Harry Ramsden’s Salt & Vinegar Hand Cooked Crisps (Iceland) By @SpectreUK

One of my favourite flavours of crisps is Salt & Vinegar. They go with any sandwich regardless of filling, and certainly go well with my favourite lunch of jam on toast and boiled eggs. Everyone seems to have different traditions of eating boiled eggs, some dunk their toast soldiers, others salt the toast rather than their eggs, but I go with the 'ye olde English' version of eating my marmalade on toast or whatever jam, and then my crisps and eggs for afters. Anyway, I already digress…

 

These new Harry Ramsden's World Famous Fish & Chips Salt & Vinegar flavour Hand Cooked Crisps should go perfectly well with my favourite lunch. On opening the packet, the crisps inside looked very much like any other crisps, but they smelt divine. With the aroma of ultra salt and vinegar, I took my first bite. There was a lovely strong saltiness to these crisps followed closely behind by oodles of vinegar. These crisps not only smelt amazing, but they certainly gave a salty sour punch. Gosh, if you love Salt & Vinegar flavour like I do, these crisps are a definite must eat.

Information on the packet; The multipack contained six bags of crisps at 25g each, having 125 calories per bag, with 7.1g of fat, 0.2g of sugar, and 0.4g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Gu Gold Limited Edition (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I really like Gu desserts, but I only buy them occasionally as a treat or when there is a limited edition. This new one fits into the latter category. Yesterday I wrote about Caramilk ice lollies, and today, on a similar theme of caramel chocolate, I have these Gu Gold Limited Edition desserts.

There are two in the box, and they are in glass ramekins, which can be recycled or apparently topped with a Pringles lid so you can store stuff. 

The bottom of the cheesecake-style dessert has a lovely crumbly biscuit base, and then the next layers add all the golden caramel flavour. They are nice and sweet, with rich golden tones of caramel. There isn’t really a toffee tone; it is more of a sweeter caramel with this dessert, but it is an absolute delight. 

Cadbury Caramilk Ice Creams (Iceland) By @Cinabar

Today is a Public Bank Holiday in the UK and it is sunny, this is an unusual combination. There is a running joke that you don’t need to look at the weather forecast in Britain when there is Bank Holiday because it always rains. So, taking advantage of this unusually warm day, I raided the freezer to see what we had, and I found this fab-looking box of Cadbury Caramilk Ice Creams.

Inside are four ice lollies, and I picked one out. Inside the wrapper is a lovely gold-coloured covered ice cream. I bit into it, and the chocolate wasn’t too thick and gave quite easily. It had all the lovely tones of rich toffee and caramel swirling in the flavour. Underneath was vanilla ice cream that added to the creaminess and was a delight. This was a total treat, and it is nice to see Caramilk and these caramel-flavoured chocolates becoming more popular. I’ve been hooked on them since I was a kid, as I have quite a sweet tooth, and I love that I can now buy ice creams with the flavour. It was the perfect treat on the last Bank Holiday of the month.

Dinosaur Icecream Lolly for Jurassic World [@NLi10]

We've got out of the habit of buying puddings for home - mainly because the Katkin takes up all the spare room in the freezer.  I spotted these cute ice-cream on a stick creations while looking for paratha in Asda and decided that we disserved a treat.

Vanilla & Chocolate flavour is a little disappointing, but I'm not sure what green & brown would have been otherwise - apple & cinnamon isn't what kids want really is it. 

At 35g a pop they really aren't adult size lollies.  I swear the funny feet we had as a kid were at least double that.

And here he is - a cute little specimen, pretty close to the box.

The brown does indeed taste of cocoa, but the vanilla is not really evident.  They should have decided that the dinosaur could have little brown flecks of vanilla in it too and make it more adult and yummy.

I've still not seen the latest dinosaur fest, but I can happily look for it on streaming and eat a few of these like the T-Rex I am.

Izaak Walton - Largemouth Bass Beer (Moddershall Oaks @ModdershallOaks) By @SpectreUK

Moddershall Oaks is a spa hotel just outside of Stafford in the UK. We've been there once before, and decided to spend another night there earlier this week. It's a really good place to relax and indulge. There was an Indian Head Massage in with the deal for the overnight stay.

We used to go to another spa hotel nearby, but it's prices went up, and you couldn't go into the spa area until the next day after staying the first night. As soon as we get to a place, we prefer to go straight into the spa area to relax, rather than have dinner and wait for the next day.

For dinner I decided to have what I had the first time I went to Moddershall Oaks a couple of months ago. I know that's not very adventurous, but fillet steak and chips, with sticky toffee pudding for afters is a big favourite of mine, especially as it was the best sticky toffee pudding I've ever tasted, and the main meal was gorgeous too.

To wash my meal down I decided to have this Largemouth Bass. At 3.9% in volume it was brewed by the Izaak Walton Brewhouse. Golden straw coloured, this ale was brewed with Marris Otter malt and Fuggles hops. It was described on the bottle as having a "distinctive and assertive character, with a fruity finish".

Spicy food and burgers were suggested to eat with this ale. I reckoned my steak and blue cheese sauce wasn't too far away from a burger, so I tucked in and then went for a swig. On first taste I found there was the sweetness of the malts to start with, followed by quite a crisp bite from the herbal hops, and a biscuity fruity finish. This Largemouth Bass went perfectly with my meal. We really enjoyed our relaxing stay at Moddershall Oaks, and look forward to going again for my birthday in July.

 

Cathedral City Cheese and Onion Crisps (Iceland) By @cinabar

I don’t normally get excited about new cheese and onion crisps, I’ve eaten a lot of them over the years. These are a bit special the cheese in them is one of my favourites. Here we have Cathedral City Cheese and Onion Crisps. I think these are an Iceland exclusive, as they stock a few products made with the cheese.

They are available in multipacks of six packs, all in the Cathedral City burgundy. I poured out the crisps, and there was a decent portion. I gave one a try, and the texture is quite thick, they are posh crisps after all, so they have a thicker slice of potato and a hard crunch. The flavour was lovely the cheese was wonderfully rich, and the standout flavour was the onion, which followed and was very much present but didn’t overpower the rich cheddar. These crisps are super tasty. I was very impressed by the flavour and that I could pick up on the cheddar. The texture was a little too crunchy for my taste not enough to stop me from buying them again, but probably a sign that I’m used to less posh crisps! 

Odd (but great) Pizzas, Capaldi's meat & Baker's Vegan (Iceland) [@NLi10]

I had to speed-run Iceland the other day as their security guy graciously let me in but I had to be '2 minutes'.  I got the frozen Italian stuff we talked about before as a repeat - then spotted the £5 Lewis Capaldi Pizza oddity was now £2.  For that price I could risk it for sure.  As there was no stunning veggie I had to pick one up from Asda - but I found a new one so added it to the pile.

I've taken a picture of this before but can't see if I shared it - for a premium pizza it looks a bit flat.

There is some interactive fun to be had though

The video is very worth the click

Turns out though - it's actually pretty special.  This is totally designed with my friend James in mind - it's just meat and base, but the meats and base are incredibly high quality. Like - ridiculous quality. This is almost beyond Waitrose premium £6.50 pizzas in terms of it's loadedness and it's absolutely perfect for teenage boys that hate vegetables. I think that's what put me off - it just doesn't look like it has any flavour deapth or variety to the bite - but it's just magical.  If there are any left when I go up Cape Hill next I'm getting two.  I mean - I'm not going up especially - I'm not crazy - but I will stock up. 

I'll also maybe toss some rocket and tomatoes on so I don't die of malnutrition...

My partner's pizza was completely the opposite - all the veggies (and seeds) but none of the meat - even the base was odd and special.

She had the foresight to de-veganise the pizza with some Cathedral City added to the top to make it sing.  And apparently this was a big hit and something we will also be having again.  I'm also really keen to try this one, but may add some olives or meat to my taste too.

So overall very unusual pizzas, but very successful indeed.

Soreen Lift Bars Blueberry (Soreen #Gifted) By @SpectreUK

I am a creature of habit. I do love a Soreen loaf after my sandwich and crisps, and before my fruit and protein yoghurt for lunch. These new Soreen Lift Bars are naturally high in vitamin B12, which is important for your central nervous system and metabolism. There are three flavours, and Soreen very kindly sent me a packet of four of each flavour. There is Chocolate Orange and also Raspberry & Vanilla, both of which are usually favourite flavours of mine. So, I thought I should go with the Blueberry flavour first.

It's not that I don't like Blueberries, it's just that I don't think they taste of anything. I've had Blueberries spoil many a fruit bowl to the extent where I can't be bothered with them anymore. Cinabar had a Sweet Texas Pie in an American smokehouse the other day, which had Blueberries in it, and I couldn't taste them either. The butterscotch was very nice though. Incidentally, an American friend of ours said that a Sweet Texas Pie has been made up by the restaurant, and doesn't actually exist, and he should know as he's a Texan.

On first opening the packet I noticed that this Soreen Lift Bar Blueberry is a longer bar than the usual Soreen loaves, which goes some way to explain the extra calories. I also noticed that there were shredded pieces of blueberries throughout the bar once I'd bitten in. Been as though I usually can't see the point in blueberries, I liked the sweet flavour, and could tell they were Blueberries. I also liked the healthy feeling of this Lift Bar, and would choose them again, especially for the extra vitamin kick.

Information on the packet; Each 42g loaf has 133 calories, with 0.9g of fat, 8.3g of sugar, and 0.22g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Fox’s Chewy Mints - Peppermint (Iceland) By @cinabar

It has been a long time since I last had Fox’s Mints. I used to associate Fox’s Glacier Mints with car journeys as a kid, as there would always be some boiled sweets in the car. I haven’t seen much in the way of new products from Fox’s for a while, so I was excited to see these new chewy mints, which are a complete change of format for them too.

 

Inside the bag are individually wrapped rectangular mints in a cute blue wrapper with polar bears and mints on them. The mints inside are white with blue speckles, a little bit of colour but fairly plain, really. I gave one a try, and it started off quite hard and then became chewy, but not good chewy. These mints were sticky and stuck to my teeth as I chewed. I guess this is the texture they are aiming for; I just don’t think it is my cup of tea. I prefer a Starburst type of texture, chewy but not so sticky. Flavour-wise, they are sweet and minty, the peppermint is nice and pleasant, but it isn’t as strong as Fox’s Glacier Mints. I liked the flavour, but the texture has put me off.

Mini Caramelised Biscuit Ice Cream Lollies (Aldi) By @Cinabar

There was sunshine yesterday so I have restocked the ice creams in the freezer. Even being British, I’m still optimistic for a bit of sun. I was on a trip to Aldi and spotted these Mini Caramelised Biscuit Ice Lollies. I love cinnamon and spice, so it should be no surprise that those caramelised biscuits are a favourite of mine, so how could I resist?

I opened up the pack and found six chocolate-coated ice lollies. I bit in and the chocolate was thick, so it needed a good solid bite. The chocolate has biscuit bits mixed in, but under the chocolate there is a layer of caramelised biscuit spread which was so nice. The spices hit mixed with the chocolate and creamy ice cream, it was just so yummy. I enjoyed every bite and thought the chocolate and spices were well balanced, and the crunch in the chocolate added a nice mix of textures.

As for them being mini, I thought they were a good size, still big enough to be a treat.

Making PRIME at HOME with coconut water (@NLi10)

It's official - PRIME is a hit! It's selling out all over the globe and will eventually catch up to all the other big brands once they can actually franchise out the factories to pump as much out as possible.  It avoids the sugar tax and still costs more than the sugar-based drinks that don't!

But - what if you can't find any PRIME when you want it?  Wouldn't it be nice if you could just make your own?  Well now you can!

Here's what you'll need:

100% Coconut Water - if your coconut water is not 100% then adjust the proportions accordingly. Heck - if you can find one with built in sweeteners that's a big help I guess!

Tap Water - put it in a big bottle - put that bottle in the fridge overnight - hey presto - nice water

Ice-cream flavouring - now, if you have the slush-puppy style stuff it might work better, but this did the trick (kind of)

Lemon Juice! If you want to match any of these citrus flavours they basically all use this.

Recipe for my version I nicknamed ALFFA (like Alpha, but with the FoodsuffFinds FFs)

1 part coconut water to 4 parts tap water. Flavour as desired to taste. Done.

Seriously. No secret cocoa-cola recipe handed from generation to generation here. Just add the flavour and lemon for zing. If you have them, you can add some B vitamins via dropper from the health shop.  I didn't so I sprayed some Vit D in but that didn't really add much. 

This one was quite early on before I got the ratios right, but still - it's basically the same!

Science in action!

Here I tried to make a vanilla version.  It wasn't horrible but it really needed an artificial source of sweetness.  I don't have any little packs of Stevia at home.  I can't condone people taking some from the coffee shop chain at the cinema, but that's what I'll probably do for next time.

And if you want to see it in action I made some long videos - more for my own amusement than anything.

short 

Full version!

https://youtu.be/IBZOOb-aDpM

It tastes as good as the flavour you add, so in theory with access to a Soda Stream flavour library you could make anything  - PRIME Pepsi for instance.

At £2 a 500ml bottle PRIME is a bit steep.  The coconut water was £180 for 300ml and would make you 1.5 Litres of slightly odd 'base' to then flavour as you or your kids choose.  The coconut aftertaste of this brand (and smell) is quite strong though so you have to be a fan of the stuff (or use strong flavours on to like PRIME do).

Good LUCK.

Hall & Woodhouse Coffee Stout (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

Some moments just fit together nicely. Well, there aren't many, but when Cinabar ordered some steak for our Friday night meal, and then put this Coffee Stout in the basket for me, I just had to have them both together. I've always thought that steak was cooked for a good stout to wash it down with. And this 5.2% in volume Coffee Stout was "Specially Selected".

Brewed in partnership with Hall & Woodhouse, this Coffee Stout promises to be, "rich, dark, and indulgent", with flavours of coffee, caramel and vanilla. I love a good stout with my steak and chips, sadly I rarely have a can or bottle in to write about. Then again, I rarely have steak and chips, so tonight is a double treat.

I recently switched down to fillet steak so I could fit in more calories for pudding, as opposed to blowing the lot on my favourite ribeye cut. However, fillet steak should not be sniffed at, as it is the most costly cut and some may say the tastiest. Besides, I get more chocolate and ice cream for afters.

On opening the bottle there was an aroma of vanilla mixed with caramel and chocolate from the almost jet black contents inside. It smelt pretty good, in fact I had to pour it and sniff again. Once I smelt this Coffee Stout in my beer glass, I just couldn't stop smelling it. I even got Cinabar and her mom to sniff it too. This is quite honestly one of the tastiest smelling beers I've ever smelt. Gosh, it smelt so good, I almost forgot to drink it.

After quite some time sniffing, I realised my steak was frying and the chips were almost done, so I better have a taste of this Coffee Stout. Oh my, it really does taste as good as it smells. Right from the start a collaboration of caramel, vanilla, chocolate malt and smooth coffee stroked my tastebuds like a velvet glove. There was then a little bitterness from herbal hops enhancing the coffee flavour, followed by that sweet velvety collaboration massaging my palate into the aftertaste.

This Coffee Stout is simply gorgeous. A sumptuous treat at the end of a week, whether washing down your steak and chips, or on its own as a liquid pudding. I'm sure it would go rather well with a chocolate bar or two, if you fancy an extra treat.

Heinz MayoMust (Iceland) By @cinabar

There have been a bunch of hybrid sauces recently, and I’m never quite sure what to make of them. I’m still recovering from the Hellman’s Gravy Flavour Mayonnaise I tried before, what were they thinking. Well, this one is from Heinz and combines Mustard and Mayonnaise, hence the name MayoMust. Hopefully, it is a ‘must and not a ‘must not.

I tried this new sauce with chips, that seemed to be the easiest way to taste it. All sauces should work with chips, that is the rule. I gave it a try, and oh my, I actually liked it. This Heinz MayoMust is a very creamy mayonnaise, it has a bit of a Dijon flavour, but it is very mild and worked surprisingly well as a dip. I ended up mopping up the entire amount and wanting more, so that is a win.

Tomorrow I will try this Heinz MayoMust on a ham sandwich because that goes well with either mustard or mayonnaise, so why not both? I’m still not convinced on gravy-mayo, and nobody can sway me on that.

Giving my 95 year old Nanna some PRIME Hydration (@NLi10)

 It's finally PRIME Time here at FoodstuffFinds and with my acquisition of 6 of the things I figured I'd group them all up. I've only paid £2 a go for them, I figured it's not that crucial to sample kids pop on day 1.

As mentioned in Sunday's first part - I tried the energy drink during Eurovision and thought it wasn't too bad.  I also used that as an opportunity to finish the three Hydration bottles I was keeping.

As PRIME is based on (powdered) coconut water it always looks a little sci-fi.  I think that's a huge part of it's appeal.  That and the branding, with famous people I've never heard of being the big push.  It's like the drink being sponsored by the celeb instead of the other way round with the Cola Wars.

Being a powder based drink I bet they can start serving this in fast food restaurants once the hype has worn off too. That'll be interesting to see.

PRIME Hydration is basically Pocari Sweat/Aquarius but made with coconut water, that is to say it's got lots of vitamins and minerals and salts artificially added so that it's 'isotonic' and similar to the fluids that your body needs (and the doctors put in when you've had a bad day).  There are more vitamins in this one than the Energy version, I guess the strong flavours can hide them better.  Still no Vit D - gap in the market there!!

Looks like they are taking Europe seriously - this isn't imported this is Manufactured For: - should make it easier to get as it ramps up.

TLDR: Prime will make you less thirsty.

So - flavours:

Lemon Lime is very much like the old TipTop/Panda Pop version. Just that little bit too agressive. Bet it sells the worst.

Tropical Punch - pathetic fruit blend. No UmBongo.  Probably the best cocktail base and the one I'd be most likely to try on a normal person...

Blue Raspberry - this is the blue slush puppy.  This is the one that gave me the great idea for the next review on Sunday.

Overall - all surprisingly good.  Full of vitamins, and the comedy of getting teenagers to buy coconut water and flavour for £2.  I'm a convert.  I mean I'll never bother to buy these again for me (except for new flavour reviews) but essentially they are a force for good and fairly harmless fun.

So lets get some family in on the act.

This is my partner's Nanna.  She's 95 (almost 96), regularly beats me at iPad Scrabble and likes Snooker & Tennis. She'd never heard of PRIME (or YouTube really) but she's happy to go along with most things.

I transferred a sample size amount to a glass so that it looked more civilised (and not too much as this stuff is still hard to get). I fully expected her to take a sip and pull a face and give it back.

 

Turns out she's well into it!  She finished all of her portion (crucially didn't ask for more).  She said it was a bit too fruity, but that it was pleasant enough.  We then spent a lot of time talking about how the kids were paying £10 to get their hands on it originally which elicited a chorus of 'really' and 'madness'.

I didn't get her to try the coronation shortbread that we took round but I think because this was rare and special she gave it a try and seemed to be quite into it.  I resisted the temptation to film as she's not really into photos but I did convince her to let me take and share those two.

So overall - I think PRIME is here to stay (although I'd much rather have a Sip Shack).  I've already seen a few imitation ones cropping up in the corner shops so it'll be very entertaining to see how the market expands and copes with that.

I mean...

...how hard can it be! 😈

Fruit-tella Fruit Jellies Coins (Morrisons) By @SpectreUK

I do like fruit jellies as a snack whilst watching TV or a movie on an evening. These new Fruit-tella Fruit Jellies Coins seem to fit the bill rather well for tonight. They're sugar free, made with fruit juice, and have three flavours. There were strawberry, raspberry and blackberry flavours.

On opening the packet there was a very naturally fruity aroma from the jellie coins inside. On first taste these Fruit-tella Fruit Jellies Coins were really quite tough to eat. The texture seemed to be more like rubber than jelly. The flavours were nice, and the calories low, which made me want to stick with them though.

The almost orange coloured raspberry flavour did taste of fruity raspberries, whereas the bright red strawberry flavour was lovely and fruity also. The dark red colour jelly coin had a rich blackberry taste to it. Sadly I wouldn't buy these again though, as that rubber texture was too tough to bear.

Information on the packet; The 100g bag contained 212 calories, with 0g of fat, 0g if sugar, 8.6g of protein, and 0.07g of salt. Gluten and dairy free, and with natural colourings and flavours, please see photograph for the ingredients.