Haribo Super Sour Monsters [By Spectre] (WH Smiths)

Our Halloween week may have missed the boat on these fruit flavoured Super Sour Monster gums, but I just had to write about them. They come in three flavours and are packed with the usual Haribo fun. The lemon monster had a decent lemon taste and a good sourness, although not face twistingly uncomfortable, it had a pleasant easy to eat flavour and was instantly moreish. The apple monster was sourer than the lemon monster, which I found a bit odd, considering actual lemons are naturally sourer than actual apples. The apple flavouring made the sour fruit gum a little less moreish than the lemon, but still they didn’t last long either. There were quite a few less cherry monsters than apple or lemon in the packet, which made me think that these fruit gums weren’t properly counted out. Regular readers wouldn’t think that this was a problem, as I usually hate anything that is cherry flavoured. However, I actually like cherry fruit flavoured gums, such as cherry cola bottles. The cherry itself had a strong black cherry flavour to it that drown out the other two flavours. I was glad I left these cherries to last and finally my face started to twist in unusual ways. I don’t know whether it was just because they were cherry flavoured or whether they had more sourness added, but boy did I get some gurning practise in. I’m hoping that these fruit flavoured gums come out next year also, but to keep up the Haribo fun they need to count them out equally and add some more sour bite to the lemon and apple monsters. Remember the sourer the taste the scarier the face!

By Spectre

Orange Spider-Web Cake [@rychuxtreme] (Morrisons)

The following is a mini review from my younger cousin, who is just as keen on snacks and sweets as the rest of us, but doesn't have our grown-up wages to squander on them. Expect to find lots of pocket-money priced treats appearing on the site over the coming weeks. ~ @NLi10



This spider web cake was very well set out including the spider ring on the top which I'm wearing :) . The icing was very good looking, it really looked like a spider made a web on an orange wall. This cake tasted very nice, and my favourite part was the icing because I love icing. I would recommend this cake to anyone having a Halloween party.

by Hi-Im-Ry (@rychuxtreme)

Blood, Blood & True Blood [by @NLi10] (Various Victims)

This extended FoodStuffFinds Halloween special review covers two kinds of food that looks like blood - drinkable blood & edible blood. There is no actual blood involved anywhere in the post, but if you don't like the sight of blood please skip this one and we'll see you tomorrow. :)



First up is Tru Blood, a fake blood drink. This was bought from Forbidden Planet for a friend’s birthday (the one who I got to help me with the Guinness reviews ages ago) and he was gracious enough to let me try some.

Essentially it's sold as a cash-in for the popular TV series of a similar name, and is fortified with various things to make it more nutritious and less of an ordinary drink. Colour-wise the blood donor really needs antibiotics and fast as it's pretty cloudy. Flavour wise it's essentially blood-orange Fanta with an odd kick of vitamins in there too. It's a cool thing to be seen drinking at parties, especially near Halloween, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it again. Nice, but not an essential.



Next up we have the food bloods, Emergency Blood Bag (candy blood) which is sold as a sweet, and Blood Orange Tasty Drip (liquid salted caramel) which is sold as a desert topping. Packaging wise the Tasty Drip looks and feels more authentic. Like those shower gels in reduced packaging that come in a similar format it's quite satisfying to hold and play with. The Blood Bag is in contrast much more friendly looking, you could give this to children without them getting too scared.

As the final goal was to try both of these with ice-cream I decided to pop these in my handy kitty desert bowls and see what they looked like. The Candy Blood was really hard to squeeze out of its bag. This is probably a good thing if you are giving it to the under 10s. It's really viscous and brightly coloured too - and it smells like the 90s favourite of Push Pops! It was a pleasure to dip my finger in and see what it was like, basically a fruity sweet centre that you would usually find inside some kind of chew. Too sweet to eat on its own I think but I had the whole frozen section to try with it later.

Next was the drip. This oozes out of the bag like a puncture wound, and pools unhealthily in the bottom of the bowl. It looks evil and menacing, and rather than looking like fresh blood it's more of a necrotic experience. If I found a piece of meat in the supermarket that looked like it I'd pick a different box. While in pictures it's making me queazy writing about it in person the smell has the opposite effect, being essentially a slightly orangey caramel scent - not unlike the Cadbury's Dead Heads that Cinabar reviewed earlier in the week. This means that while your eyes are screaming your nose is pleasantly intrigued so I dipped my finger in for a taste. The ingredients contain cocoa powder to make it more authentic looking and this with the salty caramel gives it an odd, almost burnt taste. The aftertaste is really odd and almost bitter, and you wouldn't eat this really as a typical food.

As you couldn't really appreciate the dripping, oozing qualities of the product in the bowl I decided to model it myself.


Ms. NLi10 doesn't like this picture.

While it runs quite fast and much scraping of hands in bowls was required for this shot it was simple to wash off and even without soap disappeared easily with no staining. The sink did look like I'd had a nose-bleed, but was easily cleaned up too.


For its theatrical and aesthetic properties this wins hands down, and anyone momentarily sickened by your antics will quickly smell the caramel and then probably try some themselves.

Next up I added them both too ice-cream, the Drip is pictured below.


As you'd expect it looked a bit gruesome and I'm sure inventive people like Mr. Blumenthal could come up with some quite sickening recipes to put this in. With Ice-cream it's a lot more edible, but less is most definitely more and you really didn't need the ice-cream to be swimming in the pools of blood. I finished it, but I was tiring of the burnt aftertaste towards the end. Review cat was really quite interested in this, but after a brief lick of a dot on my finger he ignored me and went back to sleep.

The Blood Bag was pretty much just thicker than normal ice-cream topping and more of a treat. I'd say that you could even keep it in the cupboard and serve it from the bag with a smile on your face where as the other product does have a hint of serial killer to it (especially if you run in with it dripping from your arms).


I'd say that this really depends on your audience.
Drinking at a party? Get the Tru Blood and wash & refill the bottle each year with Blood Orange Fanta.

Exciting the kids at tea time? Blood Bag Candy and ice-cream makes a great desert if you keep it away from the carpet & pets.

Trying to scare someone, do an adult fancy dress costume, or cause a stir at your dinner party then go for the Tasty Drip, but please - keep your guests from calling an ambulance or passing out - it really does look quite real.


Happy Halloween to you all, may all your treats be nice ones.

by @NLi10

Halloween High Street (Greggs and Thorntons) {by @NLi10}

Saturday was a good day to be out on the high street, all of the Halloween goods and a few discounts too!


Greggs finest offer was a chocolate bat. I do love his spooky eyes and it's a decent size for a biscuit, but it’s Gingerbread. This by itself in a crispy form might be OK but with the chocolate it tasted a bit odd. I'm going to finish it, but it's not the lovely choc/shortbread combo I'd hoped for.

They had their lovely cakes with Halloween rings in again this year which are a personal favourite.


I felt like I'd maligned Thorntons in my previous Hotel Chocolat review suggesting that for gift giving they had been surpassed. At Halloween this isn't the case, as while the eyeballs that started the week were the height of cool you can't really give them out to Trick or Treaters. These on the other hand are perfect, and as I bought them at the last minute were 2 for a pound. Unfortunately it is Saturday night now and we have had no spooky visitors yet all 4 chocolate lollipops have disappeared. I blame paranormal activity...

Post Road - Pumpkin Ale [By Spectre] (The Wineyard & Deli, Morecambe)

I’d like to start Spectre’s write up with a big thank you to The Wineyard in Morecambe for making this post possible. They very kindly sent us this Pumpkin Ale to help indulge Spectre’s adventures in flavoured beer as they stock such an amazing selection of interesting ales. If you aren’t already following @TheWineyard on Twitter, you really ought to be for all the news on the best wines and interesting beers. Thanks again for sending us such an interesting and seasonal product, let’s see what Spectre makes of it...

When I first heard about Pumpkin Ale a few weeks ago, I thought it was some kind of new gimmick for Halloween. I hadn’t realised that our American friends across the great pond have been brewing ales flavoured with barley and with pumpkins since the first American Colonials in the 18th Century. This pumpkin ale is an offering from the Brooklyn Brewery in New York State. I’ve tried and enjoyed pumpkin cake, which tastes slightly carroty, and also pumpkin soup, which was also remarkably tasty. On opening this ale I noticed a spicy smell to it. The ale was then carted off for a lengthy crazy photo session with Cinabar shining torches through it and generally trying to set the house on fire with a pumpkin shaped candle. When I finally got to taste the ale I was taken back by the spicy taste. There is an earthiness to this beer that tastes perhaps of pumpkin, but has a hint of carrot to it also. The spices reminded me of ginger, but not too strongly. The beverage itself had a penetrating ale taste that bites at the back of the mouth poking through the mulled spice taste. This ale was a pleasant surprise indeed and I wanted to drink more than the single bottle I had at my disposal. It has a good spice that made me want to savour it without a food accompaniment whilst watching a late night movie. Perhaps at this time of year a slasher or zombie movie would be best? Failing the scary movie, the spices go well with that mulled taste to make a lovely ale that can be enjoyed all year round, perhaps even as an alternative to mulled wine at Christmas time. As pumpkin ale tastes faintly carroty, I wonder if carrot ale would catch on. I’m sure there are a few bunnies hopping around somewhere that wouldn’t mind giving it a go!

By Spectre

Cadbury’s Dead Heads (Various Supermarkets)

If you take this product in context with the Cadbury’s Screme Egg, which featured earlier in the week, you might notice that the Cadbury’s Halloween goodies actually have a distinctively Easter theme. Essentially this bag of ‘Dead Heads’ consist of milk chocolate eggs with caramel inside, and are not dissimilar to the Cadbury’s Caramel Mini Eggs available at Easter time.
As with the Screme Eggs, these Dead Heads have had a Halloween make-over and are now themed for the scary season. Each chocolate has a spooky face moulded into the chocolate, to give the impression of decapitated (dead) heads. The caramel is red in colour to give a gruesome looking filling, but thankfully in taste is the regular Cadbury’s caramel. I do really like Cadbury’s caramel, and love its flavour in conjunction with their chocolate, so these are an easy flavour pleaser for me.
We had a lot of fun with these Dead Heads here at Foodstuff Finds but we would like to make it perfectly clear the serving suggestion in the photograph above is totally optional. ;-)

Fabulous Bakin' Boys - Special Edition Halloween Cupcakes {by @NLi10} (Tesco)

I do like the Fabulous Bakin' Boys cupcakes. They also have a very good brand image and website with games that was not blocked at work so could be responsibly enjoyed during breaks. Essentially they are your typical individually wrapped cakes but there is something magical about the icing. I've never quite put my finger on it, maybe there is some kind of oil in it, but it's more of a fondant and really quite a joy to eat in all its flavours.

For Halloween they have released a box of a single flavour which is orange in colour. As these are quite pale I did wonder whether they had thrown a curve-ball and gone with pumpkin, but they are just a repackaged version of the orange flavour ones. These are quite nice (even when you have burnt them on the candles by mistake) ordinarily, but as the individual wrappers have little ghosts on them they are very suitable to give to guests and Trick-or-Treat visitors that dare to come to the door.


I think my scary tree shows them off well, but I had to move them quite quickly as they did start to burn. While it's a great little souvenir my parents brought back from America and makes sure that you attract a few more kids after sweets than usual by letting them know you are open for business it makes a terrible cake stand. I plan to light it using my sun jar instead of candles so that it's not quite as dangerous to have in the window for two days.

But only those kids who dress up properly deserve one of the Halloween Cupcakes, they are just too nice!

by @NLi10

Chewits Vampire Fangs [By Spectre] (Tesco)

Being a ghost this is my favourite spooky time of the year and I just couldn’t resist eating something scary. From Cinabar’s inventive photograph you’ll see these Vampire Fangs are shaped like the top front teeth of a vampire. They have a pinkish gum, white teeth and bloody coloured fangs. Looking on the back of the packet, these fangs have curious flavourings, from the healthy sounding blackcurrant and apple to the downright strange radish and beeswax! Sadly my mouth is a little too large to cover my front teeth with these sweets in order to make myself look dark, mysterious and vampire like, but smaller kids will have a ball with these sweets. I’ll just have to settle for my usual white bed sheet with two holes for my eyes. The sweets have a squidgy texture with a sweet moreish strawberry flavour to them. Believe me the bag didn’t stay full for long and a colleague had to fight me for one. These sweets taste great, look scary and kids can actually play with their food. They can’t usually get away with that! Now where’s that white sheet?

By Spectre

Cadbury’s Screme Egg (Asda)

I love Cadbury’s Creme eggs, but usually have to wait until New Years Day before getting my hands on one after Easter. Thankfully this year I have managed to get hold of this Asda exclusive Cadbury’s Halloween themed Screme Egg.
In terms of taste it is identical to the normal lovely cream eggs. The chocolate is the expected thick creamy Cadbury’s, and the filling is the usual sweet fondant. What’s new for this limited edition egg is that the yolk is a ghoulish green for the season. This is not the most novel of product, but I won’t complain too much if it means I get a Cadbury’s Creme egg in October!
I do have to say it is a shame that it is an Asda exclusive though, not because I have anything against Asda, it is just that not everyone has access to all the major supermarkets, so there are obviously going to be people who miss out.
If you do manage to get your mitts on one of these fine eggs, I guess the only thing you have to think about is: How are you going to eat yours..?

Vampire Eyes (Hotel Chocolat)

Welcome to Halloween week here at Foodstuff Finds. This week turns a little scary, as we explore a selection of Halloween goodies currently on the market.
Starting off we have Hotel Chocolat’s Vampire Eyes. These are essentially white chocolates with a salted caramel filling. These aren’t ordinary salted caramels though, these are a Halloween special so that they are designed to look like Vampire Eyes. The iris on them stares upwards and their red colouring gives a clue to the contents within.
The thick creamy white chocolate bursts when you bite in and the gloopy red salty liquid spills onto your tongue. The caramel is a vibrant bright red colour, and my taste buds were quite expecting a fruity aspect despite the fact there is no mention of this. This is just how you associate colours for foods, and red should be fruity not bloody. The red caramel is salted, blood is salty, the best advice I can give you is to try not think about this fact too much. I would like to point out that the colourings are natural, which does make the concept a little bit better.
The liquid filling is sweet and buttery, a rich caramel with a hint of salt. The thick creamy white chocolate is of the usual Hotel Chocolat’s excellent quality. These gruesome eyeballs are a nicely themed indulgent treat or the perfect fuel for any would be Trick or Treaters.

McVities Jaffa Cakes -Lemon and Slime Cake Bars [Limited Edition] (Wilkinson)

This isn’t the first time I have seen this flavour “Lemon & Slime” from McVities, but it is the first time I’ve seen it in a cake bar. Last year I managed to find proper Jaffa Cakes in this flavour, and they were a Halloween special. Lemon and Slime obviously equating to an appropriately spooky and ghoulish version of lemon and lime! The flavour was clearly popular because they are back again this year but in a new form: cake bars.
I was really pleased to see these back too, as I really like the zingy lime flavour in conjunction with the thin layer of dark chocolate. The flavour of the filling is predominantly lime, with just a hint of lemon as an aftertaste. The citrus and chocolate flavours work nicely together, and the addition of the soft sponge make these a nice juicy treat for a lunch box.
If you were feeling particularly generous they would be nice to give out to Trick or Treaters, but personally my tray with its five cake bars didn’t make it. :-D
Next week here on Foodstuff Finds is Halloween week, so do check back to see what’s going to be reviewed. Just a warning though, be afraid, be very afraid...