Cadbury Darkmilk Dessert (Asda) By @Cinabar

Cadbury Darkmilk chocolate is half way between milk chocolate and dark chocolate for people who really can’t make their mind up,. I like both varieties dark and milk (and white too) anyway so this chocolate works for me as well. It has been popular for Cadbury and now they are branching out into desserts with it. I bought these online and that means they had a tiny picture to see when I added them to the basket so I didn’t notice the full description. I thought I was buying a two pack of chocolate mousse, even when I put them in the fridge I was thinking the same thing, mousse. I even still thought they were chocolate mousse up until I started eating them when I found the dried sponge layer in the middle (I think Cadbury may have a better name for it) and realised my error. The mousse section is lovely, the cream on top works well the uninvited dried sponge (apparently it is a chocolate chip cookie?) seems out of place. I like texture generally so not sure why I’ve never been excited about that part but I’ve fallen for it before. In my defence the picture on the pack isn’t that clear that there are layers it looks like it is all mousse?

Oh well, these were nearly spot on but I’m pleased I only had a twin pack, as much as I normally like different textures when eating these would have benefitted from being smooth all the way, with just the cream on top.

Eat Out - but actually outside - To Help Out - UK Restaurants are BACK (@NLi10)

Well the sun is out - so lets go to visit our favourite restaurants. But wait - we are still in Covid precautions - how is this possible?

We are outside on the street!

Despite the lovely cocktails it's actually quite cold - it's April in England (Lichfield) so wear a coat.

The food we chose was Ma Ma Thai, and I had the Pad Thai Moo and my partner had the Masaman Tofu Curry.  Both as amazing as usual, but particulalry sweet as our first proper meal out together in maybe 18 months!

And then I got to go and sit in my parents lovely garden and drink tea and eat cake!

These are the rewards we get for staying safe and distant and getting vaccinated.

 

Robinsons Blackcurrant Cordial (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I don't usually write about cordials. In fact I can't remember if I have written about one in the past. Apparently, so Cinabar tells me, this cordial is a momentous release. It's the first time Robinsons have produced a Blackcurrant cordial. I drink huge amounts of Ribena and also Vimto. I've tried other supermarket brands of blackcurrant flavoured cordials, but none of them ever seem to match up. It makes me wonder what this Robinsons Blackcurrant cordial will be like, and if it has the juice (pun intended) to run the gauntlet of my tastebuds.... just trying to build up some tension...

At double strength I shouldn't have to put so much in the glass as I usually do with other cordials before adding water. This Robinsons Blackcurrant cordial is made with real fruit juice and has no added sugar, which is always a preference of mine where cordials are concerned. There was certainly a strong blackcurrant fruity smell on opening the bottle. I tipped half the amount into my glass than I usually do with my other two favourite cordials, and then added filtered water. On taste this Robinsons Blackcurrant cordial is very fruity indeed. I definitely didn't need to go too heavy on it. The blackcurrant flavour is strong and sweet. It's definitely going to be a regular blackcurrant cordial in the house from now onwards. Nice one Robinsons!

Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange (Tesco) By @Cinabar

Orange is have the best couple of years. While the rest of us have limited our social lives to stay safe orange has been getting about teaming up with chocolate and appearing all over the place, it is been having the time of its life. Obviously Cadbury has jumped on the combo and we have this new Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange bar. I have an American friend who doesn’t like fruit and chocolate and is not enjoying the current chocolate orange trend at all but I was looking forward to trying this out.

The Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange packaging has some slight changes too if you look the purple background there are some dairy milk images embedded in it which I like, the text is a bit chunkier though which I’m less keen on. The key test is with the flavour though so I snapped a strip of chocolate off and gave it a try. I was impresses with the flavour. The orange was stronger than I expected and was sweet and citrusy, it does go well with the chocolate. The Dairy Milk still add plenty to the flavour as there are lots of good chocolat tones, the orange does distract from that signature creamy flavour though. I enjoyed the Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange bar, easy to eat and very enjoyable. Salted Caramel has been on trend for so long it is about time something different had a try out as being the new flavour of choice, it is great for those of us that love fruit and chocolate.

Muller Light - Millionaire Shortbread (Asda) By @cinabar

These were a replacement item from my online order at Asda for a different type of Muller yoghurts that I had ordered. We have had a few decent hits with random replacement items, and even managed to try some new things I wouldn’t have bought so I was quite pleased when these arrived. Normally these multipacks of Muller Light have two flavours in the pack but this particular set is all one variety, Muller Light Millionaire Shortbread, they must be be pretty confident everyone will like them.

  

I had the first one with my lunch as a bit of sweet treat without the guilt. It was a really good sweet treat too, the flavour was creamy sweet with lots of biscuit and rich caramel tones. There wasn’t too much chocolate but there was some real bits in the yoghurt which added a nice texture. I was impressed, they did have all the elements of the Millionaire Shortbread taste with a heavy hit of caramel and I really liked them. This was a lovely finish to my lunch and I’m looking forward to the rest of the multipack of these Muller Light Millionaire Shortbread yoghurts.

We Have Nando's At Home (and it's real Nandos too!) by @NLi10

Thanks to the tricks that lock-down plays with your mind I thought we'd reviewed these before!  I mean a quick search for Nandos on this site reveals a LOT of other things - but not these kits.

And they look luxurious.  A little cheaper than I'd expected considering the brand and the price of the Old El Passo kits.  Naturally we went medium

While we did a veggie version we did add real cheese (but not to mine).

We have tomato, pepper, and courgette - along with a little spinach at the end.

The main protein to mix with the flavour sachet was Fry's vegan mince.  I thought it worked well but my partner isn't so keen on the spongy texture so we probably will stick to Quorn.  This behaves more like animal protein in cooking though so the dust sticks for once. 

And with the addition of the veg it looks like a real mix.  There are only 4 wraps instead of the usual 6-8 in the box though which explains the reduced price - and I think they are a little smaller.  They are very good textured wraps though so I wasn't complaining.

And here it is with the 'chilli jam' (salsa) and Mayo (which we had in the fridge anyway) all ready to roll up and smush.  I don't think there is much in the kit that you couldn't just figure out yourself - just find some peri-peri rub and a jar of salsa - but like with the other kits it just feels that little bit more special to throw it together from the box - and it's a quick and effective meal for 2.

The other brand kits could be expanded to a family of 4 quite easily but for these you'd need to buy a box per 2 people - as long as you keep that in mind then this is a hit!

 

Pineapple Express IPA (@tinyrebelbrewco) By @SpectreUK

Believe it or not many years ago one of the most prized possessions in a home was a pineapple. If you look in some stately homes there are carvings and statues and paintings containing pineapples. Rich folk used to spend top money for them and wave them about at parties, never eating them, staring at them for hours on end, possibly talking to them in low tones so no one else could hear, and slowly let them go rotten. Sounds mad to me... Personally I do like pineapple rings from a tin on gammon with some fried egg and chips on the side.

Tiny Rebel and Polly's Brew Co. have joined together to produce this 6.2% in volume Pineapple Express IPA. It's brewed with citrus hops and pineapple juice. Sadly I had steak tonight... well, actually it was very tasty indeed and perfectly cooked, but nevertheless, no gammon to be washed down by this Pineapple Express IPA. So on opening the can there was a citrus hoppy smell followed by a heavy pineapple aroma. Misty golden almost yellow in colour this Pineapple Express IPA had a slim head and a look of pineapple juice after pouring.

On taste there was a jumble of fruitiness to begin with as the pineapple juice and bitter hoppy grapefruit flavours, possibly from Chinook hops, battled for supremacy. Then the sweet pale malts sneaked in to take the palate. The bitterness from those citrus grapefruit flavoured hops then take a bow mixing with the extra fruitiness from the added pineapple juice. This is a very refreshing drink. Something to be enjoyed on a hot day with a good book in the garden followed by a barbecue with friends. Socially distancing, I suppose, but hey, we're almost there! ;-)

Space Raiders Pickled Onion Potato Shapes (Iceland) By @Cinabar

I saw a picture of this bag of Space Raiders Pickled Onion Potato Shapes shared with me on Twitter and I have to admit to spending several minutes trying to work out why it was supposed to be interesting. Space Raiders crisps have been around for a long time, and although I haven’t bought any in a while their existence didn’t surprise me. I had miss seen the pack and thought it was just a multipack of the regular crisps. These Space Raiders Pickled Onion Potato Shapes aren’t crisps these are actually more of a chips style product that you bake, I ordered a bag!

 

The pack is really very similar to the multipack packaging, but I did manage to put them in the freezer for storage. The potato shapes simply bake, and look pretty smart when I poured some onto the baking tray. Once cooked they kept their shape and still looked neat. The coating was very lightly crispy and the filing was soft fluffy potato, the problem was the flavour. There was no wow factor just the mildest mild hint of onion, really not that exciting. These Space Raiders Pickled Onion Potato Shapes are a nice idea, fun shapes but they were noncommittal on the whole pickled onion flavour opting for a child friendly mildness that missed the point. I wanted more zing.

Emily Fruit Crisps - Crunchy Red Apple (@NLi10)

 In my childhood we were often told we could have absolutely any snack food we wanted - as long as the health food shop sold it!  This led to lots of wonderful things (like Kettle Chips) and horrific things (Carob).  In the middle were things that were probably not as healthy as they should be, but still were nice enough we had them more than once.  Apple crisps were one of these.

I remember the bags being really small and the chunks inside almost being like dust - but we've come on a long way since that.

Large enough to be a 1 of your 5 a day portion, and with pretty much the least ingredients possible (apple & oil) these have to be reasonably nutritious.

And they are recognisable too - not spongy like 'dried fruit' but crispy - like crisps!  I'm not sure these would satisfy the modern child (we used to always have the green ones too but I didn't see those this time) but this modern version certainly taste and feel a lot more like apples.  Good to keep work snack cravings at bay.

Galaxy White Chocolate (GB Gifts) By @SpectreUK

I finally had my hair cut today after about five months. I was just about to get it cut before we locked down but didn't manage it in time before they closed the barbers. My greyish hair has grown and grown from plain unmanageable to just stepped off a submarine to crazy hill folk to dotty professor to crazy old lady without a tea-cosy on her head to mad medieval cleric to swashbuckling pirate who was just missing an eye patch and a parrot. Don't get me wrong, at 45 years old it's great have a head of hair as thick as my head, but it was starting to feel like I was exercising in a woolly hat! It is very short and neat now and I'm hoping we never have to lockdown again.

For an extra treat I've picked this Galaxy White Chocolate bar to write about. I'm eating it after my dinner and washing it down with my favourite white hot chocolate and a small tub of caramel ice cream... Yep, I workout a lot! So on unwrapping the bar there was a creamy looking shape to each block. The white chocolate itself is deliciously creamy. One of the best white chocolate bars I reckon I've ever tasted, and I've had quite a few in the past. Gosh it was so melt in the mouth creamy. I couldn't fault it. In fact I'm going to ask Cinabar to order me more of these Galaxy White Chocolate bars for a regular pudding treat with my white hot chocolate. Pure bliss.

Information on the wrapper; There are 219 calories in a bar, with 20g of sugar, 14g of fat, 0.09g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Flipz Cookies & Cream (Co-Op) By @Cinabar

Somebody recently said to me that Flipz Pretzels were one of the greatest imports to the UK from the USA. I think they might me made here now but the idea started with finding products like these in import shops and they have taken off, so much so I found this new variety of Flipz Cookies & Cream in my Co-Op.

Flipz are savoury salty crunchy pretzels covered in a sweet coating in this case it is a Cookies & Cream icing. I opened up the bag and poured some out to try and was a little surprised that colour of the pretzels was a little grey and not that appetising. They had a nice pattern from the stripes but the underlying colour was still greyish. I gave one a try though and the flavour was lovely and far made up for the colour. The cookie and cream icing was lovely, creamy, sweet and butterscotch like, when combined with the salty pretzel it gave off the most wonderful sweet and salty vibe. I love that mix of sweet and savoury. It reminded me of salted caramel too, so very tasty. I stopped caring about the colour of the Flipz Cookies & Cream and started focusing on the flavour, they are so good to munch on and well worth picking up.

Monster Munch Giants - Roast Beef (Tesco) By @Cinabar

Gosh I used to love Monster Munch Roast Beef, I think sometimes I just forget to buy them. I associate them with childhood, I just needed an excuse to rediscover them and here we have it Monster Munch Giants! I spotted these in Tesco and popped the bag in my basket.

The packet has a ridiculously large Monster Munch designed on the front and as much as I have my hopes up about the size but there was a tiny note saying not actual size. I poured some out of the bag and onto the plate and they looked a little bit bigger than the ones I remember from childhood. I think they are may one and half times bigger, double maybe at the tops? These are a few centimetre across, they are larger but not my definition of ‘giant’. Still taste-wise they are good, the classic roast beef flavour, the crumbly crunchy texture, gosh I need to get myself a multipack of regular Monster Munch, I’ve missed these. I want Flamin Hot too just to reminisce. These may not be as giant as I had hoped but I certainly enjoyed the bag of Monster Munch Giants Roast Beef anyway.

By the way those that like the pickled onion are weird, but there is also a Monster Munch Giant Pickled Onion, if you think you can handle it.

Limited Edition Strawberry & White Choc Kellogg's Coco Pops (@NLi10)

 Coco Pops seem to be where Kellogg's are trying their new ideas.  First up we had the White Choc version - as Cinabar said they were fine.  Now we have the Limited Edition Strawberry & White Choc Kellogg's Coco Pops - which I guess is the same mix but with a touch of strawberry added.

Again - these have been well advertised on the social media - and were in the entrance of the store.  

FloBot is keen to check that they are not cat biscuits - the smell is quite fruity and quite strong!

Thirty Percent less sugar than they decided to put in previous versions of the cereal!

They just look like slightly darker Rice Krispies in this light.  And - while the milk isn't quite as white as it was I wouldn't say it's bright pink (and personally I'm relieved by this!).

The smell is more exciting than the taste - and while you don't have the lovely roast flavour of the Rice Krispies that I might have expected, you do have the chocolatiness of a Coco Pop - but a creamy/fruity version.

I couldn't have blind taste test told you these were strawberry, but they are certainly nice.  It won't take long to destroy this box, but I won't feel the need to hunt down more before they go forever.

Chocolate Orange version next please Mr. Kellogg's!

Bonus Footage:  Pink (ish) milk!

Broadway Boss Pils Lager (London Fields Brewery) By @SpectreUK

Today feels a little like a tentative celebration. We're slowly easing out of another lockdown so shops and bars are opening. I'm going to get my haircut next week. The gym has reopened and I've decided to go back on the 1st of May. I haven't been there for over a year. I'll mainly use the exercise bike and treadmill to help strengthen my knee, and you would not believe how much I've missed the sauna and spa area. It will be good to catch up with people too, I'm hoping they are all still safe and well.

This Broadway Boss from the London Fields Brewery seems like a good Pils lager to celebrate with. At 4.6% in volume it should help to blow out some of the cobwebs and will probably go well with my steak and chips at dinner time. It mentions "a clean finish and lemony zing" on the can, but asides the jazzed up lady who is obviously out on the town on the front of the can, there isn't much more information than that.

On opening the can there was a quick fizz and a mixture of pils and citrus hops in the aroma. This bright shining golden lager has quite a few bubbles running through it. Been as though I get moaned at quite often for the amount of wind that escapes me, I'm guessing this lively lager is going to produce some interesting belches in the not too distant future.

On taste this Broadway Boss screams Pilsner at you. If you like a Pils lager this is for you. There is Pils right the way from the get go into the aftertaste. There is a good crisp fresh bitterness from the citrus hops mid flavour and then back full force to the Pils. I do like this lager, although it's a bit too bubbly, it's certainly flavoursome and did go rather well with my steak and chips. So cheers to the easing of lockdown, let's hope that was the last one we'll need! Stay safe ;-)

Cadbury Marvellous Creations White with Jelly Beans and Popping Candy (Asda) By @Cinabar

I will never grow out of my childish love of popping candy, when I see it included in a bar of chocolate I can’t wait to try it. I have always been a fan of texture in chocolate and food in general and popping candy just adds to that. I was quite pleased to see some of the Master Chef finalists used popping candy in their desserts too, so it is not just me that likes it!

This new bar from Cadbury is a white chocolate bar with jelly beans and popping candy packed in. The bar is quite pretty and put together like a bit piece of crazy paving. It looks nice but it does make it a little more difficult to share. The back of the bar is very bobbled and made me think it was full of rice crispies so I checked the ingredients and it was, even though that didn’t get much of a mention on the front of the wrapper.

The chocolate is very sweet but lots of fun to eat. The texture is incredible, the rice crisps add a lovely light crunch, the jelly beans a bit of fun chewy stickiness and then when you have finished the chocolate your mouth gets an initial fizz and then pops and crackles, which always makes me smile. The flavour is very sweet but creamy from the white chocolate and the jelly beans adds a fun sugary fruity kick too. Although it is a big bar the richness of the flavour meant i only had a strip, it is fun to eat and one for the sweet toothed, but even I found it quite full on!

Basil & Pine Nut Ravioli (Morrisons UK) @NLi10

 Quick dinners are great.  Italian quick dinners are even greater!  Spotted this on my first actual supermarket visit in AGES and couldn't resist.

Box opened and then cardboard put back on so it's less shiny!

This is the classic filled pasta treat.  And as they are gradually getting more luxurious I'm buying even more.

And look - they sold me fresh bread to go alongside it.  Yum!

Boil lightly for 4 mins - done!  Enjoy the pesto and basil scents.

And look at this for a sophisticated (yet light) dinner.  I'd have had a little more chunky pine nuts in the ravioli purely for texture, but this was amazing and good enough to get me to go back to Morrisons.

Milkybar Cookies & Cream (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

I've been a fan of Nestle Milkybar since I was a very young boy. I used to eat it by the small bars, and as I grew older I ate it by the much bigger bars. I must admit that I haven't had a Milkybar for a while. It's not that I've gone off them or anything, it's just that Cinabar does the online shopping and I forget to ask.

I do love a white chocolate bar with my white hot chocolate drink on some evenings for my pudding. Although I've been on a biscuit binge lately. Jam and Creams go very well indeed with a mug of white hot chocolate.

These Milkybar Cookies & Cream are in a 90g packet, which is a little over on the calories for one pudding at 532 calories per 100g. On opening the packet I thought that the pieces were pretty tiny. Cinabar didn't seem to think so, so maybe it was my greed kicking in. 

They are dome shaped and coated with Milkybar white chocolate and have a little block of crunchy cookie inside. These Milkybar Cookies & Cream have a decent crunch with the added creaminess of Milkybar white chocolate and have a chocolate cookie centre. They went very well with my white hot chocolate drink. They were very moreish and I guiltily ate the whole packet. I did workout a lot this morning though, so it's not all naughtiness... well, there's always room for a little naughtiness though! 

Information on the packet; 

The 90g bag contains 532 calories per 100g, with 29.6g of fat, 52.3g of sugar, 9g of protein, and 0.4g of salt. Please see the photograph for the ingredients.

Popcorn Kitchen White Chocolate and Raspberry (Selfridges) By @Cinabar

This purchase was an impulse buy, impressively one that happened online. I was actually using Selfridges online treating myself to a couple of make-up items and thought I’d have a look at snacks as I used to enjoy looking around their Food Hall. A few clicks later and I found this bottle of Popcorn Kitchen White Chocolate and Raspberry popcorn and something about the novelty bottle meant I added it to my basket. Then I forgot and couldn’t work out why when the parcel arrived that two lipsticks could possible need a box that size, I have since banned myself from ordering items after 10pm while sleepy.

Anyway arrived it did and it looks very smart and gift worthy in the bottle, although this is all for snacking on in front of Netflix. The popcorn pieces are quite large and the texture is decent as they are crispy on the outside with a nice soft middle. There were also no un-popped kernels in the pack which is good as that is always a bugbear of mine. The flavour was excellent, every piece had plenty of creamy white chocolate taste and also zingy berry, like they had been dipped in raspberry jam. This may have been a bit of an impulsive buy but I’m very pleased I did pick it as it is a brand I’ll be looking out for in the future. Ideally maybe even having a physical look around actual Selfridges Food Hall not the shops are re-opening.