Little Willie Beer (Bovington @TankMuseum @PiddleBrewery ) By @SpectreUK

We've been holidaying in Wiltshire this week. We've visited Stonehenge and its burial Barrows, Longleat Safari Park and one of my favourite places; The Tank Museum in Bovington. I've been there a few times now. It's in the middle of no-where, so spies wouldn't find it in the First World War, I suppose. The last few times we've visited it took so long to get there from various places whilst holidaying we hardly managed a quick walk around. I did get more of a walk around this time and even saw some tanks that hadn't been there the last few visits. I shan't bore you too much with the details, but this Little Willie Golden IPA is commemorate the first ever tank in 1915. It didn't work very well, but the designers persevered and came up with Mother and her various Male and Female Marks that entered battle in the First World War in 1916. I'd heartily recommend a visit, especially if you're interested in history and its metal monsters.

On opening this Little Willie IPA from the Piddle Brewery (I'm not kidding…) there was the familiar pale malt smell. There was a complementary herbal hop bitterness than ran through this 4.3% volume ale from first taste right through to the aftertaste. It was as if I was driving a tracked vehicle. One track of pale malt, the other of herbal hops. I've driven a tank before, not one of these new fangled joystick jobs, a more traditional left stick for the left track and right stick for the right track. You have to push both to go forwards, and whichever you want to turn the tank with. This IPA was a quick turn of herbal hop followed by a good straight Roman Road and another quick turn into the aftertaste. very nice and refreshing, just like squeezing out of a tank driver's seat and into the fresh air at the end of the road. Best drive I ever had!

Green & Black’s Velvet Fruit Raspberry Chocolate (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

These new chocolates from Green and Black’s come in a sharing bag and are flavoured with raspberry. As some who likes fruit creams I thought that these might just hit the mark. The bag is re-sealable and I poured a few out as a portion.
The chocolates are very dark in colour, showing the strength of the cocoa, but I couldn’t seem to find the percentage of this on the bag. The chocolates are glossy, and I gave one a try. I think these might have been the first Green and Black’s chocolate I wasn’t fussed by. The filling is a hard raspberry jelly, it is a little chewy and not particularly a texture I enjoyed. The flavour was very confused the chocolate was very strong and the filling was very zingy, and the two together to me seemed to be in fight with each one trying to take the lead and nobody was winning.
I actually ate one slowly and found that much better, I sucked the chocolate off and ate what turned out to be a cube of jelly after. From this I could pick up on the rich smooth chocolate, and I had a better sense of how zingy the jelly was, and what a nice raspberry flavour it had. Together though, it was just a bit much for my tastebuds. I also picked up a bag of the orange version of these chocolates, I’m hoping they are a bit more mellow.

Take It (@LidlUK) by @NLli10

Sondey make a lot of biscuits for Lidl that are very similar to existing biscuits, but a little more affordable.  Here we have the milk and regular versions of Take It, and while I’m not sure what they are aping (suggestions welcome in the comments) there must be something like a Take A Break that is well loved enough to copy. So let’s take it and try it!

 The biscuit itself looks fairly good, not quite Bahlsen quality, but a decent Euro biscuit. The patterns and holes help.

The filling looks solid in the solid versions, and has a milky core in the milk versions.

Almost like a sandwich, but not quite. Overall I was surprised by the quality for the price and only slightly regret sharing the multipacks with the office.  As Lidl is on the way to work though it’s fairly easy to pick up more!

Cocio One Chocolate Milk (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

In the spirit of trying things that have less fat and sugar content, this Cocio One Chocolate Milk has 1% fat and 1% added sugar. Produced by Cocio Chokolademaelk, in Denmark, this Cocio One is said to have all the flavour of the Classic drink, but a little healthier for those that still like the chocolate hit, but not the hit to their waist. Of course being a seasoned blogger I had to buy both bottles, first downing the Classic to know just what that chocolate milk drink tastes like before braving this new One.

On popping open the top of the Cocio One I couldn't tell much difference from the chocolate milk smell compared to the Classic chocolate milk drink. On taste this drink does taste slightly more chocolatey than the Classic somehow. Only slightly, but when you've just immediately drank the Classic compared to this One, there is the slightest of difference. It actually tastes slightly nicer. Both taste great of course and perfect for a cool refreshing liquid pudding. Both are made with UTZ certified cocoa and therefore support sustainable cocoa farming. I'd go with either or, but prefer this One slightly more for the tiny amount more of a chocolate hit. Only tiny though. Great stuff!

Information on the bottle;
The 270ml (281g) bottle contains 48calories per 100g, with 1g of fat, 5.7g of sugar, and 0.11g of salt. Please see photograph for ingredients.

Ruby Cocoa Hot Chocolate (Fortnum and Mason) By @cinabar

We are adding to our selection of reviews on this new Ruby Cocoa chocolate that it quickly becoming the trend for 2018. It is billed as being a whole new type of chocolate, and is being used by expensive chocolatiers like Fortnum and Mason to more readily available brands like Kit Kat.
As a bit of a change I thought I would try my first ever Ruby Cocoa Hot Chocolate. I found this while googling Ruby Cocoa and bought myself a bag from Fortnum and Mason, it was quite pricey, but I couldn't resist.
When it arrived I found the bag looking very pretty and tied with ribbon. The hot chocolate granules inside this bag are very pink, but didn't have much aroma. I heated up some milk and added the recommended three heaped teaspoons and stirred them in. They dissolved very quickly and easily and the milky drink was very pale in colour. The instructions suggest that the ruby hot chocolate should go a pale shade of lilac, mine hadn’t so I added another heaped teaspoon and the colour improved.

I gave the drink a sip and the flavour was still very mild, it is a milky slightly sweet drink with a hint of berry like tangy hint. It was a pleasant drink but didn't have the wow factor I was hoping for. I like the flavour of the Ruby Cocoa but Im not sure this hot chocolate showed it off to me to its full extent. Heating the chocolate seemed to mellow it out. I’ll happy drink up the rest of the bag, but It isn't something I would rush to buy again. I also bough Ruby Cocoa Salted Caramels on the same Fortnum and Mason order, but Spectre managed to make those disappear....

Hostess Chocolate Peanut Butter Flavour Twinkies (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

Twinkies are difficult to find in the UK, and always remind me of my love for American films and TV. They do occasional turn up in import shops, but I found these “new” Hostess Chocolate Peanut Butter Flavour Twinkies in a regular supermarket, which seemed a bit strange. I quickly put the box in my trolley, and tried to remind myself I had only popped in for milk and bread. Oh well.
Although these say “new” on them I have to admit I’m not sure how new they are. In terms of newness to the British market they totally hit the mark, but I’m guessing these could have been out in the States for some time before making it to the shelves here.

I’m going to try and ignore the fact that I failed the intelligence test on how to open the box. I ripped where it said to rip and then the box just didn’t open properly. I did mange to get an untidy way in though. Inside the box were 10 individually packed dark brown Twinkies. I broke one in half and noticed there didn’t seem to be as much peanut butter filling as the picture suggests, but once I had bitten in properly I realise it was just unevenly distributed and that there were some large blobs.

I liked the chocolate sponge flavour, it was sweet and pleasant, and the texture was light and moist. The peanut butter filling, even where it where it was generously heaped within was very mild in flavour. It added a gentle nuttiness, and it worked well with the rest of the cake. There are light and easy to eat, and deliver a nice chocolate hit, with a hint of peanut too. These made a lovely sweet treat, especially to nibble on while catching up on favourite American TV like The Big Bang Theory.