Fentimans Dandelion & Burdock {by @NLi10} (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Edwardian Tea Room)

I like museums. I'm a recovering Archaeologist, having done my degree in that subject but moved away from this into areas that actually enable me to afford food. On a recent summer trip to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (or as all the cool kids call it BMAG) I dragged my other half into the cafe with the promise of tea and a taste of their legendary carrot cake. The options for drinks were quite varied, but I fancied a Fentimans and I decided to try one of the flavours that I hadn't been brave enough to try before. Out of Ginger Beer and Dandelion & Burdock I chose the latter.

I'm not sure on the history of this particular taste combination - in fact I wasn't that sure what a burdock is. Wiki tells me that it's a kind of thistle, which in hindsight may have pushed me towards the ginger beer. Dandelions are also a plant that is considered a weed by most people, so I was curious to find out exactly why us mad English people decided to drink this. Turns out (wiki again) that the drink is made from the roots of the plant, and when fermented is naturally fizzy - which would have been quite exciting in the late 13th Century when it was said to have been first drunk.

Taste wise the biggest shock is that it's really similar to Dr. Pepper. It's a lot less sweet, but I think that may be the difference between Fentimans and Coca Cola as their respective flagship colas are different in sweetness too. After the initial shock that it actually does taste like plants it's pretty drinkable. There is a certain medicinal quality to the flavour and I don't think that this is as widely appealing as most of the other flavours. As the taste is quite strong it’s not really one to drink with a hot meal but as part of a packed lunch or a picnic hamper I think it would go quite well.

After lunch we left the cafe and wondered off to explore more of the BMAG which currently houses most of the Saxon Gold exhibit, a Steve McCurry photo exhibition and lots of other exciting things like Pre-Raphelite paintings. Worth popping in just for the cafe anyway (free entry) if you happen to fancy a break from the chaos of Birmingham city centre and the temptations of the Cyber-Candy store, but be warned you probably will end up having a quick look round.

by @NLi10

Stockholm - Fine Festival Beer [By Spectre] (IKEA)

I must admit I do enjoy a trip to IKEA. It has a wide variation of products with tables, cupboards, sofa-beds, chairs, rugs and... okay, okay... you got me, I'm lying, it's for the meatballs! Those sauce covered meaty balls of love are simply to die for. I always have to have the large portion, with sauce, jam and chips to dip. The second best part is leaving IKEA. I know that sounds cruel, but the shop is a winding maze of stuff that doesn't quite fit together properly and you'd either never want, never make, never be able to make or wouldn't have a place in the house to put it in. After piling a flat packed super heavy desk and a wardrobe on a trolley and muddling through the self checkout we came across my third favourite part - the food shop. I always like to pick up a few beers there and noticed this nice little can of Swedish brew. Fine Festival Beer sounded like a treat. The beer is from the Krönleins Brewery, which was founded in 1836 by Anders Julius Appeltofft and was taken over by Anders Krönlein in 1920. It has been a family business ever since and has famous exports such as Three Hearts beer. On opening the 330ml can I poured the golden liquid into a glass and took a good swig. This lager has a sweet taste to start with, which is light on the taste buds, moving to a refreshing bite and bitter aftertaste on the back of the tongue. You can taste the strength in the beer, but it's pleasurable to drink and at 5.3% volume, one after another could creep up on you pretty quickly. You revel in the beer as you drink it; it's not too bubbly like some lagers and you just want more and more. I can certainly understand why the Swedish would want to celebrate festivals with this beer and I instantly regretted buying just the one. Next time I go to IKEA for meatballs and try to avoid getting lost in the maze of miscellanea, I'll definitely have to pick up some more of these cans.

By Spectre

Vintage Buttons (Hotel Chocolat)

When someone says chocolate buttons it is hard to picture anything but the plainest looking chocolate discs. Chocolate buttons are not usually about their design, they are just about easy to eat chocolate pieces.
Hotel Chocolate have decided to think outside the box with their chocolate buttons and have done things a little differently. They have actually researched the appearance of classic clothing buttons from the 1700s onwards, and moulded milk chocolate into the classic shapes. I think it is impossible not to smile when you open the box and see these diverse and beautiful chunky choccies. The level of detail on each one is impressive, and all are different.
The chocolate itself is firm, but gives pleasingly when bitten. The flavour is sweet with a lovely easy going creamy taste. There is plenty of cocoa and the rich chocolate flavours just melt on the tongue. It is obviously a good quality chocolate, but it is the clever idea behind the product that would make these the perfect gift, or an indulgent treat.

Chocolate Swerves [Pretzels] (The Big Yum: www.TheBigYum.com)

This is a straightforward idea for a product, but one that really caught my eye, take a pretzel and add chocolate. I am a firm believer in the concept of certain savoury flavours working well with chocolate. I honestly cannot believe that we in the UK don’t have many (or indeed any?) chocolate and peanut butter bars, for example.
Consequently the idea of combining savoury salty pretzels with chocolate sounded like genius to me. These Chocolate Swerves come in a large sharing bag, and each pretzel is prettily decorated with a striped milk and white chocolate, and they do look very attractive. The chocolate is mainly milky and sweet but it does the job. The pretzels underneath have a lovely crunch and add a decent hit of saltiness and biscuit. The combination of these two main ingredients just works wonderfully well. The sweet and salt make a ridiculously moreish combination, and you suddenly realise that huge sharing bag just isn’t quite big enough!
This product may consist of a simple idea, but it is one that has been beautifully executed. Well worth seeking out, and I hope to see some major stockists appearing for them very soon.

Magnum - Temptation Chocolate (Ocado) [By @NLI10]

I was awoken today by the sound of heavy rain - signalling that summer in the UK is well and truly on its way out. I had a lovely day at a local festival on Friday in the sun, but the weather ahead seems grey and gloomy.
So what better time to review ice-creams! While I was in London there were lots of adverts on the tube system for Walls Ice-creams new Magnum. As this is already their premium range and this was billed as a premium addition I thought that it would be a lovely holiday treat. I completely failed to find any though - none of the tourist shops or the Tesco Metro had any in stock.
On returning I happened to spot these on my final free Ocado delivery and added them to the basket. On arrival the packaging and experience is far more like the unboxing of a new iPod than having a quick snack. There are three individual silver boxes in the thick crisp cellophane outer and each of these is individually sealed so that the box springs open. Inside the little reflective box is an infinity shaped ice-cream on its own small protective raft. Despite online shopping for these none were even cracked upon arrival.
The bar itself is really 3D. The shape is not flat on the two main sides and is quite an unusual thing to behold. Once you bite into the slightly thicker than usual, rich dark chocolate the ice-cream inside is full of other things. There are milk, dark, and white chocolate pieces, a layer of thin cake running down the centre which seems to be infused with something and to top it all off a rich chocolate ice-cream holds it all together. And if anyone from Walls is reading I’d love a deluxe white choc version with berries in for next year please.
Like the Gu range this is a restaurant quality desert, and serving this little sarcophagus of joy at a dinner party would see you being compared with Heston Blumenthal's crazy dinners. Unlike most cold deserts I can see me secretly hiding a box of these in the freezer and getting them out in December for my fiance and I to eat in front of a roaring fire.

By @NLi10