Pulsin - raspberry and goji, Maca bliss (@NLi10)

At Birmingham Wildlife Festival there were a few good stands that had interesting things to pick up to take to festivals. 

So we did!

Here we see Catfish and The Bottlemen on The Other Stage, with a healthy Pulsin bar to replenish all the vital bits. This has yummy raspberry and indifferent goji (I bought a bag once and ended up feeding the magpies with them). 

It also has lots of other bits and bobs in it which really help add some jazz and variety to the texture and mean that it's not all about the fruit and brown stuff. 

The brown stuff in question is a raw choc brownie, not very cakey but similar to what you would expect from a protein bar style snack. I enjoyed it in the field and it filled the hole so I could spend time deciding on which £8 pasta I should buy.

The second bar made it home.

You can see here all the things it does and doesn't have. It's positively saintly!

As you can see its raw cacao, brown rice, mixed in with cashews dates and chicory fibre. This doesn't sell the bar as well as the front does! While this isn't as beloved as the smooth raw chocolate is it still an enjoyable snack that is filling enough that at my desk it'll take two sittings. 

I think we picked up four of these from the stall so if the others are significantly different then I'll report back. As it stands though these are reasonably moist, date based bars with a little bit of excitement from the extra ingredients and the range is wide enough that I think anyone can find one for them.

Waitrose Duchy Organic Old Ruby Ale (Waitrose) [By @SpectreUK]

This rather posh sounding Waitrose Duchy Organic Old Ruby Ale was brewed in Oxfordshire. The 5% volume ale was produced using barleys from selected organic farms, as well as from the Duchy Home Farm in Highgrove. One of the barleys is called Plumage Archer, which I have to admit that I haven’t heard of before and that’s the reason why I’m writing a blog about this particular ale. Always happy to try new things, especially where beer is concerned, I popped open the bottle as quickly as possible. There was an almost biscuit smell on opening the bottle from the rich blend of malted barleys. The ruby ale filled my waiting beer glass and I couldn’t help but reflect how pleasing the colour of ruby ale can be. The traditional reddish colour compared to the muggy rainy day outside promised satisfaction and renewed energy into tired limbs from a hard slog at the gym earlier in the day. On taste this ale had an initial rich biscuit flavour as the blend of malt barleys worked together washing around my pallet, the hops entered the game later in the taste with a slight bitterness moving into the aftertaste. This is a beer that warms me up just to look at it, my lips smacked involuntarily before tasting, then my mind was spirited away on velvety cushions to yesteryear where hard working folk wearing flat caps toil away on steam powered traction engines somewhere nearby shovelling coal into their muffled clanking machines as they belch soot. Whereas my mind relaxes in an old wooden rocking chair beside an open fire in a heaven made of malted barley, mainly Plumage Archer, and a touch of hops to round the taste. Mmm…

By Spectre

Lovechock Mulberry & Vanilla // Pineapple and Incaberry (@detoxyourworld) [by @NLi10]

A little while back (I'm still stuck in the summer backlog!) a site called detoxyourworld got in touch about review samples. Nothing new there, healthy sites often run promos past us and want to share the latest not-quite-science miracle cures past us, but this place was a bit different - specialising in the raw and organic products that I often nab from the small local stores.  In fact it appears to be run out of one of those stores.  Their products show that it's more about not sticking the toxins in to your body in the first place than taking them out via dubious means!

Importantly this offer arrived just after I'd tried Ailey Mae's raw chocolate and totally fallen for it - and on their site they had to new to me brands that offered similar delights.  Here is a link to their Raw Cocoa section.  Today we look at the first - lovechock

Here we see Baskerville guarding the chocolate at work.  I've started taking more things in to share because snack-mountain is starting to get faintly ridiculous at home.

Each small bar is 4 segments long which means its hard to share and still have a lot left to eat for yourself.  Both varieties come with what appears to be life advice, and are in fully biodegradable packaging.

First up we tried the Mulberry and Vanilla.  The texture was a lot more coarse than I was expecting after the lightness of the previous raw chocolate experience.  There was an awful lot going on with the flavours too.  The chocolate was about 80% dark (vegan friendly) with a very high quality flavour and the fruit was muted but noticeable.  I shared this with three others and all were overcome with the powerful flavours.  it also contains what it describes as lovechemicals (things that make you happy) and all of the fruity bits are from super foods.  This is one of the first things that an office sampling has had my normally quite reserved boss stating that he'd happily buy some of which is quite a recommendation!

For the second bar on the following day of Pineapple and Incaberry I decided to be more frugal and only share it with two others - afterall it was really really nice! This one is sweeter than the first (not from sugar, but coconut blossom!) possibly due to the choice of fruit.  The flavour mix is similarly well balanced under the strong chocolate, and interestingly the amount of bits in the bar hive it another harsh texture.  It really is more like a non-sticky nougat bar in that it's full of decent sized proper bits to get stuck into.

After eating I noticed that the boxes open up and their plain exterior hide inside a world of wonder.  This could just be the lovechemicals talking though...

This is definitely one I'm ordering more of - and as I've not seen this dutch creation anywhere else in the UK yet I guess I'll have to go back to the same site! All in all a pretty unique bar, packed full of surprises.

Food Doctor - Easy Grains (Ocado)

Food Doctor - Easy Grains (Ocado)

I've mentioned before that I like trying convenience foods, and finding ones that actually qualify as healthy is a challenge.  Expecting those to also taste reasonable and have that mythical quality of texture is rarer still.  Uncle Bens do rice in a bag that you bung in the microwave for 2 minutes. I ate these for lunch at work for so long that I now have an aversion to them (but the Tilda versions that are a little more luxury are fine) mostly as my brain thinks I have to go back to work afterwards!  This is based on the same principle but with more exciting grains including the quinoa which is all spirally and great.  I added one bag to an online food shop and then when they arrived stashed them away for a lunchtime in the future.

That future was this weekend, and so following the instructions (tear sachet, nuke for 2 mins, wait until no-longer hazardous to move, pour into bowl) I made this:

It looks a little browner than it actually was - I blame the lighting.  I also splashed on a little balsamic vinegar and some Schwarz Lemon Pepper mix (a kitchen essential) to give it a fair chance.  The taste without the additions was a little bland, but in an earthy and realistic way.  The natural flavours of the grains had survived and were complemented well once I mixed in the seasonings.  I liked the texture, it wasn't mushy and felt that it was balanced well.  The portion was probably for two people as a side, so as a single person lunch it became a little drying.  I was also tempted to add more excitement to the 2nd half of the bowl as cereals beans and pulses are not known for their powerful tastes.

I think that this is good enough to use along side a main meal as a healthy alternative to potatoes (which I rarely cook personally) or pasta and it was certainly filling.  I'd suggest that a decent shake of seasoning mixed in would add some needed pizzaz to the flavours, maybe sun-dried tomatoes?  The pack suggests a soup or almost a sauce which would be quite good too.  Maybe I'll stick one into a Thai green curry.

If I spot these again I'll certainly re-buy.  Anything healthy, snacky & simple with a long shelf life is OK by me.