Snyder’s of Hanover Jalapeño Pretzel Pieces (Germany) By @SpectreUK

I could see my breath this morning as I took the rubbish to the bins outside after feeding the local birds. It's that time of year when we're starting to look for food that warms us up a bit. These Snyder's of Hanover Jalapeño Pretzel Pieces seem to fit the bill. Not only that, but they meet my usual criteria of trying to find alternative snacks to nuts and crisps.

I received these "flavoured sourdough hard pretzels" with a bottle of beer and some peppered steak sauce for a birthday present a while ago. The sauce has been enjoyed with a few steaks and other meals, and the beer drank, and now for the Snyder's of Hanover Jalapeño Pretzel Pieces. Besides I've always been a big fan of jalapeños. I like them on meaty sandwiches to give them a bit of a kick, and also meaty pizzas, and flavouring other foodstuffs. So I'm pretty confident that I shouldn't go too wrong with flavoured pretzel pieces!

On opening the packet there was a nose hair tickling smell of jalapeños. It cleared my sinuses and I almost sneezed. I immediately started to worry that this was one of those snacks that would be too hot for me to eat and enjoy. They are rare, but it has happened. There was also a bit of a whiff of garlic, so don't expect a kiss after eating these alone.

There were a few green flecks on the bright orange coloured pretzels pieces. On first taste, these pretzel pieces are pretty spicy. They are very tasty too. However, they made me wish I hadn't spent so long in the sauna and steam room at the gym earlier. Or at least had a longer cold shower. Snyder's of Hanover Jalapeño Pretzel Pieces are very moreish, even if they are a little steep on the calories. They made me sweat a bit too. Though at least they warmed me up a bit more than I thought they would!

Information on the packet;
The 56g packet contains 264 calories, 10.4g of fat, 2g of sugar, and 1.8g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Original Gourmet Cutie Cakes (Spa) By @Cinabar

Twinkies are not that easy to find in the UK but we do sometimes get them in the big shops but more often than not they are in import stores. I have had them and do find myself adding them to my shop when I find them, as they are quite rare over here. I say this because when I popped to the Spa shop and saw these they looked like a similar type of cake bar to them. These are cuter though, in fact each one had a character on the front and they are even called Original Gourmet Cutie Cakes. They were on offer too at three for a pound, so that sealed the deal and I popped them in my basket.
The decoration of the face is all on the wrapper so once out they do look a little plain. Inside the sponge is a neat chocolate creme filling, light in colour. The sponge is golden and fairly firm but with a nice vanilla taste. The chocolate creme is mild, light and sweet with a gentle cocoa flavour. It would be hard for me to compare these directly to Twinkies as I haven’t actually had them that regularly, but I think these were very similar just a little firmer.
So the Original Gourmet Cutie Cakes are an impulse buy, they brought a smile to my face and tasted good, so I think that was job done. It is also nice to have something similar to the American classic cake that is easy to obtain in the UK. I’d buy some more for Halloween treats, I’m just not convinced I’d share! ;-)

Tesco Finest Ham with Spiced Cola Glaze Crisps (Tesco) By @Cinabar

There isn’t a direct mention on the packet, but I fear these Tesco Finest Ham with Spiced Cola Glaze Crisps might be part of the Christmas range at Tesco. Maybe I’m imagining it, I’d prefer to think of them as an Autumn/Winter seasonal item.
My favourite flavours of crisps are the meaty varieties so I was keen to try these and I loved the sound of the spiced cola glaze as it is just so different. I was only saying the other week that I thought I’d got to the point with trying so many crisps over the years that whatever seemingly new flavour I was given it felt a bit like, “oh that one again”. There are nearly 450 crisps reviews on this site, so I think it is my obsession rather than an uninteresting market! These Tesco Finest Ham with Spiced Cola Glaze Crisps actually excited me, they sounded very different.
We opened the bag and the meaty aroma was very pleasing, it did smell like a Christmas (my bad) ham joint. The crisps are thick cut and quite crunchy, but they are part of the ‘Finest’ range which means they need to be seen to be different. The taste was mostly of juicy ham, and this was a very tasty meat base flavour. The glaze came across as a little sweet, a little spicy and a little smokey. It worked very well and complemented the ham perfectly. These are very good crisps and ones I’ll be buying again, I’m not sure I could have identified the undertones of cola if I’m completely honest, but I’m still glad I piked up the bag.

Doritos Collisions - Habanero and Guacamole (@NLi10)

We don't buy 'chips' all that often, it's more of a sharing thing.  We did pick these up to go with a lunch or two and they were a little bit more interesting than I'd expected.

Doritos Collisions (or Collusions as I'd oddly fixed in my head until writing this) have been around for a good decade now, but this is a new one to me.

It's a fairly standard twist, a hot one and a less hot one (although the dust meant they were both a little spicy).

Are you bold enough to give it a try??!! Well yes - even the spicy ones aren't that spicy.

Obligatory pack shot that makes it look like you don't get many!

I was fairly civilised and had mine with Olive bread with a pastel de nata for afters.  Yum.

And you know - they are fine - they are only Doritos after all.  More interesting than most of the standard flavours though and a nice change for lunch.