A Dozen Jaffa Profiteroles - Iceland UK [@NLi10]

 Post New Years there are lots of left over snacks and food presents to be consumed.  We have a freezer full of party foods that we didn't end up needing. Oh dear. I guess movie nights got an upgrade.

As usual most of them are from the UK store Iceland - great for odd things to impress.

Here we have Jaffa Cakes, except instead of cake it's pastry, and frozen, and larger.

The box looks snazzy - the product looks more ordinary.  It also looks like 2 boxes would have been better for sharing as a group. Three is a portion.

They survived well enough though - and defrost in no-time at all.

if you wanted to make them look more exciting then a little icing sugar or sparkly stuff could do that, still - it's an enticing proposition.

And they deliver.  Yes - it's barely chocolate on the outside, but that's not the main event.

The orange is strong and balanced out by the cream which has a good flavour.  The pastry does it's job well enough, and the brown on the outside holds it together.

Small enough to eat in a single bite, you'll want all of your portion. As a light desert and general party food though these are a hit and potentially one to pick up extras for storing once the freezer is a little less full.

Jedburgh Abbey & a McSween Haggis Burger [@NLi10]

 We went across the border to Scotland for the day while we were in Northumberland - to Jedburgh - because we wanted a look round the ruined abbey.

It's a great little town with a lot to offer during the high season, but as Halloween approaches it gets a little spooky, and the hot chocolates call.

We popped into a little gift shop & cafe and decided that the national delicacies should be enjoyed

My partners hot-chocolate was stacked with choc orange pieces that flipped the cream upside down and melted lovingly into the drink

I had a perfectly ordinary burger...

Not so! It's an Angus burger with McSween haggis piled on top!

We know them form back in the days when we got sent PR guff - I used the tote bag they sent me for years! No idea where that's hiding now.

The veggie haggis was my favourite, and we still buy that on occasion - but the meaty one was a bit of a large person for one person to make it through in time.  So having a portion while out was a nice treat - it's mostly oats and good things... 

This was one heck of a lunch and I didn't need to eat until we were back across the border - a great (if not a bit heavy) hearty meal for the cold days.

Bonne Maman - Chocolate & Orange Spread [@NLi10]

 More luxury spreads! This time from the French brand Bonne Maman which roughly translates to Sexy Grandma, and is a superb chocolate & orange spread.

Even the jars are classy

I mean - it's > 40% sugar as it's 40% oranges, so it's basically just that Australian thing where you put sugar on your bread

but brand name luxurious orange sugar - mmmmmm

I mean - it flows and spreads so nicely.  Luxury PG in the background!

Very unsexy in pictures, but smells and tastes so great!  Like the pistachio spread I think this deserves to be used with cakes and puddings, but as a tester this worked well. So dark, so orangey, a little Christmassy.  Fab.

Nestlé Munchies Orange (Ocado) By @Cinabar

There’s another new flavour from Munchies on the shelves. This time it’s Nestlé Munchies Orange, and since it has been a while since the last fruity variety, I was keen to give these a try. The packaging isn’t very different from the regular version, just the word Orange added with no major design changes.

I opened up the bag by tearing where instructed, and as always, I was disappointed that so few products these days have those handy resealable stickers that used to be popular. I didn’t want to eat the whole lot in one go, but with the bag left wide open, it felt like an invitation to do just that.

I took in the aroma, but there wasn’t much to it, just a standard chocolate scent. I had expected the orange to come through at this stage. However, as soon as I bit into one, the flavour kicked in. There was loads of zesty goodness. The usual Munchies mix of textures, crunchy biscuit, gooey caramel and smooth milk chocolate, was there, but the burst of orange in the caramel was an absolute delight. Sweet, fruity and with the perfect citrus balance, it made these dangerously moreish.

I loved them, ate far too many and had to resort to a paperclip to close the bag before I demolished the lot.

Fry’s Turkish Delight Orange Flavour (Asda) – By @Cinabar

Turkish Delight isn’t everyone’s first choice for a sweet treat, but I have a soft spot for it. I always look forward to indulging at Christmas, when it comes coated in so much icing sugar that it ends up everywhere. It is still so delicious that I don’t mind the mess. For a quicker, more affordable snack, Fry’s Turkish Delight is a favourite of mine. Their bars are always coated in milk chocolate, which is another big win.

Now there is a new addition to the range: Fry’s Turkish Delight Orange Flavour.

The multipack contains three bars, each wrapped in bright orange packaging. I opened one and gave it a try. The texture is just like the original, with a soft, jelly-like centre and a solid chocolate coating that cracks as you bite in. The filling has a delicate orange flavour, not sharp like the lemon variety available at Christmas, but sweet and soothing. If you enjoy orange cream chocolates, this will be right up your street, even if you don’t usually go for Turkish Delight.

Terry’s Chocolate Orange Egg (Ocado) By @Cinabar

Most Terry’s Chocolate Orange products are, unsurprisingly, orange-flavoured chocolate. That is their thing. Their main product, of course, is the classic Terry’s Chocolate Orange. I have enjoyed the bars and miniature chocolates over the years, but this is the first time I can recall seeing an Easter egg.

I have to admit, the foil was folded so tightly that I couldn’t read the description properly. I assumed it was just two solid pieces of milk chocolate flavoured with orange. However, when I unwrapped the egg, the chocolate looked great, even featuring the Terry’s logo embossed on it. I took a bite and discovered something even better. It was filled with orange crème. This egg is essentially a giant Chocolate Orange Cream chocolate.

The filling was sweet, fruity, and an absolute delight, while the chocolate shell was thick and tasty. I absolutely loved it. This has to be a new classic for Terry’s. I have no idea why they haven’t done this before, but I will definitely be buying more before Easter is over.

Mark’s Choc: Chocolate Candy Beans, Orange Jellies & Popping Candy (M&S) By @Cinabar

This new bar was found in the M&S food-hall. It has the most gorgeous bright pink and orange packaging, and the branding looks lovely and vibrates. It's modern, but somehow the neons give off a 90s vibe too. The bar too is rather fun; here we have Mark’s Choc: Chocolate Candy Beans, Orange Jellies & Popping Candy Milk Chocolate. There is a lot of flavour to unpack there, so once home, I gave it a try.

I opened the wrapper, and even inside, it is still fun to look at. The inside wrapper is bright, and the chunky chocolate shows the orange candies shining through. I gave a piece of the chocolate a try, and what a win this is. The flavour is spot on; the milk chocolate is thick and creamy, and there are lots of rich cocoa tones. The orange shines through good and strong with a nice citrus blast. The balance is so good. Add in the fun texture from the candies and the popping candy, and I was in heaven. The Mark’s Choc: Chocolate Candy Beans, Orange Jellies & Popping Candy Milk Chocolate is a proper treat; it's rich and tasty, and every bite is different. I can’t wait to see what else is out in this new Mark’s Choc range. 

Terry’s Chocolate Orange Minis Exploding Candy (Ocado) By @Cinabar

Popping candy has a Marmite-like property; some may hate it for its childish nature, and some absolutely love the popping tingle. Whenever I see popping candy, it takes me back to my childhood and those little sachets you used to get in newsagents full of the stuff with fruity flavours.

A few years back, Terry’s brought out a popping candy edition in full size orange, which I haven’t seen for some time. These seem to be the next step in the evolution, and here we have a sharing bag of Terry’s Chocolate Orange Minis Exploding Candy. I can’t wait.

Firstly, the bag has one of those stickers for re-sealing, which I find useful and a reminder not to eat the entire bag in one session. Inside the pack are really cute mini Terry’s Chocolate Orange segments. They do look super sweet; each one has the logo on it. I gave one a try, and the chocolate was lovely, sweet, and smooth, and then there was a tingle and the exploding candy pops. It was a good, fun sensation, and it popped and crackled, and I really liked it. Terry’s chocolate is lovely and sweet, and the orange flavour is a good strength. The whole thing is a delight. I just have to remember that I don’t have to eat them all in one setting because the packet does re-seal! 

Yorkie Orange Duo (Texaco) By @SpectreUK

I haven't seen one of these before, and I haven't had a regular milk chocolate Yorkie for quite sometime. On the side of this Yorkie Orange Duo it states, "one for now, one for later." That statement amused be greatly. I just know I'm going to eat one after another. I'm way too greedy to just have one at a time.

On opening the wrapper there was a strong smell of orange from the regular looking milk chocolate Yorkie bar inside. On taste there was an explosion of orange flavour followed closely by the creamy Yorkie milk chocolate. I really liked this Yorkie Orange Duo. Of course I ate the whole bar, well, who wouldn't? Packed full of flavour, and perfect for an chocolate orange night, I'd definitely have them again. Yum.

Information on the wrapper; The 72g bar contained 191 calories per half, with 10.8g of fat, 20.4g of sugar, and 0.08g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

8 Ultimate Chocolate Orange Teacakes (Marks and Spencer) By @Cinabar

I have to say that if you name your product with the word ‘ultimate’ in the title, you have to accept that there are going to be quite a lot of expectations. Still, Marks and Spencers have called these the Ultimate Chocolate Orange Teacakes.

 

To start with, I have to say that I liked the fact that all of the packaging is recyclable. The outer packet is paper-based, and the inner tray is clear plastic. I put both in the recycling once we were done. That is in line with these being ‘ultimate’.

Inside the pack are eight small to medium (should something labelled ‘ultimate’ be bigger?) teacakes. Two were leaking a little marshmallow, again not very ‘ultimate’ but not a big problem.

I gave one a try, and the chocolate was a lovely, rich flavour; the base was firm but not crunchy; and the mallow was fluffy and super soft. That all met the ‘ultimate’ description. The orange flavour was a bit mild for my taste; it was there, but it was far more subtle than I had expected. They were still super tasty, but not what I would call an ‘ultimate’ orange taste. Still good though, and I’d certainly buy these Ultimate Chocolate Orange Teacakes again.

Diplomat Biscuit Tea Tastes Like Jaffa (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

I've recently discovered that I like biscuit tea. I've tried some flavoured teas before, and I've not been that fussed by them, but who doesn't like tea and biscuits? Biscuit tea is pretty much that, but without the crunch and the added calories.

This new Diplomat Biscuit Tea Tastes Like Jaffa should go rather well with a box of Jaffa Cakes. I love to eat a whole box for pudding some nights. I can't just eat a whole Jaffa Cake either, or bite it in half, I've always savoured them since I can remember. Since I was very young I have always nibbled around the edge of the Jaffa Cake, then eaten the Jaffa jelly, then the base.

Described as; black tea flavoured with cacao husks, orange peel, and roasted cocoa beans, this tea should wash down my Jaffa Cake pudding a treat tonight. There was a chocolatey aroma from the teabag, with a touch of orange peel. I opened a box of Jaffa Cakes, brewed up a mug of Diplomat Biscuit Tea Tastes Like Jaffa for a good long while, added some milk, and had a sniff.

The brew itself smelt mainly of chocolate and black tea, with a hint of orange. On taste the orange was the most predominant flavour, with chocolate behind it mixed with black tea and milk. I was surprised by the strong flavour of orange, considering I couldn't smell it in any real strength. This Diplomat Biscuit Tea Tastes Like Jaffa was really very tasty indeed and washed down my Jaffa Cake pudding perfectly.

Information on the box; 40 teabags with ingredients of; black tea, cacao husks (8%), orange peel (6%), flavourings, roasted cacao beans (5%), liquorice root, and chicory root fibre.

Cadbury Mini Eggs Orange (Tesco) By @Cinabar

Don’t shoot the messenger, but the Easter stock has hit the shops. I don’t know who it is that buys full-size Easter eggs in January, but clearly somebody does because Tesco has filled up. As much as I can’t think about buying the full-size eggs yet, I couldn’t resist a look at the rest of the shelf and the smaller snackable items. Creme eggs are back, and there are boxes with white ones and milk ones as per last year. There is a competition to win money if you find one that is half white and half milk; just remember not to eat it! I saw the Aero Mint eggs, and then I saw these Cadbury Mini Eggs Orange edition, and they felt like a Friday post-work snack.

Inside the bag, the eggs are the same colour, speckled but pale orange. The crispy shell is the same as on regular mini eggs, but there is a lovely flavour of orange throughout. They are creamy and sweet with the milk chocolate, but the citrus shines through. They are moreish, too! I do like chocolate and orange flavours, so these are a win for me. I hope they stay around longer than just for Easter, but at least I have plenty of time to stock up; after all, it is only January.

Quality Street Favourites Orange Crunch Bar (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

As the tin of chocolates was empty post-Christmas, I decided to see what I could find in the cupboard. It may have only been a four-day week at work, but it felt like a full week as it was a bit of a culture shock post-Christmas. Anyway, tonight's chocolate treat is still tin of chocolates related; it is Quality Street Favourites Orange Crunch Bar. They put the orange one from the tin in the form of a chocolate bar.

I opened up the Quality Street Favourites Orange Crunch Bar wrapper, and this is a fairly flat bar with large pieces to break off. The chocolate is a milk chocolate shell with a darker filling. The flavour is a lovely, sweet orange burst, followed by the mellow tones of the chocolate. Despite the bar being thin, there is still enough room for the crispy, crunchy bits that add a nice texture to the bar. Effectively, this is the Orange Crunch from Quality Street flattened into a bar, and it works really well. I hope it stays around a while too, but I fear it might disappear soon.

Terry’s Chocolate Orange Mini Eggs White (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

I haven't had Terry's Chocolate Orange for a while, and I certainly haven't tried these Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini Eggs White before. Obviously brought out to celebrate the chocolate egg season, or Easter as some people call it, these white chocolate and orange eggs should go down a treat.

The back of the packet stated that these Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini Eggs White had a crispy orange coloured egg shaped shell, with a white chocolate centre flavoured with orange oil. They sounded ideal for a quick snack or pudding with a tub of low calorie ice cream.

You can see the almost fluorescent orange eggs in the photograph. There was a strong smell of orange oil from the bright shiny eggs. They had quite a crunch to get into their creamy white chocolate insides. They were very tasty indeed, mainly of orange oil though, well mostly of orange oil, well I'd maybe go as far as to say that they were predominantly tasting of orange oil, and then with a little creamy white chocolate at the back of the flavour. Having said that, I'd still have them again though.

Information on the packet; The 80g packet contained 120 calories per 6 eggs at 22.8g, with 6.3g of fat, 14g of sugar and 0.07g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Cadbury Delights Orange and Caramel (Asda) By @cinabar

Last week I tried out the Cadbury Delights Salted Caramel, and today I went for one of the other new flavours, Orange and Caramel. These bars are in a multipack box, with 5 in the pack. They are individually wrapped and have lower calories at just 91 per bar. So they are perfect for a calorie-controlled diet or a lunchbox treat that isn’t too bad for you.

Once the box is opened, you can see the bars are quite thin, so it isn’t just a lower calorie recipe; it is also a smaller product size. I gave one a taste, and they are still a nice treat. There is plenty of zingy orange, and it was well balanced with the chocolate. I did enjoy the flavour. The nougat and caramel are a little sticky on the teeth but still enjoyable to eat. These are a nice sweet treat, and I like the idea of a lower-calorie bar, but they were tasty and I still fancied chocolate, so I may have eaten two, which may have missed the point.

Chocolarder 100% Pure Dark Amazon Rainforest Chocolate (@NLi10) @chocolarder @IllustratedLiv

 Chocolate is still weird and versatile.  While last time we saw it made into a family friendly treat, today we see it weaponised and perfected.

I love little arty shops, and I have a habit of picking up prints.  It's getting impossible to display them all now (and tiring to carry everything back) so I tend to just get cards and gifts from these shops instead.  Some shops don't truly understand this tipping-by-gifts, but others get it spot on.

Here is a good example - Illustrated Living in St. Ives - a shop full of lovely curated things to carefully take home for my cats to destroy. This is not a great idea.  Instead - how about we pick up some of the chocolate off the counter, for me to destroy.

The presence of these Chocolarder bars in the shop itself has a lovely story - the owner ended up eating most of the short date chocolate due to lockdown, and realising that the quality of it didn't quite match the ideals of the shop.  He set out to find a superior version (in fact a local maker convinced them to try his) and so I ended up with one to take home.  They had a few varieties, but I knew which one I was trying.

At £6 for a 70g bar (compared to the £3.50 100g box of chocolate pasties) it's possibly a hard sell to a regular person, but for Foodstuff Finds we make sacrifices, and like I said - I'm basically tipping the shop for letting me covet all the nice things.  Here's the link if you do want to browse from home. 

It's certainly a deluxe affair - the packaging is impeccable - like an origami cocoon that ensures the Instagram pic at the start of the review is a perfect bar. It's all folds and art and story and makes you feel very good about being the person that got to take this home.  Very giftable too.

And it's ethical, being plastic & slavery free - and vegans can eat it!  Well - some of them might be brave enough to try - and some might even like it!

Why do I say that? Well - this is 100% dark chocolate. That means it only has one ingredient - cocoa beans.  We tried the 99% Lindt chocolate some years back (as a taste test on the office!) and it was our first true taste of the Death By Chocolate that is the (near) 100% bar. Even Cinabar found a 100% dark bar she likes!

So - what about this.  As in the picture it's not cubes - they know that this isn't for snacking.  Unlike the Lindt 99% (which I'm sure still lurks somewhere in the cooking draw) this has an inviting smell and begs to be sampled.

And it's quite edible.  My first response was that it's actually quite nice - and it certainly moves through all the different flavour notes you'd expect from a roasted super-dark.  It's more like an espresso in that a small bite will sustain you for a long time - and it's probably similar in terms of the pick-me-up effect.  It really is more of an experience than a snack, and it's my favourite 100% bar that I've tried so far.

There isn't much more I can say about this in regular terms - if you like insanely strong flavours, and salivate at the thought of trying the ultimate in luxury dark roasts then this is totally for you. If not - but you want a contrast flavour for baking or to grate into ordinary hot chocolate to make it suddenly special then you could probably justify it. I'm going to keep it at hand in my work from home kit (along with my Poldhu beach bobble hat) as a lovely reminder that not all art is visual and sometimes your taste-buds disserve a little sophistication too.

That said - it is complemented perfectly with the little orange buttons we talked about in the last chocolate review (as a chaser) so maybe I do need to go back and try some more of the flavours...

 

Trenance Chocolate - Factory & Chocolate Cornish Pasties (@NLi10) @TrenanceChoc

Chocolate is weird and versatile stuff. 

First in a series of two tales of Cornish Chocolate is this one - the humble Cornish Pasty but rendered into chocolate form by luxury chocolatiers Trenance Choc

We found this place as part of a little artists village - literally walking distance from our Cornish holiday cottage, near Lizard Point.

It's totally geared up for the high-season of the summer and has a café, factory viewing area and a well stocked shop.

The puny human brain isn't equipped to make rational decisions when presented with this much chocolate.  I wanted a bag of dinosaurs (obviously) but as they didn't have all three blends of chocolate I settled for sea creatures, some orange buttons - and a top tourist magnet - the chocolate Cornish Pasty.

Clearly designed to be given to relatives on your return but I cracked them open back in the cottage.

Wonderfully presented and with lots of little quirks like the grandmas on the box to tickle the brain.  This is souvenir perfection, should have bought a spare.

And they actually match the illustration as demonstrated at the top (with the only one that made it back to Birmingham!)

At the end of the day this is just top quality Milk chocolate though in a variety of entertaining shapes.  Like people need encouragement to eat chocolate!

Here are the buttons and shells.

It was the first shop of the holiday where every couple bought something - and we all got different things for different reasons, and they were basically all just good chocolate.  Selling chocolate to people who practically live next to the Cadbury factory though is pretty impressive!

The dark was a little darker, the white was very sweet, and the orange was the white with flavour and colour added.  Very enjoyable all round, including the lovely café, and the chocolate was a fair price for the quality. 

It's always well worth a visit to these little outlets - the art shop next door had some fabulous things to resist and there were other shops for other creative pursuits.   And we had lots of sweet things to sustain us on our long dog walks over the week.