Walkers Hot Honey Crisps (B&M) By @SpectreUK

I have seen a few different products with the new trending flavour of Hot Honey. I tried Hot Honey Jaffa Cakes the other day, and wasn't that fussed by them. For me, there was a little too much chilli, and not enough honey, So, when I saw these Walkers Hot Honey Crisps, I was a little apprehensive.

However, on opening the packet there was a sweet light chilli aroma from the crisps inside. On taste, these crisps had a sweet honey flavour, with a light hint of chilli. There was no noticeable chilli burn from these crisps. So, if you're looking for a super chilli waker-upper snack, these might not be for you. If you are looking for something unique, with sweet honey and mild chilli, you've come to the right place.

Information on the packet; The 128g bag contained 128 calories, with 7.2g of fat, 0.7g of sugar, and 0.14g of salt. Please see photograph fpor the ingredients.

Dairy Milk Dessert With Mini Eggs (Tesco) By @Cinabar

It really must be Easter creeping up, because the eggs are already out in the shops. Never mind that it’s still January. Alongside the usual chocolate aisles, Easter themed desserts are starting to appear too, including this Dairy Milk Dessert With Mini Eggs from Tesco. I spotted it and, obviously, had to give it a try.

The dessert is split into two sections. One half is pure chocolate, more like a thick chocolate sauce than a mousse, as there’s no airiness or bubbles to it. The other half contains five Mini Eggs. I peeled back the corner and tipped the eggs into the chocolate, which instantly made it look much more appealing. Five eggs actually fill the surface nicely, so first impressions were good.

The Mini Eggs themselves are fairly chunky for a dessert topping. Each one gives you that familiar crisp shell and a solid hit of chocolate, which works really well against the smooth chocolate base. When you get a spoonful with a Mini Egg, it’s a genuinely satisfying mouthful and very sweet in a comforting, Easter chocolate kind of way.

That said, there are only five eggs. Once they’re gone, you’re left with several spoonfuls of just the chocolate sauce. It’s nice enough, but it’s nowhere near as enjoyable as getting a Mini Egg in the mix. I know they’re already called Mini Eggs, but honestly, this would have been even better with more of them. Smaller eggs, more frequent crunch. Fifteen tiny ones instead of five big ones would have been perfect. Mini mini eggs, if you like.

So yes, it’s a tasty dessert and very on brand for Cadbury, but it feels like a missed opportunity. Less restraint, more eggs. Now, where do I start the campaign?

Snowflake Design Curiously Cinnamon [@NLi10]

 Now this is how you do a spicy breakfast cereal! A little cinnamon, and a lot of flavour and crunch.

We've had a bunch of very similar cinnamon breakfasts over the years, all of which work really well as a layer on top of Weetabix or porridge.

Even if they do look a little demonic.

And you can't see the design that easily

But some are clearer than others

The flavours are sharp but not too oppressive, the only problem is how the texture is just a bit flat - but mixing with cornflakes solves that.  A nice change and much better than the hot honey cereal from the other week!

Proper Job IPA (Morrison’s) By @SpectreUK

We're coming to the end of the healthy month of January, where some people give up booze as a dry month. This Proper Job IPA from St. Austell Brewery, in Cornwall, is 0.5% in volume.

A special yeast was used to brew this low-alcohol version of the original Proper Job India Pale Ale. Hopped with citrus and tropical fruity flavours, this should be a crisp treat for any designated driver.

On opening the bottle there was a citrus and tropical fruity hop aroma, with wheat and malted barley. 0.5% Proper Job IPA poured a cheerful golden colour with a healthy head. On taste this India Pale Ale tasted just like any alcoholic version to me. Packed full of citrus and tropical hops to begin with, sweet malted barley to follow and a wheatiness to finish. Proper flavour, Proper Job.

Bello Dolce Marshmallow Flowers (Aldi) By @Cinabar

We did our weekly shop at Aldi and, as usual, I found myself wandering down the aisle looking for marshmallows to top my hot chocolate. The plan was simple. Grab the standard pink and white mini cubes and move on. But then my eyes drifted. Sitting there quietly were the Bello Dolce Marshmallow Flowers, and immediately I knew I was due a marshmallow upgrade.

These are not your average marshmallows. They come in white, lilac and pink, each one with a little yellow centre, shaped like proper flowers. They are much larger than the usual cubes and, frankly, very pretty. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Texture-wise, they are spot on. Lovely and soft with a slight chew, and there is a gentle sugary crispness around the edge that adds a bit of contrast. They are sweet without being sickly, which is exactly what you want from a marshmallow. I’ll admit it. I had a couple straight from the bag, purely for research purposes. Later, they will be added to a hot chocolate where they are going to look absolutely divine floating on top.

If you are in Aldi and you spot them, you might as well throw a bag in the trolley. Your hot chocolate deserves it, they look absolutely adorable. 

Irn Bru Winter Bru (Home Bargains) By @Cinabar

It was Burns Night last night, so what is more Scottish than Irn Bru? Ok, whisky is right up there, along with Tunnock’s Teacakes, but when I spotted a winter edition of Irn Bru I decided to lean into the theme.

This is Irn Bru Winter Bru, a seasonal variant mixed with ginger and cinnamon. Regular readers will already know I am very easily won over by warming spices, so this immediately had my attention.

I cracked open the can and poured the bright orange fizz into a glass. The aroma was fairly mild and, if I am honest, mostly just standard Irn Bru. On the first sip it was clear this was not regular Irn Bru, but it also was not particularly spicy. There was a hint of ginger lingering at the back of the flavour, with the cinnamon kept very gentle.

The spice level never really ramped up and something about it kept niggling at me. The overall taste reminded me of Irn Bru mixed with cola. Maybe this is how I have finally realised that part of why I like cola is the subtle spice notes underneath. Hard to say. Will I miss this when the limited edition disappears? Probably not. It was pleasant enough, but it was not the cinnamon hit of a winter drink I had hoped for. That said, it did wash down my Burns Night dinner nicely.

Next year, though, I really should commit properly and get a haggis. Or, failing that, just stick with the Tunnock’s Teacakes.

M&S Mini Eggs are bigger than Cadbury’s [@NLi10]

 This appears to be review 6,500 on this blog - that’s mad!

We’ve spent the weekend visiting relatives in Saltaire near Bradford, so consequently have done a bit of driving and a few cafe visits.

For the trip from the services I picked up a decent sized bag of Marks & Spencer’s Mini Eggs - £3 for 150g. Even radio 1 are saying it’s too early for mini eggs, but these aren’t Cadbury so I’m saying it’s fine.

And turns out they are chunkier too - must be a different breed. In fact, these are big enough that you could believe they are the size of small bird eggs.  We saw some luxury (chocolate) kingfisher eggs in one of the shops by the Brontë church but it was £15 for 12 which is a bit much just to eat in the car. 

I also declined the crisps that are literally just bacon, in a car with vegetarians it felt mean.

Sound nice though- more of a with olives kind of snack.

Also had a Polish blueberry thing in Saltaire itself

Great stuff. It has a lot of arty cafes, and lots of actual David Hockney art

Like this bigger wonkier chair.

Even the Costa services on the way back were happy to give me some kind of pistachio slice which was sold as Dubai style but can’t have been as it wasn’t double the price of the other cakes. Like a shredded wheat nest slice. - which was good

And I had a Spanish coffee which had some kind of custard at the bottom

A bit sweet, and quite nice but I don’t think I’d need to have another of the hot ones - maybe I’ll try the iced one 

A fun night away, but a lot of sugar and snacks.

Patronus Weissbier (Lidl) By @SpectreUK

I have fishy picky-bits with French Bread for dinner tonight. Generally I like to pick a citrus hop flavoured beer to go with fish, but tonight I fancy a wheat beer, otherwise known as white beer.

Asides being a spell in Harry Potter, Patronus is a 5% in volume wheat beer. Patronus Weissbier is a Perlenbacher beer under the Lidl label, and is brewed without the use of hops.

Patronus was brewed by Privatbrauerei Eichbaum in Mannheim, Germany. The brewery was founded in 1679, and is one of the largest in Baden-Württemberg, brewing according to the German purity law.

On pouring Patronus Weissbier, this orange coloured slightly murky wheat beer had a strong aroma of Hefeweizen. On taste there was the strong sweet malty taste of wheat, which ran through into the aftertaste. Not the most flavoursome of beers, but Patronus Weissbier washed down my fishy picky-bits meal well enough in the end.

Instant Spiced Chai Latte (Asda) By @Cinabar

This is one of those new products you spot while doing the grocery shop and feel immediately drawn to. The Instant Spiced Chai Latte had one of those green ‘I’m New’ stickers on it, which pretty much guarantees I am picking it up.

I absolutely love warming spices and we drink chai tea a lot at home. Chai latte, though, is usually something I only have when I am out. I know you can make it properly by boiling milk, adding spices, sugar and all that, but if I am honest it feels like a lot of effort when a tea bag exists.

This one does all the hard work for you. The milk is already built in, along with all the spices.

When I opened the tub the powder was much paler than I expected, which made me worry the flavour might be weak. You are meant to use four teaspoons per mug. My mug is on the larger side so I was a bit generous with it.

It mixed up really easily and, thankfully, turned into that familiar chai latte brown rather than staying pale. First impressions were instantly reassuring.

The drink itself is sweet, but not overly so. The warming spices are the star here. The cinnamon really shines through and I absolutely loved that. I could also pick up cardamom, which gives it a lovely depth and a slightly different twist compared to standard chai drinks. Overall, it is a super soothing, comforting drink. Exactly the sort of thing you want wrapped in a blanket on a cold winter evening.

Banana Maple Peanut Butter - M&S UK [@NLi10]

I got lots of snacks for Xmas as usual, and this one is exciting - Maple Peanut Butter!

Oh wait - Banana Maple Peanut Butter - that'd riskier - that's a lot of flavours...

Very few ingredients though - and the banana is just flavour - probably less risky.  96% peanuts is a little lower than my usual brands, but for the variety I'll allow it.

It's very spreadable too - and the smells and flavours are not too strong. 

Overall then - a hit! It looks fairly standard, but there are a lot of different flavours and a little more texture than the super smooth peanut butter.

The maple smokiness isn't strong, and the cavendish banana adds a little to the balance.  I'll eat this one slowly, and maybe even blend it with the chocolate spreads for a Snickers toastie.

A nice change.

Freedom Brewery Bully Beer (Iceland) By @SpectreUK

I used to watch the ITV darts gameshow, Bullseye, when I was a kid. Bullseye ran from 1981 to 1995. Jim Bowen was a wonderful host with great catchphrases such as "Super, smashing, great", and "You can't beat a bit of Bully!" At the end of every episode there was a fairly bizarre star prize. Jim would say "Look at what you could have won…" and a couple from say, the Midlands, would breath a sigh of relief because they wouldn't have known what to do with the speedboat anyway.

This Bully Beer is a homage to that great gameshow. Brewed by Freedom Brewery, in Staffordshire, at 3.4% in volume it's classed as a session lager. So, you shouldn't miss the darts board after drinking a couple. The gift set came with a fetching Bullseye pint glass, which I shall use at some point, even though this Bully Beer comes in a 330ml can.

Brewed with Challenger hops for a fruity bitterness, and added citrus from Kazbec hops, this should be a punchy lager. On opening the can there was a light fruity citrus aroma from the hops and sweet malts behind it.

This golden coloured lager wasn't too bubbly on pouring. Bullseye beer tasted of crisp fruity and citrus hops, and then sweet malted barley to finish. You can't beat a bit of Bully Beer. I'm hoping for a Dusty Bin beer next.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Filled Bunnies (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I found another new Reese’s chocolate product, this time with an Easter twist. These are Reese’s Peanut Butter Filled Bunnies. The pack also has a competition to win a trip to Easter Island, which is related to Easter in name only, but it is still a pretty great prize.

Inside the bag are seven foil wrapped chocolate bunnies. They come in different coloured wrappers but all have the same filling. They would be ideal for an Easter hunt, or in my case, snacking straight from the bag. I unwrapped the first one and the bunny design is actually quite cute in the chocolate moulding. The chocolate is labelled as milk chocolate but it looks fairly dark.

I gave one a try and the chocolate is quite sweet, which suits me as I have a sweet tooth. When it combines with the nutty, salty peanut butter, it really works. I love that mix of sweet and savoury and I have always been a big fan of chocolate with nuts.

Spoiler alert, the bunnies did not survive until Easter. I swear I only meant to eat a couple.

Movie Night Ice Cream (Aldi) by @Cinabar

I always have to look at the ice cream section in the supermarket. It is a bit like hot chocolate, in that they are things I will eat all year, despite supermarkets thinking they are seasonal. I spotted this Movie Night Ice Cream with the green “I’m New” label and thought it sounded perfect, especially as we are watching Jurassic Park tonight.

The Movie Night element relates to the snacks you might have on a movie night, but wonderfully built into the flavour. There is toffee popcorn and milk chocolate coated salty pretzels, along with toffee sauce and a toffee base ice cream. It sounds so good.

I opened it up and scooped some out for each of us. It was not too bad to serve, although we did let it stand for a few minutes before digging in. The main flavour is a rich, sweet and creamy toffee taste that works really well. The caramel sauce mixed through is yummy and intense, a proper treat when you get a spoonful. The pretzels and popcorn make the ice cream interesting to eat, adding a bit of savoury flavour and, of course, my favourite thing, texture.

This ice cream was absolutely divine. The only criticism is that the tub was kind of small and I wanted more.

Lindisfarne Mead Marmalade (Orange & Lemon) [@NLi10]

 While up north we went to Lindisfarne, and I picked up a lovely souvenir for me - Marmalade infused with mead!  We sampled the mead itself in the shop and it was too much, but as a blend it'll be ok - surely.

It's made on the mainland, but uses mead from St. Aidan's Winery - and then you buy it from the shop next to the winery so I guess that's OK.  Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from fermenting honey and is one of the oldest known alcoholic beverages - hurrah!

As you'd expect - it's basically sugar and water, but with 23% fruit & mead this should have a potent flavour.

Consequently I put so little on the first time!

But actually - it's pretty mild.  Nothing like the mead itself which was very medicinal, this is a lovely fruity blend that works well as a light snack or as morning toast (with a more generous helping)

Yum! Wonder if this is available more easily in the midlands? 

 

Hatherwood Porter (Lidl) By @SpectreUK

I have steak pie and mash with veg tonight. I usually go for a stout to wash down my pie, although a Porter also compliments all those beefy flavours.

This Hatherwood Porter should go rather well with my dinner tonight. At 4.5% in volume, it's described as having roasted coffee and sweet toffee flavours, with a slight smokiness as those two dominant flavours collide.

On opening the bottle there was indeed a smoky roasted coffee aroma, with sweetness from the chocolate malt. On taste this almost black Hatherwood Porter, had a strong bitter and lightly smoky roasted coffee flavour to begin with, followed by a mild malted chocolate toffee sweetness into the aftertaste. This Porter was definitely very flavoursome and washed my pie and mash down a treat. Cheers.

Colin The Caterpillar Chocolate Cookies (M&S) By @cinabar

Aside from the name and the packaging, I am not entirely sure how these relate to Colin the Caterpillar. They are chocolatey, yes, but there are no faces or caterpillar shapes involved.

There are seven cookies in the box, and I will be honest, the first impression is not great. Once opened, they are a bit disappointing to look at. The sprinkles are barely visible and the chocolate coating on top is messy rather than decorative. Some cookies have a light coating, others are absolutely smothered, and none of it looks particularly deliberate. If these had turned up on Bake Off, they would definitely have been marked down for lack of neatness.

That said, they are seriously chunky cookies, and once I actually tried one, I very quickly forgave how they looked.

These deliver a proper chocolate overload. The flavour is rich and sweet without being dull, and the chocolate colour coated beans add a satisfying crunch to the texture. The milk chocolate coating may not be tidy, but it is generous, full of flavour, and gives the cookies a definite sense of indulgence.

So no, they are not the prettiest cookies on the shelf, and the Colin branding feels a little loose. But in terms of texture and taste, they absolutely do the job and then some.

Kellogg's Crunchy Nut - HOT HONEY flavour Crunchies [@NLi10]

 It appears to be Honey week for me here at FoodStuffFinds as both the review before this and after this are honey based!  Is hot honey this year's trendy food?  I really hope not.

Here Kellogg's have a Hot Honey version of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, with a Crunchies version of the flake too.  For once I'm glad this is a limited edition as it's a bit odd.

Would you like your breakfast to be both too sweet, and too spicy - while having none of the trademark Kelloggs consistency of texture?  Well - here you go!

They look interesting enough

And the smell is vaguely similar to cornflakes - but I think this is intended to prank little brothers or sisters as it is terrible.  

The flavour falls off the flakes due to the milk.  the flakes barely require chewing and are far more similar to B&B grade own-brand cereals than Kelloggs itself.  

The flavour is both spicy and bland at the same time, it's very hard to place what is causing the heat - but it's not a pleasant honey & cinnamon as I'd hoped for.  It's just sweet and hot with no real depth to the flavour at all.  Stick to golden grahams and leave this one on the shelf.

I'm genuinely wondering if I'll bother with a 2nd bowl of this or just gift it to a teenager who might find it amusing.

Shortbread Flavoured Tea (M&S) By @SpectreUK

Personally I don't know anyone who doesn't like tea and biscuits. Biscuit tea, however, can sometimes be an acquired taste. There are some I've liked, some I've loved, and some I've not been keen on at all.

This Luxury Gold Shortbread Flavoured Tea was blended from fair trade tea and some flavourings, and was produced for Marks and Spencer's. It's been languishing in the tea cupboard for far too long, been as though I really didn't like the last biscuit tea. Now it's coming up to its best before date, Cinabar and I have forty cups of tea to drink in quick succession. If we like it, of course.

We both decided to have a mug of Shortbread Flavoured Tea each, and compare notes. After brewing for sometime and adding milk, we agreed that this tea does smell like All Butter Shortbread. We then took a tentative sip from our mugs.

Cinabar commented how buttery the flavour was. I'd have to agree with that. There was a lot of sweet butter in the flavour first, followed by biscuity shortbread, and black tea. This Shortbread Flavoured Tea was rather nice, and no need for a biscuit, unless you really need to dunk.

Rowntree’s Randoms Egg-Venture (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

These new Randoms Egg-Venture sweets are the Easter edition of Rowntree’s Randoms. The bag promises new shapes and a few new flavours, with the usual mix of jelly and foam sweets.

I have always liked Randoms. The variety is the whole point, and the shapes are part of the fun. Pouring these out, I was pleased to see the Easter theme come through straight away. There are the expected seasonal shapes like chicks, eggs, and bunnies, alongside more spring inspired ones such as umbrellas and pigs, including an actual “oink” sign. True to Randoms form, there are also some properly odd choices, including a mermaid and a house.

Flavour wise, most of these are familiar fruity notes and they work well. The orange stands out in particular. It is sharp, citrusy, and very moreish, easily my favourite of the mix. One of the new flavours appears in the foam sweets and is biscuit. It sounds interesting, but in reality it is just sweet and creamy and gets a bit lost compared to the fruit flavours. It is not unpleasant, just forgettable. Overall, this is a cute and easy pack of Easter themed sweets. Nothing revolutionary, but a solid seasonal twist on a range that already works well.