31 December 2017

Rekorderlig Premium Warm Spiced Plum Cider (@TheLordClifden) by @NLi10

It's oppressively cold in the UK at the moment, yet it's still a time to go out and socialise - what options do we have?

Here in the Lord Clifden (Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham) there are a few edible options on the specials board.


But it's the mini boards that draw my attention - hot alcoholic drinks!


I've claimed here many times before that the first people to mass market a warm alcoholic drink will become millionaires, but no one has quite managed to fill that niche.  There are lots of little warm barrels around this year, but they all seem to be different.

Rekordelig isn't my favourite brand of flavoured cider, but it's not one I'd actively shy away from either so it's certainly worth a go.


Looking pleasingly like a cup of tea (although possibly a bit smaller than I was expecting for the price) and having a nice branded logo really helped this not look like I'd ordered Lemsip.  The flavour was great, not too sweet and a little like the Japanese Plum Wine that we've talked about on here before.  Other people thought it had hints of cherry in there too, but it could easily have been a blend of flavours.  The orange worked well too as it kept the flavour interesting all the way down.

I had a second one which is always a good sign - and I had nice warm hands all evening and a clear head in the morning - result!

I'm sure someone will crack this market, and warm cider is probably the way to go - you just can't drink Hot Chocolate in the quantities that English people seem to think you have to drink alcohol on a night out. A weak, fairly dry but fruity, warm cider in an easily identifiable cup may just be the solution we need.  Maybe a mug next year though yeah?

30 December 2017

Cocoa Wonderland Beer (Waitrose @thornbridge) By @SpectreUK



I have a feeling 2018 could be a good year for change for me. We are moving house in the first week to a hopefully more peaceful neighbourhood closer to the countryside. I'm going to start looking for a new job in the New Year. I've also been told we're supposed to be on television in March time, with filming taking place in the second week of January.

However, the saddest change, and the first just before the New Year is my new barber. No, he's fine, but I very recently lost my old barber to cancer. He's been cutting my hair for almost twenty years and we'd got very used to each other with the kind of Mickey taking of old friends. I had my haircut by my new barber today and he was very friendly and understanding. Some people are traditionalists you see, going to the same place and doing the same thing over and over. We can be creatures of habit. We grow comfortable with our surroundings or just too lazy or a little scared to change. My old barber was more a pint of Mild kind of guy, nothing wrong with Mild of course, I do love the stuff and have a few cans regularly in, however I like to try all sorts of beers and write about them. I do appreciate new readers trying something new to read on the internet and our regular readers who have supported us over the years. So I'd like to dedicate this blog to all the regular readers, the new readers, my old barber who gave me great advice over the years and who would never have drank this Cocoa Wonderland in a million years, and to my new barber who made me very welcome today.

Cocoa Wonderland is brewed by Thornbridge Riverside Brewery in Derbyshire. At 6.8% volume this chocolate porter has a good strength for seeing off old friends and welcoming the new. Magnum hops were used in the brewing with the usual malted barley and chocolate malt. There was a deep chocolate aroma on opening the bottle with undertones of roasted coffee. On taste this Cocoa Wonderland really is a chocolatey treat. There is sweet milk chocolate on first taste, which merges with a roasted coffee flavour and a quick smack of alcohol into the aftertaste. This chocolate porter is like a 330ml chocolate coffee liquor. Mmmm… a lip smacking flavoursome pudding beer for full tummies after big hearty winter meals that can't face another bite, but just need something chocolatey, with a touch of coffee and a bang of booze to wash it all down.

So whether you have a year of change or one of relaxing in your comfortable surroundings, have a safe, peaceful (or party-filled), most happy New Year! ;-)

29 December 2017

Yorkshire Wensleydale with Christmas Fruits & Brandy (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar


It wouldn’t be Christmas for us without a cheeseboard. We lay out lots of cheeses, and get a selection of crackers and seasonal pickle and tuck in. It makes an easy but tasty lunch or something to snack on while watching Christmas telly. |n amongst the staple cheeses, ie the vintage Cheddar and the Red Leicester, we always buy some special ones, and this Wensleydale is our Christmas special for this year. It is a Yorkshire Wensleydale with Christmas Fruits and Brandy, from the Wensleydale Creamery.
It is sealed in red wax, which you simply cut in half and peel off. You could see from the cheese that it had a good content of fruits and we chopped it into chunks to share it on the crackers.
The flavour was impressive, there is lots of fruit, and a hint of nice spice too. The warmth from the Brandy made this the perfect winter cheese. The base cheese was very creamy and the fruit and brandy added a lovely contrast and worked well with the flavour. Each piece of fruity was a lovely thing to stumble across, juicy and sweet making this a very enjoyable cheese. I realise that this cheese will disappear in the next week or so, so I might stock up on one for the fridge. Fingers crossed it come out next year too.



28 December 2017

Emergency Christmas Pantone (@Lidluk) by @NLi10

People often pop round at Christmas with a card and well-wishes and it always pays to have something a little bit festive in the cupboard to break out and share.  Lidl have £1 Pantone which just about covers two portions if you slice it into quarters.



As you'd expect it's just a fairly bready chocolate chip muffin with no frills except for the quite nice box.  It does go down very well with a cup of tea too - I guess you'd just have to make sure you have enough of these stashed away in proportion to the amount of visitors you'd expect.  Less likely to go off than biscuits (and by that I mean get eaten before the guests arrive) and that little bit more unusual I think these are a reasonably priced hit.

(forgot to put this up as an Xmas day bonus - whoops!)

Dissapointment Wars - Knock-off Festive Tat Eggs Edition (@NLi10)

Nothing says Christmas like disappointment, and nothing says disappointment like knock-off 3rd party surprise eggs!  It's time for Disappointment Wars - the rules are the same, we guess which will be the most disappointing (and least) of the below themed Kinder Wow knock offs and then see if we are correct.


Here are the usual pictures to protect you from spoilers, and indeed our guesses!

As you can guess by the timing these were 'borrowed' from my little cousin's Santa Sack having been lovingly provided by the big man himself.  She will also provide guesses.


Turns out they are all the same brand so it's going to be pretty much pot luck - or if you prefer disappointment roulette. 


The 'food portion' is very ignorable.  A room full of people on Christmas day didn't finish the one of these we opened...

Little cousin said Hello Kitty would be the best & Pokemon the worst.  I guessed that Spongebob would be the best and Frozen the worst - just to cover all the bases.


First up - spongebob round egg.  We got a plane.  Little cousin was disappointed but I thought this was fairly cool.  I'd have put this in the Monopoly set as a playing piece or similar.  She was already trying to open Kitty.


Greetings Cat contained a pink plastic ring.  Very disappointing to me, but Little cousin put it on immediately and kept blowing it round all evening.  She still had it the following day which was a surprise to me.  Tough for anything to beat this for her.


Snow Girls had a little basket that was immediately discarded.  I pointed out that she got a sylvanian families grocery set for Christmas and then it got put with that.  Not fun by itself, but surprisingly useful.


Pikamon had a solider.  Well, just about.  That moulding is possibly the worst i've seen. Especially considering it's made by the same people as the above plastic tat.  Again I'd put this with a board game to amuse myself, but it was completely ignored by little cousin. She was happy because it meant that both of her guesses were correct.  She's clearly a witch (or at least pre-arranged this with Santa).

This is a chart of most disappointing to least from top to bottom.


I still quite liked the plane, but not enough to keep tabs on it and now it's probably been binned.  As far as I know the ring and basket made it into the Sylvanians play set and the spoons were binned as is appropriate.

Hope your Christmases were as full of surprises, but actually edible ones.

27 December 2017

Winter Spiced Porter Beer (Marks and Spencer) By @SpectreUK


It feels like Saturday today. I'm not sure why, but I woke up fairly early and had my usual Saturday session at the gym. Lots of weights, some cardio, and then a good long swim followed by a relaxing time well spent in the sauna, jacuzzi and steam room. I had my usual Saturday big lunch when I returned home too. A whole tin of tuna emptied out into a sandwich after being mixed up with some mayonnaise, a big bag of onion ring crisps, and three runny boiled eggs, but I didn't have time for my usual fried garlic mushrooms on the side or my favourite rice pudding tin for afters. However, I did have time to write a beer blog. It tried to snow here last night, so this Winter Spiced Porter sounded like the right sort of drink to warm me up. Especially since my lengthy swim was in the outside pool, although I did spend ages in the sauna afterwards.

Produced by the Meantime Brewery in Greenwich, cinnamon and allspice were added in the brewing of this 5.5% volume Porter. Seven different malts were used as well as Fuggles hops and Goldings hops to make this traditional London Porter, with its added touch of spice. On opening there was unsurprisingly a heavy malt aroma with a hint of spiciness at the back of the smell. This is a deep brown almost black Porter. Staring at the depth of colour in my beer glass was virtually hypnotising. On taste the cinnamon and allspice spring to the fore muscling their way passed all the roasted malts until a wave of malted barley, roasted chocolate malt with a hint of coffee and sweet malts crash over the overeager spices. Spices of which ended up having a little punch up with the herbal hops in the background taking my tastebuds into a spicy bitter herbal aftertaste. This craft Porter shows years of experience, care and attention in one pint bottle steeped in tradition and a yearning for a life on the icy seas. Oh, I feel a good black and white naval war film coming on…

26 December 2017

Luxury Salted Caramel Chocolate Yule Log (Marks and Spencer) By @cinabar



I really do love Christmas. There are prezzies and good food, and in the next stage of the good food, we decided to crack open our special Yule log for a Boxing Day treat. What a treat this is too, this is from Marks and Spencer, and it is a Luxury Salted Caramel Chocolate Yule Log. It is absolutely stunning to look at, and is a chocolate lover’s dream. The sides of the Yule log are held in with slabs of glittered chocolate, and there are salted caramel chocolates decorating the top too! We sliced the Yule Log ready to share and broke some chunks of the chocolate from the sides to add to the plates.
The cake was very rich, but I am guess that is unsurprising. The sponge is soft and the chocolate buttercream is full of chocolate flavour, and a lovely edge of salty caramel. Each mouthful just melts in the mouth, and is a delight to eat. I loved the topping of chocolate caramel, which just burst oozing salty caramel flavour when bitten. The cake is stunning to look at, and an absolute pleasure on the tastebuds too. I’m going to be lapping up all the festive foods, right up until January kicks in and if you are doing the same I’d recommend picking up one of these cakes. Chocolate heaven.


25 December 2017

Mulled Wine Winter Berry Conserve (Marks and Spencer) By @cinabar

Mulled Wine Winter Berry Conserve


I started this morning in style, with very special jam on Christmas day. What else is there to do really. The jam is from Marks and Spencer and they had gone all out with mulled fruits, and edible glitter. This seemed like the perfect start to the day, with a slice of toast to set me up before the inevitable epic Christmas dinner.
The jam itself is quite a sharp flavour, not too sweet at all. The fruitiness was dripping in wonderful spices though, and the mulled taste shone through. This jam maybe pretty and sparkly from the glitter, but the flavour is more grown up, and reminded me of a spiced damson jam in flavour. This is definitely meant for adults from the taste, and a jam I’ll continue to enjoy over the Christmas period. Hope you are all having good food, nice prezzies and good times.
Wishing you a wonderfully Merry Christmas from everyone at Foodstuff Finds.

24 December 2017

M & S Bubbly Santa (Marks & Spencer’s) @NLi10 #Christmas


It’s Christmas Eve here in the UK - and what has Santa left under the tree?


Oh it’s a little bubbly Santa. I’m not sure he’d like that adjective, I’ve been told that bubbly is only used to describe overweight people...


Santa’s a little shorter than I remember - he also isn’t traditionally brown. 🎅🏿


Here he is after a small bite has shown just how bubbly he is. Not quite as light as an Aero, and fairly satisfyingly chocolate.


It's a shame Santa can't stay long - but he's got a very busy night ahead of him and this small amount of chocolate has to go a very long way.

Have a fabulous Christmas and hopefully you find some quirky snacks in your stocking tomorrow (or the sales afterwards!)

23 December 2017

Southwold Christmas Ale (Marks and Spencer) By @SpectreUK

Southwold Christmas Ale (Marks and Spencer)

Last week I enjoyed a seasonal cider, this week Adnams Brewery is wishing me a "Hoppy Christmas", well it says so on the bottle anyway. Brewed with English malts and hops, this 4.2% volume dark Winter ale promises fruity festive flavour. There is a row of brightly coloured wooden beach huts on the label, which are a familiar sight on the Suffolk coastline near to where this Christmas Ale is brewed. Not that I've been there, but I have seen these colourful huts on the television and I heard they're a prized possession for anyone who likes a trip to a good beach.

There was a deep sweet aroma from the double roasted crystal malt and an underlying fruitiness from the First Gold hops. This dark brown ale poured into my glass with a good frothy head. On taste there was an initial flavour of malted barley, which quickly merged with the almost toffee crystal malt. This sweetness merged with the fruity hops to produce a fruitcake flavour akin to a hearty Christmas pudding in a glass. Recommended with cold meat and strong cheese, which is just what we're having for dinner. If you're all out of cold meat and fine cheese, then I'd recommend enjoying it after dinner to wash down your Christmas Pudding or a decent wedge of Christmas Cake.

Merry Christmas! ;-)

22 December 2017

Dairy Milk Cadbury Golden Crisp (Cadbury Shop) By @cinabar

Dairy Milk Cadbury Golden Crisp

This Dairy Milk bar isnt a new bar as such, it is an imported bar from Ireland. I found it in Wales though in the Cadbury Shop at a designer outlet village. The bar is called Golden Crisp, and is Dairy Milk filled with muxed sized pieces of cinder toffee. The chocolate bar is a diiferent size to the ones I’m used to and was made up of 8 cubes. Once broken in half you see the Golden Crisp pieces quite clearly.
I broke my first piece off and bit in, I loved the crunchy chocolate texture, it did feel fun to eat. The extra honeycomb sweetness was a lovely addition and this was a fun and tasty bar. One thing to note is that I could pick up on the different flavour of the chocolate. It says it is Dairy Milk but is clearly has a different recipe to the Dairy Milk chocolate Im used to, there was a stronger element from the cocoa, particularly obvious if you let some melt on the tongue. It is the same chocolate flavour as Flake bars, very similar to Dairy Milk just a bit more intense. I loved the bar though, and do hope that this will get a proper release in mainland Britain. Sweet, crunchy and perfect for a snack size treat.

21 December 2017

Wookie Crisps (Popchips Galactic Puffs from @Waitrose) by @NLi10 #StarWars #Porgs

A long time ago in a Waitrose Far Far Away (ok - so Harborne and yesterday) I spotted some wonderfully branded tie (fighter) in snacks to go with the new Star Wars movie.  I have seen the movie and I liked it, but I shall avoid spoiling plot points as it's only been out a week.

The flavours are R2D2 Endorsed* sour cream and onion, and Wookie Endorsed* Barbecue flavour.  I chose the BBQ one because I like my snacks Chewy.

Also it reminded me of a scene from the film that involves the Porgs.  I like Porgs.

Wookie Crisps

You can also see the shapes on offer on the front - or can you - plot twist!


On the back there is a hidden shape too!  I wondered if this would be a movie related spoiler - can you spot it in the picture below?


Nope - it's not the NHS brand sandwich - there at the top of the bag is...


The starship Enterprise!! OK - so it's an R2 unit of some description.  That makes more sense and is the face of the other bag.  I wonder if there are Wookies in the other flavour.  Only one way to find out.  I feel that not putting the Porgs in or on the bag shows that they are targeting the older, more jaded Star Wars fans.

I think I was lucky to spot this so quickly as the bag seems to be mostly Millennium Falcons.  The flavour is nicer than I'd expected, but I'd forgotten that Pop Chips are one of the ones we liked when we tried all the 'reduced fat' crisps a while back.  When I last ate these Katy Perry was endorsing them.  Chewbacca's new album must be out for Christmas - but I bet it won't be as good as "Christmas In The Stars" was.  I think C3PO was on lead vocals for that.

Anyway - the film was decent, and these crisps are decent too.  I'd probably rather buy these again than see the film again - and I'd possibly go with the other flavour too for variety.  I wonder if there are any dark-side crisps (Worcester sauce?) that Waitrose were afraid to stock?



* The crisps aren't really from Endor, the planet where the Ewoks come from.  They are made in the UK.  I still like Porgs.

20 December 2017

Alō Light Refresh (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK


We definitely need a new mattress. A strange way to start a blog, I know, but I was so uncomfortable last night I just couldn't get to sleep. Either that or I need a new body, as I ache all over. I kept Cinabar awake riling around, so I'm in her bad books also. Now I have a day full of boring meetings to try to stay awake in, which could be a challenge to say the least. This Alō Light Refresh may help revitalise me. It has Aloe Vera, Cucumber and Cantaloupe in it. I thought Cantaloupes were a type of animal with horns that run away from lions (pun intended)! As far as I can tell this drink doesn't have any meat in it. It is gluten and fat free, low in sugar and smells mainly of sweet melon on opening. It has Aloe Vero leaf pulp in it, which makes it a bit of a chewy drink, which I'm not too keen on as it makes me worry I'll choke on it in my tired state. It tastes mainly of Aloe Vera with a combination of slightly stronger cucumber and then sweet melon into the aftertaste. It's a refreshing drink that reminds me of summer in these chilly months. I made the mistake of drinking it after my first meeting, which tediously ran over to the extent that I started to dose in the later half. However I have high hopes to stay awake in the following afternoon's meetings.
Information on the bottle;
The 500ml bottle contains 7g of sugar and 50mg of sodium. Ingredients included; water, Aloe Vera juice and leaf pulp, Antelope… er sorry, Cantaloupe juice, cane sugar, citric acid, cucumber juice, natural flavours, erythritol, vitamin c; ascorbic acid, and stevia.

19 December 2017

Teisseire Raspberry & Cranberry Drink (Waitrose) By @Cinabar


I don’t tend to look for new products in the cordials section of the supermarket, in fact I was only in the aisle so that I could top up on orange and lemon squash, very rock and roll. Anyway as you may well imagine from reading this blog I’m attracted to anything new, and frankly shiny, so this bottle caught my eye. It is very different looking to the other squash bottles in the section, which are all in clear plastic, this is metallic and appears to have a very funky top and it is from a French make, Teisseire, that I’m not completely sure how to pronounce.


The flavour is firstly listed in French (frambroise) but the English translation underneath shows the meaning to be Raspberry and Cranberry and that sounded like a nice alternative drink, and the cranberry makes it seasonal too. The lid is chunky, but opened easily, and made the drink easy to pour. I added a good slug of it into a cup and topped up with water, and was pleased with the flavour ratio. The taste was very fruity and the cranberry was at the forefront, with a nice hit of raspberry softening the aftertaste. IT is very easy to drink, and I loved the sweet berry flavours. I think you could add a sprig of mint to glasses and happily serve this as a mocktail type of drink at Christmas party. It is also a nice alternative to the usual squashes, and reminder for me not to be on autopilot picking up orange each week. I can’t wait to go back and see what other flavours this posh make does.

18 December 2017

Koikeya Teriyaki Japanese Crisps (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar



So I’ve been on the search again for curious sounding crisps, and these new Teriyaki flavoured ones appeared on the Morrisons website.Teriyaki is technically a Japanese cooking technique so I was more than a little bit curious to find out how they had interpreted that as flavour for crisps.
The packaging is quite dark and for some reason it took me a while when I saw them on the website to realise they were actually crisps, and not some sort of noodle and cracker meal kit. I guess I’m used the more bright colours of bags we tend to get in the UK.
Once open the aroma from these crisps was very minimal, just a light sort of savoury scent. We shared some out to have with our sandwiches at lunch time. The flavour of the crisps was still delicate, but I could instantly pick up on the lovely Japanese flavour. It was mainly soya sauce in taste, which of course is a wonderful savoury taste. There was a little hint of sweetness in there too, but just a touch, nothing crazy and some hints of spice. The crisps are mild for my tastebuds, but I still liked them and found them very easy to munch on. I’d certainly like to try some more crisps from the range and see what other Japanese flavours are available. Spectre said these crisps were perfect washed down with a glass of lager, if you are looking for a serving suggestion!

17 December 2017

Moser Roth choc advent calendar (@AldiUK) by @NLi10

Hooray for parents buying you Advent Calendars due to guit generated by FaceBook memes! Well, realistically I think my parents will have always got me this one - because it looks so darn cool (and it's secretly budget supermarket own brand!)

It looks like a real box of chocolate - not a calendar for children.


It opens like a book so it stands on the fireplace wonderfully.


Although being like a real box of chocolates it spoils the surprises on the back - booo.  In fairness I'd have never guessed these flavours - maybe they should have given you the list on the 18th and then you could have figured out what you had for the last round.  There are of course 4 copies of each chocolate too.


And if you get given it on the 3rd you get to have three chocolates on day one!


Well, as I shared this with my partner we had to split them, but this has worked out well as we both clearly have favourites from the instructions on the back.  There are no bad flavours, some are a little more muddled than others, and the chocolate is good quality.

An absolute win of a calendar, and one that I doubt will make it to the sale section without someone buying them all just to eat as luxury chocolates.

16 December 2017

Devon Christmas Cider (Marks & Spencer’s) Bu @SpectreUK


Well it's that time of year again when Cinabar get's very excited and starts bothering me to find the Christmas tree out of storage in a dusty grim place in the roof. Of course it's bagged and tagged with other numerous bags of Christmas decorations for dotting liberally around the house. I must admit, they are a cheery colourful sight once everything has been stuck, draped and hung wherever it's been decided it goes in the house this year… or wherever there is a modicum of space!

After my avoidance for sometime and general pleading by Cinabar to retrieve the decorations from the chilly loft I was promised a warming spiced cider. Of course it couldn't be anything else other than a Christmas cider, but hey-ho… Or is it ho-ho-ho?! This Devon Christmas Cider was produced by Sandford Orchards. It had Clementine juice, as well as Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, Mace, and Juniper Berries added in the brewing. At 4% volume this cloudy cider promised some citrus and spice to provide my tired bones some warmth after rummaging around in the freezing cold loft.

There was an inviting fizz on opening the bottle, which cheered me up a little as I watched Cinabar and her mom sifting through the decorations before retreating to find a quiet place and read a good book. There was a spiciness to the cider apple aroma with a hint of citrus on pouring this Devon Christmas Cider into my waiting glass. This certainly is a cloudy drink and has a nose tickling fizz to it. On taste there is the sweet cider apple to start with which blends well with the ground spices moving into a Clementine finish. Full of flavour and not short on jolly fizz, this drink is recommended for roast pork with crackling, gammon (with fried eggs, pineapple slices and thick-cut chips no doubt), and even the ubiquitous Christmas Yule Log. Of course I used it to wash down some rather lovely iced mince pies…

15 December 2017

Galaxy Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Sainsbury’s) By @Cinabar


Well I love cookies and I love Galaxy chocolate so I was pretty confident nothing could go wrong with this new biscuit combination. These are Galaxy Chocolate Chunk Cookies, what more could you ask for in principle. I opened up the bag and found eight thick cookies in the box, all dotted with an acceptable amount of Galaxy chocolate drops. So I bit in, or to be more honest I tried. This is one tough cookie. I don’t mean that in a metaphorical way, I mean it completely literally! My first bite failed and I ended up removing the biscuit from my attempted grip with my teeth and staring at it. Seriously. I tried again this time knowing to apply more pressure and did manage to get into the thing. Yes the flavour was sweet and pleasing, and had a good biscuity base flavour. Yes the addition of the Galaxy chocolate was nice, rich and smooth and the taste worked well. But no, I could not get passed the overly hard texture. I found them too tough, and not fun to eat. I put the kettle on and made my self a coffee so I could relax and dunk the rest and this made them easier to munch on, but diluted the chocolate flavour from the Galaxy which is the whole point. I have had biscotti that are softer. I usually like texture in my foods, but can’t help thinking a cookie should be a bit lighter to than this.


SaveSave

14 December 2017

KP XL Crunchy Coated Peanuts - sweet chilli with a hint of lemon @NLi10

KP nutsters were the first peanut in a Pringle snack that I remember so I have a lot of time for the brand when the try new things. Here we have a giant bag of XL peanuts inside crisps with a mildly spicy coating. The bag contains four portions.


You may be curious as to why these are in a glass? Well, you get the dust all over your fingers which when working is a terrible idea. Now you can drink them when you want a nibble as you work away. Don’t eat the snack doll, she’s just for scale.


And these are great, they are really quite chunky peanuts, and the flavour is strong enough to entice but not so much that you can’t eat them in public. But 4 portions is not realistic - they lasted about 90 mins for just me. At games night I’d need two bags not to be seen as a laughably stingy host! 

And I’d need serving tumblrs to make sure no one got dust on the cards.  

I’ll be buying these again for sure.

13 December 2017

Cheestrings Snack Mix (@Morrisons) By @SpectreUK


I’ve never eaten Cheestrings before, so this was a new experience. That’s partly what this blog is all about. Trying new experiences and sharing them with others who may wish to do the same. First of all I’d like to point out that’s not how “cheese strings” should really be spelt. That aside these aren’t cheese strings anyway. On opening the packet they were small blocks of dark and light yellow cheese rather than strings. These I supposed may be akin to Red Leicester and Cheddar Cheese. In the packet there were also varying shapes of salted crackers, mini blobs of digestive biscuits, chocolate coated raisins and dried sweetened cherry strings.


The cherry strings really were strings as opposed to the cheese blocks which were as previously mentioned: blocks! I mean really, if you’re going to call a product Cheestrings (however badly spelt) I would have thought the manufacturer would have felt obligated to put ‘cheese strings’ within the product. Anyway, I thought Cinabar was joking about the cherry strings when I “liberated” this packet of Cheestrings (Cheesblocks) Snack Mix off her, but there they were. I do hate cherries, so I suppose that’s my fault for jumping over the hedge before looking at what’s on the other side. The cardboard sleeve covering the snack seemed to imply a suggested way to eat the Cheestrings Snack Mix would be to mix them up stacked on each salted cracker. Phah! What madness is that…? I’d prefer to try all components separately if you don’t mind!
On taste the darker yellow cheese tasted just like Red Leicester to the point that I figured it probably was Red Leicester. That’s a boon, because I do love Red Leicester Cheese, and as an aside I strongly believe it’s the best cheese for ‘cheese on toast’ (you can leave comments below if you disagree)! The lighter yellow cheese tasted just like Cheddar Cheese so I suspect it probably was. I do also love Cheddar Cheese, but Red Leicester is still better on cheese on toast in my opinion. The salted crackers tasted just like salted crackers, mainly with the salt towards the aftertaste. They complemented the cheeses very well and were obviously edible with or without, but I tried them with the blocks of cheese until I ran out of crackers. That’s the type of rock ‘n roll lifestyle I lead! Part of me wanted to try the cherry strings, blobs of digestives and chocolate coated raisins whilst eating the cheese and crackers, but that would be just as insane as eating them before. I suppose there are two types of people; those that like jelly and ice cream in one bowl, and those that prefer them in separate bowls. I’m one of those rare individuals who like them in separate bowls. Obviously in my half-crazed mind these extra Snack Mix morsels were still meant as pudding, even with the quite frankly ‘out there’ serving suggestion on the cardboard sleeve.
The digestive blobs were crunchy and sweet and there were plenty of them. In my strange mood I ate all of those next. I then started on the sweet cherry strings. There were far too many of these little red strings in the packet for my liking, however eaten piecemeal and straight after the sweet biscuit blobs they actually tasted okay(ish). Last but not least were the four milk chocolate coated raisins. They were easy to count because I’d eaten everything else. Perfect pudding material if you like that sort of thing. Personally I prefer chocolate coated fudge, but these chocolate coated raisins were actually very nice instead.
I’d certainly recommend Cheestrings (Cheesblocks) Snack Mix. They’re like a lunchbox on its own for kids that would fit in a larger greedier person’s lunchbox (like me) who may wish to complement a sandwich and (crisps, tomato, apple, banana, yoghurt and chocolate bar) whatever else they may have for lunch.
Information on the cardboard sleeve;
The 50g packet contained 189 calories, with 8.3g of fat, 8.4g of sugar and 0.7g of sugar. There were 42% cheese pieces, 16% of salted crackers, and 42% of sweet mix with varying portions of digestive pieces (blobs), dried sweetened cherry strings (devil’s fingers), and milk chocolate coated raisins (that looked a little like a rabbit had been caught short whilst walking over an open packet). Please see photograph for extensive ingredients.

12 December 2017

White Chocolate Oreos (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar


I’m following on slightly accidentally from yesterday with another black and white looking product. Yesterday it was the Limited Edition Black and White Lion bar, this time it is in the form of dark Oreos coated in white chocolate. Now I’ll be honest I’ve had dipped Oreos before but it was more than five years ago, and so I think this still counts as a Foodstuff Find, particularly as I’ve been looking for another box for all that time! Spoiler alert, I’ve already added another two boxes of these bad boys to next weeks grocery order.
So these White Chocolate Oreos appeared under the new products listing on the Morrisons website, and the snowman on the pack leads me to believe these are just a Christmas special. There wasn't a milk chocolate version available, just the white chocolate. They are in sealed packs of two, which make them perfect for lunch boxes and it keeps the others fresh if you are having a couple of them for treats.


The white chocolate on the Oreo was nice and thick and the mix of texture from chocolate to biscuit to filling stuff was a joy to munch on. I do like Oreos but the addition of the sweet creamy white chocolate just makes these biscuit perfection. I have a sweet tooth and loved the extra sweetness, and the mix of flavours and textures. Sure they are quite rich, but balance them out with a cup of coffee and just let those sweet flavours sweep over the palette. Did I mention I was stocking up? I really wish these were a permanent edition to the Oreo range, they are by far my favourite Oreo edition.