Pact Coffee Advent Calendar - Spoiler Free Intro then Day 1-3 [@NLi10] @pactcoffee

 After enjoying the coffee of Costa Rica in all it's forms I decided to treat myself to a luxury coffee for at home - then spotted a way to try 25 different coffees at home before I picked one!

No spoilers for any of the coffee included until after the bold break below.

Pact are one of those coffee companies that show up on all your socials if you mention anything to do with hot drinks on any Google platform, but seemed to have the correct balance of eco-credentials nice varieties and a good deal on.

For £35 delivered you get 25 coffees and a thing to make them (or at least I did due to a code) which is £1.40 a day.  A little more expensive than most of the calendars out there, but so much more exciting.

And I've not tried the blue thing yet - but I suspect that'll be useful for work and similar

Because at home I inherited this beast! We've cleared the old work office and things like this people used for a few months then left behind were either donated or taken home.

Each day you get a card with facts and the coffee to drink.  By the end of it you'll either be an enlightened coffee drinker or aware of the fact that you might as well buy the cheap ones as you can't tell the difference.

The ground coffee you get makes 500ml of coffee according to the company which means if you switch to smaller coffee style cups you get two per day - which is actually decent value.

It goes in the filter paper in both the blue thing, and the big black dripper.

And day 1 looks like this in my squirrel mug

Spoilers from this point if you are getting the calendar!! 

(Days 1-3 anyway)

all gone?

OK.

Day 1 was pretty cool - very much a novelty and was fun to try a new variety after the couple of years old coffee I'd been drinking that was abandoned with the machine.

I decided that old coffee was 2/5 and that I'd rate any I liked more higher, and less lower - simple!

The stories are quite funny, and the hints and mouthfeel are definitely aimed at someone more sophisticated than I.

I enjoyed this one - but wanted a little scope before I started having to invent new ratings.  I settled on a 3/5 as it was really nice but didn't make me go wow.

Day 2 filled the house with an amazing scent.  The first one was good - but this was what you want to draw people into your café like cartoon characters floating on the aroma.

The flavours were great too, smooth and satisfying, and it even had an aftertaste I enjoyed.

Best so far - and if this was the peak of the calendar I'd be fine with that but I gave it a 4/5 as surely one of the remaining 23 can go even further.  As I'm putting all the little cards (great feature) in order this goes at the front for now and if it ended today would be the one I buy a bag of.

Day 3 was coffee coffee.  A little bitter, a little too lingering.  Nothing to complain about - just good, solid filter coffee.

I put this at a 2.5 as it's the least appealing of the three so far - but still one I'd happily pick up and drink should it appear again.

I'm not sure that I'll make a regular feature of this, but come January I'll have a list of what I like and don't like in a coffee and a cool xmas themed box to store the flavours I do eventually end up ordering from them (or Waitrose it seems) to pick up.

So far though - it's been enjoyable and even my tea drinker self has noticed differences (phew) so it's possibly a fun gift for a hard to buy for person who has a drippy coffee thing or other coffee device sitting gathering dust.

Hotel Chocolat - The Advent Calendar, Dark [@NLi10]

 This year we are light on advent calendars - we have a Lindt one that is mostly little balls (but nice), a cheese one (not mine) and this Black and sparkly one!

As this was off my parents I'd assumed it was Lidl or Aldi - but no, this is the mighty Hotel Chocolate.  They must mistakenly think I've been good this year!

It's a very luxurious affair - crispy foil covered windows and lots of sparkly bits

And like the chocolate - the gnomes inside are very intense - it's like they are looking into your soul.  I promise to be good!

The chocolates are very nice, but it's not a morning calendar - more of a cup of tea after dinner and a nice strong chocolate kind of affair.  Very grown up and sophisticated, and a nice daily treat.

Adventacular Update - Cadbury Advent Bar, Tony's Chocolonely Countdown & More! (@NLi10)

This year's run up to Christmas is a bit frantic so I've put all of our Advent snacks in one place - starting with one we picked up today - 3rd Dec (writing in advance as I'm currently on a plane home in your timeline!).

We'd seen the adverts for this Dairy Milk Advent Calendar Bar/Challenge and thought it was hilarious so at £2 it's well worth a pick up.  Note the £7.50 half price calendar behind - who'd pay £15 for that calendar? Well - Me - two weeks ago - see below. I've only had one choc out of it so far!!

The idea is that the bar has 24 chunks and you only eat your rationed portion on that day.  1/3 of the days a reasonable portion - the rest are quite mean.

As today is the 3rd I just had a chomp at the bar.

It's Dairy Milk - it's great! Not sure about the challenge part - we left it for friends as we have a lot of choc here.

Here is the regular shaped advent calendar from Cadbury - and you get much less of this per day than the bar we just looked at - is this a challenge too?  Does taste like Dairy Milk though so can't complain really.

Behind it is the main event.  The first £15 calendar. Tony's Chocolonely bars only used to show up in charity shops - they are slavery free chocolate bars - and when I spotted this in Oxfam I decided to pay the £15 - even though the cheaper gift boxes had a similar choc amount in them.

Can't deny that seeing them half price in Sainsbury's already did hurt!

For scale we have the other £15 calendar...

Katkin suggested we might like to buy a calendar for the cats - and promised that it wouldn't be as disappointing as all the other cat treat calendars are.

Luna was very interested in the smells.

She really tried to get into the box after she got the scent!

What you get is really sealed pockets with three freeze dried meaty bits in - and unlike previous versions of these style calendars they really went for it!  While the price (with postage) was a bit much for 24x3 treats (20p each!) I'm hoping the portion sizes increase over time and that the cats don't rip it to shreds while we are in Spain.

Tony's calendar is a little bit special.  Each day you get one of their mini bars - and in some of the more exciting flavours.  No 90g of Dairy Milk here - it's a full 225g across the whole thing.  And yeah - it's a lot more expensive but it's a festive treat and the calendar is easily recyclable (although I'm not sure the wrappers are).

I suggest that you peak into the Oxfam's and Sainsbury's near you and see if they still have reduced ones - at £7.50 this is great value.

As always the best advent treat comes in re-usable tins.

My Mother makes us custom Rocky-Road chunks based on our favourite sweets and chocolates.  Mine has nuts in this year too!  Fantastic stuff but not available on the high-street!

Merry Christmas! (Feliz Navidad!!)

 

Advent Roundup 2021 - White, Cats & Vegan by @NLi10

 It's basically half way through December which mean's I've got enough evidence to tell me what I think of each of the offerings.

First up we have a gifted Milkbar calendar - which actually has double pictures!

This is unusual in this age - all the other ones didn't bother.

The white chocolate could literally be anything and is unrelated to the pictures - low score but this is for toddlers (and me to have with cripplingly dark hot chocolates).

Next up - a late etnrant - cat calendar! These were better than half price (apparently) and contain regular kibble, and triangle luxury kibble.

Bad poos? Quick -fill the cat with them!  

Unfortunately only one of the cats likes the triangle ones - and they both ignore the kibble.  

No pictures of them eating them so far...

And here we have the main event - the Buttermilk vegan choc calendar.  No pictures - so dissapoint.

Here are the little lovely things inside - they aren't that exciting - but they are really nice!

The packaging is very eco too - easy recycle.  And the box has special reasons to break it up for recycling too - hidden goodies!

This is easily the winner but it was quite expensive...

Weissbeer and Tea - Christmas Style (@NLi10)

Merry Christmas & a Happy Unboxing Day!

Just before Christmas I went to Birmingham's Frankfurt Christmas Market and got my self a lovely Weissbeer to drink at 11:30 am as I wondered around the shops.  I got a lot of very judgemental looks - not only because I was in the only person who dared to wander around with the big beer in the shopping areas, but it was a little early in the day.

Fortunately I spotted that they did an alcohol free Weissbeer so I'd chosen that - and got to do a bonus review of this new experience!  It was odd, it certainly had the right flavour and alcohol feeling of the real thing, but none of the boozy effects.  My brain wasn't entirely convinced that it wasn't alcoholic though so I did need the loo for most of the bus journey home!

So why did I cap off my Christmas shopping with a giant beer?

For the commemorative glass tankard of course!

I've no idea which were this year's designs and which were glasses that had been passed around for ages, but I figured as it was scratch free and pretty enough I'd keep the one I was given instead of risking a swap for a clean one.  And I road-tested it with one of my Christmas calendar teas.

As suspected - a full pint of Apple & Cinnamon tea was a little weak from a Pukka tea bag (they are great quality, but not quite as mighty as required) so I'll have to switch to my Tea-Pigs ones, or...

Use the T-Bird to make some lovely loose leaf stuff.  It does look like he's doing a Penn & Teller water escape!

I do love a pint of green tea when the weather is cold.  I think it's my equivalent of a nice glass of wine.  And while I do drink the odd beer these days I do think that there is nothing better for sitting working or watching the TV.

This is the Liverpool Tea Company's green blend.  Finally I have a big mug to put it in at work.

And it kind of looks like a weak British larger when it's been left to brew for a while!

The final prizes in the advent calendar were better than most of the daily offerings.  The Nomo bar is very similar chocolate but at least a decent size.  As expected the giant cube is hollow which makes for a great cat toy.  Lindt Santa isn't their biggest size but is more than generous.  The Monty Scoffles aren't that exciting compared to the rest of the things, but are great for Christmas Day as you can share them with guests!

The cardboard Cat calendar really surpassed my expectations.  While it'll probably get samey every year - compared to the £10 food calendars this actually offered a lot of entertainment and is a nice Christmas ornament even if you put it all up on one day next year.

So here's to 2020 and the inevitable healthy detox reviews!

Advent Pile Round-up 16th to 22nd Dec 2019 (@NLi10)

If you want more of the same - part 1 is here, and part 2 is here!

I've been recording the advent calendar contents here on top of the non-food cat calendar.

16th Dec sees a licorice and cinnamon tea, another cookie truffle and the usual ball and vegan choc additions.  Today's cardboard was a Christmas pudding which isn't what I expected the cats to be after!

17th has ball and disc, with a plain truffle and one of the more Christmassy teas - wild apple and cinnamon.  I made this for one of the other reviews and maybe the bag wasn't quite strong enough to go for a full pint.  Nice though.  Today's cat calendar addition was the lovely owl who is safely in the tree.

18th sees one of the startled tortoise shell cats and the welcome return of the pistachio monty.  The tea is the skinny matcha tea that I had last year, nice but not going to cause weightloss magically.  Also ball & disc.

19th is another hidden cat with the orange truffle, mini bar and disc.  The tumeric teas were interesting enough last year that I'm quite happy to try this one a second time.  Especially as it gets colder.

20th Dec is a candle to put in the tree.  With around 12 cardboard cats this is madness. Hazelnut monty, ball and disc.  The tea is a new one I think and sounds quite exciting.

21st Dec sees more pistachio (yay!) and a nice festive Chai tea (and a tiny cardboard present).  Ball and disc present as usual.

22nd I put the cat in facing the opposite direction to recomended as it'd certainly prefer to be by the fire.  The blackcurrant infusion looks like a nice one - again they thought about the winter suitability.  Red ball hiding at the back, blue disk at the front.  Orange Monty always welcome as it's quite possibly my favourite (although the cookie and pistachio ones are ace too).

I'll hide the last 2/3 days in my boxing day review.

Merry Christmas to all!

Advent Pile Round-up 9th to 15th Dec 2019 (@NLi10)

Seeing as Part 1 for last week was so popular I thought I'd keep going!

Mon Dec 9th - orange Monty just out of shot - one of the more interesting teas from last year with some fairly standard choc.  The cardboard cats get a nice fire to add to their living room which is good.

Dec 10th - cat on a chair! Oh wait - we already had that - the bauble on the tree was today's number.  We don't have a normal tree as that would just be a cat toy store.  Looks like the same Monty as yesterday but I didn't think we'd had any back to back doubles at this point. Lindt and dairy free both standard.

Day 11 - hazelnut Monty.  More cats on chairs.  Two teas today as for some reason I didn't get the tea off the calendar yesterday.  The peppermint licorice is one I've had a box worth of since so we know that's nice, yesterdays was one of the new trio bags - three licorice - I'll try that later on.  Red Lindt today - those never last long.

Day 12 - three chamomile tea - nice and relaxing - and our first cookie flavoured Monty! I'd not realised we'd not had any of these yet.  Cute little siamese/burman cat to play with the lindt ball. 

I've obscured Day 13s decoration a bit here - it's the table! Tea is one we have a lot of too, and a pink Monty - original flavour?  I'm getting confused at this point. Lots of the little Lindt balls now.

Day 14 sees more cookies, the little lindt bar but with a squirrel (cute) and three ginger which is a new flavour tea.  Cat looks very stern - it's guarding the house.  Quite a lot of cats now...

Day 15 is the first cat food item - no wonder they all look annoyed!  We also get another cookie truffle - 3 in 4 days.  You'd be dissapointed if this wasnt' one of the best texture ones on offer!  Classic bear Lindt reminds us that only two of the prizes are not mini versions.  Guess its a good job with so many calendars.

As for the Nomo dairy free chocolate disks - they just don't excite us at this point.

9 of the 15 remain un-eaten and only one of the others was eaten by my partner.  Now - don't get me wrong - these are edible and credible - but there is a lot of Christmas snacking going on and these are likely to get left until most of the normal things are gone.  All they had to do was have a few more festive touches - maybe a picture on the foil (or just not two colours that are nearly identical so you need one of each to know what flavour you are getting).  There are slogans on all the doors which is cool (Monty didn't bother for some reason - only some days have slogans) and the cube is still a lovely touch.  

The Lindt chocs - while tiny - are only a day or two behind in our eating and won't last til Jan at this rate.  I think it's a lower priced calendar and maybe comparing it to the £10 (and £12 Monty) was a little harsh.