Magnum Collection - Ruby Ice Creams (Asda) By @cinabar

The weekend has been stormy near us, in fact with the weather being bad last weekend too it has all been a bit miserable trying to go out. We have been ok, but not far away there has been localised flooding. Naturally the solution is to stay in, turn the heating up, and eat ice cream. Interestingly the new ice creams and lollies do seem to be launching already, presumably in time for spring. The first new product in the freezer section to catch my eye are these Magnum Collection Ruby Chocolate Edition Ice Creams. As Ruby chocolate is very much on trend I can see why Magnum went with this for their latest edition.
The ice lollies are pretty and pink, which did look rather fab. Inside is a vanilla ice cream which is ripple with Ruby Cocoa layers. The chocolate shell is pure ruby chocolate and has that lovely tang of an almost berry like flavour, sweeter like a white chocolate but with a hint of acidic fruitiness. The ice cream inside is creamy and sweet, and just has a mild taste of the ruby cocoa, but I think this brings balance.
This Magnum Collection Ruby Chocolate Edition Ice Cream is a well designed lolly, it is very much full of the flavour of Ruby Cocoa, but still has the lovely creamy ice cream inside. This may well be Magnum getting on the bandwagon of this new pink chocolate, but they turned it into a really nice creation.

I Have Nothing Interesting To Talk About This Week (@NLi10)

Ordinarily when I'm out and about I pick up things to talk about.  I may eat something exciting in a restaurant, or maybe just order some nutritious dust off a Facebook advert.  Recently none of those things have happened so I basically have run out of stored photos on my phone!

Luckily (for me - not you I expect) I have a few breaks coming up so I'll be sure to go into meticulous details about all kinds of things that no sane person cares about (remember the highest vending machine in Spain?)

If I'd been a bit more organised I could have reviewed these foamy turtles I ate at my sisters house yesterday.  Oddly the shell being softer than the body is really confusing.

The concept of no hidden nasties in a filled turtle seems a little unlikely.

I could have also taken better pictures of the sloe gin we had - all home made.  Even the Papillion didn't sit still for the photo!  It was very nice, if not a little strong to drink all night long.

So I'd got something to talk about at all I got a little drink with my cheap frozen pizza (Chicago town pepperoni - not exciting) and even opted for the rather safe purple one.

Luna's interest suggests they have been in the shop for a good while.  Tastes like purple water as you'd expect, but at least it was nice and refreshing after a long walk home!

Maybe I've got stuck in my ways - gravitating towards the Twix & Bounty rather than the unknown snacks, and having less trips into town to pick up the things like the bag of Thai curry that actually generate interest.  Maybe it's just an attempt to eat less processed food and sugar.

I promise to try harder to pick up the weird and wonderful as 2020 continues.

Rekorderlig Botanicals Rhubarb Lemon Mint (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

We seem to be well into the storm season this month. A storm last weekend and a storm this weekend. Storm Dennis didn't sound too bad until people started are calling it Dennis the Menace! Although I still think they should name storms more appropriately such as 'Storm Hades" or 'Storm Death Monger', but that's just me.

Anyway, I thought I'd go off the wall completely this weekend with this pear cider. Made with Swedish spring water Rekorderlig Botanicals Rhubarb Lemon Mint is a 4% volume welcome break to my mind from the howling wind and rain outside. Trying not to think of the snow and flood warnings, this rhubarb and lemon blended cider should bring about thoughts of early Spring, especially with its added hint of mint. So I'll put some headphones on in an attempt to drown out the rain battering at the window nearby.

On opening the bottle there was a light cheerful fizz from the pinkish liquid inside. To go with the colour of the liquid there is a dominant aroma of rhubarb. I do love the smell and taste of rhubarb. I used to grow it at the last place we lived at, so I may have to do some planting this Spring time in the garden here. I used to have a decent sugary pudding or two from the stems and then a lovely rhubarb juice drink to wash it down with.

On taste this Rekorderlig Botanicals Rhubarb Lemon Mint does taste predominantly of rhubarb. It has a lovely sweet rhubarb flavour mixed with pear, offset slightly by the blended lemon and then there is a refreshing mint flavour into the aftertaste. It was hard to put my glass down after the first swig. I could imagine myself in the garden on a Spring or Summer's afternoon drinking quite a few of these whilst reading a good book. So bring on some warmer weather!

Chocolatory Kit Kat Whisky and Ginger from The Mixologist (John Lewis) By @cinabar

Before Christmas I wrote about a couple of new Kit Kats that were in John Lewis, they are part of the Chocolatory range and are hand made. I was recently in store and noticed they still had some flavours I hadn’t tried so I decided to pick up the Chocolatory Mixologist box. I should say it wasn’t reduced in price and these are still some of the most expensive Kit Kats I’ve ever had!
I decided to start with the Whisky and Ginger edition. This particular Kit Kat is flavoured with Whisky, has ginger pieces and is covered in chocolate sugar stands which naturally went everywhere once the packet was open. It is a smart looking bar though and is made with dark chocolate.

Inside the bar it had the usual wafer but there is fair amount of chocolate on the top. I have to admit I didn’t quite like the flavour which is remarkably disappointing given the price. I like the ginger aspect this was sweet and spicy and as I had hoped for. The Whisky part though, the key element, wasn’t quite right for me. I just didn’t like the flavour, it was Whisky like but it was a little acidic and artificial, not warm and soothing. The ginger was enough to try and pull this through but finding this Chocolatory Kit Kat Whisky and Ginger to be just about ok was a disappointment. There is another Kit Kat in the box flavoured with Gin and Tonic, here is hopping that one has nailed it.