Rekorderlig Peach and Basil Cider (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

Swedish cider brewer, Rekorderlig, has created some pretty innovative ciders recently, ready for the onset of Summer no doubt. It has been a hot sunny day again, so I thought I'd crack open a bottle with my dinner. This peach cider with basil seemed to fit the bill… either that or it was at the front of the fridge and I was too thirsty to go digging around for anything else. On first glance I had the same feeling I had when Cinabar first introduced me to the bottle; Guh! To be fair I've drank Rekorderlig ciders before and never had a bad one, but peach and basil is pushing it… Surely?

This 4% peach cider with basil had a heavy peach smell on opening, with an almost equal weight of basil at the back of the aroma. This carbonated almost transparent cider as well as the heat of the afternoon sun were begging for a few cubes of ice. Of course, I didn't have any… so proceeded on drinking it anyway! To my surprise the strong basil flavour hit my tastebuds first then coupled with the slightly sour peach into the aftertaste. The fizz and sourness of the drink actually made me sneeze… that or the pollen count from sitting next to an open window. Don't be mistaken though; this is not a soft drink, it's strong on flavour, big on fizz, and has a sneaky sour bite that tickled my nostril hairs no end! I couldn't help but rather like it though…

Marabou - Black Saltlakrits (Salty Liquorice) Chocolate (Ocado) By @Cinabar

This bar of Marabou Black Saltlakrits chocolate was listed under new products on the Ocado website, and sounded suitably curious to write a blog about. In fact when I say curious I mean I actually had to Google the name. Apparently this bar originates from Sweden and the name Saltlakrits means salty liquorice, which is an odd thing to combine with milk chocolate in my opinion.
I opened up the wrapper and found a milk chocolate bar with some black pieces of liquorice shining through. I broke off a piece and gave it the taste test. It was a bit weird, that was my first impression and it was difficult to get past. The chocolate has a very thick melt, and the the liquorice is crunchy. I hadn’t been expecting it to be hard, but the crispy texture was actually quite pleasant to eat. The flavour from the filling was very strong the liquorice was full and the salt was plentiful. By my third piece I started to really enjoy the curious flavour sensation and the mix of textures. The bar actually became quite moreish, and my tastebuds decided they liked the strong flavour sensation from eating the bar, that is from someone who isn’t a big liquorice fan. Who knew, the Swedish are right though, liquorice and salt work, and adding chocolate makes it magic!

Strong Roots Spinach Bites (Ocado) by @NLi10

Ocado do some nice vegan things, ones that can sit in the freezer for months without issue.

Here we have a meal accompaniment - a bag of 18 little bites.

Look at that lovely green interior!

As usual, they have a back story and lots of nutrition info.

And they certainly add a splash of green to an otherwise beige tofu snack (that also tastes amazing due to tamarind).

They have a very soft texture, which is a surprise, but really quite welcome and actually taste of veg. I think that maybe we needed some sweet potato fries alongside to complete the meal.

Milkybar Wowsomes (@milkybaruki @DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

Cinabar knows how much I like white chocolate, so she passed me these new Milkybar Wowsomes to review. The first thing that struck me was the “30% less sugar” on the front of the box, which may help cut down my oversized belly. The next thing that I found interesting was the “white chocolate with crispy oat cereal in a creamy tasting centre”. It also states that there aren’t any artificial sweeteners, colours, flavours or preservatives in these Wowsomes. Did they replace the sugar with cereal? Sneaky…
These Wowsomes bars have a soft vanilla flavoured centre mixed with oat cereal and coated in white chocolate. So how do they taste? It states that two of these constitute a serving. For someone greedy (like me) the whole 80g box constitutes a serving. My first impression was that these Wowsomes are really quite tiny. Hardly Wow on opening, but “good things come in small packages” so they say… In fact I tell that to Cinabar all the time… On taste their texture is like a soft chocolate bar with a hint of oat biscuit. Much of the sweetness comes from the vanilla centre and decent coating of white chocolate. They do have a soft centre, with crispiness from the mixed in oats. They do taste good, and are weirdly filling, which always surprises me where oats are concerned. I don’t think you’d go far wrong having a couple of these for a white chocolate breakfast treat or an after meal desert filler.
Information on the box;
The 80g box contains 8 bars with each two bars containing 105 calories, with 6.4g of fat, 7.3g of sugar, and 0.11g of salt. Please see photograph for ingredients.

Lemon and Passion Fruit Whips (Marks & Spencers) By @Cinabar

The usual association with chocolate whips is the classic walnut whip, but Marks and Spencer have expanded there selection with a number of flavours. For summer the new variety is Lemon and Passion Fruit Whips, topped with a little dollop of meringue. There are three in the box.

I started by eating the meringue from the top and it was light crunchy and sugary. Then I tucked into the Lemon and Passion Fruit Whip itself. The milk chocolate coating was wonderfully thick, and of Mark and Spencer usual quality. The chocolate has a sumptuous thick melt, and its sweetness is very indulgent. The flavour inside the whip is mainly from the top where the sauce drizzles down. The sauce is is tropical tasting, and the passion fruit mellows out the zingy flavour of the lemon. The chocolate and fruit flavours are lovely and summery, and the whip itself was light and fluffy. The only negative part was that the fruity flavour was at the bottom of the whip, as the sauce hadn’t really made it there. I think I would have liked the fruitiness blended with the whipped filling instead. The fruit flavour was so nice, I wanted more it.
Even as it is I think this is an excellent addition to the range of Whips in Marks and Spencers, and one I’ll be buying again.