Christmas Pudding Smoothie (M&S) By @Cinabar

It was actually NLi10 who drew my attention to this new smoothie from Marks and Spencer. Yes, pack away your Halloween and Bon Fire Night goodies, it is officially the Christmas count down! Already there are seasonal goodies, and that includes this rather weird sounding Christmas Pudding Smoothie. I usually associate smoothies with being healthy, and I wasn’t sure if this was going to fit into this remit but I bought one anyway. Besides nobody cares about calories now until January 1st when we all sign up to or renew gym memberships with determination.
Once I was home the ingredients didn’t actually look too bad or unhealthy, the drink was mainly made up of pureed raisins and low fat yoghurt, amongst other things.
I gave the drink a sip and was hit by how wonderful the cinnamon part of the drink was. It wasn’t actually anywhere near as sweet as I thought it would be, far from it a nice mix of acidic lemon and apple gave this drink a surprisingly refreshing edge. The texture wasn’t too thick, thanks to this drink avoiding banana, and the flavour was very Christmasy but well balanced and easy to drink. Cinnamon is the seasoning of Christmas and I welcome it opened handily as it comes into season. This is certainly a smoothie I’ll be going back for, the flavour is no novelty.

Gu - Pots of Chocolate with a splash of caramel (@NLi10)

What seems like an age ago Gu sent us some vouchers and said "go out and buy our new mousse range" and as it looked fabulous we tried. And tried. And tried...  Whether Birmingham just wasn't a good market for them, or we missed the window they were in the trial stores I'm not sure - but we never found them.

This appears to be the next new Gu product, with perfect timing for Christmas so with the vouchers still in hand we picked up a box of these.

The idea is simple - sometimes a Gu pudding is a little too large - so here are six smaller ones!

There isn't as much fancy nonsense going on - no glass ramekins just a gloriously well designed box and six little plastic pots.

The blurb is pretty simple, you are getting chocolate pudding and paying about 66p a pot for it.

They don't look big enough to satisfy, but as anyone who has tried this brand before knows it's always going to be big on quality.

Look at that luxurious chocolate! It's pretty hard to capture on camera - no wonder they used pictures of it on the spoon!  The choc is fab and reminiscent of their other puddings, and the caramel is all at the bottom and tastes like a Rolo only runnier.  It's a great blend, and even for someone like me that chooses their fruity puddings every time this is a treat. The notion of sharing these is easily laughed off as they are individually sealed and will keep fresh for another day.

One couple, six pots, three wonderful mini puddings to enjoy with the TV dinner.  Tip out of the pots and add edible sparkle and you could easily serve these to guests too.  Fab.

Will still continue to hunt for those elusive mousse though.

Beardo Beer (Co-op) By @SpectreUK

Well it's November or Movember (https://ex.movember.com) again and time for me to reminisce about the time I tried in vain to grow a moustache for charity. I remember a work colleague at the end of the month asked me if I'd shaved it off the day before I actually shaved it off! However I did raise some money for Prostate and Testicular Cancer, as well as mental health and suicide prevention. Anyway, I still can't decide whether it's better to have a relatively hairless babyface (i.e. chubby-face) or to be able to grow a full beard everyday like some people I know! Although I do hate shaving and only have to do it once a week…

This Beardo Indian Pale Ale from Robinson's Brewery in Stockport was the closest thing to a moustache beer I could find at short notice. However it is celebrating facial hair and so does Movember. On opening this 6% volume pale ale there was a citrus hoppy smell followed by sweet malt. On taste the initial intense citrus hop bitterness would make anyones beard hair curl if they have any at the time (unlike me). There follows a fruity bitterness which travelled nicely into sweet crystal malt and with malted barley into the aftertaste. Mmm… very nice. Perfect for cultivating your new 'tache! Or donating without facial hair, like I have done! happy Movember!

Tic Tac Mixers - Coconut Pineapple (Tesco) By @cinabar

These Tic Tac Mixers in Coconut Pineapple are the latest new flavour from Tic Tac available in the UK. Recently we have been quite lucky with the newly released flavours, and these too sounded like a fantastic classic combination. They are part of the flavour change range, where the sweet is supposed to melt from one taste to another. I tried my first Tic Tac and was pleased with the initial coconut taste. They were sweet and creamy, and the coconut worked rather well. I continued to suck the sweet and a strange acidic almost menthol like flavour appeared, and it dawned on me that this was supposed to be the pineapple element. This element of the flavour didn’t work for me and I thought it tasted a bit chemical and not very fruity. To give a fair review I tried a few more, at once, and this time when the creamy coconut flavour started to change I chewed instead. This did give off a slightly more pineapple flavour, but there was still that acidic bite locked in.
In principal these Tic Tac Mixers in Coconut Pineapple should be a winner for me, as I do like those flavours. As much as the coconut was a success I was left thinking the pineapple needed more work.

Goodness Knows - Blueberry And Almond And Dark Choc @NLi10

I was desperate for a non bread lunch time snack at Milton Keynes station and spotted these on the till end. As it contains many of my favourite things I suspected I was on to a winner - blueberries, almonds and dark choc is a great start!

As we waited for the train I fiddled with the packet and realised that the insides were being well protected by a card tray and it wasn’t as big as I’d hoped. And then I opened it to find four bites!

This was pretty disappointing, yet oddly photogenic. At 25p per square this better be pretty good.

And shockingly it was! It’s just nutty enough, just fruity enough, and the dip of dark chocolate was great. All the flavours were present and it was actually filling enough to satisfy that 11 o clock craving.

From my initial doubts at the size to price ratio and luxury of the whole thing to the eating experience  it went from’this will do’ to ‘ I need more’ in a very short time span. There are multiple other flavours, and hopefully a few special offers and multipacks to have. as a way to get a snack that isn’t just chocolate and fruit and nuts this is a great bridge between real whole foods and brand name bars. 

An unexpected delight.