New Jammie Dodgers - Jammie Bakes (Sainsburys) [By @Cinabar]

New Jammie Dodgers normally come in the form of a new flavour, but they stick to their set format. Two layers of biscuit, one with a heart on top showing off the jammy centre. These new ones however are fully enclosed, but do have a raspberry jam filled centre, even if there is no heart design.

I opened up the Jammy Dodger Bakes packet and had a look at the biscuits within. First thing that I noticed was that the biscuits were smaller than expected, isn’t that always the way. They are about the size of regular Jammy Dodgers to be fair to them, but compared to the pack size they looked small. The outer packaging is spaced out because of the large plastic tray within which gives the impression the biscuits might be the size of a large cookie, but they are just regular sized biscuits sadly. The outer casing has no heart decal on it, but when broken in half there is a decent sized portion of raspberry jam.
I liked the texture of the biscuits; the outer edges were crunchy and firm and the biscuit became softer towards the middle, where the raspberry jam burst out. The flavour was very similar to that of a Jammy Dodger, but the jam flavour was more intense as there was more of it. The jam was soft and even oozed a little, it wasn’t too firm and sticky. The base biscuit had a nice creamy sweet flavour, and I did really like these biscuits. If truth be told I liked them more than regular Jammy Dodgers, despite the originals being a classic. There was more jam and more interesting textures for me. They have also released an apricot version of these biscuits, which I’m looking forward to trying too.

By Cinabar

Twix Mix Dessert (Ocado) [By @Cinabar]

My sweet tooth means that I do like dessert after dinner, even if it is just a yoghurt. Of course if my yoghurt happens to have a chocolatey twist, so be it. I spotted this Twix dessert in the new section on the Ocado website, and added it to my basket. It is a yoghurt based dessert, but with a Twix theme, so I wasn’t expecting a rich chocolatey sauce inside the pack.
The packaging mentioned that there was however caramel sauce to mix in, but I couldn’t quite picture how that would work. The dessert is in a split pot format too, I assumed the pot to mix in would be liquid based with chocolate and biscuit bits? It sounded a bit messy. Once I peeled the lid off I spotted this was incorrect. That particular section just contained chocolate coated biscuit bits, which left the question as to where was the caramel was. The yoghurt part looked plain white. I gave a little stir and realised that he yoghurt was sitting on a layer of caramel and that this was to be mixed in, which I did, but lightly. I also added the chocolate biscuit bits from the twin pot part.

The dessert had a nice mix of textures, and certainly had a good hint of Twix about it, but it did stay firmly on the side of yoghurt with that being the main flavour. I liked the added chocolate and soft crunch from the biscuit, and the caramel added a nice sweetness to the over all flavour.
It isn’t quite a healthy yoghurt, but it isn’t as rich as some of the purely chocolate based desserts I’ve had in the past, so I think it had a nice balance and I’m looking forward to trying the Mars Mix variety also released.

By Cinabar

Vita Coco - Coconut oil - for cooking or beauty! [@NLi10] #SwearByIt

I've been on the Vita Coco mailing list for some time now, with varying results. This time, instead of a drink they sent a tub of coconut oil! 

This solid, lard-like mass came in a lovely box.

And while it was essentially flakey white lovely smelling stuff it vanishes with a little heating.

And although the bacon I tried it with was quite water saturated it still fried well.

And I think I got distracted and over crisped it! It worked out lovely with the green noodles and a few left over tomatoes. The bacon did indeed have a coconut flavour to it and the kitchen smelt lovely afterwards.

I also did a quorn and Thai curry powder stir fry - here you can see the raw pot too.

The quorn adsorbed the flavour better than the bacon and gave a lovely background flavour to the meal. Can't wait to try this with lime and spices!

I also tried the beauty treatment of letting it melt in my hand and putting it on my face. This made me very shiny and reflective, but I think also well moisturised. I'm not sure it's something suitable to do Just before heading out, but maybe as part of a longer treatment. And a time when you won't be touching your face much.

Overall I'm pleasantly surprised with this product. While I think it's not a great beauty treatment, in theory it is possible. But as a veg oil alternative for certain styles of cooking I'm impressed.

Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles Berries & Cream (Ocado) [By @SpectreUK]

These half fruit flavoured half vanilla flavoured Fruit Pastilles come in three varieties; raspberry, blackberry and strawberry with half each split with vanilla "cream" flavour. It's no secret that I love Fruit Pastilles, but the problem is I hate fruit and cream puddings. Rowntrees haven't let me down before, but I have to admit I was pretty worried with these sweets. On opening the bag there was red and white sweets and there was black and white sweets. So I was hoping I'd be able to tell the difference in the taste. First up was the raspberry flavour, which was strong in vanilla until the end just before swallowing there was a fruity burst of raspberry. Blackberry flavour was the strongest flavour, sweet and very nice indeed. Strawberry flavour was the most subtle of the sweets, with a mix of strawberries and cream. These 'bad boys' (I say in the positive sense) will be seeing a lot of time in the stalls in Wimbledon I'm certain of it. The fruit and cream sellers better watch out. Even if you don't like fruit and cream puddings give these a try. :-)

Information on the bag;
150g bag. Per 7 sweet serving there are 94 calories, 0g of fat and 14.9g of sugar. No artificial flavours, colours or preservative and made with fruit juice, but no dairy cream.

By Spectre

New J2O Peach and Apricot Spritz (Cafe Zest) [By @Cinabar]

We stopped for some lunch out at the Cafe Zest in a branch of House of Fraser. As I scanned the usual suspects of cold drinks I spotted this bottle in the refrigerated area. I picked it up and realised it was another new J2O flavour for Spring!
I recently reviewed the new Rose Garden variety and as J20 flavours don’t come out at that often, this bottle surprised me. It is a new range from J20 called Spritz, and a new innovation to the brand is that it is also fizzy!
The lid hissed a little when it was released, and I poured some out. The bubbles weren’t too heavy and the drink had a light fizziness to it. The flavour wasn’t too sweet, it was far calmer than the still juice based J2Os, mild but refreshing. The fruit taste was gentle, but the peach and apricot had a light honeyed taste that was very easy to drink. It was very refreshing and went perfect with our sandwiches out.
When I got home I had a look on the Ocado website and found that the Spritz range is available on their website, not only that but it is available in large sharing bottles! There are two other flavours too, Apple and Watermelon as well as Pear and Raspberry. The Watermelon one in particular sounds rather adventurous and interesting so that is on my next order!
J2O are really going for the new products this year and I can’t wait to try out the other new Spritz flavours. They are going to be perfect for the warm weather and, I’m hoping I’m not jinxing it, barbecue season.

By Cinabar