RAW milk from the side of the road [@NLi10]

 We got stuck in a traffic jam, behind what looked like half a house and happened to pass a milk shed selling ice cream - the google blurb says.

Milk Shed based at Caenby Corner with self serve vending machines selling ice cream, raw milk, milkshakes and hot drinks!

Because every one had a similar idea there were some queues and confusion because of so many new people using the touch screen machines 

As I’m immunocompromised from my meds I wasn’t prepared to risk ‘raw milk’ especially as we had 3 hours in a hot car to go, but I could happily justify a pasteurised ice cream from the other machine

The choice was pot of ice cream for £3 or no ice-cream, so I went for option one and added some red sauce.

And it was lovely and cold. I think it lacked a little of the sweetness of Mr Whippy,  but it was a very welcome option.

The family we were dropping off had chocolate milkshake and milk, which should be fine with the little cool bag. I’m not sure why raw milk would be more appealing to people than fresh milk - I’ve drank both on my families dairy farm back in the 90s to the degree where there is sometimes grass floating in it, but that might have been Uncle Bert messing with the townies.

Pana Chocolate Orange - Raw. Organic. Handmade. (@NLi10)

I love these little, expensive bars of raw chocolate! I think this one was maybe £3 for 45g of chocolate which is probably a bit crazy - but within this stylish, present grade packaging you get six squares of unbridled joy.

Small enough to drop in a pocket or a handbag.

Wrapped up neatly in reflective paper

And with hearts and messages of joy!  And the smell is just solid chocolate and orange oil from the second you crack the box.

You just need a single cube too - it's got all the richness and flavour you'd expect alongside that pre-melted chocolate texture that raw chocolates do so well.  Can I tell the brands apart by taste and texture? Not even slightly - I think that's why the packaging is so important! That's not so important though - these are just heavenly and all about that intense taste and luxury feeling and are amazing after a meal.

Probably not for sharing then.

I picked this up from Birmingham's big new health food store/restaurant Natural Healthy Foods so expect more write ups as I justify the crazy amount of things i'm picking up...

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.

Loveberry - Raw Superfood Granola (One Earth Shop - Digbeth) [by @NLi10]

When digging around at the One Earth shop recently I found a bag of quite expensive granola cereal (£4.30 I think) that was bright red and full of fruits and caught my eye.  It was full of all the kinds of things you'd usually see in the premium cereal aisle but also both raw and with no added sugar.

I decided that it would be wrong of me to not take this with me, but it sat around on the work-surface for a while as I decided it was probably best eaten on a lazy Sunday morning and not in the pre-commute rush of the week.  The clumps were large, and the actual separate strawberry slices were few but probably there is one per portion (I'm expecting three from the pack).

The flavour itself is not as strong as I'd expected from the smell.  I guess it's like the fruit infusions - naturally unsweetened products just don't have that kick that you expect from the manufactured tastes we are used to.  This isn't to say the flavour wasn't nice - just a lot more subtle than I expected.

The chunks mostly crumbled easily when bitten but a couple did not due to hiding a chunk of fruit.  These were harder work to eat, but easily the most flavoursome parts. Yum! It was also quite filling.  I think that my portion size was perfect for me, but many people would probably get 5 or 6 portions out of the small bag.  Like with the other granolas I've tried I gave myself less than I'd usually go for and was still very satisfied.

I think that this is a nice change cereal, but at the price I'm not sure I could justify buying it over some of the more mainstream seeds and berries granolas that I tend to stock-up on.

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.