M&S Collection 6 x Mince Pies (Ocado) By @cinabar

I have tried a few different mince pies this year already in an attempt to find some really good ones. I have tried several supermarket own brands, which are all good and some classic Mr Kipling, again you can’t go wrong with these. To be honest there isn’t a bad mince pie out there. To be fair most of them are of a similar quality, and it varies between whether you prefer a sweeter or sharper taste and how much pasty you like. However when I picked up a box of the rather posh sounding M&S Collection 6 x Mince Pies I was pleased to say that these were my favourites so far.

 

The pies look look very smart and have a star (snowflake?) pattern on the top. The pastry isn’t too thick, but has a lovely buttery taste. There is plenty of filling inside, it is quite generous. The flavour of the mince pie is seasonal and fruity, the mincemeat has a slightly sour tang from the currents but has lots of spices and a warming tough of cognac flavour. These are proper luxury mince pies and my favourites of the shop bought ones. However if you know of some that you think maybe be better let me know, I’m happy to try some more varieties in the name of research.

Wensleydale with Chocolate and Orange (Tesco) By @Cinabar

I was looking at cheese in Tesco in the hope of picking up something a little different, the shop did not disappoint. I found this Tesco own brand Wensleydale with Chocolate and Orange. I had been looking for Wensleydale with fruit, but how could I resist this strange combination. Chocolate and cheese?

The cheese is actually quite small, and it is covered in wax. For those wondering the best way to open these types of cheese, I always cut the cheese in half (with the wax on) and the peel the top and bottom on the wax off, and the sides should just peel as one. I like Wensleydale cheese and it is a creamy crumbly mild cheese and always works well when paired with sweet fruit (like cranberries or apricots) I was looking forward to seeing how chocolate orange worked with it.

There were plenty of chocolate drops within the cheese, more than I had expected. I gave a piece a try and oh my, I realised I had found the perfect dessert cheese. The flavour was sweet but perhaps not quite as sweet as expected, there was cocoa and citrus and a wonderful creamy flavour from the cheese. I really enjoyed this. I’m so glad this cheese is more than just novelty and it manages to actually work even as a crazy combination. Definitely one for the Christmas cheeseboard.

Reese's, Hershey & Bahlsen - pink chocolate and Halloween leftovers by @NLi10

Discount chocolate is ace.  Today are some things that I picked up post Halloween for lower prices to try. 

I collated these all into a video if that is more your style. 

First up is the Reese's OVERLOAD - which is essentially a Reese's shape with slightly more biscuit inside.  It's nice - but it's not unexpected.

And don't get me wrong - as a discount snack I'm very happy with this.  I just would probably get a Twix for the regular price.

And here we have some discount pink chocolate - better than half price in Sainsbury's.  I love this generally, the mix of sugar and fruit is the foundation of my childhood.  This fondant approximation is fine - but the Pocky ones have better fruit, and white mice are more my style for the choc.

Enjoyable - but very much a small chunk at a time choc. Too sweet with too little flavour for mass snackage.

And now we have Messino Pink G&T ... well... Jaffa cakes!

Look like Jaffa Cakes! Taste like pink fruity alcohol.

Very hard to photo.  Again - pretty cheap and well worth the entry price - but unlike the regular cakes I could only eat a couple of these at a time. 

It's nice to get the best of the best when they get launched, but picking up three times as much when they get reduced is also pretty awesome!

Hope some of these are still floating around for people now.

What the FX! Beer (@WeeBeerShop) By @SpectreUK

I'm guessing someone at the Cross Borders Brewing Company doesn't like bankers and brokers. What the FX! Is their 6.8% in volume offering export ale to match the reported 6.8% paid to the Foreign Exchange bankers and brokers whenever we send money to friends and family abroad. I'm a terrible skinflint myself and I hate to lose money on any kind of transaction. I feel lucky I don't have any family abroad.

On opening What the FX! their was a sweet aroma of malted barley with a little wheat to finish. This frothy topped deep brown almost red coloured ale has a strong complex flavour. There was plenty of malted barley, in fact heaps of it all throughout the flavour and into the aftertaste. I don't think I've ever had such a strong malted barley flavour from a beer before. There was a little bitterness towards the back of each mouthful, but that seemed to be more from the strength of the alcohol by volume, rather than any hops I could place.

This What the FX! ale is certainly a very tasty beer indeed, and I'm sure I'd be happy with some more to drink down at some point. I reckon it would go down just as well with a steak and chips meal, or as a sweet malty pudding beer with a packet of biscuits. Lovely!

Proper Corn - Caramelised Biscuit Popcorn (Tesco) By @cinabar

In my search for the perfect popcorn for movie nights in I picked up a bag of this Proper Corn Caramelised Biscuit Popcorn. I like the idea of trying flavoured popcorns and there are some lovely creative ones around at the minute, like these. Those caramelised biscuits you get in cafes or hairdressers (or buy in bulk in Poundland) are some of my favourites as I absolutely love cinnamon and spice, so I was excited to find out how this would combine with the popcorn flavour.

I poured some out to munch on while watching Netflix (we are still working our way through Money Heist). The popcorn has a generous dusting of seasoning and all the pieces look nice and fluffy. I gave one a try and found the popcorn to have a lovely spiced biscuit flavour. There was a fair amount of cinnamon and just enough sweet biscuit to make it work. The popcorn isn’t overly sweet but I found it to be well balanced and deceptively moreish. I know I love cinnamon so this just worked for me, I needed portion control not to eat the whole bag!

VOCATION special edition Triple Vision Triple IPA by @NLi10

 I like the odd beer - and this one certainly looks odd!  I found it on holiday in September (possibly Tesco?) when we did a drinks run and it's survived until now.

A quick aside - the other beer I bought by this company I drank at the time, and it wasn't anything exciting - so I'd expected this to be the same (but stronger).

So - what is it besides awesome art?

Three kinds of hops? Loads of fruit?  Sounds awesome to me and exactly what I want in a beer with takeaway situation.

One of my friends hated it - the other loved it's massive frutiness.

I was also a big fan - I think those first initial sips as the bubbles bring all the flavour out were the best.  So its a really good drinking drink, but the deep flavours really complemented the (char-sui pork) curry that I had.  

I'd worried that it would be an evil strong concoction, but it was surprisingly light and the perfect size for a social meal with friends.  And I got to take the pretty can home too!

Vimto Flying Saucers (GB Gifts) By @SpectreUK

I've loved Vimto since I was a young boy. Sometimes I feel I've been alive so long it takes quite a bit for my memory to track back that far. I was definitely as rotten at spelling then as I am now. Predictive text can be a pain on many devices. If I didn't keep looking up whilst I type this blog very nearly ended up being called "Vimeo Flying Sausages"!

I've popped open a bottle of Vimto cordial to have a glass with these Vimto Flying Saucers. Don't worry I'll add water! A friend of ours from across the great pond sent us a clip of someone drinking undiluted Ribena the other day, because that's how she thought it should be drunk. Oh, well… she seemed to like it though.

Anyway, the mixed flavours of grapes, raspberries, and blackcurrants in Vimto always take me back to my childhood, no matter how long it takes to finish the drink just to wind back the years. I do like to eat sweets. They make me feel young. I do like to feel young.

Two people have called me, "Young Man" today, which is always nice. My dad used to call me that all the time. No matter how many years roll by, no matter how many ups and downs, trials and scars we try to learn from and heal from, most people are still kids inside. Most adults are generally falling over ourselves and making it up as we go along.

Flying Saucers have always been a big favourite of mine. I usually bite the wafer disc in half, lick all the sherbet out and eat the rest of the Flying Saucer. It feels like a just comeuppance for Mars Attacks. This method of eating usually goes well unless I sneeze half the way through eating a flying saucer and end up covered in sherbet.

On opening the bag each Vimto Flying Saucer has "Vimto" on one side and words such as "I see Vimto in you" and "cheeky rascal" on the other side, and of course don't forget the screaming pile of Alien sherbet inside. They must know how I eat Flying Saucers. Unfortunately I don't think I've been called a "cheeky rascal" in forty years.

Eating these Vimto Flying Saucers in my traditional way whilst drinking a heavy on the cordial glass of Vimto was a blast. Pure joy really. It doesn't take a lot to get me going, I can tell you. There were fruity flavours both in the wafer and the sherbet. The sherbet had a light fizz whilst eating it. All washed down with my fruity Vimto drink.

I'm now back in full rehabilitation for my knee, shoulder and other injuries and a few months to recover after fifteen months of rotten jobs, some not so nice people and not much fun at the best of times. After getting up at 6am and exercising until 10am, then spending a good couple of hours in the sauna and steam room, then a COVID-19 booster jab, and some supermarket shopping, it feels good to kick back and eat some really good sweets. So I've got my Vimto, my Vimto Flying Saucers, and now all I need is some kids TV… Thunderbirds anyone?

Information on the packet; The 40g bag contains 367 calories per 100g, with 0.5g of fat, 56g of sugar, and 0.93g of salt. The ingredients have natural colours, and natural Vimto flavours including extracts from fruits. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Fully Loaded Cheeseburger Stonebaked Pizza (Marks and Spencer) By @Cinabar

This new pizza caught my eye in Marks and Spencers, as it is treat night in item combing takeaway items of burgers and pizza, what could be better. This Fully Loaded Cheeseburger Stonebaked Pizza implies a generous topping which include burger meat, gherkins, plenty of cheese and a sachet of burger sauce for drizzling after it is cooked. It is on a thin stonebaked base, I like both thin and deep dish pizzas as I’m quite easy going with my pizza carbs.

The pizza cooks in 12minutes in a hot oven, and then we added the sachet of sauce and shared the pizza with coleslaw. Firstly it made a big portion which was nice and it smelled lovely when cooking. I gave the pizza a try and found the burger topping was gorgeous. The pizza really did taste like burgers, I think the gherkins and the burger sauce added the zingy traditional edge and the yellow cheese just helped to recreate the tase. It was a fun meaty and tasty pizza that had me smiling throughout the meal. Sometimes it is the simple pleasures and this just hit the spot. This Fully Loaded Cheeseburger Stonebaked Pizza is definitely one I’ll be buying again.

McVities Christmas Pudding Digestive Biscuits (Tesco) By @Cinabar

Last year McVities brought out Gingerbread Digestives in what was one of my favourite cross over products ever. I bought several packs, and we were happily munching on them well into the new year. This year there are couple of new cross overs, again both seasonal and the first ones up are these McVities Christmas Pudding Digestive Biscuits. These are chocolate digestive biscuits made with the flavour of Christmas pudding, an excellent idea and I couldn’t wait to tuck in.

I opened up the packet and there wasn’t any great aroma, the biscuits did smell a little fruity but only if you got close! I gave one a try and I have to say it was an anticlimax. There was a vague hint of seasonal spice and a vague hint of fruit, which are Christmas flavours but there isn’t much too them and I couldn’t get onboard with them. This biscuit is far from wow and I felt there wasn’t enough flavour to make them really fun and seasonal but there was enough to make you think it wasn’t worth it and that I’d rather have a regular chocolate digestive. The spice was a mild distraction. For my tastebuds these McVities Christmas Pudding Digestive Biscuits are not close to the Gingerbread ones, but I have a packet of the new Mince Pie Digestives I’m hoping will be better.

New Cadbury Plant Bar - Almonds/Salted Caramel by @NLi10 (@Sainsburys)

In the supermarket (Sainsbury's) about an hour ago a lady introduced us to the newest addition to the Cadbury line-up

Cadbury Plant Bar

I decided to move today's beer review to Thursday and talk about it today - I even made a video!

Have you watched it? We really need the views! 

Oh well - most of our regulars are text based anyway 😊 here's the details.

Cadbury don't really have any overtly Vegan products - which is a shame - but the fact they gave us a leaflet shows they are serious.

So - it's Cadbury chocolate - but without the famous Dairy Milk - will the taste survive?

Both have opted for almonds which is a great choice - I love almond milk.  It's a lot flatter than I expected though - the cubes have almost vanished.

And here is the first version - the plain so to speak.  This tastes a lot like Dairy Milk chocolate.  It's not dark in any way - in fact I'd have guessed that this was dairy chocolate made lighter in some way.  The classic Cadbury taste is less evident than in some of their products (like the Rocky Road from their on-site cafe up the road in Bourneville) but it's there.

I like this and I think that in a blind test most people would say it's Cadbury and not guess that it's Vegan.

Next up we have the salted caramel version - you can see the bits! 

This is a lot sweeter than the first bar - almost too much for me.  I managed three flats of the first bar, but after two of this I was ready to stop.  I ate the third for science.

On reflection I think this has a more exciting flavour, but the first bar is a lot more snackable.  I'm never a fan of the Cadbury Caramel range though so maybe this wasn't meant for me.

Do try to hunt this down (seemingly exclusive to Sainsbury's in UK at the moment) and have a try.  The more people that like this then the more sustainable the whole range will become.

It's good chocolate after all - if not a little expensive at £2.50 for 90g.

Brewdog Parma Violets New England IPA (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

I honestly have no idea why Cinabar thought it would be a good idea to buy me this Parma Violets New England IPA, by Brewdog. I hate Parma Violets. To me they were the punishment sweets left at the bottom of the assorted sweets bag for someone else to throw away. Cinabar must be wanting to torture me for some reason or other…

Parma Violets are traditionally made with British Violets. If I had reading glasses I still wouldn't be able to read the ingredients on the insanely coloured can. At 5.5% in volume this Parma Violets New England IPA won't be strong enough in alcohol content to numb the flavour. In fact I can't imagine a percentage high enough that would numb the flavour. I realise you can only ever have 100% of something, but numbing Parma Violets would take far more than a gerbillion percent!

I initially thought this Parma Violets New England IPA would be a sweet pudding beer due to it's name. On opening the can there was the aroma of strong floral hops. Actually I thought it was a pretty decent smell. Strong, bitter and floral. I'm used to floral hops just as much as I am used to many other hops varieties. I remember I do love heather flavoured ale, so things were looking up.

On taste this murky golden India Pale Ale is really heavy in floral nature. I could say it was Violets in the flavour if I could have read the ingredients. I must get my eyes tested! I'm slightly frustrated that I liked it. Cinabar will be even more frustrated as I still reckon she is trying to torture me. I was so sure I'd hate this Parma Violets New England IPA and would tip it away in disgust, but actually it's a really floral flavoursome beer with a sweetness towards the aftertaste from the pale and possibly crystal malts. I don't think I've ever tasted such a floral ale before, definitely not in the pale variety. I'd actually quite happily have another!

Retro Corn - Strawberries and Cream Popcorn (Ocado) By @Cinabar

In my continued search for new and interesting popcorn to eat during film night I decided to have look and see what was available on the Ocado website, to add to my grocery order. I now have a full cupboard of popcorn and the new problem, choosing which to eat first. I reached in and picked out this bag of Retro Corn Strawberries and Cream.

The popcorn is made with the sweets Strawberries and Cream which are crushed up and used as a topping. I poured some out to munch on, and thought that there didn’t look like there was much topping on the popcorn. The crushed sweets were pale pink but sadly there wasn’t that much to see. I gave some of the Retro Corn Strawberries and Cream popcorn a try and it was mostly quite flavourless. Some of the pieces that had the pink coating were pleasant and sweet but even then still not that strong in strawberry flavour, others were milder still. The popcorn was fluffy and crunchy with a decent texture but taste-wise I needed more.

Don’t worry though I have a good selection of other popcorns to try and hopefully I’ll find the perfect bag of popcorn for movie night in.

Diforti - Pistachio Cannoli (@Nli10)

 

I do like Italian snacks - and cannoli is certainly the king of those.

This deluxe range was picked up for me to munch through.

These are a little bit special too - they are made of crispy sugary almonds and then filled with the pistachio cream - double nuts!

Look at all that goo!  Feels like something that you might find on bake off.

The cream inside is really smooth - not too strong a flavour, and maybe a little too sweet - but overall it's a lovely combination. A half of one of these makes a lovely accompaniment to a cup of tea, and a whole one is a little luxury pudding.

Yum!

Old Jamaica Rhubarb & Ginger Ale (Asda) By @SpectreUK

I generally have a diet Old Jamaica beer every evening to settle my stomach after dinner. I do love diet Jamaica Ginger Beer. It's got quite a kick to it. Ginger Ale generally doesn't have much of a kick as it's ginger flavoured carbonated water, rather than fermented ginger beer. However I have tried Old Jamaica Ginger Ale, and I can say that it's the most fiery ginger ale I've tried to date. So Old Jamaica are doing something right there.

I do love rhubarb. I used to go it in the garden and have rhubarb juice made for me by Cinabar. It was super sweet and tasty. This Old Jamaica Rhubarb & Ginger Ale is very pink in colour. It's 20 calories per 100ml, with 4.9g of sugar, which I'll frustratingly have to factor into my calorie counting.

There was a spicy sweet rhubarb aroma on opening the bottle and quite a fizz. On taste this Old Jamaica Rhubarb & Ginger Ale has an almost saccharin sweet taste of rhubarb, and with a warming ginger spice at the back of flavour. This super sweet rhubarb flavour was almost a little too sweet for me. I liked it, but it wasn't worth the 'hidden' calories that a diet drink can alleviate.

Choccie Dodgers (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

There have been various versions of Jammie Dodgers over the years usually with a jam filling, to keep to the name, but occasionally with twists like toffee. These are Choccie Dodgers and I won’t lie they did feel familiar from somewhere, was there once a version of Jammie Dodgers with a chocolate hazelnut spread? Or have I just eaten too many biscuits over the years and there was something similar from a different brand?

Anyway these Choccie Dodgers have no jam and instead have a chocolate centre with a chocolate heart showing through. They do look pretty in the pack. Jammie Dodgers aren’t my favourite biscuits (I hope that isn’t too controversial) but I can’t help feeling the jam at least brings balance when I eat them. As much as I like chocolate generally these ones seemed a little drier for the chocolate, even though it was quite smooth in texture. I think I prefer the contrast of a zingy filling be it the regular red jam or a zesty seasonal lemon flavour. These Choccie Dodgers are nice enough biscuits but there are better Jammie Dodger flavours and better chocolate biscuits out there.

Blood Orange Flavour Drinking Chocolate (Asda) By @Cinabar

I can’t help but get excited about a new variety of hot chocolate and this tin of Blood Orange Flavour Drinking Chocolate looked amazing especially as it was part of Asda’s Extra Special range. One of the great things about this time of year is new hot chocolates, although I do drink them all year round I like the extra selection we get in the winter months. I opened up the tin and could really see the sugar mixed in with the cocoa, there was a nice orange and chocolate scent too.

I heated some milk in the microwave and was pleased that the Blood Orange Flavour Drinking Chocolate mixed in quite well, with a bit of a stir it all dissolved nicely. I gave the drink a sip and honestly couldn’t make my mind up on the flavour. The chocolate seems dark but it still has sweetness, the orange tasted bitter (it is supposed to be blood orange) and this almost worked with the chocolate but it wasn’t quite the dream match. The drink is nice, it is pleasant, I just felt like it could have been better. The dark chocolate, the sweetness and the bitter orange flavoured all just seemed a little at odds with one another all fighting to be the lead flavour and somehow none of them won.

Two styles of vegan chocolate - Gnaw & Happi (@NLi10)

 Dark chocolate is good for you - lots of people recommend a little a day to do all kinds of magical things.  Me?  I just enjoy dark chocolate!  And vegan chocolate is by definition dark chocolate right - well - not anymore, you can add other milky things like oats to the mix to make it more accessible to the regular chocolate eater.

So - here we have two versions - one gifted by my mom (Gnaw Dark Chocolate) and one picked up by me from Red Brick market in Birmingham (specifically The Peddling Pantry).

First up Vegan-dark GNAW

We've had this a while - I don't like to open things until I'm ready to review and eat, and we've had a lot of choc recently.

Seems pretty good. £2.99 for 100g isn't cheap but it's fairly standard.  Palm Oil free is a big tick - and it's fully compostable.  

Looks ace! Putting shiny things in the compost heap always feels odd - but at least this will biodegrade in landfill and not leave plastics behind.

And it's certainly a dark chocolate - not too aggressive (my partner enjoyed it and she dislikes the 90% dark style things).  The flavour is strong, and the texture has some welcome grain to it - a pleasure to melt on the tongue.  I don't think you'll accidentally eat a whole bar without realising though - it's still dark choc after all!

The side effects of being Vegan are negligible. No wacky aftertaste or odd melt pattern (NoMo flashbacks!)

So how about the Happi?  This one feels a lot more like a real Vegan work - with all it's credentials on display.  It's also a little more expensive at £1.85 for 40g although I think they did sell 100g for a similar price to the Gnaw (but like I said - I have heaps of chocolate to get through!)

Oat milk has a tendency to disappoint me as it's not my favourite in tea, and not as good as almond is with cereal.  Slave free chocolate - with fully compostable inner (and recyclable box) certainly makes me happy.  While we can now recycle pet food pouches we really don't generate much packaging waste in our house and it feels great!

Inside is less spectacular though - this one doesn't feel like a present.  That said - cracking open the plant based wrapper unleashes the orange and all is forgiven.   This one is smooooooth and while a little darker than your typical high street bar it's very snackable.  I've accidentally eaten twice as much of this as the Gnaw bar while reviewing...

This is the future of vegan chocolate then.  Sustainable - cow free - slave free - and with none of those old school vegan issues with the texture and aftertaste.

I fully expect to get more of these when I pop into the market again (maybe today if it's still open!) as they have a much milkier version to risk...

Meet Me Underwater Seaweed Beer (@BrassCastleBeer) By @SpectreUK

"Meet Me Underwater" sounds like some sort of cryptic message between lovers on holiday in a beach resort, or even a couple who meet in the spa pool at the gym and start seeing each other there on a regular basis. From the heat of some sunny far off place to the heat of a sauna, there is always thirst that needs quenching after passionate moments!

Meet Me Underwater is the last of my Brass Castle Brewery beers that Cinabar bought for me a while back. This Sabro & Mosaic Red IPA is flavoured with Seaweed. This is a famous beer, as it's recently been on the Hairy Bikers cooking programme. I haven't seen the episode myself, but Cinabar and her mom enjoyed it. I still haven't forgiven one of them for his terrible Strictly Come Dancing performances, and taking the criticism waaaay too seriously!

I've been a bit hit and miss with Brass Castle Brewery beers. Some I've enjoyed, some I've disliked so much I've struggled to finish them. I like citrus tropical hops flavours, so I can't see a problem with the Sabro and Mosaic hops. I love India Pale Ales. I've even liked a seaweed flavoured beer in the past. So I can't see any problems there either. And lore, looking at the ingredients the 'red' in this beer is malted rye! Oh my, I absolutely adore rye beer!

On opening Meet Me Underwater, this 6.5% in volume rye red IPA… (just typing 'rye' makes me so excited, as I haven't seen a rye beer for a couple of years at least…) had an aroma of citrus tropical hops and a touch of spice from the rye. Rye, rye, rye… yippie! This deep red (because of the RYE) IPA has a perfect balance of bitter tropical hops from the Sabro, with slight pine and floral favours from the Mosaic, merging sublimely with the sweet pale malts and spiciness from the… wait for it… rye!

Gosh, this is probably my favourite beer of this year so far. Although I may be a little biased towards the malted rye?! There is the merest hint of seaweed under all that beautiful spice from the rye after it merges with the bitter hops. If the can hadn't mentioned it, I'd probably not have noticed the seaweed, as I may be slightly over excited about the RYE! I'd certainly have plenty more of these cans in stock for warming me up over the winter months.

So Meet Me Underwater, in the sauna or wherever you like, just see if you can find me a rye beer on the way!

Gingerbread Pretzel Flipz (Asda) By @Cinabar

I do really enjoy Flipz as I like the mix of sweet and salty pretzel underneath. These are the small crunchy American style pretzels, not to be confused with the large fluffy ones from Europe. There are quite a few different flavours of Flipz available, both in the UK and from import shops, but here we have a wonderful new seasonal variety; Gingerbread Pretzel Flipz.

Inside he bag are dark cream coloured pretzels with an icing drizzle. I gave one a try an was super impressed by the flavour. The icing is a sweet gingerbread taste, not too spicy and with an almost treacle like taste. It was a decent recreation of gingerbread. The salt catches from the crunchy pretzel and it totally lights up the gingerbread taste, it was like a sprinkling of magic. Sweet and savoury. As each taste is different depending on the amount of salt underneath it, it makes them really interesting and really moreish to eat. These are probably my favourite edition of Flipz pretzels to date and definitely a flavour I’ll be stocking up on. That large bag of Gingerbread Pretzel Flipz did not last long.