From rice powder to oat milk, we test three advent calendars with a healthier twist

THE countdown to Christmas is on and there are some amazing and delicious advent calendars on the market.

You can find ones packed with every-thing from booze and mince pies, to pork scratchings and cheese.

But if you are looking to tick off the winter days with a healthier twist there are some versions that are worth a whirl.

Jane Atkinson put some of them to the test . . . 

RICE POWDER

AS strange as it may sound, rice milk works really well in chocolate as it is a neutral flavour so sucks up the cocoa and sugar tastes – just like it does in the Nomo advent calendar.

It is filled with 24 small petal-shaped chocolate drops that are dairy, gluten, egg and nut-free and made from sugar, cocoa butter, rice powder, cocoa mass, shea oil, emulsifier, sea salt and flavourings.

I love the fact that as well as the sugar and fat content it also has prebiotic inulin which is great for the gut.

The chocolates consist of 20 per cent saturated fat and 33 per cent sugar.

They have a slight chewy texture but pack a rich flavour.

Because these are not individually, it has helped to keep the cost down.

Nomo advent calendar, £5, hollandandbarrett.com.

CREAMED COCONUT

THE Ombar Super Chocolate Advent calendar contains 25 super-cute, individually wrapped 5g mini bars made from creamed coconut and coconut butter.

They come in plain coconut flavours plus Pistachio, Raspberry & Vanilla and Hazelnut Truffle.

Each is made with cacao, which contains antioxidant-rich flavonoids which fight the free radicals that damage cells in the body.

Some coconut chocolate can taste greasy and overpowering but this is surprisingly subtle.

I love the way the calendar opens up like a card, meaning it stands on its own.

But the price lets it down, at three times the price of the rice calendar.

The chocolate bars are 29 per cent saturated fat, 31 per cent sugar and 125g net weight.

£14.99, ombar.com.

OAT MILK

OAT-milk chocolate brand H!P (Happiness in Plants) has produced a calendar using sustainably sourced oat milk, which also has a lower carbon footprint versus dairy milk.

Added to that, it’s actually completely plastic-free.

The calendar is made using 41 per cent sustainably sourced, single-origin Colombian chocolate and comes in four different flavours – Creamy Original, Salted Caramel, Gingerbread and Orange.

This is my favourite of the three because they have such festive flavours.

But it is high on the sugar at 40 per cent and 20 per cent saturated fat. But hey-ho, it is Christmas after all.

£10, hipchocolate.com