in August of this year and come following a stream of successful ventures from the well-known blogger Ella Mills. Some of you may be familiar with her blog, her cookbook or perhaps you’ve visited the deli. This is her most recent product currently out for sale. My review follows…
Just a note on the photos. Some of them look squished! 🙂 Those are the ones I was sent and not actually what the balls really look like, as they were sent in an envelope so must have got squashed in the letter box. I also bought some and took pictures to give you a true representation of what they look like and the product to packaging ratio.
I love the fact that that you can count the number of ingredients in these balls on one hand, (most of the time) and they don’t have any fillers, unpronounceable ingredients or artificial flavour or sweeteners, this was a big plus for me. They’re also fairly easy to find, provided you have a Waitrose or a Wholefoods in your area. If not they’re now available to purchase online. Here are my thoughts:
Price: £1.79
Available in:Waitrose, Holland and Barrett, maedeli.com, Wholefoods, Ocado, Planet Organic, Harvey Nichols, Crussh, Amazon.co.uk, Selfridges and Co, Tibits, Vivo life,
Any other benefits:
Free from dairy, refined sugar, gluten and suitable for vegans
Classic Almond and Cacao
Ingredients: 3 Dates, 8 Almonds (22%), 1 tsp Cacao (9%), A touch of Almond Butter (7%), A drop of Coconut Oil, A pinch of Salt
These were my favourite flavour and apparently the ones that were the most popular on her blog which then led to the production of them for sale. My first reaction was ‘lovely!’ They had a nice smooth flavour. You taste the cacao primarily, which then comes followed by a date syrup kind of flavour.
There is a little cardboard message inside all of the balls with a link to the website and a recipe you can follow to make these yourself. I find this so exciting, as I loved the flavour so I decided to make them. It was really fun to download the recipe and reproduce the same snack that you’d just bought. I’m not sure of the logic of this profit wise, as I imagine many people will just make them and not purchase?
Mine turned out pretty well, they weren’t as dark as the original and had more of an almond flavour and as explained below the salt could also be tasted on first bite.
There was no indication in the recipe of when to add the salt and I didn’t realise this till the end, so I sprinkled it over the balls at the end which is why the flavour was initially dominant.
Hazelnut and Raisin
2 1/2 Dates, 11 Hazelnuts (28%), 23 Raisins (23%), 1/4 tsp Cacao, 1/4 tsp Cinnamon, A pinch of Cardamom.
You taste the raisins straight away in these balls. They have the most texture and a crunch that the other balls don’t have. They’re also the sweetest of the three with a predominant raisin flavour and hazelnut in the background. These were the most difficult to find for me. Before I was sent the testers, I’d managed to find the other two flavours, but these ones were missing or out of stock when I enquired about them in Wholefoods.
Cashew and Ginger
Ingredients: 3 Dates, 8 Cashews (34%), 1 tsp Oats, 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger (2%)
This was my least favourite of all the flavours.
I love ginger but the ginger hit I got from this was too much even for me. It was quite strong and overpowered all the other flavours with a sharp ginger aftertaste. It really felt like that was all I could taste.The texture was too soft to me, like marzipan.
These seem to be aimed at the high end, luxury market, hence the price, I myself don’t really know where to place them as they don’t seem to fit in the confectionery or the health industry category. They’re kind of in between the two.
I’m not sure if the balls are supposed to give you energy or if that’s just the name of the product but , as it’s not dense enough to fill you up, like a Bounce ball for example. It felt more like a sweet treat that you can eat without feeling guilty about.
I like the packaging, but found it odd that it was almost double the size of the ball itself. It felt a bit misleading to open it up and find it wasn’t full of the product. Overall, I liked the classic cacao favour and as elusive as the hazelnut and raisin flavour was, it didn’t quite float my boat, and I’ve already given my opinion on the cashew and ginger….
The size, density and texture of the balls make them overpriced for me, for something so small that’s eaten so quickly…but if you want a snack, a sweet healthy treat and you’re not feeling too hungry, I say go for them. if you want something of a bit more substance, look elsewhere.
The Curious Baker 