Alpro - Matcha Coconut & Coffee AT HOME [@NLi10]

 Matcha is a big deal at the moment, and all the coffee establishments are now doing it in a reasonable way - although they do seem to use the cheap stuff.  And now you can have pre-mixed Matcha at home!

I chose the coconut one but BOY do you have options - a whole aisle of green milks

And yes - it's great cold so make your hot stuff and dump it in almost freezer temperature this

It's got stuff in it!

And without any fuss it's just thick Shrek juice.

Here's the nutrition

And it's only half a percent matcha - and not ceremonial grade Matcha because you bet they'd tell you if it was.  You won't notice in this mind.

And if you brew up a shot of your Exhale espresso and dump it in (with ice - not pictured) then frankly it's my drink of the summer.  I've been tempted to make a whole filter coffee pot of the stuff at espresso strength and then keep that in the fridge to use with this carton - only there isn't much left now.

It's not a thirst-burster until you add the watery ice, and it does overshadow the coffee unless you do it as a 50/50 Matcha cortado style but it's great for these heatwaves and I'll be getting more as soon as it's cool enough to leave the house.

Quaker Oats Fruit & Oat Squeeze: Red Fruits (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I am always looking for things I can have for breakfast at my desk, that will fill me up to lunch time. I usually go for a simple cereal bar, or as it has been cold recently an instant porridge sachet. When I was shopping in Waitrose this drink caught my eye, and so I bought one to take to work. It is called a Fruit and Oat Squeeze and is made by porridge specialists Quaker Oats.
The first instruction on the packet of this drink, well porridge drink, is to shake well. Given it feels like quite thick contents shaking didn’t seem to be having much of an impact. I decided to squeeze the pack a bit to help mix it up. I unscrewed the top and gave it a taste test. Before I come to the flavour let me talk about texture, it is thick and has the feeling of a thick porridge, which for reasons I’m not sure about I didn’t quite like in this format. I don’t think it was because it was cold, as I’ve even overnight oats before and not been bothered about the temperature, but there was something in this squeezy cold porridge format that meant I didn’t get on with the texture. I think I got the thought of baby food in my head, and couldn’t get passed it! It is a shame because the flavour actually works quite well. It has a yoghurt tang, and surprisingly sharp berry flavour which gives it a nice juicy taste. I liked the acidic raspberry taste, and the hint of strawberry worked well with it too. It also kept me full to lunch time, which is a bonus, it stopped me from raiding the works chocolate tin! Having said that I still prefer instant porridge, besides it is warming in this cold weather.

Overnight Oats - Red Apple - Quaker Oats (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I love porridge, and have switched to having this for breakfast, call it the call of Autumn. I like to take the pots where you just add water and stir, simple for me to take to work and eat while browsing my email. I noticed that in the same section were some pots of Overnight Oats, which are very on trend at the minute so I thought I’d see what all the fuss is about.

It turns out that I don’t plan breakfast too well, and it took me a few days to remember I needed to prep these in the evening. The pack suggests that the oats should have milk added to them for between 2 and 12 hours and be refrigerated, you then eat it cold in the morning. I added the milk to the dry mix and left it to soak. The next morning I took it out, and sat down to give it a try with my morning coffee. The first thing to note is that this does need to be eaten at home as the soaking overnight can’t really be achieved at a work office, neither can the transportation of it after its been soaked.
I was a little wary of how this was going to work, but was pleased to see it had a least become moist and wasn’t solidified! The texture was much better than expected, and although it wasn’t a smooth as porridge, it was still much closer than I thought it would be. I could still pick up on a powdery edge to the texture, but it was mild. I liked the flavour, the Overnight Oats had been flavoured with Red Apple, and this gave it just enough natural sweetness to make it enjoyable. I have to admit though this was far tastier than I imagined, and it is a major trend, I’m not really a convert. Give me a hot bowl of hot porridge any day over this.

McVities Breakfast Porridge Oats with Red Berries (by @NLi10)

Just when I got used to breakfast biscuits they change the game - porridge biscuits!

While I know that porridge is made from oats, and nice biscuits are also made from oats (and oatcakes are made from oats) this still seems an odd choice of tactic.  Surely the heat of the porridge is a bigger deal than it's oats?

We see here the mysterious flavour of Red Berries - for when you want to sneak some other fruit in that is not raspberries.  I wonder when 'Fruits of the forest' went out of fashion - I'll bet it translates really awkwardly.

Again these are overpriced compared to normal biscuits, but with a slightly better quality of ingredient leading to my rusk comparisons previously.  I'm fine with this - most mornings I don't need these (and indeed had them for a month without touching a single pack) so they are a bonus energy boost and not a daily requirement for me.  Eating a whole pack feels like a portion, but is really like eating 8 regular biscuits guilt free.

Upon eating these don't really taste like porridge, but are a different flavour to the wheat ones.  Also the berries are not low quality and add a little pop to the bits where they appear in a bite.  The pattern is large enough to feel when eating, like all good sport/malted milk biscuits (which is fundamentally what breakfast biscuits are).  They snap with a satisfying sound and don't crumble too much so you could eat these on the go and over a keyboard with no problems.

Again - I don't think these replace cereal, but do slot in nicely to the elevenses slot.  I don't have a favorite variety or flavour of these yet either, and I've now tried and reviewed all the main brands.  I can get excited about biscuits easily, but nothing about any of them so far has caused me to become loyal to any of them.  I think that I will continue to go with the new & the cheap and refrain from reviewing more until I find one that Wows me.