Tyrrells: Red, White and Blue Crisps [@Tyrrells] [By @Cinabar]

As we are in the middle of a lovely long Jubilee weekend, I couldn’t resist giving these rather special crisps from Tyrrells a try. The flavour may be ready salted, but it is the potatoes that make this bag so special, have you ever seen anything so pretty? There are no artificial colours, but the potatoes are a rather British red, white and blue. I just love the idea, and they are so attractive that they need pouring out to be fully appreciated.
The crisps tasted amazing too. The white ones tasted and looked like regular ready salted crisps, with a very traditional rich potato flavour. The blue crisps are deep in colour almost navy blue. These blue ones have a nice woody, almost earthy tone. They are by no means as strong as beetroot, but they are certainly distinct and have a similar but mild taste. The red ones are the brightest in the bag and look amazing. Their flavour was actually a little sweet, which worked nicely with the salt.
These crisps have a fab British touch, but also let you appreciate the different varieties of potato that are available, but seem to be a bit forgotten. These are well worth a purchase as it was nice to be able to pick out the different tastes of the potatoes, and really appreciate a thoroughly British product!

By Cinabar

Jubilee Delights & Penguin Musings [By @NLi10]

The above is pretty much what the UK's stores look like this week. Same products, new flag based packaging. Our Queen has been doing her job for 60 years, and shows no signs of wanting to stop - which is pretty impressive as your average person complains that the retirement age should be 60 - and she is 86. This does call for a nice party, but it's hard to combine traditional English values with new product launches so the bunting manufacturers and the box designers have been busier than the R&D people.

The above were very nice mini Victoria Sponges actually, not perfect as it's not fresh cream, but correctly using Raspberry and not over sugaring the mixture. Good call Mr. Kipling - I'm growing to like the direction you are taking with the new recipes.

I had a quick look around to see exactly what products have been floating around since the original coronation that I already wanted to talk about and realised that McVitties Penguin was born in 1932, predating even United Biscuits themselves by 14 years according to the Wikipedia (which was when the inventor of the Penguin and McVitties joined forces). I bought some Penguins a few months back to see if they had changed much since they were the only chocolate bar my Grandparents used to buy for us some 20 years ago. They have not - but I have.

(pic source)

Long gone are the days when I'd P-P-P-Pick up a penguin (the old advert slogans are still the best), and now I drift to Oreos and things with 'new' on the box. The interesting thing is - a Penguin is essentially a milk-chocolate Oreo covered in more milk-chocolate. Is my love for Oreos just a rekindling of my love for the classic Penguin, but in a darker biscuit? Heck - why haven't McVitties released a upgraded Gentoo Penguin with a higher cocoa content and maybe even dark chocolate? A quick google search reveals nothing similar to this.

In Australia they have the Tim-Tam which is essentially a Penguin for warmer climes, and it's possible they have gotten more experimental with that. In the 80 years of Penguin someone must have spotted the link to the Oreo and tried the switch - surely!

So a happy Jubilee to all Brits in the UK and beyond, enjoy the new snacks that we keep finding, but don't forget those that have been around for the 60 years that the Queen has.

By NLi10

Purina Challenge Update

As part of the Insiders free sample site (sign up here) I got some cat food & fed it to my cats for three weeks as instructed. I ran out half way through and had to go buy more so got the more suitable version for Seniors and the Natural Balance version too (it was on offer).

The Purina challenge basically says that after 3 weeks your cats will be improved. They do seem to be permanently hungry due to the small portions, but according to Wii Fit the two that I could catch at the time have both gained weight!

Jubilee Stout (Westmorland Service Station) [By @SpectreUK]

The Kirkby Lonsdale Brewery was founded by four local ale drinkers in 2009. The name of this dark brown, almost black stout came from the Jubilee Field, which is next to Devil’s Bridge (pictured on the front of the bottle), in the Lake District. The field was given to the public to commemorate the Queen’s coronation in 1953, along with a couple of wrought iron gates made by a local blacksmith.

On opening the bottle there was a heavy malt and chocolate smell mixed with a hint of liquorice, all of which reminded me of black treacle. On tasting there was a deep bitter, yet surprisingly smooth malt flavour that was luxuriously balanced with chocolate, followed by mid-tones of roasted barley and finished by a bitter sweet liquorice flavour. The aftertaste consisted of dark chocolate mixed with bitter malt balanced by the hint of liquorice. The sheer lavishness of this muscular stout is perfect for toasting in the Jubilee, but don’t forget a good wedge of chocolate, some suitable bunting, good company and just a little flag waving. Happy Jubilee to everyone and especially to the Queen. ;-)

By Spectre

Cadbury Popcorn (WH Smiths) [@CadburyUK] [By @Cinabar]

Not so long ago my dad went to Germany and bought back a fantastic bar of chocolate called Milka popcorn, and I will be blogging about it shortly. I did google Milka Popcorn, and although my dad bought me back a bar, the images that came back were all of Milka coated popcorn in a bag. I thought the bag of Milka popcorn looked excellent too and wondered if it would be available over here at any point. Shortly after that this Cadbury version appeared on the shelves, they must have read my mind!
I found this bag sitting in a confusing section of WH Smith marked as “Any two bags for £4”. Although there were M&Ms packs etc seemingly in the offer, I was told by the assistant that I could have any two Nestle products or any two Cadbury ones in the offer, but couldn’t cross the brands, despite the sign saying “any”. :-S
That aside I decided to just buy the popcorn, and tucked in once I got home. Inside the bag I was impressed buy how big the chunks of popcorn were, each with a healthy helping of Cadbury milk chocolate making them quite chunky looking. The popcorn within them is also toffee coated making them lovely and extra sweet. The popcorn is rather light and has a gentle crispy crunch. The chocolate is milky and sweet and the whole combination works wonderfully. I loved the mix of textures, and the sweet tastes, they are seriously moreish though. This is the ultimate film watching snack, but I warn you, you won’t want to share!

By Cinabar