Swizzels Squashies Tropical Sweets (Tesco) By @Cinabar

I am just loving the look of these new summer sweets. Swizzels Squashies Tropical Sweets are absolutely oozing sunshine. There are three cute designs in the bag. A slice of watermelon that tastes of watermelon, a pineapple shaped sweet with a pineapple flavour and, naturally, the parrot shaped sweet is flavoured with parrot. Just kidding, it's actually mango and passionfruit!

All of the sweets have a firm, foamy texture with a satisfying chew, without being too soft. The flavour is fairly mild at first, but the more you chew, the fuller and fruitier it becomes.

The watermelon is the zingiest of the three, with an almost sour edge that is sharp, sweet and really refreshing. The pineapple is lovely and juicy, reminding me of canned pineapple chunks, just with a much chewier texture. The parrot is packed with fruity flavour, with the mango really taking centre stage. It has a lovely sweet, smooth tropical taste that I really enjoyed.

These sweets are perfect for the warmer weather. And did I mention just how cute they look? Swizzels Squashies Tropical Sweets deserve to be displayed in a bowl rather than simply being munched straight from the bag, otherwise you might miss all those fun little shapes.

Mr. Pretzels now has Pistachio sauce [@NLi10]

We were in town to go see the new minions movie and my partner left me unsupervised by the pretzels.  The Auntie Anne shop has been gone for years, but Mr Pretzels is just the right size to possibly be one of the longest running shops in the Birmingham Bullring now.

And now they have Pistachio sauce.  Yes - I have a jar of the stuff at home, but this is a nice treat.

They have a multitude of more meal-like pretzels and toppings, but the bites are easier to share even if it's a couple of pounds more expensive at £6.50

 

And while it looks like a horrible sticky mess...

And I guess it is a bit much, but as they all stick together then you can just pull bites off and eat them while watching.

While they are still hot when you get them it's a bit harder to eat, but very tasty.  The pretzels are always decent quality here, and the sauce is luxury enough that it almost cools into a sold so is easy to get off your hands again.

Hawkstone Lager (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

Hawkstone Lager is produced by Cotswold Brew Company. Hawkstone Lager is named after a local Neolithic stone. You may have heard in the news that it’s also made with Barley grown on Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm. I haven’t watched the TV series made on his farm, but I have been told it’s well worth a watch. So, I’ll have to give it a go.

At 4.8% in volume, Hawkstone Lager has a quiet unassuming bottle. I would have thought it would have Jeremy Clarkson’s face on the label waving next to a fast car or perhaps tractor. No, just a smart black label with a gold font. If Cinabar hadn’t told me whose beer it was, I wouldn’t have known. And besides, as soon as it’s in my beer fridge, it’s my beer.

Anyway, on opening, Hawkstone Lager had a cheerful fizz. On pouring, it’s a light golden coloured lager with a good frothy head. I have to say I did like the sweet malted barley aroma. It also had a herbal hop hopping up to try and grab my attention.

On taste Hawkstone Lager had a crisp bitter herbal and light citrus hop to start with, that was smoothed out by its sweet malted barley into the aftertaste. It went perfectly well with my fishy picky-bits dinner. It was very nice indeed. Cheers, Jeremy.

PerfectTed Sparkling Matcha Strawberry Energy Drink (Ocado) by @cinabar

Gosh there is a lot to unpack with this PerfectTed Sparkling Matcha Strawberry Energy Drink from Ocado. It is a tea,  a matcha tea, a fizzy matcha drink, strawberry flavoured, sugar free, with added vitamins and extra caffeine. Basically it feels like an energy drink trying to be everything at once, I'm thinking this is basically an energy drink for Gen Z.

Fun fact, I have never had an energy drink before and I didn’t really know what I was buying. Not that surprising really, this is exactly the kind of product that is trying to tick a lot of boxes. I do drink coffee though, so I do have caffeine in my life. I checked the can and it has 80mg of caffeine, while a mug of coffee is around 100mg depending on how it is made, so I figured I was still in familiar territory. It is actually less than most energy drinks anyway. There are still the usual health warnings on the can though, which you don’t tend to see on coffee.

I gave it a try and the flavour is pleasant enough. I could definitely pick up a sort of strawberry taste, it is there but it is not very sweet. The matcha is quite subtle too, which surprised me a bit because that is really meant to be the main thing. It all feels quite light and a bit understated rather than bold.

It is not a bad flavour by any means, and it was quite refreshing. I have saved another can for Sunday night, which is a 1am kick off for the England game, so I’ll be half asleep at half time and probably questioning all my choices, but we’ll see if it actually does the job or if I just end up watching it half asleep with a drink in my hand.

Magnum Collection - Vegan Almond Amande [@Nli10]

While at RSPB Bempton - looking at the puffins we spotted one of the recently released Vegan Magnums.  These appear to be an updated range on the previous ones. 

Lots of lovely nuts, no irritating dairy, and dark chocolate

Tada! Looks good.

Looks good inside too - creamy without cream and stayed frozen enough to eat on a very hot day.

Well recommended - even for non vegans.