McVities Digestives – Strawberries and Cream (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I’m not sure how anyone expected summer of 2020, but I’m guessing not like this. It has been a very strange year and not in a good way. Still we may not be able to enjoy the beginning of summer in the way that we wanted to, but there are still the odd new summer product to cheer us up at home. PREsumably this is testimony to how much in advance companies start planning new products.

These biscuits do sound very summery, they are McVities Digestives – Strawberries and Cream edition. I opened up the pack and couldn’t see much evidence that biscuit was any different to a regular Digestive. Even breaking one in half I couldn’t see any strawberry bits. The taste is there though, it is mild, these are mostly chocolate Digestive in flavour, but there is a fruity sweetness that works nicely with them. I couldn’t quite pick up on the cream in the strawberries and cream bit, but I liked the edition of summer fruit flavour. These went down very nicely with a cup of tea in the afternoon, a pleasant sugar fix. Here is to being able to share these with friends when times are safer.

 

Off The Eaten Path - Rice & Seaweed Crispy Curls - basically veggie 'prawn' crackers! (@NLi10)

Seaweed as food is somewhat of an acquired taste.  I've gone out of my way to try it on many occasions - but these were bought for me.

Reduced is a great time to try things, and these certainly took a bit of effort to want to try!

Suitable for vegetarians (I guess the seaweed flavour might put some off) and actually reasonably healthy - these are a good substitute for Prawn crackers (which often are just rice anyway).

They don't look like that much, and the texture is a slightly courser prawn cracker (closer to the Thai crackers without the spice - hey - I just invented a new flavour variety for you!).  The sea-side flavour is there as a hint, but not so much it bothered me and the overall flavour is really rich and deep.  I need to cook or get delivered some Oriental flavours to really appreciate these instead of just as a snack in a bowl.

If these were an option on the restaurant menu instead of the usual crackers - I think I'd chose these.  They are just more interesting than most oriental crackers - although with the mixed spices of the Thai versions they could possibly be even better.

Well worth full price.

Lentil Chips - Chilli & Lemon (Degusta) By @SpectreUK

I'm often on the lookout for alternative snacks to crisps and nuts. I like to look for different snacks from crisps for variety, and dietary requirements as I haven't been able to eat nuts and seeds for quite sometime. These Lentil Chips Chilli & Lemon flavour seem to fit the bill rather well. They are fairly low in fat and a good source of fibre, whilst being fairly high in protein, and pretty high in calories to help fix my tired muscles after my workout in the kitchen earlier.

These Lentil Chips Chilli & Lemon favour were produced for the Eat Real brand by Cofresh Snack Foods, in Leicester. That snippet of information in tiny print on the back of the packet peaked my interest. I am a keen fan of other crisps made by Cofresh and haven't been able to hunt them down in local supermarkets for quite sometime. My favourite flavour being Chilli & lemon!

On opening the bag a familiar aroma tickled my nostrils of crisps flavoured with a heap of tangy chilli and zingy lemon. On taste these crunchy orange covered tongue shaped Lentil Chips almost oozed flavour. The chilli was its usual lip-smacking medium heat, followed closely by the lemon flavour which travelled into the aftertaste with a citrus zing. The lemon flavour always complements that chilli burn rather well, leaving a simmering heat in my mouth after eating. I have a favourite chilli and lemon hot sauce too, which I frustratingly can never seem to find. Anyway, these Lentil Chips Chilli & Lemon flavour are a definite win for me, I just hope I can find some more somewhere.

Information on the packet;
The 40g bag contains 435 calories per 100g, with 14g of fat, 0g of sugar, 4.3g of fibre, 10g of protein, 3.1g of salt. Vegan friendly, and gluten free, please see photograph for the ingredients.

Super Choccoli Broccoli Chocolate (@OmbarChocolate) By @Cinabar

Where do I start with this. On April Fools Day Ombar Chocolate did a fake advert for a new bar of chocolate called Super Choccoli Broccoli. Everyone laughed at how silly the idea was and that was that. Who knows what happened next, I assume they got bored in lockdown and only went and made some. Then they asked on Twitter via a competition who would want some, I said I did because you know I like trying new weird things. I won a bar and it turns out it does really exists because here it is.

So this bar still has all the usual Ombar mission statements, dairy free, vegan, organic etc.n They are an excellent company by the way, their strawberries and cream bar is delish. This is a small bar, thankfully, and it contains 2% broccoli in a 55% cocoa chocolate. The flavour is, as you might imagine is a bit vegetable like, almost cabbage like. It starts with a smooth cocoa, some sweetness, a little acidic and then the broccoli vegetable taste hits. Now it does what it aims to do, it has tried to pair the two flavours and I can’t imagine it being any better, I just can’t imagine it being ever made again. I’m sorry, I’m glad ti was a small bar, it was a fun novelty but a bit weird even for me.
Spectre said they should have called in broccolate, I think he might be on to something. He also requests next year they go for turnips ‘choconip’ and then he could say a favourite ‘turnip for the books’ joke. Plus it would fit in with the whole Animal Crossing thing, I have spent so much of lockdown fretting over turnip prices.

Coca Cola Tic Tac (Co-Op) By @Cinabar

We are quite lucky in the UK we seem to get a limited edition new variety most years from Tic Tac and some are rather creative. One of my favourites was the rather fun looking Simpsons Tic Tacs from 2018, these were bubblegum flavoured but had Bart Simpson on each sweet which was rather cool. This year we have the new Coca Cola Tic Tac made with real Coca Cola no less. In the world of Pepsi versus Coke I will always be a Coca Cola fan, just to be open and honest about this.
So these new Coca Cola Tic Tac sweets are nicely designed each one containing the logo too in red, they look quite smart, as does the packaging over all. The flavour is good too, it impressively has the classic Coca Cola flavour. They are sweet, but with a nice sour aftertaste that gives them a bit of a tangy twist. I think they recreate the cola flavour well and are a nice flavour kick. Normally these are the kind of sweets I’f have on my desk at work, but I haven’t been there for months. For now I’ve put them on the kitchen table, my new place of work, so I can still have them while updating spreadsheets.