Sticky Toffee Pudding Hot Chocolate (@whittarduk) By @Cinabar

We have been on a lovely trip ‘up north’ around the Liverpool and the Chester area. One of my favourite places to shop is Cheshire Oaks, and I always make sure we pop into Whittard to stock up on their beautiful hot chocolates. They have one of the best selections of flavours of hot chocolates around, and this Sticky Toffee Pudding Hot Chocolate is top of their new and limited edition range. I think from the packaging that this must be meant as an autumn / halloween edition, as the tub is covered in colourful skulls and candles.

The powder inside is mostly white but speckled with a darker granule, which does look a bit like dark sugar. The contents are well mixed though so each teaspoon gives an even distribution. The drink is made with hot milk and as it has a white hot chocolate base the drink is a dark cream in colour once made. The smell is amazing while this is being made, wonderfully sweet. The drink itself is such a soothing substance. The flavour is like sweet rich toffee, creamy and with lovely tones of caramel and a hint of creme brûlée just on the edge of the flavour. This is a seriously luxurious and sumptuous drink, it is rich but on a cold autumn night it is the perfect drink to warm you up. It will be ideal to have in mugs watching the trick treaters visit and also for bonfire night fireworks too, it turns out autumn isn’t so bad after all.

Marathon Bars Are Back!!! (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

Younger readers might not know that the original name of Snickers in the UK was Marathon. They changed it in the early 1990s to match up with the American brand which confused us over here trying to work out why our confectionary was changing name. Don’t get me started on Opal Fruits. Although we have come to embrace Snickers, I grew up on the name Marathon and have a lot of nostalgia for it, so when I heard there was a limited edition run of Marathon bars at Morrisons I went off to find myself a pack. It has been thirty years! Gosh I’m old.

For comparisons sake I also bought a multipack of Snickers so I could compare and contrast how the recipe and flavours had changed over the years. I thought maybe these bars would be bigger too, as Marathon bars always seemed bigger than Snickers bars, but I’m not sure if that is just my perception. I think they had a slogan about the size being something like ‘the biggest and the best’, long before the days of worrying about portion control. The Marathon and Snickers I bought were all the same size anyway. I got them home and immediately spotted the the calories per bar are identical on the Snickers and the Marathon bars which was suspicious, and then I read the ingredients on both packets and guess what, they are the same. These are a retro version in packaging only, they just wrote Marathon across the usual Snickers bars wrapper. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Oh well technically you can now buy a pack of Marathon bars at Morrisons, just don’t go expecting a retro recipe or any changes to the chocolate. This is not a taste of the past.

Soup & Nuggets & Beer in Czechia (@NLi10)

Sticking to local drinks I had my customary large beer - after all it was a very hot day.

And then I ordered the very hot, local style soup which I think annoyed the kitchen as they took a while to come with it.  Guess that only tourists have the soup in almost 40 degree heat.

Good though, the meat is hiding here, and the veggies and flavours were all good.

And for main I had the schnitzel style thing although they looked a little more like chicken nuggets than I'd expected.  All good and very filling though.  Maybe I should stray from the bars into more traditional restaurants if I make it back.

Birra Moretti Alla Siciliana Beer (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

This beer has been in my fridge for ages. Not that I've been avoiding it, just saving it for a special occasion. Birra Moretti Alla Siciliana looks and sounds so good. It had to count for something. One of my oldest and dearest friends, Cinabar's brother in fact, and I feel is also my older brother too, reminded me last night that one of his daughters (that I've known since birth) is going away to university at the end of next week. I see her and her sister as my nieces. I'm very proud of her. She's worked exceptionally hard both at college and also saving up money through employment to go there. I know she'll do exceptionally well and has a bright future ahead of her. Once poured I'll raise my pint glass of this Birra Moretti Alla Siciliana to her tonight, and her parents, and I'll wish them luck on their new chapter in life.

This Birra Moretti Alla Siciliana was produced by Heineken Italia and brewed with Zagara Blossom, which apparently is akin to orange in flavour. There is also orange extract in this beer. I wish I'd drunk this beer at lunchtime now, because that's when I had my tuna sandwich after the gym, and orange beer always goes well with fishy dishes. On opening the bottle of this shiny golden 5.8% volume beer has a rich floral aroma to it. On taste there is sweet Italian barley malt and a little maize to start with, and then the orange flavours kick in, with soft floral notes, and then a light bitterness from the hops to finish. Mmm… this beer is definitely a celebration beer. So cheers to friends and families, and also to everyone that's starting a new chapter in their book of life!