Jump Ship Brewing: Red Admiral Rye IPA (The Wee Beer Shop) by @Spectreuk

I'm sure there's a typo on the can of this Red Admiral Rye IPA. It states it's 0.5% in volume, and it was brewed in Scotland. Jump Ship Brewing is the first Scottish brewery dedicated to making alcohol-free beers. I think they're possibly mad, however, with 59 calories per can and being a red rye beer, I'm more than swayed by the ingredients. Besides, I can eat more chocolate for pudding.

With a trio of British hops of Admiral, Pilgrim, and Jester, this amber ale should have a nutty, fruity and spicy flavour to it. On opening the can there was certainly a nutty aroma, with a heap of malted barley and a little spiciness. This deep red rye beer had a gorgeous nutty malty taste with a touch of fruits and spices. Gosh, this is a flavoursome amber ale I could drink all day, and being so low in calories, and ABV, I could do just that.

Terry’s Chocolate Mint (Tesco) By @cinabar

Terry’s has done other flavours over the years for Chocolate Oranges, but mostly they are still orange-flavoured, i.e., white chocolate and orange or orange and popping candy. I do remember a mint one from a few years back, but it was definitely with dark chocolate and this mint and milk chocolate. I love chocolate mint, so I was really pleased to see this new edition on the shelves.

 

I opened up the pack and found a green foiled ball of chocolate. I tapped it, which should release all the pieces, and unwrapped it. A couple fell loose, and the rest were happily stuck! So I gave it a bit of encouragement and managed to rescue a few to try.

This works really well, and I was impressed that the mint flavour was as strong as it was. It was very cool and refreshing and a little sharp, but it was mellowed by the silky, thick sweet milk chocolate. Oh my, this is moreish stuff. I loved that the mint flavour was full-on; it was almost like the blast from an After Eight. Each piece had such a creamy chocolate aftertaste too; I am hooked. I’d be more than happy to get one of these as a stocking filler, and it is certainly something I’ll buy again to share, at least when I can work out how to separate the pieces a bit better.

TofOO co. Scrambled Egg Vegan Substitute - interesting… [@NLi10]

 I’ve seen Vegan egg substitutes offered on menus in quite a few cafes, but never really paid much attention.  If I had to go vegan then the egg I’d miss would be the ones in cakes, as my partner doesn’t do well on eggy food we don’t tend to use them outside of baking anyway.

I figured this would be a nice way to try and see if we could put scrambled eggs back on the menu.

The TofOO Co. Say that they have tofu with taste and list all the wonderful things they’ve done to make it so.  I decided to only add things they’d suggested and not mix in butter and hot sauce as I’d do with the real things.

We did the fry up version, but then I added some garlic mayo to make it a little more exciting as it was much blander than I’d expected (just like real eggs).  I held off adding a massive amount of black pepper as it had black salt.  Seems that is for the sulphur taste/smell so I should have just gone ahead with the plan.

The packaging sounded like cat food so Flo had to be assured that it was neither cat food nor scrambled eggs.

Looks as terrible as real eggs would if you’d sealed them away.

Zapping it on the hob revealed more colours and that it was really just a bag of lovely crumbled tofu in a strange yellow stuff.  This was actually reassuring and the ‘white’ of the egg being made from great tofu actually made it less of a texture nightmare than I’d expected.

Popping it on top of sausage and mash (deconstructed) with some pesto worked pretty well for us.  My partner ate 4 spoonfuls and was satisfied that she doesn’t like egg even in its vegan form.

I however enjoyed it a lot more - but not to the extent that I’m planning to buy more.  I think that I’d add a load of seasoning, and then at that point I might as well just get some frozen tofu out of the freezer and season it myself.  It has reminded me how good tofu can be - and that this brand is one that can be trusted to provide decent quality basics for me to build on.

Yorkshire Tea Breakfasty Toast & Jam (Asda) by @Spectreuk

I once worked in a factory deep in the Midlands where the workers dipped their buttered toast in their morning tea for breakfast. I'd never heard of such a thing, and I thought they were mad. Now Taylors of Harrogate have come up with this Yorkshire Tea Breakfasty Toast & Jam. Now I think they're mad, and so is Cinabar for making me write about it. Or maybe she isn't, as I guess I have to try it first.

Taylors idea is that this Yorkshire Tea Breakfasty Toast & Jam brew is an all in one taste of jam on toast on the run, without the fear of jam on your chin. I understand where they are coming from there, as I have a habit of doing everything by excess and overloading my toast with as much jam as I possibly can.

After brewing for a few minutes and adding a little milk, I waited for this Yorkshire Tea Breakfasty Toast & Jam tea to cool a while, and then gave it a tentative sniff. It smelt very jammie, with a slight hint of butter, if I'm not mistaken.

On taste this tea was bizarrely moreish. I didn't think I'd like it at all. I even heard approval from the other room where two other mugs of this tea were being tried. There was of course milky black tea, but with that hint of butter and a heap of what I thought was raspberry jam on top. This would be good in the morning or evening as a pudding tea after dinner.

Information on the packet; There are 49 teabags in the box. Ingredients included; black tea, and natural flavourings.

Quality Street Collisions Hazelnut & Caramel Chocolate Sharing Bar (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

The Quality Street tins are back in the shops as it is autumn and the run-up to, dare I say it, Christmas. This also means we are getting the new chocolate bars, yay. Now when we do have a Quality Street tin, my favourites are the nutty ones, and I pick out the ‘big purple’ hazelnut in caramel and the ‘green triangle’ praline. Clearly, I’m not the only person who has these two as their favourites; they have merged them together on a chocolate bar, and now we have Quality Street Collisions Hazelnut & Caramel Chocolate Sharing Bar. Oh my, this is so up my street.

I opened up the bar, and first things first. The wrapper was really irritating; it shredded and had no way to re-seal as it was coming away in strands. I managed to fold it around, but thought I’d mention it. The bar, though, is just dreamy. There is caramel, hazelnuts, and praline all in one bar. This makes it a little soft to break off, but absolutely delicious to eat. It has a full-on nutty flavour and rich, sweet chocolate. Did I mention the textures too? I swear they made this bar with me in mind. It is an absolute chocolate-nut heaven.

Nescafe Gold Sticky Toffee Pudding Latte (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

Autumn is the best month, and here is why: all the comforting flavours and varieties of products are in the shops. Here we have Nescafe Gold Sticky Toffee Pudding Latte. Oh my, the coffee is flavoured with toffee. What more do you want? I eagerly popped the kettle on and poured the sachet into my mug. The contents smelled sweet, and more so when the water hit. I stirred, left it a minute or so, and stirred again, and the lovely froth appeared at the top, looking very appetising. The drink was pale in colour, rather like one of their cappuccinos.

My disclaimer here is that I have a sweet tooth, so I am biassed towards sugar. I gave the drink a sip, and the taste was lovely. It was rich; there was plenty of toffee, and the coffee also shone through. It was a delicious, soothing drink. Every sip provided a comforting toffee taste, and it made me smile. It was a delight.

My only negative comment on the drink is simply that there were only 7 sachets in the box, and normally these boxes of posh coffee have 8. I’d rather pay more than lose one.

0Kcal Drinks - AliENergy Lychee & Dong Feng Shu Ye Jasmine Tea [@NLi10]

We are truly in the confusing era of the 0 Calorie drink.  Tap water is 0 Calories and mostly free, but when you are out it's nice to have a similar experience and a cool healthy drink.  So I picked a few up and then drank them at home anyway! 

This one - I mostly liked the portmanteau of Alien and Energy - I'd not seen that before. It's very 90s and pretty cool. I'd forgive them if the drink was bad.

No calories and a bunch of sprayed on vitamins, it's basically PRIME.

Only this is based around water and sweeteners (boo) but with a lovely fruity taste.  This is unmistakably Lychee, and really refreshing.  Even though I dislike the sweeteners this is very subtle and suitable for most people's tastes.  A win.

And here we have a drink that is usually zero calorie - tea!  Putting milk in (as I usually do) or sugar (as I did in my twenties) makes it less of a healthy proposition - but the natural botanicals of the jasmine tea remove the need for this - IF it's done properly.

They put in some things to keep it fresh, but otherwise this is tea and water - result!  Sure - we haven't quite got to fortified vitamin teas yet, but without the negative parts you can literally drink as much of this as you like and not need to worry.

And it's a good one too - very basey flavour, deep and earthy teas.  The jasmine is very subtle, but does rise towards the end making this a very easy tea to drink.  I'd certainly have this again (even though I do default to the Mr Kong version which is a lot closer to American Pop than this serious adult tea!)

While bottled water is a bit of a menace in nations that have clean and safe municipal supplies (just stick it in the fridge!) it's nice to have flavoured alternatives that are neither too expensive or bland and can give you a little shot of vitamins or cafiene to get through the shopping experience.

Otherworld Brewing Cranachan Raspberry & Whisky Dessert Beer (Wee Beer Shop) by @Spectreuk

Cranachan is a traditional Scottish Dessert, with raspberries, cream and oats, and a dram or more of whisky. It sounds pretty tasty. I haven't had it myself, and I must admit I haven't been to Scotland for many years. I'm hoping to do so at some point. By the rate of my knee rehabilitation I hope I will be able to drive up there in a year or so, with a stop or three along the way. It's taken five years of rehab so far to be able to drive for two hours solid without too much pain, so I just keep going.

I'd definitely like to try a Cranachan for dessert once I'm in Scotland. For now, this 5.5% in volume Cranachan Raspberry & Whisky Dessert Beer, by Otherworld Brewing, will have to suffice. I am a little worried, as I have enjoyed whisky aged beer before, but not often liked raspberries in beer. Made in a whisky aged barrel, and with raspberries, oats, barley, vanilla and hops, one ingredient really stood out to me. This beer has rye in it. I love rye beer.

The can told me to expect honey and marshmallow sweetness from the whisky barrel, and tart Scottish raspberries when drinking this beer. On opening the can there was a strong sharp raspberry aroma with a touch of whisky to the reddish brown beer. There was a shredding fruity bitterness on first taste of this Cranachan Raspberry & Whisky Dessert Beer, with a touch of creaminess from the vanilla. Then the tart raspberries and sweet alcoholic flavour of whisky snapped back at my tastebuds. There was then more fruity bitterness from the hops, a little sweetness from the malted barley and even a touch of spice from the rye into the aftertaste.

Such a complex jumble of flavours mixed together in one beer glass. Sometimes people may not only ask themselves, "can such an action be done?" for whatever it is, but if the answer is yes, they may then ask themselves, "should such an action ever be done at all?" In the case of Cranachan Raspberry & Whisky Dessert Beer, maybe, but maybe just a little lighter on the raspberries. However, I should not get too caught up in the whys and why nots. I had my pint washing down two Jammie Wagon Wheels.

Tony's Chocolonely Littl' Bits Milk Marshmallow & Biscuit Mix (Ocado) By @Cinabar

Where is the letter 'e'? Why would you miss it and replace it with an apostrophe? Why does this bother me so much? I might be getting old! I’m just going to have to come to terms with the title of this new product and move on. Here we have Tony's Chocolonely Littl' Bits Milk Marshmallow & Biscuit Mix.

On a more positive note, these new chocolates look lovely. They are small chocolate balls filled with marshmallow and biscuit, which is a lovely sounding combination. I was impressed with the paper-based bag too; it ripped nicely to open, and a fold at the top holds well enough for portion control. The chocolates are small; think less than half of Maltesers. I gave one a try, and the first thing I noted was the quality of the chocolate; it was fairly thick, and it tasted rich and had a well-defined flavour. The texture was really nice too, with a bit of crunch from the biscuit and a bit of soft, gooey goodness from the mallow. These are easy to eat, and I found myself reaching for more. There are other new flavours in this range, which I will keep an eye out for, as these are lovely new chocolate treats. 

Squeaky Bean Cooking Chorizo (style - it's Vegan!) [@NLi10]

The vegan aisle is a treasure trove at the moment, it seems like everyone is trying to get something out before the craze vanishes like it did in the USA.  Fortunately the UK is more likely to accept these things as a lot of religious diets are vegan friendly and vegetarianism has always been pretty big here.  This means I can buy crazy stuff that fills the hole in my diet left by not eating meat much at home, and still not freak out my vegetarian partner.

Well - until you buy something as realistic as this.  This is possibly the first vegan product I've put back on the shell as it's too realistic.  I obviously changed my mind later - but we were looking for picnic food and I noped at that and decided I'd cook with it instead.

This is a bad picture for the ingredients list, but essentially it's bean protein instead of pork derivatives - then all the usual stuff.  The key phrase that made me pick it is 'produced in Spain' - surely they can't let us down?

No way the veggie is trying this... Halloween review comes early - argh my finger!

And it looks reasonably close when chopped up too - its just a suspicious thing to have high quality textured chunks in this stuff from a UK supermarket.

Ate the first bit cold with the potatoes - decent enough.

The second bit found it's way into the warmth of the pie filling and it became absolutely magical. This is just good quality chorizo, no qualifiers required.  This is the happiest I've been with one of these reviews in absolutely ages - this is going in the 'must have in stock' pile. I'd make special trips to Sainsbury's especially for it - but I'm guessing it's everywhere.  You could put this in a recipe and meat lovers would be so happy with it.  I'm already planning a paella, and thinking that I can use this in veggie carbonara.

Except I probably can't - the texture and flavours here are so achingly close to the real thing I'm guessing it'd put off any vegetarians that tried it. 

For me though - as a lapsed vegetarian who now adds a little meat to the side to spice things up - this is absolute perfection.  Hopefully there is a whole range of Squeaky Bean products to try.

Dead Man’s Fingers KFC Spiced Rum (Amazon) by @Spectreuk

I do like a KFC sometimes. I usually have a bucket of chicken to myself and some extra hot wings, because they taste "finger lickin' good". Alright, sorry, I couldn't help it.

I originally wanted to save this Dead Man's Fingers KFC Spiced Rum for a Halloween blog, but other reviews have been pretty bad on it, and Cinabar told me this rum has now become a limited edition.

Flavoured with the eleven herbs and spices used when cooking KFC chicken, this Dead Man's Fingers KFC Spiced Rum was produced by Bristol & Bath Distillery. The bottle recommended to try this rum with cola, but I haven't liked cola much for many years. When I have spiced rum or honey liquor, I usually have it with 7UP. After trying many different lemonades, to me, 7UP is the best one to have with liquor because of its slightly stronger lemon flavour.

I've heard reviews have mentioned the odd flavour of Dead Man's Fingers KFC Spiced Rum. On trying it, initially I thought I could detect the creaminess of vanilla, which I love as an ingredient in spiced rum. There was then a herby flavour, rather than any spices, which I was disappointed by, and then the vanilla creaminess came back into the aftertaste.

Dead Man's Fingers KFC Spiced Rum may have gone better with cola and a bucket of KFC, as suggested on the bottle. Although I've been told it goes well with ginger beer, which I'll have to try. I usually have spiced rum in the winter time, so I tried it with Cinabar's delicious homemade mince pies, which went okay, but the herbs in the middle of flavour was too much of a distraction. Same with a cheese and cold meats meal, which I usually enjoy with liquor or a big glass of port. I can see why people haven't liked this rum. It just needed more spice than herbs in my opinion.

Oreo Wafer Roll (Local Shop) By @cinabar

There is a little shop next to a petrol station where we live that sells some really interesting foods. They have a wonderful import selection, and that is where I found this packet of Oreo Wafer Rolls. I was trying to work out where they were from, and Google Translate seems to think Spanish, but the back of the packet also mentions Vietnam, so I’m just not sure.

 

Inside the box are just three packs of biscuits in total, which seemed a bit mean; they could easily have fit in four. Each sealed pack has three wafer biscuit sticks.

The biscuits are pretty and twirled in pattern; they remind me of some wafer biscuits my mum used to get to decorate ice cream sundaes. I gave one a try, and they were very much Oreo in flavour. The texture is light and crispy, and I felt like if these were filled with Oreo stuff filling I would be living the dream. They are hollow, despite the picture on the box, and this makes the texture crispy. Even without it, they were fun to eat, sweet and tasty, with lovely Oreo flavours running through. I ate my pack of Oreo Wafer Rolls straight, but perhaps I’ll save another pack for ice cream.

Tic Tac Sprite Lemon-Lime Flavoured (WH Smiths) by @Cinabar

We were on our way back from a night away, and we stopped at a service station for a bit of a break. This gave me the chance to have a nosey around the branch of WH Smiths for Foodstuff Finds. I did manage to find a couple of things to write about, and one of them was these Tic Tac Sprite Lemon-Lime Flavoured Sweets.

The Tic Tac sweets themselves are yellow, which is cool, but they were lacking something. When they did Coca-Cola Tic Tac sweets, they put the cola logo on each one, so seeing these as just yellow seems like an opportunity missed. I gave one a try, and the flavour was gentle to start, and then it became very specifically Sprite. I’m not sure what is so identifiable, but it must be the balance of lemon and lime. I thought this would be a generic lemon lime flavour, but I was surprised that the flavour was so specific to Sprite, which was rather impressive.

These are lovely sweets and were very enjoyable on our drive back home. I still think they could have added a logo to the Tic Tac sweets for super cuteness.

Kit Kat Cereal - Tesco - surprisingly decent! [@NLi10]

We like chocolate bars, we like novelty cereals - and here we have them both together!

11 servings of the child portion, 7 and a bit servings of the adult portion, for me - this box is a par 5.  What i'll probably do is blend this with regular cornflakes for texture mix up and saving money - although I think this was only £2.50 due to introductory offers.

KitKat is one of those chocolate bars that just keeps going - it's about the only EuroWafer that has ever got traction in the UK because (like Bounty & Twix) it can pretend to be a chocolate bar so Brits buy it.  The Chunky ones are great as they can add stuff, and the flavours they make in the Japanese factories are exotic.

These are just the usual cereal with three lines on it. Maybe they could add frosting in the lines and sell it as Adidas cereal too.  Smells chocolaty though so it's at least appealing (unlike the terrible Oreo cereal)

Hey look - adding almond milk fills in the lines too!

Joking aside it's about as KitKat a cereal in both look and flavour as you can get - and it's nice.  I'm not sure it's filling enough as an everyday cereal, but as a luxury topper on a base cereal like shreddies or corn flakes then this works well.  As long as it stays on the cheap intro price I have no problems encouraging people to grab a box.  I suspect this will be a long term cereal that we will still see for years to come.

 

Doris gets her Oats (The Wee Beer Shop) by @Spectreuk

I like to try and take it easy. I'd like to say it's because I'm lazy, but I exercise way too much for that. I have finished at my local gym, which had a decent sauna and steam room, but has become too expensive for the service provided, which was minimal due to lack of cleanliness. That's probably why it's often nice to stay away for a night, and a spa hotel is more my speed of holiday these days.

The last minute deal we had on a night away this week at a super gorgeous spa hotel not too far away was bliss for a night and a day. We hadn't been to Ragdale Hall for more than five years. I hadn't been able to drive that far due to my last knee operation, so it's testimony to my hard work on rehabilitation that we arrived and also returned in good time, even for a sneaky weights session on the evening.

On the evening at Ragdale Hall I had a succulent steak and chips, followed by a cheese board and a glass of port for afters. We played Othello in the lounge and then played more games in the room. I had brought along this can of Doris gets her Oats Imperial chocolate and cardamom stout, and drank it whilst playing dominoes and various card games, such as Pontoon, UNO and Dinosaur Top Trumps.

Doris looks like a ghost on the front of the can. I am not sure if she had gotten her oats by then, because it looks more like she needs some. This 11% in volume Imperial Stout made for a good late evening pudding beer. There was lactose in ingredients, as well as barley, oats and wheat. Brewed by Pomona Island Brew Company, Doris gets her Oats was produced to celebrate their fifth birthday.

This stout didn't blow up when I opened the can, and smelt amazing. Almost black in colour with a dark frothy head, Doris gets her Oats smelt of deep rich malted and roasted chocolate barley. There was a fruitiness behind the chocolate malt and a strong alcohol aroma with a creaminess to finish. On taste this Imperial stout had a milky creaminess to start with, velvet smooth dark chocolate malt, with a winter fruitiness, stong in alcohol and then a roasted chocolate flavour with a touch of coffee running into the aftertaste.

This was a purely indulgent chocolate Imperial stout treat of a pudding beer, with mild warming cardamom which ran into the aftertaste and left me cuddled in the comfort of liquid chocolate cushions. And in a lovely spa hotel it just finished off the evening perfectly.

Pumpkin Spice Drinking Chocolate (Hotel Chocolat) By @Cinabar

Today is my favourite kind of weather; it is not too hot outside, but there is just enough sunshine and a little breeze for it to be perfectly pleasant outside. I also love this season, the start of autumn, because there are new hot chocolate varieties in the shops as it is the official start of cocoa season. I mean, I drink it all year, but it is nice that I can find new flavours now.

Nothing says autumn more than this new drink from Hotel Chocolat, Pumpkin Spice Drinking Chocolate. I love all the autumnal spices too, so I am totally on board with this. It is a milk chocolate-based drink, and I eagerly opened the sachet and made a mug. Marshmallows were on standby.

The drink had a lovely spiced aroma, and the taste was pure, warming, soothing spicy chocolate goodness. These are some of my favourite flavours, so I know that I am a little biassed, but it was just such a nice mix. I could pick up on cinnamon and nutmeg, and they were just set off by the creamy but rich chocolate. I loved this stuff and happily welcome all the autumn spices my way.

Percy Pig Sandwich Biscuits - M&S [@NLi10]

 I don’t physically go in M&S that often these days - I just Ocado their food - so when I spotted the `Percy Pig’ Sandwich biscuits for the first time it was more than a year from Spectre’s original review!

As I wanted to try them anyway I decided to go ahead and leave the jam sandwich creams as for another day.

The original appearance of the Percy sweets predates Peppa `pig, but I’m sure she is a catalyst for the widening of the range. Not that I’m complaining, although describing this as “Percy Pig Flavour” is a little odd if you’ve not seen the original pink mallow sweets.

My pig’s got no ears! It’s snout is a bit odd too -  maybe they should have added a fondant circle to the jam for authenticity? Decently happy little face though - although not porcine.

Full marks for the back though - all it needs is little trotters so it can jump in muddy puddles (hot chocolate probably, although strong tea would work too).

As with M&S other products these are sweet enough for children, but healthy enough for adults to buy them for them (ok - well maybe just grandparents but they aren’t as bad as they could be).

I enjoyed them, nice mix of the raspberry-ish sweet flavour in the shortbread, and the actual raspberry jam and creme part is up to the usual high standards. Would have again - even without children to cheer up!

Jack Links Beef Jerky Sweet & Hot (Morrisons) By @SpectreUK

I honestly don't know why I sometimes buy the odd packet of beef jerky. Maybe it's the hope that I'll like it one day, and I have to test that over time? I usually find beef jerky tough and fairly dry, so I'm hoping beyond hope that this Jack Links Beef Jerky Sweet & Hot is going to change that opinion. Though I have to admit that I've left this beef jerky at the bottom of my pile of things to write about to almost the best before date.

I workout at home a lot to try and rehabilitate from old injuries and operations such as on my knees and especially my shoulder after a bad car accident some years back. One reason I do like to try beef jerky now and then is because it is high in protein, which helps to fix my body after workouts. With 100% marinated, smoked and dried lean beef, Jack Links Beef Jerky Sweet & Hot fits the bill of a "ready to eat snack" worth trying.

On opening the packet there was a smoky barbecue aroma from the red pieces of dried lean beef inside. On first taste I was pleased to find that this Jack Links Beef Jerky Sweet & Hot was not like eating an old leather boot. Succulent and mouthwatering, this beef jerky also had quite a chilli kick to it. There was barbecue sweetness to start with, oodles of smokiness, and a gorgeous hot chilli burn into the aftertaste. Low on calories and high in protein too. Finally, I may have found a favourite.

Information on the packet: The 25g packet contained 68 calories, with 0.8g of fat, 5.3g of sugar, 10g of protein, and 0.63g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.