Dylan's House Blend Coffee roasted by Poblado Coffi [@NLi10]

Local tea and coffee is a weird one, on one hand it's great to have something tuned to the local water and supporting the local area - but on the other hand it's all from thousands of miles away!

Here we have a great example - they beans are shipped to Wales and the local company makes local coffee blended exactly to the restaurants requirements.  Can't argue with that!

 

Brazil, Guatemala & Ugandan beans - but with it's date of birth on the bag it's all pretty fresh too

And it all smells amazing - and it isn't perfectly homogenous too which I love - it feels like it was crafted instead of being manufactured.

And it makes a good cup of coffee - just a shade too dark for my taste, but I can tune some of that out with a dash of milk, macchiato style.

I'm glad I picked this up as it'll be a great pick me up for work days

And before we went in the shop we had the local food from local ingredients in the restaurant in Conwy - which was fantastically luxurious and a lovely way to recharge after going round the castle for hours in the wind.

Wickedly Welsh Salted Caramel Chocolate [@NLi10]

 On our recent holiday to Wales we visited Skomer Island and saw zero puffins (wrong time of year) but also very little else due to a massive storm.  We did however get some consolation chocolate on the way home.

Looks pretty classy

And is actually also from Pembrokeshire where we were.  Good to see the supermarkets picking up local brands!

The bar itself is nicely decorated and easy to snap & eat.

The flavour is milder than I expected, but in a nice way.  I'm not a huge fan of the caramel flavours (except for Rolo) but this was great.

Unfortunately we have to go back to Wales to get more, but maybe on a nicer day.

Welsh Holiday Cottage Goodies - Choc, & Black Garlic Ketchup (@NLi10)

 On our trip to Wales we got goodie packages in both our accommodations - here is the one from the farmhouse in Pembroke

And we got the more traditional breakfast stuff in the waterfront apartment in Penarth.

First up was the Welsh truffle (or trwffl) which had a great smell

We liked these and they were tangy and fun

It's basically just a really nice local chocolate though!

Didn't get a good picture of the garlic ketchup - but once you got it moving it just poured right out!

With the Anglesey Sea Salt and all the tangy flavours this was a hit - I let someone else take it home, but if I'd have seen this one in the local produce shops I'd have picked one up for home.

Great pizza dip too!

The marshmallows were the oddest of the presents - double chocolate

Fish gelatine? Cool idea - I guess it's halal and suitable for pescatarians that way!

Spotty cubes of Mallow - but chocolate covered chocolate probably doesn't go well with hot chocolate so we just ate them!

They do look a little like dog-treats but they are quite luxury.  We finished these before we left.

Last up are the Bara Brith biscuits, which I had a nibble of, but aren't really my style.  The others loved them - raisins, and Christmas spices.

Very pretty too!

Overall a lovely, local, luxury care package and definitely something to recommend the site to others on (plus the hot-tub, and views, and complete lack of neighbours).

Cardiff Tim Hortons & Shake Shack (@NLi10)

While we were in Cardiff for the wrestling we happened to try a few North American chains we don't see as often in the Midlands.  We do have a Tim Hortons in Birmingham, but it's so rare I need a chain cafe when home is a short bus ride away. 

The store is very well decorated - like every branch in this Canadian chain, and had a decent range of treats on offer.

see!

We popped in (with Teddy from the last review) and got a basic tea and an exciting apple cinnamon fritter thing.

The tea was decent quality but not exciting, The fritter was kind of a rolled and layered pretzel doughnut

And wasn't that exciting really, but was very nice.  I'd been spoilt by having an Auntie Anne's Pretzel the night before.

I also got maple bacon pancakes in the Wyndham Cafe in the Wyndham arcade, but that's a Cardiff only thing.

As is (apparently) the Shake Shack where there are only a few of them in the country.

And it was fairly expensive for normal chips and a cheese burger.  I enjoyed them but like 5 Guys I wouldn't rush back.

We had the normal tea and the 50:50 lemonade tea but neither quite hit the spot.

We made 75:25 tea to lemonade with our remaining half cups and preferred that, but it wasn't great tea or lemonade.  I guess I should have had the Shake in the title.  I'm not mad on American food like the Young Team are and they all seemed keen to return so maybe if they open in town I'll try again.

Welsh Brew - Murroughs Premium Tea (@NLi10)

I love a good hotel cup of tea - and when we got to the Manor Hotel, Crickhowel we  found these waiting for us.  Welsh Breakfast tea!

(note one stray PG hiding in background)

This is great because not only does it support local brands, it also is tuned to the local water supply (although Birmingham's water comes from Wales thinking about it so maybe I should have picked some up for here!)

It's even written out in local on the back - Welsh is great but I don't think i'll ever remember what all the sounds are!

And they even tell you how to make tea in case any American tourists find a bag.

And it looks like tea - and complements the view nicely.  It tasted a little too strong for my liking in the room - but that appeared to be down to the little UHT milks as the PG was similar.  The ones we had at breakfast were the same brand and worked really well.  More like a Yorkshire than a PG if that makes any sense.

I didn't make any special efforts to do the supermarket raid, but maybe we can pop back to Wales as restrictions ease and spend some time in the valleys again.