Strawberry Cold Brew Coffee (Costa) By @Cinabar

I have to admit it wasn’t really hot enough for an iced coffee but curiosity got the better of me. I decided to try this new Strawberry Cold Brew Coffee with my lunch in Costa. I love coffee and I love strawberry, but I wasn’t sure how the two would go together.
This Strawberry Cold Brew Coffee is made without milk, but had a lovely froth from the process on top and was served with ice. I gave the drink an initial sip and found myself confused. There was a strong coffee taste and a sweetness from strawberry, and the two flavours were a bit weird together. The strawberry wasn’t overly sweet, some syrups can be very sugary. There was however a mix of bitter and sweet and they weren’t natural friends. My first sip I was very negative about the drink, but by the end of the glass it sort of grew on me and I felt like I could appreciate the combination.
In conclusion I think I just couldn’t get my head around the combination of flavours. I certainly didn’t dislike it, but I’m not convinced I liked it enough to rush to have it again. For all the weird syrups I’ve had in coffee I think this might be the first I haven’t been excited by. I would say it is worth trying the drink as it is very different to other syrup coffees on the menu, and I suspect for some that more muted sweetness may be perfect. It is like trying sweet and salty popcorn for the first time, not what you expect but you might end up loving it.

Iberian Eurovision part 1 - Spanish bread & olives (@LidlUK) by @NLi10

We love EuroVision.  Even with it's vote swapping jurys and our delegations insistence on sending media students instead of viable acts.  It's all about coming together with friends and celebrating diversity.

Lidl had a big range of Iberian snacks with lovely bright packaging and exotic names. 

So - with neon glasses on - we are ready for Eurovision 2019!

First up we tried the tomato and oregano toast.  It's like a pizza without the cheese, and much crunchier.

Just like the neon shades the bread isn't as exciting in person - but it does taste great.  The tomato is more like a soup flavour than the fruit so I suspect they have tweaked it a little, but it tastes fab!  

There are more of these left to eat and I'm looking forwards to them which shows that they are decently compelling snacks, if only bread and tomato.

We also had a mighty jar of olives!

This represents 22 servings of olives, but we got no where near this far as these are 'whole' with stones and not chopped and stuffed and marinated like the other olives on the table were!

One for further investigation in the future then, but largely untouched on the night.

Mangoes on the Run - Beer (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

The name of this limited edition mango IPA amused Cinabar so much that she bought it and decided to torture me with it. I'm not a fan of mangos, unless they're in a chutney next to a decent spicy curry. Putting mango in beer seems sacrilege to me, but hey-ho! Innis & Gunn are a favourite brewery of mine, so this can't be all that bad, can it?

It states on the side of this 5.6% volume mango IPA that whilst drinking, you should listen to Son of a Gun by JX. My initial reaction to this was some impolite swear words, but it didn't take long to find it on YouTube. It's actually a classic and took me straight back to 1994, a favourite year of mine, a coming of age year so to speak. I finally reached manhood, as well as danced and drank most nights away. I certainly don't remember anything like mango IPAs in those days!

There was a fruity yet mild mango smell on opening the beer that struggled to win through against some pretty strong herbal hops, with a little sweetness from the barley malt at the back of the aroma. On taste is where it gets a bit whacky. You see everything seems to be trying to happen at the same time. There's mango. There's herbals hops. There's pale malt and sweet barley malt. It's a bit of a jumble. Mangoes on the Run is a beer like no other. It's like running at a crowded doorway and everyone or every flavour falls through it all at the same time. It certainly woke me up from a dozy afternoon resting after a morning at the gym!

Cadbury Double Decker Ice Cream (Asda) By @Cinabar

I do like a Double Decker chocolate bar, I’d say they were one of my favourite Cadbury’s chocolate bars. I tend to buy whatever is new chocolate wise, but if I had to go back to a classic I think I’d happily pick this one. Although there hasn’t been a new or limited edition Double Decker bar the next best thing is this Cadbury Double Decker ice cream, especially as the weather seems to be brightening up. There may have been a spot of rain this week but there was sunshine too, so that is always a good time to buy some new ice cream.

I like bright colours and this tub of ice cream is certainly that. Even with some frost on the side that packaging was glowing. Inside the tub there were two distinct colours, a beige and chocolate, but once served three sections became more apparent, and a darker beige appeared.

The chocolate ice cream was decent and had a plentiful supply of chocolate pieces. There was a nougat core that was supposed to have a different texture, but to me was only a little bit thicker than normal and a nougat flavour ice cream complete with crispy cereal. I have to say I was totally impressed that the crispies remained crisp, usually those sorts of things goes soggy in an ice cream, but the crisp texture was a pleasure and was impressive. The taste of the nougat was spot on too, creamy and made this distinctively a Double Decker in taste. Definitely worth checking out this Cadbury Double Decker Ice Cream if you are a fan of the bar.