Wonka Oompa Loompa Sweets (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

The Wonka brand has had a bit of a relaunch, and thanks to a new show on Netflix, we now have lots of new goodies to try, all inspired by the magical chocolate and sweets factory. I was very excited to find the new range in the supermarket and couldn’t resist picking up these Wonka Oompa Loompa Sweets, along with a stash of other goodies from the brand. Don’t worry, reviews of those will follow soon!

These Wonka Oompa Loompa Sweets come in two flavours, strawberry and blueberry, and both have a berry cola filling. I opened the bag to find two different colours, and the sweets looked super cute. They are small gummies designed to look like little Oompa Loompas, which makes them rather fun.

I tried the redder one first, and it had a good strawberry flavour with a liquid filling that tasted like cherry cola. It was a fun combination and a lovely surprise when I bit into the sweet. The darker one is blueberry, which is slightly sharper but still sweet, delivering a proper berry blast with a hint of floral flavour, too.

I loved both flavours. The gummies are soft and easy to eat, and the liquid centres make them a little bit different from your usual sweets. They are fun, tasty and definitely worth trying if you spot them in the supermarket. I can’t wait to work my way through the rest of the Wonka goodies!

Thai Pocky - Mango Style! [@NLi10]

 The new Oriental grocers in Birmingham is Korean focussed but has a good mix of Thai and Japanese things for me to eat too.

Here we have authentic Thai Pocky!

I've never seen mango flavour - but it's a big part of the typical Thai tourist breakfast - along with dirtmelon which we didn't enjoy. 

Pocky still sounds like cat-treats

Even the ingredients are of interest

But the Pocky are still Pocky

Very fruity smelling and fondanty - a surprisingly effective flavour considering these are the basic '30p' Pocky - but I bet even in Thailand these cost double what they did 20 years ago when I was last there.

Worth a pick up (even at £1 a box) but probably not a regular treat.

Golden Wonder Thai Sweet Chilli (Home Bargains) By @SpectreUK

Believe it or not, but this is my breakfast. I have a pub meal out tonight which takes up all of my calories for the day, so I don’t usually eat beforehand. I like a really good pub meal, like a mixed grill with a gammon steak, and sticky toffee pudding with custard to finish it off.

So, these limited edition Golden Wonder Thai Sweet Chilli crisps are to keep me going before I go out tonight. Besides, it’s a bit cold and damp outside, so hopefully these crisps will warm me up a bit.

Thai Sweet Chilli crisps can often come flavoured with chicken, so it’s nice to see Golden Wonder concentrating on the flavour of Thai sweet and chilli spiciness. On opening the bag there was a chilli aroma to the reddish crisps inside.

On first crunchy taste, these Golden Wonder Thai Sweet Chilli crisps had a familiar flavour, but with more of a chilli burn to follow. I have been complaining for some time that I couldn’t find a hot and spicy bag of crisps anymore, and here it is.

They were so moreish, and they warmed the back of my throat with chilli as they went down. Certainly an Autumn and Winter warmer. I hope Golden Wonder decide to make them a permanent flavour. They are so good.

Information on the packet; The 25g bag contains 131 calories, with 7.7g of fat, 1g of sugar, and 0.25g of salt. Suitable for vegans, and made with no artificial flavours, preservatives, or colours. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Moser Roth Smooth Praline Belgian Milk Chocolate (Aldi) By @Cinabar

Sometimes you just need a bit of chocolate and a bit of a treat. Work has been draining, so I thought I’d have a look for one of my favourite chocolate fillings, praline, and spotted this smart-looking Moser Roth Smooth Praline Belgian Milk Chocolate bar in Aldi. Nothing says after-work treat quite like a big bar of chocolate. I love nuts and chocolate, so this had to end up in my basket.

I opened the wrapper and it is a proper hefty bar, definitely not one for a single serving, but you know, I’ll try my best. The chocolate has a lovely wave pattern marking out the chunks to break off, so I broke off a strip.

I gave the chocolate a try and it really did hit the spot. The milk chocolate is thick and generous, while the praline is rich and full of delicious hazelnut flavour. The texture is what really wins me over, though, as it is super silky. The chocolate stays thick as it melts and properly coats the tongue. Bliss.

Although it is nutty, there are no bits, so it stays lovely and smooth. It feels like a substantial chocolate bar and a proper treat, which was exactly what I needed at the end of a long day.

Spiced Pear Instant Tea (Whittard) By @Cinabar

I really do love hot drinks, and Whittard is one of those places I always seem to end up shopping at when I fancy a treat. I love their hot chocolate flavours and their instant fruit teas, so obviously this new autumn Spiced Pear Instant Tea ended up in my basket on my last shop.

I opened up the tub and put three heaped teaspoons into my mug. As usual with Whittard's instant teas, it dissolved very easily with a gentle stir. I gave the drink a taste and, oh my word, this drink made me smile from ear to ear. It was perhaps my perfect drink.

It is blow your mind good. It is like cinnamon mixed with pear drops, which just happens to be two of my favourite things. It starts with a lovely sweet pear flavour, followed by warming spices and plenty of cinnamon, before finishing with a proper juicy pear taste. I was absolutely loving the sweet, warming pear and those lovely autumnal spices.

This may actually be my favourite tea from Whittard ever. This review does come with some serious bias, because pear drops are my favourite sweet and cinnamon is my favourite spice. If I had asked Whittard to make a tea especially for me, this is exactly what I would have wanted. I honestly couldn't have picked a better combination myself.

Powdered Sweat - Pocari @ home style [@NLi10]

 Japan has an amusingly named rehydration drink called Pocari Sweat.  It's basically powdered grape juice and electrolytes but it's fantastically compulsive and really does seem to hydrate better than most drinks.

And I've found it in powder form!

As the bottom says this is 66g of powder to make 1L of drink. This is annoying but logical.

It does come with instructions but as they are pour into bottle and drink we don't need the translation software.

I almost brought home a Cha Dong to try - but there was no price on the section and a queue at the till so no-one to ask

As pocari has lots of extra goodness in it the bottles feel heavy.  I do like them though so the water bottle in my fridge is their brand. Unfortunately it's 1.5L, so I filled it - then measured 500ml out of it into a pint glass.  Easy.

Then cutting as instructed the tiny hole allowed for a super clean pour.

And one shake later it looked identical!

It tasted a bit of the accelerant/mixer though (like the UK versions do) so I left it to settle for an hour or so.

And it was magically just like the real thing!  I mean - it probably is the real thing, they almost certainly just dilute it in the factory.

At £2.50 a sachet it's about half price to buy it in powder form.  More importantly it's a lot lighter to carry.  And as I was feeling under the weather this week it kept me going.  All good from me!

The Traitors - Chews (WHSmith) By @SpectreUK

I do love watching The Traitors. The plots, the twists and turns, the back stabbing. It’s just so much fun to watch how people find it so hard to read each other.

I know I’d likely be rubbish at the game. I’m not a good liar, so if I was a Traitor I’d probably be like Richard E. Grant, and just blurt it out. I’m not good at reading people either.

Nevertheless, having some sweet and sour chews to watch The Traitors series sounds like a good idea. These The Traitors - Chews have some chewy sweets that are sour and some that are sweet. If you find a sour, then you catch a Traitor.

On opening the bag there were a multitude of wrapped chewy sweets. On unwrapping several sweets there seemed different sweet flavours from raspberry to lemon and mango, and then I caught a Traitor. It was a face twisting sour lemon sherbet filled chew, which really caught me. These sweets are great fun, not tough to chew and very tasty, whether they are sweet Faithfuls or deadly sour Traitors.

These sweets could be useful to all the teddy bears in the house that are playing The Traitors game at the same time as the celebrity series. Believe me, it’s been absolute carnage so far.

Information on the packet; The 120g bag contained 401 calories per 100g, with 6.1g of fat, 67g of sugar, and 0.06g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Jaffaween Cake Bars Cherry (Tesco) By @Cinabar

As we are in spooky month, I feel like I can properly start tucking into the Halloween goodies we have lined up to tell you about. First up is these Jaffaween Cake Bars Cherry. The spell check does not like the name, but I don’t mind it!

Jaffaween Cake Bars are available in Orange, but I don’t think I’ve tried the Cherry ones before, so I went with those. Plus, red for Halloween seems a bit more themed than just changing the standard packaging on the orange ones. I opened up the wrapper and have to say, they have done a lovely job with the packaging. Each cake bar is made to look like a monster or mummy wrapped up in orange peel bandages, which is very cool.

Underneath that, we have a nice cake bar with a layer of cherry and dark chocolate. The flavour is sweet and tasty, with enough chocolate and vanilla from the sponge to contrast nicely with the cherry. These are tasty, and they fit perfectly into a lunch box for Halloween, or as a snack for Trick or Treaters.

The best part is the cute wrapper, though. I just loved that!

McDonalds World Heist II - Maple Chicken, Guava Sprite & Paprika Fries [@NLi10]

 Way back we did a World Heist review - it was terrible - and now the economic instability caused by that promotion has directly led to World Heist Two!

Ignore my colleague's sad Cheeseburger with no cheese - I can't remember why that exists.

(ed - I asked - it's the cheapest way to get a double burger with no cheese)

Annoyed by the lack of the German Rosti burger I decided to take a different route. Canadian Maple Burger, Dutch Paprika Fries and Indian Guava Sprite.

With only 3 ice-cubes and 27 calories this is a lovely refreshing summer drink. It's now October so hey-ho, but I enjoyed it anyway.  And it wasn't 60% Ice like the KFC specials.

I didn't try any Canadian McFlurry but it's a normal one with marshmallows and crumble added.

I did go for the Maple Chicken - so called because I had the plastic cheese removed.

It's got a million different things in there.  Hooray!

Except bacon - boo - should have added it in.

Good enough to go back and try that before these vanish at the end of Oct? Nope.  KFC still does this so much better.

I enjoyed the fresh salad and mix of textures, but McDonalds burgers are almost drinkable due to their lack of consistency.  Probably the best chicken burger I've had in modern McDonalds though.  Much better than the beef burger from last time.

And now - fries!

North Europe the McFries go stone cold even faster so having them in a bag is just smart.

Add paprika - get red fries!

The extra salt and pepper on these, combined with the cooling guava meant that this was the main event.  Like the Polish fries I'd have these again, but if we go back I have to have the German burger and the Mulan's Szechwan Sauce with my fries to complete the set.

Overall, reasonable value (about £10) but nothing to tell the grandchildren to hop into the time portal about. Better than the first time though.

Walkers Grilled Cheese & Chilli Jam flavoured crisps (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

If there’s one thing in life that I have discovered, it’s that I have a lot of favourite sandwiches. One of my favourites is the all time classic; ham and tomato sandwich. Add a bit of salad cream or mayonnaise, a lot of Colman’s English Mustard, and a little pepper and I am well away. Even if it always gets really messy.

I generally have some sort of bacon flavoured crisps to accompany my ham and tomato sandwich. Today, I found these limited edition Walkers Grilled Cheese & Chilli Jam flavoured crisps to review. I like a bit of grilled cheese on an sandwich, and chilli jam can have quite a kick to it. So, I wonder what these taste like.

On opening the bag there was an aroma of sweet chilli and a cheesiness to the red chilli flecked crisps inside. On first taste these Walkers Grilled Cheese & Chilli Jam flavoured crisps had a strong grilled cheese flavour to begin with, and then a mild sweet chilli tang followed. I could feel that sweet chilli heat building the more crisps I ate, and they were very moreish indeed. Yum.

Information on the packet; The 25g bag contained 128 calories, with 7.3g of fat, 0.8g of sugar, 0.16g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Baileys Chocolate Caramel Whirls (Tesco) By @Cinabar

I spotted these at the supermarket and thought they looked nice. There have been a few Baileys-flavoured products come out over the last year or so, but it is always nice to see a new one. Here we have three Baileys Chocolate Caramel Whirls, all individually wrapped and in a box, so they would be perfect as a stocking filler. Apologies for hinting at Christmas this early!

The box is light, so I wasn’t expecting the chocolates to be too big, but they are still surprisingly small, they only weigh 24g each. The individual packaging is useful for keeping them fresh, but it does mean there is more plastic, and unfortunately it isn’t easy to recycle.

I cut one in half because I was curious to see how they looked inside. It isn’t the best photo, but you can see the nice layers inside.

I gave it a try and it reminded me a little of a Walnut Whip (minus the walnut, obviously), with a nice hint of Baileys. The chocolates look pretty too, as they are nicely moulded. The chocolate and Irish cream flavour work well together, and the Baileys isn’t too strong, but gives it just enough extra flavour to make it interesting.

The chocolate is a reasonable thickness and is sweet and tasty. They are a nice little treat, and I think they would make a lovely stocking filler.

Reese’s Strawberry PB&J Big Cup (Home Bargains) By @Cinabar

There has been an increase over the years in products that combine peanut butter and chocolate in the UK, and we’ve even had a mainstream Kit Kat in the flavour. I would say, though, that we haven’t really taken on PB&J over here (for those wondering, that’s peanut butter and jelly). Apparently, it is a popular sandwich filling across the pond. However, I found this Reese’s Strawberry PB&J Big Cup in the shop and couldn’t wait to give it a try.

There are two of the larger cups inside the packet, but they are still in the usual paper cases. They are a decent size, and when I bit into one, I found they packed in a good amount of filling too. The flavour was very sweet, and the strawberry jelly (jam) gave a lovely hit of sweet fruitiness. The chocolate was also lovely and sweet, while the peanut butter added that more savoury, nutty taste with just a touch of salt. It worked really well, and I particularly liked the strawberry addition to the combination.

This may be more in the American taste palette than the UK, but I loved the fruity twist with chocolate and peanut butter. It’s definitely a combination I’d be happy to see more of over here.

Crusties & Bugles - Denmark Snacks [@NLi10]

 We recently went to Denmark for the week - but surprisingly didn't pick up many branded snacks.  I gravitated towards the pastries and cafes - and it wasn't quite hot enough for the icecreams.

I did spot these Crusties

Like a store-brand version of the Knopper this comes as a multi pack.

Very affordable, not quite as creamy or rich as the originals, but still a nice snack.  Really not that filling though

My partner opted for a single bag of Bugles for a similar price.  These have crept into the UK but never seem as good as the Lay's version - guess it's like Takis not being as good as the Spanish ones.

These look and taste fantastic.

They don't photograph well - this is a tiny crisp, not a samosa.

They lasted ages, and worked out as much better value than the tasty wafer squares (I think we still have one of those left!) -  we did a lot of walking so big meals, sugary drinks and bags of bugles should be the way forwards.

Peroni Nastro Azzuro Arancia Rossa (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I have a comic con on Saturday and Sunday to sell toys at. Whilst I like a beer with my dinner, I rarely feel like drinking on a ‘school night’, so to speak. A non-alcoholic drink is most welcome on those nights. I usually like the taste, and hopefully the flavour will go well with whatever sandwich I choose.

This Peroni Nastro Azzuro Arancia Rossa is flavoured with blood orange. So, I may have a tuna sandwich. It is 0% in volume, which is ideal for a school night. There is the wonder of the taste ratio with this type of flavoured beer. Generally it’s a little fruit and a lot of beer, but I’ll see…

On opening the can there was a strong aroma of blood orange to the murky red beer inside the can. I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be that colour. There was a lot of blood orange added during the brewing. The beer flavour definitely took a second stage here in the tasting. I have to admit, this was a flavoursome drink. I missed the stronger beer element though.

Muller Corner Yoghurt - Jaffa Cakes (Ocado) By @Cinabar

There is a lot of discussion about whether Jaffa Cakes are a cake or a biscuit, as they are found in the biscuit aisle but are technically cakes, apparently. Well, this Muller Corner Jaffa Cakes edition is definitely a yoghurt.

I do like Jaffa Cakes, so I couldn’t resist trying these new yoghurts. On one side we have plain yoghurt with plenty of Jaffa sauce marbled through it, and on the other we have dark chocolate-coated biscuits to add in. Yes, biscuits, as in shortcake. I guess sponge would have gone soggy or not kept its shape.

I added the biscuits to the yoghurt and have to say, the flavours really did come together. The orange was full of flavour, sweet and juicy with plenty of citrus. It worked really well with the crunch of the chocolate biscuits and the yoghurt, and was perfect for chocolate orange fans.

Maggi - Gochujang Beef Flavour Instant Noodles [@NLi10]

I like the Maggi masala noodles for lunch, but they are a little small.  Enter this £1.99 version with TWO sachets and a larger block of noodles.

And the packet looks a lot fancier

The ingredients are the same - but it suggests turning it into a meal with actual food too.  I did not do this.

Into the pot it all goes.  I forgot to take a picture of it all cooked. Why?

Because it was hot.  Like proper hot.  And I didn't even touch the sachet of very spicy.

This was a terrible choice for a nice big lunch - it was impossible to eat at speed.  With veggies and meat to mitigate the heat then I think it might have been ok - I do like hot food, but this was like a Nandos Hot and eating that as soup at lunch while the liquid was hot made it too hard.  I did finish it but had to have an extended lunch to do so.

I'd totally have these again (and have them in mind for a spicy present for a cousin) but for me - I'll stick to Masala which has a kick, but not a kick to the face.