M&S Marks And Spencer Rhubarb Gooey Middle Teacakes [@NLi10]

I love teacakes, and while Tunnocks are the default the ones I actually grew up on were the M&S versions because that's what my Grandma Evelyn bought.  We'd have all the varieties, especially those with jam in them, and because they are reviving these and have a whole range of luxury bag/boxes (with only 6 in) they deserved a pick up - even at service station prices. Behold the roof of our lovely blue car. 

And these are huge!  While it's hard to get scale I'd say these are 50% larger than a standard Tunnocks and much more similar to how I remembered them.  In terms of bites they are a par three.

That said - a Tunnocks is 24g so this is only 6g heavier even with the size difference - and I think that's because of the biscuit which here is quite light.

Consequently eating these in the back of a car was a messy affair and I didn't get a picture - and a box of 6 doesn't last long with 4 of us.

The jam didn't hit as much as I'd expected, but I could taste the rhubarb, and the mallow was very floaty and sticky.  The pack mentioned no meaty ingredients but didn't flag them as veggie which is a worrying trend.  Surely grown-ups don't get upset if something is veggie/halal ?

Eitherway these are ace.  And if I am near an M&S I'll be trying the whole range (I'll snap better pictures then - the service station was busy). 

Food Heaven - Heavenly Whipped Chocolate Cream Flavour Topping (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I love hot chocolate pretty much all year round. At the moment, despite America and Europe having a heat wave, it is pretty cool and damp here in the UK. This makes drinking hot chocolate more acceptable, but just know that I often do on hot days too. I especially love making them special with cream and marshmallows, and I even have salted caramel sprinkles. What I'm trying to say is that this is my thing. I spotted the can of Food Heaven's Heavenly Whipped Chocolate Cream Flavour Topping and realised this could really up my game.

I made a mug of hot chocolate and sprayed the topping, which looked lovely in its creamy layers. I was generous. I gave it a taste, and it had such a good flavour. The topping is sweet and chocolatey, and very creamy too. It was light and was melting under the heat of the cocoa, but it was a delight to eat. I thought this was something a bit different for my hot chocolate, but something I would definitely buy again. It made the drink a proper treat. I’m going to have to see if they do any other flavours! Also, I think I need edible glitter!

On a side note, the Food Heaven Heavenly Whipped Chocolate Cream Flavour Topping says it is suitable for vegans but not those with a dairy intolerance (as it is made in a factory that uses dairy).

Barfi - Diwali sweet treats (@NLi10)

Happy Diwali! As Birmingham is a wonderfully multicultural city we celebrate everything, and usually with foods of the people who came up with the original holiday.

This weekend saw Diwali celebrations explode over the skies of our city resulting in a shower of sweet treats. Here we have one deluxe box of Barfia.

Essentially this is Indian version of fudge where it’s mostly sugar and a few flavours thrown in, but the person providing these went the extra mile and we have ones that appear to have been flavoured by their specific ingredients. Let us start from the bright blue one and work clockwise.

Blue is for Bubblegum And boy does this taste like the penny bubbly you got as a child at the bottom of a Screwball icecream. This is a massive problem for my brain which has been trained not to swallow things that taste like bubblegum. I manage to cope but I don’t think I could eat massive amounts of this. It would be perfect as an icing on a child’s cake but is in the ‘too sweet’ side of the flavours.

Next we have he first One I tried and quite probably my favourite. This is elderflower And it even has flowers on top. I’m a big fan of botanicals and this hits all the right notes, the subtle floral base flavours playing nicely with the sweet sensations. I could eat more of this quite happily.

The purple one is Vimto. This was probably the least interesting of the lot, being just sweet and a little like the drink. More just purple and too sweet. One for those with the sweet teeth.

The light brown one with the sprinkles is millionaires - and depending on who you asked this tasted of shortbread or cheese cake.  For me this was the best of the chocolate/real flavours and with the extra textures and flavours of the topping is almost a mini desert in itself. Very good.

The Erin Mess however was just another version of the sweet Barfia and didn’t really excite. It was probably the nicest out of the three though so worth a try.

Green was minty chocolate and was a little bit of a let down. Others really liked this but it just didn’t do much for me. It was sweet and minty.

Top left was birthday cake. A ludicrous idea, this was probably a close third to the millionaires. It tasted like the buttercream filling and I think there was maybe a hint of vanilla too. I’d love more of this one too - but again it was so sweet a little goes a long way.

The chocolate one was last and very much a disappointment. Chocolate fudge is a lot more of a hybrid of the two, this is just sweet Barfia with cocoa added. Not a fan.

And so there we have it. I’d love more elderflower, millionaires and birthday cake. I wouldn’t say no to the Erin mess and maybe a tiny bit of bubble gum. The rest is skip.

Little Chocolate Balls (Lindt & Hotel Choc) [by @NLi10]

Over Christmas we got or bought a selection of little chocolate balls with truffle centres.

The first of these is Lindt's Master Chocolatier Collection which is a lovely little gift box.

This contains 2 dark, 2 white and 4 milk chocolate balls covered in appropriate dust.

Panda cat bed not included.  

This is a really nice way of presenting the Lindor balls without their wrappers and with a bit of dust on the outside.  Nothing too fancy in concept but as always yummy and melty and perfect for cinema nights at home!

I purchased the Hotel Chocolat version of the Lime Barrel to gift at Christmas to my boss, and luckily got to try one.  While the same in spirit these have a soft centre instead of a liquid one.

They look a little less gifty than the box above, but the quality is no less than the Lindt.  

These have the lovely strong chocolate with a sizeable lime hit in the smooth textured centre.  I may have to sneak a second one of these as there seems to still be a few left!

These are still not quite as good as the Monty Bojangles boxes though, and as I haven't had any of those since last winter (well not in any sizeable quantity) I think once we've broken the back of all the chocolates in the office and house I may treat myself to a box.

Greggsnut [Cronut Style] (Greggs) [By @C2L_Eu]

The Cronut™. A croissant-donut hybrid. A dessert gone viral. If you’ve missed this new craze (and we’d forgive you if you had, official Cronuts™ are only available from the Dominique Ansel bakery in New York), do not fear for our Great British High Street bakers, Greggs, are here to save the day. And we’ve had the chance to try both their new, limited edition flavours.

To gain some perspective, the Cronut™ is somewhat high maintenance. They take up to 3 days to make, with laminated dough (we don’t know what that means either), proofed and then fried in grapeseed oil. You have to cut them with a serrated knife. You can’t refrigerate them. We would imagine the Cronut™ is a little bite of light, layered, sugar coated heaven. Heidi Klum wouldn’t have just anything private jetted to her family, surely.

And so what for Greggs’ attempt? The Greggsnut… not quite as catchy in name, granted. We tried both flavours – Summer Berry &  Crème and Caramel Pecan. The first thing we noticed was they are huge. They are dense. Culminating in 1 ½ inches of layered dough and then a small splodge of crème and jam / caramel respectively. A little disappointing and not quite the New York fantasy moment we’d imagined.

Taste wise, the Greggsnut was an odd combination of (almost) savoury pastry giving way to a super sweet sugar glaze and intense filling. It was much more like a ‘Yum Yum’ – though this is a comparable on their website so shouldn't have been a total surprise and it was quite bland and very heavy. The overall experience was just very dry and tasted a little stale. By the end of the experience, jaw ache was mandatory.

Our verdict? More Fauxnut than Cronut™.

Greggsnut are available until 1st Oct in 13 London Stores for £1 each.

By C2L

Fortnum & Mason - Pink Macaron (by @NLi10)

I didn't go to Fortnum & Mason, but fortunately my partner did and brought back two spare pink Macaron!

Oh noe! The mice have eated them all!!

Well - actually I didn't think to take a picture before us humans nommed them but below is a picture of what the contents would have looked like.

The pink one at the bottom was what we both had.  Picture blatantly stolen from fellow food blog The Hungry Girl Chronicles who has also tried these.

I'm not sure whether a macaron (and that is the spelling they use!) is a cake or a biscuit really, but as it starts off soft I'm guessing it's a mini cake.  They are convenient and pretty little things though and as a quick google suggests there are many variations on the basic theme.

I wasn't expecting that much from such a small thing, and as my tastes are gravitating away from sweet things as I age I didn't know what to expect.  This was pleasantly surprising.  The mint of the creme was hinted at by my partner as she ate hers first, but still came as a shock.  Balanced with the softness of the outer and the coconut that lingered afterwards it all worked quite well.  I think a couple of these with a posh cup of tea would be 'delightful'.

At £1.25 each they are a little expensive, and the shelf life suggested to eat on day of purchase, but they were actually a nice little indulgence.  I'd have to at least try a few more of the colours to see if they tasted differently anyway.

Oishi Pillows -Chocolate Filled (Day In Supermarket, Birmingham) [By @cinabar]

When Spectre first bought his bag of ‘pillows’ back I have to say I did think this was in fact some sort of breakfast cereal. It took me a minute to realise that it was actually an imported snack for munching, without milk. The bag claims to be party sized, so is meant to be poured into a bowl and shared.
I opened up the bag, and visually these still looked like breakfast cereal to me. They are a wheat based pillow shape filled with a gooey chocolate centre. If I was having a party I am sure that people would look oddly at these, and assume I ran out of proper snack and resorted to breakfast cereal in a bowl to share. Or they may just add milk and take the bowl! It’s just such an obvious association to make when you look at them.
Having said that, I have been known to munch cereal without milk, so perhaps they are on to something? Opening the bag and having a look at the contents, made me even more convinced that these are some sort of breakfast cereal. I bit in, and discovered that the wheat coating crunched and melted pleasantly away, and then the rich chocolaty centre took over the flavour. It was light but sweet and delivered a very pleasant chocolate hit. I found myself immediately reaching for another, and another. They may look like cereal, and they may even taste a lot like cereal but they seem to have successfully hit moreish on the head.
Although these may look a bit odd in a bowl at a party, one thing is for sure once people try them, they really won’t last very long at all!

By Cinabar

Soreen - Two Buttered Slices (Sainsbury’s) [By @SpectreUK]

When I was a child (all those years ago…) my mom used to make my packed lunch for me for school. One of the items I usually found in my lunch box was two sliced and buttered pieces of Soreen malt loaf. As they were stuck together and wrapped in cling film, they were quite difficult to tear apart and eat separately. One malt loaf piece would generally steal most of the butter from the other slice. However I always enjoyed eating these two pieces, especially the more buttery slice. Nowadays I make my own pack lunch and usually have fig biscuits as my afternoon snack.

This new packet of two buttered slices of Soreen malt loaf is a great idea as an alternative to opening a whole malt loaf, slicing and eating it over a number of days, especially when it’s best to eat the malt loaf on the day of opening for freshness. The packet stated “The original malt loaf”, just in case non-believers out there thought that Soreen had changed the recipe. The malt loaf’s ingredients included; wheat flour, malted barley flour, dried whey (from cows’ milk), and raisins, amongst other things. At 208 calories, there was 6.7% butter on the slices, although how the old dinner lady with a knife and bucket of butter measured it out so exactly on each slice I’ll never know! Allergy advice on the packet stated that the slices contained gluten, barley, wheat and milk. The back of the packet recommended eating the buttered malt loaf with either cheese for savory, or jam or honey for a sweeter dessert. I have always preferred my buttered malt loaf straight for the full flavour, as it’s just so tasty without the need for adding any other bits and bobs to it.

On opening the packet, there was two fresh looking malt loaf slices stuck together. After carefully tearing the two pieces apart, I noticed the same old story replaying itself from all those (many, many… many) years ago, with the butter being mostly stolen by one piece of malt loaf. With the absence of a knife, I ate the piece with the least amount of butter on it first, leaving the buttery slice to last as a treat. Both malt loaf pieces had the usual Soreen healthy feeling fruity tasting goodness, and the butter added to the sweetness. I enjoyed eating both pieces, especially the one with the most butter on it. I reckon I’ll have one of these packets of two buttered slices of malt loaf in my lunch box to mix up my afternoon snacks from now on.

By Spectre

Heston Curry Spiced [Sweet] Popcorn (Waitrose) [By @Cinabar]

Popcorn is a very ‘in’ snack at the minute, and its one I find myself turning to increasingly. Although I have a sweet tooth, the salty varieties appeal to me more and more these days. I have come to terms with the fact that popcorn is equally pleasant in a savoury variety as it is sugar coated.
Heston is rather creative and he has taken this one step further and brought out this curry spiced edition which sounded rather appealing when I saw it on the shelf. Although it says on the bag that the ideal time to serve them is while sitting down to a Bollywood movie, I ended up pouring some out to accompany our lunches on Sunday afternoon.
The popcorn looked nice, big pieces, all coated in a dark yellow seasoning which reminded me of the classic chip shop curry sauce. They had a good spicy aroma, lots of curry powder and a hint of chilli, and all was looking good until I tasted one. Up until this point I was totally convinced that what I had purchased was a savoury bag of popcorn, but I had underestimated dear Heston’s creative flair on this occasion. This popcorn was sweet and curry flavoured. Imagine that lovely bottle of curry sauce that you find in the chip shop, and then imagine sprinkling it all over toffee coated popcorn. It’s just not right. I tried to let the flavours grow on me, but the curry was quite hot and the spices would have been really good if it wasn’t for the bizarre sugary taste. I actually quit eating them, and was just about to tip the remaining ones in the bin when something weird caught my eye. Everyone else was enjoying them. My mum tried them, and said they were great, and even Spectre (who never eats popcorn of any variety) was munching away happily.
So there you are, they didn’t work for me, but they are clearly worth a try as the combination of flavours certainly works for some!

By Cinabar

Bear Yo Yo’s (Pineapple and Apple Variety) [By @Cinabar]

Bear are one of those companies that like to remind people that just because you have a sweet tooth, it doesn’t mean you can’t eat healthily. Impressively these fruit Yo Yo’s are 100% fruit, and don’t have any nasty additives. If you haven't seen one before a Bear Yo Yo isn’t an actual yoyo it is a strip of fruity goodness all wrapped up, and you can unwind and eat it. It’s fun too, and even comes with a fascinating fact card to collect – I shared my facts with those in the office, and they seemed impressed too!

There are two new flavours in the Yo Yo range, and Bear very kindly sent me a sample of each to try.

Pineapple
As there are no colourings in this fruit Yo Yo, it does look quite dark and brown, and not the usual artificial bright yellow you’d somehow associate with pineapple. I unwrapped the fruit and was pleased to discover that it wasn’t at all sticky and eased apart nicely. The flavour was very natural and had a strong zingy edge, which made it rather refreshing and juicy. I thoroughly enjoyed it, pineapple doesn’t get enough shelf space when it comes to these kind of treats and this just shows what an underestimated fruit it is.

Apple
The pineapple may have been brown, but the apple fruity strips are a fab dark green! This will undoubtedly make kids smile, because I loved the colour myself. Again these weren’t sticky and unwound without any hassle, ready for me to eat. The flavour was mild, but distinctively apple in nature, with its fresh edge as an aftertaste. It was more sweet than sharp, and as such very easy to like.

These are an excellent alternative to naughty treats in any lunchbox. As they are pure fruit they are a healthy treat for those with a sweet tooth, and the fun aspect of unwinding the fruit and the fascinating fact card means that you can’t fail to smile while enjoying them. These get a thumbs up from me.

By Cinabar

Grand Marnier - Part 3 – Pancakes [by @NLi10]

Before Christmas the nice people at Grand Marnier sent me the ingredients to enter into their cupcake challenge. I took pics and videos and set it all up for a review. I also tried another simpler recipe of my own. Neither of these has been fully written up, but this third attempt only makes sense in and around Shrove Tuesday so you are getting part three first even though it lacks the context of the first two. Hail Eris!


This didn't start off as a review - this started as me taking a picture of our new kitchen scales to show the people who got it us for Christmas. Note how the scales are on zero even with the bowl & flour as they turned themselves off while I was getting the camera ready... In the background where it sits on the kitchen counter was the Grand Marnier - and this gave me an idea.


First up is the regular pancakes - these are very nice and by the end I get good at doing them (Delia's recipe is on the BBC site and pretty straightforwards - iPhone FTW). Ms. NLi10 also agrees and we get through 2/3rds of the batter on these.

Then I stick a shot of Grand Marnier into the remaining batter.



This turned out to be a bit excessive, there were lots of odd holes from bubbles in the pancakes (I whisked the orange liquor into the batter) and I think I needed to let it stand a bit before pouring. The one shown above was typical for these - they seemed to brown and crisp a lot faster - yum!

The flavour was odd. Despite me not being able to taste it in my first pancake (then realising that this was one I made before adding the Grand Marnier) the flavour was actually pretty powerful. Its odd having pancakes that taste of citrus before you even add the sugar and lemon, but it's pretty nice! I'm surprised that those crepe stalls you always see at festivals haven't cottoned onto this one - it's pretty deluxe.

Shrove Tuesday is all about using up leftovers and then giving up something for Lent (I've given up Pancakes) and the Grand Marnier certainly qualifies as a left-over. It certainly works well as a desert ingredient though - maybe I should try it with biscuits too, Delia's recipes though - NOT Grand Marnier's...

By NLi10

Dina Baklawa Snack Pack (Sainsbury’s) [By @Cinabar]

Baklawa (also known as Baklava) is a Turkish delicacy consisting of filo pastry sweetened with syrup until it is sticky and often with added nuts. It covers a multitude of slightly different variations on that theme, and in fact this very snack pack had three Baklawa varieties within the box. I was more than a little surprised to find Baklawa in our small local Sainsbury’s, especially on the snack section (i.e. not the import isle) and took the opportunity to try something new. The image on the packaging shows them being eaten with a cup of coffee, so I brewed a mug for myself and opened the box.
I started with the one with the rounded top (right in the photo), and as I picked it out of the pack realised it was quite sticky to touch. I bit in and found that it was almost completely pastry, stuck together with a very sweet syrup. It was nice, but I could imagine it would be rather rich if eaten in any vast quantity.
The next one I tried was the middle one which looked like it had a pinched top. Although there was still a lot of pastry this one had a syrup and pistachio based filling. It was less flaky and not as sticky as the previous variety and was much easier to eat. The nut flavour broke it up a bit and made it a delight with coffee.
I accidentally saved the best to last as the final one (left in the photo) was a total treat. It had a substantial amount of filling and tasted strongly of walnuts and syrup. It reminded me of pecan pie, as the strongly flavoured nuts and syrup just worked so well together. I liked the fact that there was less pastry and more filling and that the nuts had such a good defined walnut taste, it really was superb.
I thoroughly enjoyed trying this Baklawa and have to say as per the serving suggestion on the packet, a cup of coffee works well with these. The bitterness contrasts the super sweet flavours so well and a sip of coffee after the sugar worked nicely. They are rich and different and very nice in small quantities, unless of course you stumble across a huge box of the walnut ones, in which case I think you might be surprised by just how many I can eat!!
By Cinabar

Pitch - 6 Chocolate Filled Brioche - Pasquier (Co-op) [By NLi10]

Sometimes I deliberately buy things to review, and other times I just enjoy something a little more than I expect so write about that instead. These were mini bread rolls with chocolate inside them (or Brioche) and I thought they'd be quite nice to eat as a snack at work. We had some part-baked rolls for lunch on Sunday and I snuck one of these in afterwards expecting it to burn or go horribly wrong, but it was crisp on the outside and runny on the inside which worked out really well.

The rest of the pack were munched at work, sometimes in twos - sometimes solo. I was surprised that the quality was quite good, they aren't French patisserie quality but they are much more edible than I'd expected. They are more of a bread than a pastry but I think this is so that they travel better and are still as nice a few days on. I'd pick up more of these as an evening snack at work and as they are individually wrapped they can wait as long as needed and still be squishy enough.

The Tintin sticker wasn't amazing. I got Captain Haddock.

By NLi10

KP Nutty Nibbles [Cherry & Cranberry Mix] (WH Smiths) [By @Cinabar]

Following on from the KP Nutty Nibbles with Hobnobs and Chocolate, it seems there is another new flavour on the shelves. I saw these sitting next to the other ones in WH Smiths, as a late addition in my local branch.
Like the previous variety this bag mixes both chocolate, salt and sweet. The chocolate on this occasion isn’t from chocolate drops, but chocolate coated raisins are mixed in the bag too. There is plenty of fruit in this pack, as you’d suspect from the name. The cherries and the cranberries are both fairly sweet but do have a sharp aftertaste, as they are both quite strongly flavoured fruits. The nuts are lightly sweet from the honey, have a good strong roasted peanut flavour and a nice dose of salt. The raisins are the actual sweet element in the bag with both the fruit being sugary and the milk chocolate coating adding a smooth cocoa flavour.
I love the mix of sweet and savoury, and it worked really well these ingredients. Every handful brings a slightly different combination and the emphasis is on a different taste with every mouthful. I think that’s what works so well with these bags, and makes them so moreish. If I had never tried the Nutty Nibbles with Hobnobs and Chocolate these would have been my favourite new peanut snack. The Cherry & Cranberry Mix is a very close second, with the fact that it has slightly less chocolate meaning it didn’t quite have the edge for me. It’s a personal preference, but chocolate always swings it for my taste buds! They are still well worth trying though, and to be honest if you are planning sharing them during a night in with friends, buy one of each variety and they will all soon disappear!

By Cinabar

KP Nutty Nibbles [Hobnobs and Chocolate Mix] (WH Smiths) [By @Cinabar]

KP Nuts have obviously spotted the grab bag trend, and have decided to give it a go. Personally I’d be okay with a huge bag of their peanuts, but they have added some creativity to their recipe, and come up with a bit of a medley.
Inside the bag are three key ingredients; firstly there are peanuts and they need these for the KP branding. It can’t really claim to be nutty without them! The nuts are sweetened slightly as they are honey roasted, and have a good full flavour. They are firm, but not overly hard. Next up we have chocolate, these are small round chunks of soft milky chocolate that add a lovely sweet cocoa flavour to the mix. Finally there are wonderfully mini McVities Hobnob biscuits that are full of oaty flavour, and add a really decent crunch. Each of the three items has a very different texture, making it a pleasure to combine them.
The Nutty Nibbles are mixed in such a way that you never quite get an even distribution of ingredients, and this works really well for them. Sometimes there is a focus on biscuit, other times on salty peanut and sweetness of the chocolate is in there too. The tastes work together; they complement each other surprisingly well. The nuts, despite being sweet, have a salty edge to them and I love that combination with the chocolate.
The bag is moreish and clever, and in my opinion a total success. It’s perfect for nibbling and would be ideal poured into a communal sharing bowl when you have friends round. Dare I say it – it would be ideal for Christmas time too... ;-)

By Cinabar

Sweet and Salty Popcorn (Sainsbury’s) [By @Cinabar]

Sometimes I go out of my way to find a Foodstuff Find, other times I’ll just spot something in the supermarket, but on this occasion it was a bit of fate. I ordered a (okay four) bags of my favourite Tyrrell’s Sweet & Salty Proper Popcorn from Sainsburys online, but when the delivery man came he brought this bag instead. They were out of stock, and this was a replacement item. I almost said no to the exchange, but then thought I could review it... so here we are!
This is a much larger bag than the Tyrrells, clearly aimed at a group wanting to share. The bright pink bag is fun, and looks perfect for a night in with a movie. The popcorn is lovely and fluffy but still mildly crunchy, exactly as it should be. There is a lot of topping on the pieces, so the flavours were good too. There is a good mix of sugar and salt, and I loved not knowing what the predominant taste would be on each piece. It is so very moreish!
In fact I was pleased with the replacement that Sainsbury’s sent, and I thoroughly enjoyed the contents. I would give it a decent 8 out of 10. I still give Tyrrell’s a 10 out of 10, and it is based on the oil content. The Tyrells bag is lower in fat, and I like it because it is a healthier snack without loss of taste. The Sainsbury’s version has a flag (top right on the bag) that notifies us that it is high in fat with a red warning. Although it tasted lovely, I did notice the build up of oil on my hand as I snacked on it too, which was a bit of a sign.
They both tasted lovely, but I think the version with the lower fat has to win on this occasion. Still, if Sainsbury’s bring me these as a replacement if the Tyrell’s are out of stock, I’ll be happy to except.

By Cinabar

Welshcakes: Cranberry & White Chocolate / Milk Chocolate [Fabulous Welshcakes] [By @Cinabar]

I went on a recent trip to Cardiff and discovered an amazing little shop in the marina called Fabulous Welshcakes. Now Welshcakes are one of my favourite things about Wales, and I think any trip to Wales must consist of having Welshcakes at least once (per day). Welshcakes are a cake rather like a flat scone cooked on a griddle. Welsh people eat them with a sprinkling of sugar, English people inadvertently add butter, both sets of people think the other ones are doing it wrong. If you add jam on top while in Wales, everyone will know you are not Welsh... you may as well wear a St. Georges flag t-shirt and give up any pretence.
Anyway, when I saw the title of the shop Fabulous Welshcakes I obviously headed straight in. To my amazement I found flavoured Welshcakes, as I had only ever have the traditional raisin ones before I couldn’t resist picking up a couple of the flavoured boxes to take home. A closer inspection on the packet showed that these Welshcakes are made ethically, with free range eggs and even Welsh butter.

Milk Chocolate
These lovely Welshcakes have the usual soft base, but have fab milk chocolate drops instead of raisins within them. They are sprinkled with sugar, and come ready to eat. They have a creamy sweet taste, but there was also plenty of cinnamon and spice too. The chocolate was mild, but well balanced so that the traditional Welshcake flavour was present, and not overpowered. These are a nice variation on the usual Welshcakes and were a proper tasty treat.

Cranberry & White Chocolate
As per the Milk Chocolate ones, these Welshcakes are coated in sugar, but this time have white chocolate and cranberry pieces. I liked the mix in textures from the two different ingredients, the soft fruit and the slightly firm chocolate. The flavours were good the cranberry was sharp but fruity, and the white chocolate mellowed the taste adding a smoothness. Yet again the spiced Welshcake flavour shone through ensuring that this variety didn’t step too far away from the tradition recipe or taste. I loved the mix of flavours, and was greatly disappointed when the box was empty.

Both of these varieties are clever twists on the usual Welshcakes, but still maintain that traditional taste. If you are in Cardiff make sure you find the shop and give them a try as they are, like the name suggests, fabulous. It is a crying shame they aren’t available more widely.

By Cinabar

Tyrrell’s Sweet & Salty Proper Popcorn (Waitrose) [By @Cinabar]

When I go to the cinema I am very much in the sweet popcorn camp. I have tried salty popcorn, but never really seen the fascination with the stuff. I have also tried sweet and salty (i.e. both together) once before, when I tried Pret’s last year. Their attempt at the flavour wasn’t particularly special, and if anything I found it a little bit bland.
When I saw Tyrrells had ventured into the popcorn market I bought a bag for Foodstuff Finds purposes but wasn’t exactly excited about the same mixed concept of flavour. We were having a movie night in (watching The Men Who Stare at Goats) and it seemed appropriate to crack open the popcorn. We were all set up yummy George Clooney, yummy Ewan McGregor, yummy Spectre (he made me type that!) and hopefully yummy popcorn!
And it really was yummy popcorn too. I just can’t get over how totally clever the flavour was, it totally wowed me. Some pieces were saltier than sweet, and some were more sweet than salty, but the best bits were the ones lashings of both flavours! One thing is for sure, every piece was tasty and made you want to eat another.
The popcorn pieces were perfectly light and fluffy with a gentle crunch. In the entire bag there was only one unpopped kernel, and this looked like a minor oversight. The flavour is just about the most moreish and perfectly made stuff I have tried. It needed a warning on the front of the pack saying the clever flavour combination WILL make you eat more than you intended! I am totally converted to this, it’s absolutely fab stuff, and I will be buying more.

By Cinabar

Tesco Christmas - Turkey Cranberry & Stuffing Wrap [by @NLi10]

Like the great musician Jonathan Coulton tells us Christmas Is Interesting and if you think about them for too long then pretty much none of our winter traditions make sense. With a similar open mind I approached this offering of traditional festive ingredients in a Mexican style wrap and took a bite.

How I came to be in the possession of such an interesting artefact is a tale in itself. We recently had a work visit by some salespeople regarding an Abbot Architect machine for our lab that does something I don't understand. They had come to talk about another kind of test that I didn't understand, but discussed avidity, which I do understand. As part of this we got a free feed, but instead of the usual hospital catering they popped to Tesco and brought a bumper feast of goodies.

In the interests of science/blogging I chose the thing that I was least likely to pick up normally (with an eye to the fact that I could always fill up on other things from the table should it be unpleasant). And I wasn't far off, that first bite was mostly lettuce and a mystery white sauce which wasn't all that Christmassy. It truly was an odd combination and I couldn't taste anything seasonal. I persevered and towards the middle, with the chunks of turkey was a few bits of cranberry. These clicked the taste button for me and I was much happier with the flavour for the remainder of the wrap. The second one was similar and now I knew to expect the occasional sweet hit I was prepared to put up with the odd combination of tortilla and white sauce with a hint of turkey. I guess that like with the microorganisms the exposure to the new and unusual thing increased my avidity towards it and allowed me to bind more successfully.

We also got a child's juice box and chocolate coins for pudding.


Overall I'd say it's worth trying this, if not just for the unique flavours. It's not even slightly festive though and in a different box could be a turkey and white sauce summer special or similar. I do however think that the only thing that should be wrapped at Christmas is the presents and not the turkey.

by @NLi10

19 Gales Fresh Hand Made Blueberry & Apple Turnover {by @NLi10} (19 Gales Farm Shop - Birmingham University Campus)

For a change, and due to the Indie Uprising that is taking place on Xbox Live in December I'm reviewing things from my local Farm Shop. While you probably don't live within reach of this particular one it's well worth you having a look locally to find your own source of home cooked, locally grown snacks!

For pudding on my last trip over to 19 Gales Farm Shop I picked up a couple of these blueberry and apple turnovers. As the pork pie was so filling I decided to take them home instead, but they got a bit flattened on the way. They still tasted great and although I'm not a fan of the blueberry (raspberries every time for me) the mix of flavours was great. If these were home made for home consumption then I think I'd have doubled the fruit inside them and then had them as a massive pudding with ice-cream, but as a commercially viable product for 75p each these were fab. Also they had none of the hard sugar coating on the top which seems to blight most commercial turnovers to compensate for the lack of flavour inside - these actually tasted of fruit and were naturally sweet.

I urge you to go out and seek local independent places that do fresh baking, while the chains are OK most of it is shipped to them readymade and then just heated to the finish on the premises. Truly fresh baking is great, and if you are too lazy to do it at home like I am then Farm Shops are a great alternative.

And don't forget - the big online global farm shop that is the Xbox 360 Indie Games section (it's tucked away near the back under the download games, hiding after the demos) has a whole couple of weeks of new games ranging from a tiny 65p to an epic £3.20 (80 to 400 points in M$). There is even a list at http://www.indiegames-uprising.com/ so you can spot the featured gems more easily. Epic Dungeon is my favourite so far, but I haven't tried them all yet!

by @NLi10