Flipz Unicornz Pretz Pinkz Sparklz Nomz (@NLi10)

When we were little we'd pick up sweets and treats in the supermarket - rush them to our mother and she'd say no because they were silly indulgences.  Dejectedly we'd dump them on the row end by the tills.  And there they would presumably be put back by the assistants, or so I thought.  As an adult who has no reason to go down those bits, I spotted this dumped with the batteries at the end of an aisle and snapped it up.  A new flavour of Flipz based around unicornz? Sweet! 

Look at these colourz, can you imagine the joy on the childz face when they spot this and take it to their bill payer. 

The bag even tells you that they are MAGICAL which is great.  I mean the kidz will probably be disappointed with the salty goodness of the Flipz but for me these are amazing.

As usual the helicopter view looks a little disappointing because of packing space, but the smell is amazing even if the colourz are not quite as vivid as the art.

But here it is in all it's glory, a bit battered from going backwards and forwards to work in the bag, but still recognisable and whole!

How do they taste?

Like white covered pretzels and magic and a little hint of fudge on top!  I could have eaten the whole bag but I needed to share these at games tonight so I resisted.  They totally should make sharing size bagz of these for partiez.

And now they need to do Blue(berry) ones based around Narwalz. plz.

Golden Wonder Sausage & Tomato Crisps (Poundland) By @SpectreUK

These Golden Wonder fully flavoured Sausage & Tomato crips remind me of a favourite sandwich of mine. Who doesn't like Tomato Ketchup on a sausage sandwich? Okay, so it's not for everyone… Looking back when I first started work in a factory after college, I treated myself to a sausage sandwich every Friday morning from the greasy van that was parked up nearby on the trading estate. Not so healthy though, as I put on a few stone and had to work it all off at the gym!

Okay, so these Golden Wonder Sausage & Tomato may not be new crisps, but we haven't seen them in years. They must have been hiding somewhere. Strangely though I do find many Golden Wonder crisps aren't readily available, which is a shame as they're generally really tasty. On opening the packet there is a good smell of tomato mixed with the less dominant smell of sausage meat.

On taste these crisps really do explode with flavour. It's hard to say which comes first, as the sausage flavouring merges perfectly with the tomato like someone has gone mad with the Ketchup on their sausage sandwich (which I always do, of course)! Unless I'm mad, these crisps really do taste of sausage and tomato. I checked the back of the packet for a double take on the vegetarian friendly aspect of the crisps. Not that it applies to me, but I didn't want to type "Suitable for vegetarians" if it wasn't true!

The reason why I'm more than a little surprised that these crisps taste of sausage is that so many 'sausage' flavoured crisps out there seem to substitute 'sage' for the vegetarian tastebuds, rather than try to emulate the flavour of sausage. I can't be bonkers though, as it says Sausage & Tomato on the packet!

Information on the packet;
The 25g bag contains 132 calories, with 7.9g of fat, 0.9g of sugar, and 0.35g of salt. Suitable for vegetarians. Please see photograph for ingredients.

Curiously Cinnamon Cereal Bars (Poundland) By @Cinabar

I don’t eat a lot of breakfast cereal, but if I did my preferred choice would be Curiously Cinnamon. Cinnamon is my favourite spice, I love its warming goodness. One of the good things about the current season is the fact that cinnamon starts to appear in lots of things, it really is a winter spice. I always get excited when I find something new or that I haven’t tried before but especially so if it contains cinnamon.
Although I don’t buy many cereals I do buy quite a few cereal bars, they are much more easy to eat either on the train or at my desk at work. I found these in Poundland and I haven’t found them before in my usual supermarkets, but I can say the box didn’t have a “new” label on it, which is confusing.

Inside the box there are individually packaged bars all in the bright orange Curiously Cinnamon wrapper. Once open I can see the milk flavour base coat on the bottom half of the bar, and the square pieces of the Curiously Cinnamon cereal. The flavour was good but milder than I remember the cereal being. There was a decent amount of spice, and the sweetness and milk taste did work well together. I found this a treat to have, and I love the idea of a portable version as to what would otherwise be my favourite cereal. It was missing the fabulous cinnamon milk you get left with after the real stuff, but this certainly works for convenience. I do hope this isn’t a winter only limited edition, as I’m going to be after some more boxes of these.

New M&Ms Cake Bars (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar

We might not be getting any exciting new M&Ms flavours in the UK but we do at least have another new product from the brand. This time we have these New M&Ms Cake Bars, which were found in Morrisons. They packet consists of 5 individually wrapped cake bars. I loved the designs on the wrappers of the cake bars, the M&Ms characters are very bright and cheery.

The bars are coated in milk chocolate, have a thick soft layer of sponge and creamy fondant topping inside of which are spotted with coloured sugar crystals. The coloured bits in the filling are not mini M&Ms, they are just coloured sugar crystals which is such an opportunity lost. It means that there aren’t any actual M&Ms in the specifically M&Ms themed cake bars at all. I’ve been lucky enough to eat in a few posh restaurants and they tend to use the term deconstructed, when the take the idea of something and then reconfigure it, and that is as polite as I can be about this and its connection to actual M&Ms. Having said all that the cake bars are tasty, I like a mix of texture so the crunch was welcome in contrast to the soft fluffy sponge. They are a nice chocolate treat, which are smartly packaged, they are just lacking that key ingredient, M&Ms.

RITZ - Chickpea Flour Thins - Sour Cream & Chives (@NLi10)

Ritz make crackers - they have done for 85 years according to the logo - but recently they have tried to modernise to keep up with the times.  Here we have a sharing bag (ha!) of chickpea flour thins, which are a slight tweak on the traditional recipe to add some nutrition.

The bag is three servings, which seems unlikely - I ate half a bag without thinking - but the nutrition values suggest that half a bag is still as good for you as a bag or regular crisps.

As we can see this is another product from the Mondelez brand that owns Cadbury's now, along with a lot of other favourites.  

Are these thin and crispy crackers likely to become a favourite?

Well, despite initial reservations they are pretty good.  I think that you'd be better off sticking these into hummus and having them with other toppings.  I ate them while binge watching American Office, so not quite a dinner party.  Still - they are tangy and satisfying here too.  I think the chickpea is more of a fun change to the recipe than something I'd notice without being told, and sour cream has never been my go-to flavour.  I'd actively seek out other flavours (at 99p a bag at the moment too on Ocado which seems fair for effectively two decent snacks).

Pop these in a bowl at a party, or just sit and eat them as if they were Mini Cheddars - I think they work well eitherway.  And if this is a 'better for you' recipe that doesn't hit the flavour or texture then I'm all for it.

First World Problems Beer (Sainsburys) By @SpectreUK

As you can see from the photographs of this 'First World Problems' beer that this lady is having car trouble. No Taxis available followed by the awkward silence and meaningless conversation that can arise from cadging a lift from a work colleague. I'm experiencing something of the same problem too. Well, car trouble rather than having to beg for a lift from a workmate. My seventeen year old car seems to have naturally come to the end of its life. I say 'naturally', because whilst I've not been driving it due to being on crutches for so long after an operation on my knee, the Autumn and Winter dampness has got into the electrics. My car is in the garage at the moment awaiting a verdict from a specialist car electrician, but the outlook right now does not look good…

Why am I telling you this? Well, I'm going to miss the old guy and its playing on mind. There's been good times and bad times over the years and my faithful reliable car has always taken us to them and brought us back again. If you're a regular reader or someone just stopping by, I appreciate your company at this time and any other time of course.

So, First World Problems is a Belgian India Pale Ale (IPA), produced by Stewart Brewing. At 6.2% volume it may help to drown some sorrows a little. I noted that the ingredients state that this IPA contains Barley, wheat, oats and rye. So is this a predominately malted barley beer; a red spicy rye beer; or a traditional Belgian wheat beer? There's only one way to find out, I guess… On opening the bottle there was a jumble of aromas. The malted barley comes first falling over a stack of spicy rye and then the wheat merges with some herbal hops. The one thing I couldn't really detect from these aromas was the pale malt. I'm sure it's there otherwise how could it be an IPA?

On taste the pale malt is much more in your face, which is good, because that's what I was hoping for. The rye has turned this ale a darker brownish tone and with no small amount of spice once my palate has got used to the pale malt. There is wheat and perhaps a little oats just before and merging with the light bitterness from the herbal hops and then into the aftertaste. This is a really tasty craft IPA, and a little warming with the spice from the rye, which is ideal for this time of year for chasing away some of that dampness, which… and I'll try not to swear… has messed up my poor old car!