Gingerbread Latte Imperial Stout (Morrison’s) By @SpectreUK

The weather has been pretty up and down this week. It seems pretty cold, rainy, but sunny, then hailing so hard it makes my blue car go white. Typical English weather you may say. So, I fancy a warming spicy beer with my dinner.

I have steak and curly fries tonight for a treat. The first use of a new grill pan after burning some particularly fat burgers murdered the old tired griddle. I do like a good stout with my steak dinner, and so I have decided to blog about this warming sounding Gingerbread Latte Imperial Stout.

Brewed by Vault City, this 11% in volume Imperial Stout has lactose, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla and coffee added in the brewing with a mix of malted barley, hops, oats and yeast. That’s quite an ingredients list, but what does it taste like?

On opening the 330ml can there were hints of chocolate malt, coffee, vanilla and spiciness. On taste, there was sumptuous chocolate malt to begin with, then a hint of coffee, with milky creaminess from the lactose and sweet vanilla, and oodles of warming ginger and cinnamon into the aftertaste with all that luscious chocolate and cream. Yum. Perfect with my steak and curly fries, and I left a little for my chocolate tea cake dessert.

M&S Ultimate Cappuccino Teacakes (Ocado) By @Cinabar

We quite often buy chocolate teacakes as a sweet treat to have with a cuppa or as an afternoon snack. Marks and Spencer have recently added some new flavours to their teacakes range, and this packet of M&S Ultimate Cappuccino Teacakes is the first I’m going to try.

I love coffee and chocolate together and often think there aren’t enough coffee chocolate bars around, so seeing these cappuccino and chocolate teacakes made me very happy.

There are six in the packet, and they are a decent size. I chopped one in half and you can see the chocolate biscuit base, the generous layer of cappuccino marshmallow, and the chocolate coating.

The flavour was really good. There is a sweet, creamy coffee taste throughout and the chocolate works really well with it. The marshmallow is fluffy and slightly sticky, the biscuit is firm, and the chocolate has a nice snap. These M&S Ultimate Cappuccino Teacakes are all about the texture too.

The coffee flavour is such a treat, and I hope these stick around as I will definitely be buying them again. They are like a giant chocolate coffee cream sweet.

Damacina & Alfred Works Food Hall - Birmingham [@NLi10]

 It's hard eating two 'new' things each week to review that everyone can join in with - so unless you are in the Midlands today you probably aren't going to be able to join in - but you probably have local equivalents.

First up is Damascena which is a local food chain which they describe as the taste of the Middle East but we just think of as part of the furniture.  I'd never clicked they only have 5 locations (2 of which I could walk to, and a third which is in town) as it's just a place we go for good food.

And look at the variety on offer.  I had the lamb rolls with pink mayo, spicy potatoes and pomegranate sticky dipping sauce.  My partner had hummus & some kind of salad with crispy bits, a mushroom thing and an aubergine thing.  I didn't steal any off the inlaws but one had a kebab bowl with all sorts of wonders (my usual choice) and the other had mushroom rolls and a dip.  Naturally everything has a proper name that I can't remember.

We all had a great time and while everything has a spicy slant nothing is devastatingly hot.  We always look forwards to our visits.

Next up was Alfred Works Food Hall in the old Custard Factory in Birmingham 

I've been in before for drinks but this was the first time I'd had enough time to eat too.  I chose a Taiwanese Braised Pork (Lu Rou Fan) and bubble milk tea from Taiwei and happily could have had about 8 other things off their menu.

We spied on a table where they struggled

They had two giant black bowls from the first place you come to as you walk in, a special chicken dish from somewhere and then a rack of pudding crepes that would be enough for 4 people at the back.  We didn't spot them leave but they did not finish anything!  The dangers of the food hall.

They need to do tasting menus as this is their opening period - but it's always really busy and compared to the other new food halls has easily double digit places I'd choose to eat (compared to one in the centre of town that looks like it's a ghost town with maybe two viable options).

As it's by the best games shop & cinema in Birmingham I hope it sticks around and that the beepers range is enough for me to go to both at the same time.

Nestle Yorkie Salted Caramel Pretzel Duo (Londis) By @SpectreUK

I used to eat Yorkies all the time when I was a kid. However, I don’t eat chocolate so much these days, so I do lean towards my favourite brand of dairy milk chocolate. Cinabar saw this Yorkie Salted Caramel Pretzel Duo in the local petrol station shop, and picked it up for me.

I have been writing on this blog for nearly twenty years. I am keen on trying new snack ideas, it would be weird if I didn’t. I do like pretzels, I like the crunchy snacks, as well as the bread version. I do like salted caramel in milk chocolate bars. Mixed together they could be genius or a bit of a stretch.

On unwrapping the Yorkie Salted Caramel Pretzel Duo, there was a luscious aroma of caramel, and also a little pretzel. On taste there was a decent milk chocolate flavour, with a crunchiness from the pretzel, a little caramel and saltiness into the aftertaste. I think it was an acquired taste. You might like it though. I got distracted with picking bits of pretzel from between my teeth.

Information on the wrapper; The 66g Duo contains 171 per bar, with 9.2g of fat, and sugar 17.9g. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Fanta Grape (Tesco) By @Cinabar

We used to go to an American restaurant all the time, so much so that it took three bad experiences in a row to finally convince us to stop going. Normally we are quite fickle, and one bad experience is enough! The thing I miss most from there, though (because I can easily do hot dogs and burgers at home), is the grape soda I always ordered. I absolutely love the stuff.

Grapes in America taste quite different from the ones we get in the UK. They have a much stronger, almost medicinal flavour, and I think it can confuse British taste buds a bit, but I really enjoy it. So when I spotted that Fanta had brought out a Grape edition, I just had to hunt down a bottle.

I poured the drink into a glass and it had a deep red-purple colour with a good level of fizz. One sip immediately made me smile. This drink has that full-on tangy American grape flavour. It almost has a slight hint of Dr Pepper, but with a fuller, fruitier taste. I absolutely love it, although I can appreciate that it is definitely an acquired taste. For me, though, I am so happy to be able to enjoy this flavour again.

Have you tried Fanta Grape, and what did you think?