Hatherwood Porter (Lidl) By @SpectreUK

I have steak pie and mash with veg tonight. I usually go for a stout to wash down my pie, although a Porter also compliments all those beefy flavours.

This Hatherwood Porter should go rather well with my dinner tonight. At 4.5% in volume, it's described as having roasted coffee and sweet toffee flavours, with a slight smokiness as those two dominant flavours collide.

On opening the bottle there was indeed a smoky roasted coffee aroma, with sweetness from the chocolate malt. On taste this almost black Hatherwood Porter, had a strong bitter and lightly smoky roasted coffee flavour to begin with, followed by a mild malted chocolate toffee sweetness into the aftertaste. This Porter was definitely very flavoursome and washed my pie and mash down a treat. Cheers.

Colin The Caterpillar Chocolate Cookies (M&S) By @cinabar

Aside from the name and the packaging, I am not entirely sure how these relate to Colin the Caterpillar. They are chocolatey, yes, but there are no faces or caterpillar shapes involved.

There are seven cookies in the box, and I will be honest, the first impression is not great. Once opened, they are a bit disappointing to look at. The sprinkles are barely visible and the chocolate coating on top is messy rather than decorative. Some cookies have a light coating, others are absolutely smothered, and none of it looks particularly deliberate. If these had turned up on Bake Off, they would definitely have been marked down for lack of neatness.

That said, they are seriously chunky cookies, and once I actually tried one, I very quickly forgave how they looked.

These deliver a proper chocolate overload. The flavour is rich and sweet without being dull, and the chocolate colour coated beans add a satisfying crunch to the texture. The milk chocolate coating may not be tidy, but it is generous, full of flavour, and gives the cookies a definite sense of indulgence.

So no, they are not the prettiest cookies on the shelf, and the Colin branding feels a little loose. But in terms of texture and taste, they absolutely do the job and then some.

Kellogg's Crunchy Nut - HOT HONEY flavour Crunchies [@NLi10]

 It appears to be Honey week for me here at FoodStuffFinds as both the review before this and after this are honey based!  Is hot honey this year's trendy food?  I really hope not.

Here Kellogg's have a Hot Honey version of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, with a Crunchies version of the flake too.  For once I'm glad this is a limited edition as it's a bit odd.

Would you like your breakfast to be both too sweet, and too spicy - while having none of the trademark Kelloggs consistency of texture?  Well - here you go!

They look interesting enough

And the smell is vaguely similar to cornflakes - but I think this is intended to prank little brothers or sisters as it is terrible.  

The flavour falls off the flakes due to the milk.  the flakes barely require chewing and are far more similar to B&B grade own-brand cereals than Kelloggs itself.  

The flavour is both spicy and bland at the same time, it's very hard to place what is causing the heat - but it's not a pleasant honey & cinnamon as I'd hoped for.  It's just sweet and hot with no real depth to the flavour at all.  Stick to golden grahams and leave this one on the shelf.

I'm genuinely wondering if I'll bother with a 2nd bowl of this or just gift it to a teenager who might find it amusing.

Shortbread Flavoured Tea (M&S) By @SpectreUK

Personally I don't know anyone who doesn't like tea and biscuits. Biscuit tea, however, can sometimes be an acquired taste. There are some I've liked, some I've loved, and some I've not been keen on at all.

This Luxury Gold Shortbread Flavoured Tea was blended from fair trade tea and some flavourings, and was produced for Marks and Spencer's. It's been languishing in the tea cupboard for far too long, been as though I really didn't like the last biscuit tea. Now it's coming up to its best before date, Cinabar and I have forty cups of tea to drink in quick succession. If we like it, of course.

We both decided to have a mug of Shortbread Flavoured Tea each, and compare notes. After brewing for sometime and adding milk, we agreed that this tea does smell like All Butter Shortbread. We then took a tentative sip from our mugs.

Cinabar commented how buttery the flavour was. I'd have to agree with that. There was a lot of sweet butter in the flavour first, followed by biscuity shortbread, and black tea. This Shortbread Flavoured Tea was rather nice, and no need for a biscuit, unless you really need to dunk.

Rowntree’s Randoms Egg-Venture (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

These new Randoms Egg-Venture sweets are the Easter edition of Rowntree’s Randoms. The bag promises new shapes and a few new flavours, with the usual mix of jelly and foam sweets.

I have always liked Randoms. The variety is the whole point, and the shapes are part of the fun. Pouring these out, I was pleased to see the Easter theme come through straight away. There are the expected seasonal shapes like chicks, eggs, and bunnies, alongside more spring inspired ones such as umbrellas and pigs, including an actual “oink” sign. True to Randoms form, there are also some properly odd choices, including a mermaid and a house.

Flavour wise, most of these are familiar fruity notes and they work well. The orange stands out in particular. It is sharp, citrusy, and very moreish, easily my favourite of the mix. One of the new flavours appears in the foam sweets and is biscuit. It sounds interesting, but in reality it is just sweet and creamy and gets a bit lost compared to the fruit flavours. It is not unpleasant, just forgettable. Overall, this is a cute and easy pack of Easter themed sweets. Nothing revolutionary, but a solid seasonal twist on a range that already works well.