Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

I have steak and potato waffles tonight. I haven’t had steak for a while, and I haven’t had potato waffles for as long as I can remember. I do love a good stout to wash down my steak meal.

I have chosen this Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout to go with my dinner. At 8.4% in volume it promises rich dark chocolate malts and roasted coffee flavours. This should go with my steak a treat, and if I have any left over, I may have some chocolate with it for pudding.

On opening the can there was a rich dark chocolate malt aroma from the jet black liquid, as I poured it into my waiting beer mug. On taste, this Imperial stout had strong roasted coffee to begin with, followed by a deep dark chocolate malt with a velvety smooth sweetness into the aftertaste. Very nice indeed. Cheers.

Anti Establishment (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

With the recent riots against political establishments, run down facilities, and the cost of living in various countries, this India Pale Ale fits the bill this evening. I can understand peaceful protests, but it’s a real shame when violence is involved, and the protests lose their arguments when looting takes over.

Anti Establishment is 5.4% in volume. It’s a golden coloured India Pale Ale, with fruity American hops giving it a strong grapefruit and also sweet pale malts aroma. So, this could be a beer packed full of attitude.

On first taste, Anti Establishment had quite a bite of citrus grapefruit hops, followed fairly nonchalantly by sweet pale malts into the aftertaste. Those bitter sweet citrus hops did hang around like a yob on a street with a bad attitude almost throughout the entire mouthful. Definitely Anti Establishment.

Soreen Scream Cookies & Cream (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

Halloween is creeping ever closer. Soreen have come up with these Scream Cookies & Cream flavoured Mini Loaves. I love Soreen of any flavour with my lunch. To me, these sound perfect for any scary lunchbox over Spooky Season.

On opening the first packet there was an aroma of cookies to the brown mini loaf inside. There were chocolate chips all throughout this Soreen Scream Cookies & Cream. There was also a creaminess at the end of every mouthful. Delicious.

Information on the packet: There are 5 mini loaves, each having 98 calories, with 1.6g of fat, 4.8g of sugar, and 0.15g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Halloween Wicked Pickled Worms (Marks & Spencer’s) By @SpectreUK

Marks & Spencer’s have brought out a lot of different snacks for Halloween this year. These Halloween Wicked Pickled Worms are potato snacks with pink pickled onion flavour seasoning.

I do like pickled onion crisps with a cheese and cold meats meal, so that’s what I’ll have with these. I will eat my dinner whilst watching Bake Off. It’s not very scary, but a cheese and cold meats dinner is very tasty especially with a glass of port, or rum and lemonade.

On opening the bag it was full of pink dusted wiggly worm shaped potato crisps. Very crunchy to the taste, there was a saltiness begin with, quickly followed by a tangy pickled onion flavour, which was also quite heavy on the vinegar, seemingly to make these Halloween Wicked Pickled Worms more sour. 

I certainly liked these wiggly worms and would have them again, especially with a cheese and cold meats meal. Yum.

No real worms were harmed during the writing of this blog.

Information on the packet; The 125g packet contained 469 calories per 100g, with 21.8g of fat, 2.8g of sugar, and 1.8g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Sinister Sour Sweets (Marks & Spencer’s) By @SpectreUK

Halloween is fast approaching. We need to stock up on sweets to give out to Trick or Treaters. There are ten mini-bags of these M&S Sinister Sour Sweets in a multipack. If they’re really good, they may not make it to those pesky kid’s sticky fingers.

In each mini-bag of these M&S Sinister Sour Sweets there are sour sugar coated gummies of different spooky shapes. There are ghosts that taste of sour lemon. There are pumpkins that taste of sour orange. There was a bat that tasted of sour blackcurrant. There was a spider that tasted of sour cola.

Not too face-twisty on the sour sugar, these M&S Sinister Sour Sweets were very flavoursome though, and very moreish. They’re certainly a Treat for anyone who likes their scary Halloween snacks. Boo!

Information on the bag; Each 30g bag contained 110 calories, with 0.5g of fat, 17.4g of sugar, and 0.08g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

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.

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.

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.

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.

McCoy’s Yellow Mustard Flavour (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

Pork is probably my favourite sandwich. I say ‘probably’, because I love so many different sandwiches. I may have a little apple sauce on a pork sandwich, or more likely a little English Mustard, or French’s Classic Yellow mustard.

I don’t want to distract from the taste of the pork in the sandwich, as it is a fairly delicate taste. Too much hot or sweet mustard, and the flavour of pork may quickly be overwhelmed, and the sandwich a bit of a dud.

These new McCoy’s Yellow Mustard Flavour crisps may help with not overwhelming my pork sandwich. On opening the bag there was a sweet mustard aroma to the yellowish orange ridged potato crisps inside.

On first crunchy taste, these McCoy’s Yellow Mustard Flavour crisps had a tangy mustard flavour, followed by sweet fiery horseradish and a little spicy paprika. They certainly were tasty, maybe too flavoursome for my pork sandwich, but definitely very moreish indeed. I’ll have to get some more of these.

Information on the packet; The 25g bag contained 132 calories, with 7.8g of fat, 0.9g of sugar, and 0.12g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Love Lane: Black Bird Stout (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I do love a good stout washing down my steak and chips. I’m not keen on overly creamy stouts. I like a bold flavoursome stout with a touch of creaminess, as well as sweetness from malted chocolate and a little roasted coffee in its flavour.

Inspired by the Beatles song, Black Bird, this Extra Stout was brewed in Liverpool by Love Lane. There are malts of Golden Promise, Crystal, Oats, Wheat, Chocolate, as well as Black malt. So, I’m expecting chocolate creaminess, roasted coffee and sweet dark chocolate. There was Admiral hops added for citrus bitterness to this 6.7% in volume Black Bird.

On opening the can there was a dark chocolate and roasted coffee aroma from this almost jet black stout. Black Bird oozes creamy dark chocolate to begin with. and then that roasted coffee and citrus bitterness combined to pounce on my tastebuds giving them quite a kick. Very flavoursome, full bodied, very nice indeed. Cheers.

Bounty Snowballs (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

I’m not sure why I’ve been tasked with this blog. First off, I’ve been ill for the last day or so due to some sort of bug or food poisoning. Second, I’m not that keen on coconut and chocolate.

Bounty Bars are generally the last bars I go for in a tub of celebrations. I don’t dislike them, but I’m not that fussed either. I did, however, eat and enjoy Snowballs when I was a kid. I sometimes had them in my lunchbox at school or for a lunchtime pudding at home.

These Bounty Snowballs by Mars seem a natural leap into Snowball territory. They seem smaller than regular Snowballs from when I was a kid. Either that, or I was smaller back then.

On opening the packet these chocolate coated mallows covered in desiccated coconut smelt just like regular Snowballs. They tasted as sticky as I remember them.

I know I haven’t had one for years, but these Bounty Snowballs tasted exactly like the Snowballs I had when I was a kid. That definitely wasn’t a bad thing at all.

Information o the packet; Each 13.5g Snowballs has 63 calories, with 2.8g of fat, 7g of sugar, and 0.01g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Outrageously Chocolatey White Chocolate Coated Cookies & Cream (M&S) By @SpectreUK

I love white chocolate and I love biscuits. So, any idea combining the two seems like a great idea to me. These Outrageously Chocolatey White Chocolate Coated Cookies & Cream, does sound like a great idea too.

Apparently there is more than 50% of white chocolate in these Outrageously Chocolatey White Chocolate Coated Cookies & Cream. I didn’t know how much more than 50% of each cookie is white chocolate. Part of my childlike brain was thinking 99% white chocolate, 1% cookie, until Cinabar read the packet and pointed out there was 52% white chocolate.

On opening the packet these Outrageously Chocolatey White Chocolate Coated Cookies & Cream looked like white chocolate snow covered buildings. On first bite, “Holy, sh…” I was having a Hannah Waddington moment when she eats Ted Lasso’s biscuits.

These Outrageously Chocolatey White Chocolate Coated Cookies & Cream really are outrageously chocolatey. They taste like white chocolate cookie creamy heaven.

Once I bite through the thick layer of white chocolate, the cookie inside melted in my mouth and the whole thing ended up tasting like you’d expect a thick white chocolate building cookie cloud would taste like. Yummy. Pass me another.

Information on the packet; Each of the 6 cookies is 171 calories, with 9.5g of fat, 15.3G of sugar, and 0.11g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Salt & Black Pepper Mix (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

Salt & Black Pepper flavoured crisps are one of my all time favourites. I can eat them with just about anything; on their own with a beer, or dipped in sauce, with a sandwich or any meal I’d usually have bread with.

We couldn’t get out to buy a French Stick today to have with our lasagne, as Cinabar has a cold. So, I suggested having these Salt & Black Pepper Mix from Waitrose. I was hoping for a bit of pepper spice with my lasagne, mushrooms and broccoli.

There was a mild saltiness on opening the packet of various potato crisp shapes. Some had more black pepper flavour than others, such as the waves and wagon wheels.

Although altogether this sharing party bag was pretty mild in salt and almost nonexistent in spicy black pepper flavour. Whereas I prefer my Salt & Black Pepper flavoured crisps with a bit more umph.

Information on the packet; The 150g bag contained 121 calories per 25g, with 5.7g of fat, less than 0.5g of sugar, and 0.51g of salt.

Love Lane Pale Ale (Morrisons) By @SpectreUK

I have fish and chips tonight. Not takeaway fish and chips from the local Chippy, but it’s Friday, so I’ll settle for the oven kind. I fancy a nice Pale Ale with my dinner. Something citrusy with a little sweetness.

I found this Love Lane Pale Ale in my cavernous beer fridge. At 4.3% in volume, it’s mix of Citra and Falconer’s Flight hops should give it a citrus, fruity and floral taste, with biscuit flavours and further fruitiness from the Golden Promise, Caramalt, Amber Malt, and Malted Wheat.

On opening the can there was a citrus herbal hop aroma, followed by sweet malts. On tasting this Pale Ale there was a crisp herbal and floral flavour, followed by a citrus bitterness, and then sweet caramel biscuit malts into the aftertaste. Very nice indeed with my oven fish and chips. Cheers.

Yew Sparkling Water - Pickle flavour (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

Yes, you read the title correctly. This is Yew Sparkling Water - Pickle flavour. For my sins I have been hand picked to try this “Sparkling water with a splash of briny dill pickle, notes of fresh cucumber and a bright tangy finish.” Perhaps I didn’t step back quick enough in the line up.

Apparently this Yew Sparkling Water - Pickle flavour is all natural in its ingredients, has zero calories and zero sweetener. I mean, come on. I like pickled gherkins, but I wouldn’t drink the rest of the jar. Who does that? Who thinks of Sparkling Water - Pickle flavour anyway? Well, Yew did.

On opening the can, asides the fizz, it smells reminiscent of an empty jar of pickled gherkins. Apart from the super strong aroma of pickled dill and cucumber, you could probably fool someone into thinking that this is a glass of lemonade. Well, at least until they come within twelves metres of you and smell it.

On taste this Sparkling Water - Pickle flavour made my toes curl. There is an instant flavour of strong sour pickled dill and cucumber, with further sourness from the brine. Unfortunately this drink is not for me. With each sip it seemed to get stronger in flavour and sourness. I mean, I have to say it does what it says on the can. Well, replacing “bright tangy finish,” with “face twisting toe curling sourness,” anyway.