Nescafé Lion Mocha Flavour (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I’ve always loved Lion bars. That crunchy chewy chocolate sweet caramel goodness. I don’t particularly like instant coffee like Nescafé. I drink fresh coffee. I don’t drink instant coffee sachets, and I’m not that fussed about flavoured coffee. However, maybe, Nescafé Lion Mocha Flavour could change my mind.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a fair judgement if I didn’t have this Nescafé Lion Mocha Flavour as an afternoon drink, accompanied by a Nestlé Lion Bar. I mean, it would be rude not too.

I followed the instructions to a T. I stirred the mixture in twice from the sachet, and strangely tapped my mug on the surface three times. There was a chocolate caramel and a coffee aroma from the frothy liquid in my mug.

On taste of this Nescafé Lion Mocha Flavour, there was a sweet caramel taste of chocolate mixed with coffee. Of course, there wasn’t the crunchiness from a Nestlé Lion Bar, but the flavour of the drink was similar, asides the added coffee.

I must say, it did go rather well with my Nestlé Lion Bar, for an instant coffee sachet, that is.

Information on the box: Per mug is 77 calories, with 1.4g of fat, 11.2g of sugar, and 0.19g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Costa Salted Caramel Latte Sachets (Ocado) By @Cinabar

I am back on the coffee sachets and found these Costa Salted Caramel Latte Sachets under the new products listing online. I love a flavoured coffee, so they went straight into my basket.

I don’t normally see Costa sachets, so I was interested to try these, even though salted caramel isn’t exactly the most exciting flavour compared with some of the other autumnal drinks around. I always think salted caramel is a little bit of a lazy flavour, but it is popular for a reason: pretty much everyone likes it.

I opened the box and found a decent six sachets inside. That’s not quite as generous as Nescafé, which often gives you seven or eight, but it is much better than Starbucks, where you can get just four.

I mixed one up and it made a lovely frothy latte with no annoying lumps. The flavour was really good, with plenty of coffee, creamy milk and sweet caramel, followed by just a touch of salt for contrast.

The caramel was the bit that won me over. It had a lovely, soothing, almost toffee-like taste that made the drink feel really comforting. So yes, salted caramel might not be the most adventurous flavour, but it is undeniably nice. And sometimes that is exactly what you want from a coffee sachet.

Crushed Fruits Blueberry Yoghurt Pocky [@NLi10]

 Pocky was the first ever review I did for this site - mumble mumble - years ago... so when I spot an exciting variant in the wild I like to give it a go. In fact there is a Blueberry version in that original review - but in the 4 per pack tiny version.

I love blueberries, I love Pocky.  I also love Double Happiness (which at our take-away is two chicken fillets battered on a bed of fried rice with katsu sauce)

Here it just means fruit bits and fruit fondant - which is about as luxurious as the Pocky brand gets.

Far from my 35p a box Thai Pocky this is the top of the range and worth every penny. Still from Thailand like all the best Pocky flavours are, and this one sparkles with every bite and was well worth picking up.

McCoy’s Hot Kick Ketchup Crisps (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

When I am out and about looking around the shops and I see a Caribbean supermarket, I’m straight in there looking for one sauce only. There may be a shelf of sauces of all sorts of flavours, but Grace’s Hot Tomato Ketchup is the one I’m looking for.

So, when I saw these McCoy’s Hot Kick Ketchup, I thought maybe they’ll be able to sate my hunger for Grace’s Hot Tomato Ketchup a little, during my never ending search. After all, it’s a rare day I find a packet of McCoy’s crisps I don’t like.

On opening a packet, there was a chilli aroma from these McCoy’s Hot Kick Ketchup crisps, and perhaps a little tomato. On first taste there was a medium chilli warmth from the reddish potato crisis, but not much of a tomato flavour at all. On looking at the ingredients, dried tomato seemed to be more of an after thought mixed in with a multitude of other ingredients.

Don’t get me wrong, these McCoy’s Hot Kick Ketchup crisps don’t taste bad at all. However, to my tastebuds there wasn’t a hot chilli kick, and there wasn’t much of ketchup flavour either. I’ll continue looking for Grace’s Hot Tomato Ketchup then, shall I?

No tomato’s were particularly bothered during the making of these crisps. 

Information on the packet; Each 25g bag contained 132 calories, with 7.8g of fat, 0.7g of sugar, and 0.12g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Pick N Marks Blond Chocolate Malt Balls (Marks and Spencer) By @Cinabar

These new Blond Chocolate Malt Balls are part of the Pick N Marks range, which sounds like Pick N Mix, but isn’t mixed, just grab bags. Totally confusing, but there’s lots of chocolate in the range, so I’m still in.

Blond chocolate has been very popular, following on from the salted caramel trend, and as I have a sweet tooth, it definitely works for me. I opened the bag and the malt balls are a decent size. I bit into one and found a lovely layer of thick blond chocolate, followed by a really nice crispy crunch. The flavour was pure caramel, white chocolate and malty goodness. There was plenty of sweetness, with a bit of contrast from the malt and even a touch of salt. They’ve really maximised that sweet and salty balance, and it just works.

These are very moreish and tasty, and I can see this bag disappearing rather quickly.

There was a time a few years back when every ‘grab bag’ like this would have a resealable sticker, so you could have a few and seal them up for another day. That stopped being a thing for quite a few brands, and these don’t have one either. So, yeah, we’re just going to have to finish the bag tonight while watching a movie. What a shame!

San Pellegrino Zero Peach & Clementine (Ocado) By @Cinabar

These San Pellegrino Zero Peach & Clementine drinks caught my eye as they were reduced in price. I do like the San Pellegrino range very much, but they aren’t cheap, so when I spot them on offer, I do like to pick some up. In this case, it was also a flavour I hadn’t tried before.

The drink comes in a tall, narrow can, which initially made me think there would be less in it than a normal-sized can. However, it still holds the full 330ml, and when I poured it into my glass, it filled it just as much as a standard can would. It just looks a bit posher! I opened the can and it had a nice fizz, before pouring it into my glass. The drink was bubbly and peach in colour.

I gave it a sip and very much enjoyed the flavour. It is a zero-sugar drink, so it does contain sweeteners, but it isn’t overly sweet like some szero oft drinks can be. The flavours taste very natural, with the peach shining through first, followed by a lovely citrus note in the finish.

It was very refreshing and had a well-balanced mix of flavours. Definitely one to keep an eye out for, especially if you spot it on offer.

G Mochi Ice Cream - Pistachio version [@NLi10]

 I’d seen luxury versions of these in the Asian shops, and then Aldi had a suspiciously similar version for much cheaper - win!

These are pre-packaged little rice balls with ice-cream in the middle and not much else 

And you get 6 in a box, but each portion really is one unless you are having a big pudding.

They look quite mumified when frozen

But soon perk up at room temperature and in the heatwave didn’t melt until required.

And biting causes them to squish!

The outside is standard rice ball, and the inside is luxury pistachio ice cream and it works surprisingly well if you like slimy things.

Green luxury puddings for all, hurray!

Kopparberg Cider with Strawberry & Lime (Tesco Express) By @SpectreUK

The weather is a little cooler and damper. It feels a bit like summer is coming to an end. I feel like I should drink something that reminds me of summer just to keep it going a while longer.

I’m not much of a cider drinker. I do like a sweet cider at times, especially with a roast pork dinner. I have my favourite sandwich for tea tonight, a roast pork sandwich. I like it with some Colman’s English Mustard, and a sprinkle of black pepper.

I have a comic con tomorrow, so I suppose this could be considered as a school night for me. So, this Kopparberg with Strawberry & Lime should be okay to drink due to it being zero in alcohol.

On opening the can there was a strong aroma of strawberries, with a touch of lime and cider to this fizzy pink drink. There was a sweet strawberry flavour to begin with, then an almost face twisting sourness from the lime mixed with slightly dry cider. It was a battling combination. It wasn’t bad, but I’m not sure I’d have another.

You’re Paw Some [Chocolates] (M&S) by @cinabar

These You’re Paw Some chocolates caught my eye in M&S. From the box, I would guess these are meant as a gift, either for thanking someone or as a birthday treat, but you should know I bought these for myself to snack on. In my defence, there are only four in the box. They were just too cute to walk away from.

When I opened the pack, I found the chocolates beautifully moulded into the shape of sausage dogs, with lots of detail and looking fab. They actually look slightly better in real life than they do on the box, which never normally happens.

The chocolates are pure milk chocolate and are solid. The chocolate is decent, sweet with plenty of cocoa, and generally quite nice. I thought they could have used Belgian chocolate to make them a bit more special, or perhaps a caramel filling, as the chocolate doesn’t quite do all the work on its own.

The super-cute design is doing the heavy lifting here. I just wish they had backed it up with a little something extra in the taste.

Toy Story Honey Malted Wheats - suspiciously Shreddies [@NLi10]

 Toy Story is still a big thing, and it shows up of all kinds of products. Here we see it on imitation Shreddies.

Sensibly Weetabix have added honey but no heat.  I wonder why these aren’t just Shreddies, I guess nabisco and Weetabix are still separate companies.

At least you get two games on the back to play while you eat. I’m behind on my Toy Story films so don’t recognise all the shadows. 

And they look like frosted Shreddies 

And have a more rounded flavour than the super sugary version so are a little more palatable.they don’t quite have the same crunch maybe, but you’d struggle to tell these apart from the real brand.

Overall a hit, but as a movie tie in they will likely vanish.

Seabrook Disney Winnie the Pooh Honey Flavour Lentil Puffs (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

To celebrate Disney Winnie the Pooh‘s 100th birthday, Seabrook have brought out these Honey Flavour Lentil Puffs. Written by A.A. Milne for his son Christopher Robin’s toys adventures, Winnie the Pooh has been popular with people of all ages ever since.

Seabrook’s origin story is also quite interesting. Mr Charles Brook phoned the shop to arrange pick up of his photos, whilst leaving the name Mr. C. Brook in 1939. When he went to pick them up, they had written down Seabrook, as his name. War happened, Charles was in the navy, and afterwards he decided to buy an old chip shop in Bradford, and call it Seabrook. He also made snack food with the fryer, and delivered it to the locals.

Anyway, on opening these Disney Winnie the Pooh Honey Flavour Lentil Puffs had a very sweet honey aroma. In fact they made me think of a sweet breakfast cereal. On taste though, there was an initial sweet honey flavour, followed by lentil.

For me, I’d say they needed a bit more salt to balance the sweetness and detract from the lentils. Eating two of these Disney Winnie the Pooh Honey Flavour Lentil Puffs at a time seems better, as the honey flavour lasts longer. I think they will go well with a cheese meal, so that’s what I’ll do with my next packet.

Happy birthday Winnie the Pooh!

Information on the packet: Per 18g bag is 74 calories, with 2.4g of fat, 0.7g of sugar, 0.07g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Pistachio Big Daddy Bites (M&S) By @cinabar

I spotted these Pistachio Big Daddy Bites chocolates in a service station branch of M&S, which always cheers me up during a long journey. We didn’t eat them in the car though, we saved them for when we got home. I just love browsing M&S, especially since our town centre branch closed. We also managed to find some crisps that a recent blog commenter recommended, so it was a double win.

These bites are based on the big version of the Pistachio bar, which I thought was called Big Daddy because it was released around Father’s Day. Or perhaps it was simply because it was, well, big. Either way, these are considerably smaller but have kept the Big Daddy name, so who knows!

More importantly, what are they like?

They are chunky individual chocolates, filled with a pistachio filling and topped with caramel. I gave one a try and what a chocolatey, nutty triumph it is. The pistachio element is lovely and strong, almost like eating a bag of salted pistachios. There is a sweet creaminess from the white chocolate, followed by a layer of rich caramel and sweet milk chocolate.

They have just about perfected that sweet and salty combination, with the strong pistachio flavour making these wonderfully moreish. I genuinely loved them, and now I really want to try the proper Big Daddy bar too!