Olly’s olives - Holland & Barrett (by @NLi10)

Convenient olives seems to be a growth area and I love eating olives so I’m going to keep participating!

Here we have Olly’s Olives - a cool little brand that has show up near the counters in Holland & Barrett. I chose the Hippie flavour to eat first.

They have a few odd claims. Would olives need to be pasteurised if they are in the salty water? It said no messy oil, then dripped something on my trousers - annoying!!

Flavours here are exactly what I want though, lemon and olive goodness. Not a huge portion but a good convenient snack when in town!

Iberian Eurovision part 1 - Spanish bread & olives (@LidlUK) by @NLi10

We love EuroVision.  Even with it's vote swapping jurys and our delegations insistence on sending media students instead of viable acts.  It's all about coming together with friends and celebrating diversity.

Lidl had a big range of Iberian snacks with lovely bright packaging and exotic names. 

So - with neon glasses on - we are ready for Eurovision 2019!

First up we tried the tomato and oregano toast.  It's like a pizza without the cheese, and much crunchier.

Just like the neon shades the bread isn't as exciting in person - but it does taste great.  The tomato is more like a soup flavour than the fruit so I suspect they have tweaked it a little, but it tastes fab!  

There are more of these left to eat and I'm looking forwards to them which shows that they are decently compelling snacks, if only bread and tomato.

We also had a mighty jar of olives!

This represents 22 servings of olives, but we got no where near this far as these are 'whole' with stones and not chopped and stuffed and marinated like the other olives on the table were!

One for further investigation in the future then, but largely untouched on the night.

Mr. Filbert's Olive Snack - Lemon or Chilli (Holland & Barrett) by @NLi10

I really like Olives.  I didn't used to, but going to Italy and Spain a lot gave me a new-found love for the salty little things.  Granted I know that it's not really the olives that I like - posh places with unmarinated olives are always a disappointment. Here though we have portable, marinated, non jar olives.

Granted Holland & Barrett is more associated with lotions and potions (CBD oil trials still ongoing) but they do great snacks.  They used to be the only place for the big plain bags of kettle chips, but now they are mainstream.  I think little things like this will get there too.

Essentially the lemon and oregano olives taste of salty lemon goodness, and while a little squashed sometimes are easily good enough for a starter.

These however are maybe a little to potent to eat all at once and are more suited to snacking and having a couple at a time.  They are both a pain to photograph in the bag as the hole isn't huge, but this just leads to them staying fresher for longer.  The bags have a sticky strip that reseals too.

At £1.99 a bag they aren't amazing value, but they are a lot more exciting to pick up when in town than a bag of crisps or a chocolate bar (for me at least).  And people don't tend to want to join you in the oily snack so you get more.  Hurrah!

A big flavour and convenience hit for me then - I've made it through 4 bags so far...

Oloves Chili & Oregano (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

I always have a tomato with my sandwich and crisps at work, so this makes for a change! And no it’s not a spelling mistake. Believe me I stared at the packet for quite a while. These “Oloves” natural green pitted olives are flavoured with chilli and oregano. Although it does sneakily mention garlic on the back of the packet, so people may regret sitting too close to me in meetings after lunch! They are naturally free of gluten and an all-round low calorie snack in a small packet that’s easy to fit into a lunchbox.
On opening there was quite a few green pitted olives filling the packet, which were covered in sunflower oil, and an oregano, garlic and chilli type flecked sauce. On taste there was the instant finely oiled green olive flavour mixed with the herby oregano taste followed by a subtle sweetness and the garlic. This mild garlic taste was quickly merged with a medium heat from the red flecks of chilli. The chilli left a pleasant medium tingle in my mouth during the aftertaste.
These Oloves made for a very tasty alternative to my regular tomato. Also being ‘pitted’ means they’re not too messy with having to spit out stones in front of your colleagues in the canteen, however if you don’t want to get your fingers oily, I’d recommend a small spoon, fork or cocktail stick..

Information on the packet;
The 30g packet contains 53 calories, 18.4g of fat, 0.3g of sugar, and 2.5g of salt. Ingredients included; pitted green olives (96%), sunflower oil, chilli (0.6%), oregano (0.3%), garlic powder, garlic aroma, salt, distilled vinegar, lactic acid, and citric acid.