Strawberry and Watermelon Instant Iced Tea (Whittard) By @Cinabar

We had a few days away around the UK and found a branch of Whittard in Stratford Upon Avon. This is dangerous territory for us! I have a hot chocolate problem, and our tea cupboard barely shuts as it is. Inevitably, we bought tea bags, a new hot chocolate (which I’ll be writing about soon), and then I had a sample of this instant tea. I loved it so much that I ended up buying a tub.

I don’t think I’ve tried Whittard’s instant teas before, but a drink that you can make cold feels absolutely perfect for summer. When I got home, I found that the recommended serving is three teaspoons per 200ml of water. My bear cup is huge, so I went for six teaspoons, and the flavour was about right. The tea granules are brown, but they turned a lovely red colour in the cup when mixed with water. They dissolved easily, leaving no lumps, even in my awkward-shaped cup.

The taste was just wonderfully summery. The watermelon is juicy and refreshing, like a proper thirst-quenching summer drink, while the strawberry adds just enough sweetness and berry flavour to balance everything perfectly. You can still taste the tea too, which stops it from feeling like just a fruit drink.

I must try it with ice as suggested on the pack. It does say that it can also be made with hot water for a warm drink, but it feels a little wrong to make Whittard Strawberry and Watermelon Instant Iced Tea with hot water! Some of the other flavours might work better that way, but this one has warm summer days written all over it.

The Coconut Collab - Plant-based Double Cre&m [@NLi10]

 All hail the vegans - for they have made it effortless to reduce the amount of dairy in my diet and still have a great time.  Take this for example - we want summer puddings - I want to not have too much dairy.  Here is a double cream (spelt cre&m) but it's all plants. I can enjoy my Wimbledon strawberries and no cream.

This means that a left over banana fritter from the takeaway can happily bathe in thick coconut goo, and become a proper pudding

Happy as can be.

If anything it's a bit too white and photogenic.  It looks great with red fruit and especially goes well with pineapple as it's like eating a Pina colada.

The coconut isn't strong, but it's present enough to enjoy.  I can see why this won taste awards, it's much more interesting than some of the other brands and begs to be tried with everything - only we finished it so now I need some more.

Milky Bar Crunchy Pops (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I like a snack with my ice cream after dinner. There seems to be so many options these days to try. These new Nestle Milky Bar Crunchy Pops are no exception. They are described as crispy cereal balls with a vanilla flavoured filling, covered with white chocolate. They sound ideal.

On opening the packet these Milky Bar Crunchy Pops looked like white Maltesers. On first crunchy taste, they tasted a little like sweet vanilla Rice Crispy coated in creamy white chocolate. They were super moreish and went very well with my vanilla ice cream topped with squirty cream. Yum.

Information on the bag: The 90g bag contained 145 calories per 14 balls, with 7.3g of fat, 13.6g of sugar, and 0.19g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Gu Raspberry and Strawberry Fruit Crème (Tesco) By @Cinabar

This is one of the new summer desserts from Gu, the Raspberry and Strawberry Fruit Crème. When I spotted it in Tesco, I thought it would make a lovely sweet treat for a warm summer's day. It is a little like their cheesecake range, but without the biscuit crumb.

The dessert has a layer of raspberry and strawberry fruit compote topped with a thick fruit crème. As usual, they come in packs of two and are sealed with a foil lid. I unwrapped mine and gave it a try.

The crème topping is sweet, fruity and wonderfully creamy, with the rich, thick texture that Gu desserts are known for. The fruit layer underneath is the real star though. It is packed with bright, zingy fruit flavour that cuts through the richness of the crème perfectly. The contrast between the tangy fruit and the smooth creamy topping means every spoonful is slightly different, making it a really enjoyable dessert to eat.

These are wonderfully fruity, refreshing and perfect for summer. I'll definitely be picking up another pack.

M&S Marks And Spencer's Thing & Crunch T&C Cereal [@NLi10]

My partner brought home three boxes of store brand cereal the other day - oh no! But wait, what's this - M&S Food?  That's surely going to be quite exciting.

 

I've not tried the chocolate one yet - I need to mix that with some cornflakes as honey and chocolate will be great. The others - I'm half way through the boxes.

First I tried Strawberry & Almond

I suspect the crunch will always be the same, but the things are different

6% almond and 2% strawberry - but that still looks fine

I'd not even registered the almonds eating it - but there they are.  Great flavour and light enough to eat every day.

There are very few good apple cereals so this was the exciting one

And while it looks less impressive the flavours are interesting enough to keep me coming back.  I'm adding blueberries and almond milk and loving it.

Premium cereals at stores own prices is definitely something I'm a fan of.  Kudos to Marks & Spencer for this one.