Flying Dutchman (Waitrose) [By @SpectreUK]

This Wit Bier (wheat beer) was brewed by the Caledonian Brewery, in Edinburgh, with the aid of specialty brewer Henk Oexman from Heineken, in the Netherlands. This is a 4.5% volume malted wheat beer, made with barley and hops, with the addition of coriander, orange peel and liquorish in the brewing. At the mention of orange peel I first thought this beer would go well with fish meals, and would have been a keen rival for the orange peel beer that I like to buy from Marks and Spencer’s in the summertime. On opening I could smell mainly liquorish mixed with a leafy or coriander undertone. On initial taste there was a quick hit of coriander, then an almost peppery bitterness, followed by a heavier liquorish flavour, ending with a mild bitterness from the hops. I couldn’t detect a hint of orange peel in the flavoured beer. The aftertaste mainly consisted of liquorish with the undercurrent of hoppy bitterness. Henk Oexman’s 30 years of knowledge and experience really shone through, making this beer a tour de force of the care and attention from Scottish Brewing mastery mixed with Henk’s European influence. I really enjoyed this wheat beer and would hunt it out again. I changed my mind after the first couple of mouthfuls, as I wouldn’t necessarily drink this beer with a fish meal. The robust flavour from the liquorish lends my thinking more towards a roast pork or sausage meal. I reckon Henk Oexman’s influence has been most welcome at the Caledonian Brewery, and I’m sure he would be welcome to visit again any time he likes!

By Spectre

Rice Krispie Squares – [New] Rocky Road Edition (Nisa) [By @Cinabar]

I have had my eye out for this new flavour of Rice Krispie Squares since DavidH let me know that he had spotted them in Asda. I found mine on a trip to the local shop nearest work, on a hunt for cheap coffee. I discovered that they stocked these and all four flavours of the new Chunky Kit Kats – hurrah!
Anyway I got back to my desk and carefully unwrapped the Rice Krispie Square. I did have a moment of disappointment when I first saw the bar, as the description of the topping was shortbread, raisins and white chocolate but it wasn’t really visually represented. After a further look I worked out that although I was a little short changed on the white chocolate, the biscuit pieces and the raisins were actually within the mallow.
If you haven’t seen Rice Krispie Squares before they consist of Rice Krispies, all stuck together with chocolate mallow. There are various versions of the bars available, and the toppings are often quite creative. I never know whether they are meant as an alternative breakfast food – but I tend to have them as my elevenses snack!
This new variety has a good selection of goodies, and I think it is the first time they have used raisins. I liked the raisins with the chocolate, and of all the Rocky Roads goodies it was certainly my favourite. The juicy sweet fruit worked well with the sticky chocolate coating and broke up the texture and flavour. The texture of the biscuit was a bit more lost as the bar is so crunchy anyway, but the buttery taste did shine through when you got a chunk.
My only criticism is that I would have liked to have seen a bit more white chocolate on the topping, as it was barely noticeable on my bar. The chunk I had was nice enough with a creamy vanilla flavour, but where were the rest of them? To be honest I think I was just unlucky on that front, but for all the other ingredients I have to give the new flavour a thumbs up.

By Cinabar

Walkers – What’s That Flavour? Mystery Flavour A [Crisps] [By @Cinabar]

The new products just keep on rolling in... and I’m pleased to announce some new crisps from Walkers. I can’t tell you what flavours they are though – because it’s all part of the mystery!
Walkers have created three new varieties of crisps, but not labelled what they are on the bag. You can take a guess at the flavours (via Facebook or Text message) and then be in with the chance to win some serious cash prizes!
I can’t resist a challenge, so was eager to dive in. I started with the reasonably named bag ‘A’. The only clue on the packet was that this was a dairy based flavour. The ingredients list on the back didn’t offer any more clues than that!
I opened up the bag and was pretty sure I could pick up on a garlic smell and some cheese. When I actually tasted a crisp, I could no longer pick up on that garlic hint and the flavour seemed far more focussed on the cheese aspect. It was a strong cheese, something quite powerful and distinct, and perhaps that garlic I thought I smelt was a background onion taste, possible even shallots?
The main thing is that these crisps were really nice, and if you like Walkers Cheese and Onion then you’ll find these a good alternative. They are certainly similar to that classic taste, but still are unique and they have stumped me a bit. I’ll be honest I not sure what I’m going to enter as a potential answer, and I’m going to have to have another bag to give them a try before I settle on a final decision.
If you want to give them a try yourself they should be appearing in supermarkets and other shops very soon. Allan H has already spotted all three flavours packaged in a multipack in Tesco – if you want to hunt some down. If you do, please leave a comment, let me know what you think!

By Cinabar

Pokka Blueberry Tea (KK Mart - Bromsgrove) [by @NLi10]

A while ago I drank quite a lot of the Pokka lemon tea and decided to write it up for here. Essentially it's a bottled tea but made with actual brewed tea instead of tea flavours being added. This is similar but with Blueberries added instead of lemons!

I bought this a while back but saved it for when I thought I'd need a nice drink and took it to an all day gaming tournament in Birmingham, UK for Magic: The Gathering.

The tea flavour wasn't quite intense enough for me, but the blueberries ended up giving it quite a nicely interesting aftertaste. It was very drinkable, refreshing and perked me up a bit too. I think that while I prefer the original lemon variety I'll end up buying this again, it's more exciting than the typical fruit cordials we get as 'still' drinks here in the UK. It's just unfortunate that only Spar and speciality retailers like KK Mart & Yum Yum seem to stock them. Us Brits need to be more adventurous!!

By NLi10

Fox’s Glacier Citrus (WH Smiths) [By @SpectreUK]

Fox’s have been producing sweets in the UK since 1897. Peppy the Polar Beer joined as their chief Quality Checker when Glacier Mints were brought out in 1918. I’ve always been partial to the odd packet of Fox’s Glacier Mints ever since I was a young lad. A year or so ago Cinabar reviewed Fox’s Glacier Limited Edition Mango Peach Passion Fruit Smoothies. These Fox’s Glacier Citrus recently appeared in my blogger’s in-tray between the iron bars of my cell in the Foodstufffind’s dungeon. There were four flavours to choose from, which were; lemon, lime, grapefruit and clementine. Clearly with such big sour fruit juice titles such as lemon, lime and grapefruit, I thought these glacier mints were meant as a bitter treat to dull the taste of whatever strange flavoured beer Cinabar had plans to torture me with. The Glacier Citrus were made in some part with actual fruit juice and with no artificial flavours or colours. It was good to see Fox’s were trying new flavours of sweets after so many years on the market. So I put down my beer bottle opener (fashioned from the skull of a previous Foodstuff blogger) and hungrily tore open the 200g Glacier Citrus bag. There was some confusion to start with as all the wrappers of individually wrapped sweets inside the bag were the same colour! I first thought that they were all four flavours rolled into each sweet, but I was just so wrong…

Clementine flavour

Unwrapping a sweet and taking note of the orange colour, I dumped it in my mouth and immediately noticed that it tasted just like orange jelly. This is great if you like orange jelly and don’t have one to hand. Fortunately I love orange jelly. I’ve always said that if jelly wrestling became an Olympic sport (London 2012?), then the bikini girls should wrestle in orange jelly. There was no sourness, just a juicy mouth watering clementine taste that was totally scrumptious.

Lime flavour

Green in colour and frustratingly in the same coloured wrapping as the clementine flavour, the lime flavour had a good sour taste to it, not face twisting, but enough to wake me up a bit whilst I sat bored at my desk at work. It had the same mouth watering tastiness as the Clementine flavour, with a delightful lime zing. Although I was beginning to wonder if I would have to unwrap most of the sweets to find the other two flavours!

Grapefruit flavour

Luckily the sixth sweet I unwrapped was an off yellow colour, and I popped it in my mouth figuring this would definitely be the lemon flavour. I was immediately taken aback by the face twisting sour heavy kick of pure grapefruit. Sucking down hard sent pleasurable shivers up and down my spine that I’d never felt from a sour sweet before. Usually sour sweets make me squirm or hurt the roof of my mouth with their acid sour strength. This was a strange ecstatic tingle that I’m certain no other food could ever reproduce. It was raining big freezing dollops of icy water outside at the time I began to suck on this mouth watering sweet, however inside the office at my desk I felt an oddly warming sensation as my senses delved into grapefruit and all its tangy goodness. Honestly, you have to try this sweet, as it was quite an experience!

Lemon flavour

After unwrapping another three sweets I found a very yellow coloured sweet that just had to be lemon. I popped it in my mouth and was first pleased to be kicked by another face twisting sour sweet and second that I’d located the last of the four flavours amongst the individually and identically wrapped sweets. I almost gave out a cheer, but remembered that I was at work and that my office was far too serious for such a thing! The tangy sourness of the lemon flavour, made me think of pancakes in the spring time covered in brown sugar and lemon juice. The sweet was far more sour and face twisty than the grapefruit, and although it didn’t give me the same ecstatic back tingling feeling, I reveled in the squirming zingy sensation that ran around my senses like a hamster on steroids.

These Fox’s Glacier Citrus sweets were mouth wateringly genuinely fruit juicy tasting and fantastically moreish. Whilst sampling them my mind went on an adventure from the (Olympic) joy of orange jelly wrestling, to being shaken awake by fresh lime ready for a Tequila Sunrise, replaced by the previously unknown ecstasies of grapefruit and brought thudding back down to earth by the squirming awkwardness of lemons! These individually wrapped sweets also presented a certain anonymity that was kind of fun to discover what flavour I’d be eating when I unwrapped it at the time. I’m definitely keeping these sweets in my draw at work to suck on whilst I trawl through endless paperwork and dream of the next weekend.

By Spectre