Elk Warning Cider - with Strawberry (Sainsbury’s) By @SpectreUK

I'm not sure why the Swedish brewed apple cider with wild strawberries is called 'Elk Warning'. It may be because the wild strawberries used in the brewing were guarded by a band of blood thirsty Elks, or because they nibble the odd batch of wild strawberries, or because the brewers never know which of the wild strawberries in the forest have been used for target practice during toilet breaks? I was a little confused at the drawing of the Elk with the top hat and tails in front of his country manor, and hot air balloons skimming the tree tops above him. In small text on the can it does describe him as the 'King of the Forest'. Deciding to risk it and figuring King Elk has a habit of shooting trespassers who ignored his 'Elk Warning' signs at the edges of his property, I popped open the fetching black and blood red can.

There was a pleasant fizz on opening this 4% volume cider with wild strawberries. There was a smell of freshly picked strawberries mixed with apple cider. Not that freshly picked from the supermarket shelf punnet smell. No. The aroma of real freshly picked strawberries straight from a little plant in the garden or an Elk King's forest. This is a very pink lightly fizzy drink. My beer glass was slightly embarrassed by its pinkness. Not a tough guy's drink for drinking down the local waterhole, unless you have a pottery beer tankard instead. The aroma of wild freshly picked strawberries assailed by nostrils on first taste. This cider is dominated by wild strawberries. No half measures here. There is apple cider of course, but sweet strawberries to start with right through to the end. This fruity pudding cider would go down well for an afternoon refresher in the dying embers of the sun before the big freeze, even over some icy rocks if it's not too chilly outside, or perhaps after a spicy dinner to cool down your tastebuds before a fruity sweet a creamy dessert.

New Oreo Choc o Brownie Flavour (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I do like Oreo biscuits, they are in the list of biscuits I like enough not to need to dunk. Most biscuits are improved by a splash of coffee I find, but there are a few rare examples that I’m happy to eat without and Oreo fits neatly in this category.
To be fair to Oreo they are quite good at limited edition flavours in the UK, and we have had mint, strawberry and peanut butter “flavour” all available recently as well as having “Choc” ones about before now. These Oreo Choc o Brownie looked mighty similar to the regular chocolate flavour with its brown filling, and on taste test I have to admit it tasted similar too. This is not a bad thing, extra chocolate in Oreos still provides a good flavour and an enjoyable biscuit. I couldn’t pick up on the brownie element, I guess the specifics of the cake are just very much like a chocolate biscuit at heart. For me the chocolate flavour was missing out on the contrast of the filling and base biscuit. Even the plain creamy filling this works so well with the dark biscuit.
So these are very enjoyable biscuits, similar to chocolate Oreos, and not quite as exciting as some of the other fun flavours, but still all together tasty as that Oreo base flavour still shines through. I did once try dipped Oreos in white chocolate, and to be honest they will remain my favourite variety even if they are near impossible to find in this country.

Indian Brewery Co., Birmingham UK @IndianBrewery @NLi10

No lads night out would be complete without a few beers and some takeaway food, even if the lads are all scientists and the take-away is actually eaten in a trendy street-food location.  On a work night out it was decreed that we should trek over to the Indian Brewery Company to sample their fantastic sounding menu.

As is traditional the person whose leaving do it was completely over ordered getting us enough food for at least 6 people - to the extent that they had to bring it in shifts! I'd been a little more sensible choosing the one item I required and then sniping other parts of the meal as it appeared.

Above we see the first course of the Royal Rumble - which is basically one of everything on the menu except we had added an extra mixed grill (and my Fat Naan).

With my limited ability to tolerate large amounts of spicy food this was more than enough for me (you get two of the above for £7.50) and the flavour was simply divine. Hot enough to be interesting, but not so much that the herbs and subtlety is lost.  I could eat one of these right now - easily.  Good enough that I was messaging multiple friends and explaining that I'd take them soon.

Here is one of the mixed grills, I picked at this to help out, but the kebab was a spicy risk that I dodged and the rest was mostly demolished by my companions.  I had more than enough pakora and masala chips to make the visit worth while.

Here is the full menu - considering that you could easily feed five on the Royal Rumble alone the prices are very fair.  If I went 'alone' I'd have the Chicken Run fat naan again with Pakora Pops.

The drinks were very confusing - I had a Limca which seems to be a kind of Indian Banta style flat lemonade.  It was decent enough, but maybe a bit too sherbet like for my tastes.  I'll try the High5 cola style version next time.

Ordinarily at places like this the beer drinkers extol the virtues of their own distinct selections and then swap sips and make plans for round two.  No-one liked their initial drink - and pints were even left at the end! This struck me as strange for a 'brewery' style location and maybe our taste buds are just not tuned in the same as the local crowd.  The green can (Siera?) was bought as a replacement drink by one person and enjoyed, but the remainder was very much drunk under sufferance and a second round was not purchased.

Overall though the food was amazing, the portions more generous than anticipated and a return visit assured.  There just aren't enough work trips out available to eat in all the great places that Birmingham has attracted recently!

Maynards Bassetts Wine Gums Tangy (WH Smiths) By @SpectreUK

These new Maynards Bassetts Wine Gums Tangy are the usual fruit flavoured gums, but they have a sour sugar coating. There are five flavours to choose from in the packet with different gummy shapes. I started with orange, which was very fruity and had a decent sourness to it. Next came the yellow almost white coloured lemon flavour, which was a little sourer than the orange, but a little less fruity. I wasn't surprised at that, as orange can have a stronger flavour and lemon gummies usually have a sourness of their own, even without the sour sugar coating. The green coloured gummies were next, which had a juicy apple flavour with a light sourness to them. All three flavours had been great so far, but I already had a preference for the orange gummies, which was a pity as I couldn't see anymore in the packet. I do have a 'thing' where I like equal shares of coloured sweets in packets. I'm sure this is difficult on big production lines, but it can't be just my preference alone? The red coloured gummies were next, and they packed quite a sour punch. Raspberry flavour if I'm not mistaken, thankfully not cherry, and they were fruitier and sourer than the orange gummies. Having said that, the black coloured blackcurrant gummies were by far the fruitiest, but the reds were the most sour. The reds for me had the most balanced fruitiness and sourness in the packet. There were lots of reds and also black gummies, with fewer greens and yellows. Somewhere out there I'm sure there's a packet full of orange gummies…

Information on the packet;
The 165g packet contain suggested four gummy services which had 88 calories, 0.1g of fat, 16g of sugar, and 0.01g of salt. See photograph for ingredients.

Titbits Gourmet Bites: Tomato, Cheddar, Basil and Oats (Yorkshire Crisps) By @Cinabar

These new Gourmet Bites from the Yorkshire Crisps company are not potato based, instead these are flavoured biscuit “titbits” of flavour. Like the crisps they are presented in a posh drum, and also have luxury flavours. I was trying out Tomato, Cheddar, Basil and Oats.
The Titbits Gourmet Bites are small, round but still quite chunky. You can tell from the colour of them that they had plenty of tomato in the ingredients, as there is a very distinctive orange colour to them. We used them in place of crisps with a sandwich to nibble on while watching TV.
The flavour was mild, there was sweet tomato and herbs, and a pleasing hint of cheese. I loved the basil, and these had such a good Italian taste. They are very easy to munch on and the flavour is nice, and easy going. I was impressed that the oat taste came through as strongly as it did giving these a good wholesome flavour, and they had a buttery after taste. They are easy to munch on, but posh enough to save for when guests come over. It is worth having some of these in a cupboard for the start of the Christmas season and when visitors start appearing.