Haagen Dazs Cherry Blossom Ice Cream (Ocado) By @Cinabar

As I bought this Limited Edition Haagen Dazs Cherry Blossom ice cream online I didn’t fully appreciate just how pretty the tub was until it arrived. The tub has been decorated in a pretty pink and floral pattern, making it a shame to have to store it away in the freezer. The design was most appreciated during the 15 minutes it had to warm up before serving; it recommends taking the ice cream out of the freezer for that long prior to serving to let it soften up.

Once open I could see that the ice cream was rippled, and I had a look on the tub to see that it was a cherry blossom flavour ice cream with a cherry ripple. I gave the ice cream a taste test and couldn’t make my mind up about. What I tasted was a very delicate flavour. It was mostly creamy, with a lightly flavoured cherry sauce, if I really concentrated on the flavours I could pick up the gentlest hint of a floral flavour, making up the cherry blossom element. I liked the delicate flavour with the cream but felt this ice cream was very mild and ended up being more a hint of cherry than even a hint of cherry blossom. So a nice refreshing mild ice cream, but I thought it doesn’t do quite was promised on the very pretty tub.

Walkers Max Strong Hot Chicken Wings Crisps (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I think my favourite flavours of crisps are the meaty ones, and in that category chicken tops my list. Obviously I’m well acquainted with Walkers Roast Chicken crisps, but these new ones sounded like they could be a real winner. I adore hot chicken wings and the idea of this flavour on crisps really excited me. Now these are in a new range for Walkers called Max Strong so I was expecting a kick, but the hotness level from the chilli on the back is labelled as medium so I assumed an intense flavour, but reasonable heat.
We shared out the bag of crisps one lunchtime with sandwiches, and some cheese and pickle, which is a favourite lunch to be honest.

The crisps are thick cut and have deep ridges so there is plenty of seasoning and you can see it has gathered in the gaps. I gave one a try, and was impressed by the solid crunch. The flavour of these is really stunning, the chicken taste is almost juicy, the flavour is spot on and wonderfully meaty. The seasoning is quite epic, and the paprika is subtle but the chilli provides a hefty wallop to the tastebuds. My mouth had quite a hit from the flames and I found myself reaching for the cheese and a drink to help dull the burn. I still loved them though, hot spicy chicken, these really were fab crisps. What scares me though is that I bought one other flavour in the range, Jalapeño and Cheese, and those ones are labelled hot, so heaven help me! The medium heat Max Strong Hot Chicken Wings Crisps were quite close to my tolerance levels!

Pepsi tastes different in the Canaries (@NLi10)

We went to Tenerife recently, and went for a wander along one of the many black inhospitable beaches.

We found a nice little cafe that served overpriced bottles of Pepsi with ice and lemon.

I got good value though because the tiny glass made me look like a giant! 

One thing I did notice though was that the Pepsi tasted different, and i just put this down to the ice and lemon.  My partner however noticed the nice little logo on the bottle - this is local Pepsi!

Now I'm sure the Pepsi concentrate is made in a top secret factory in America somewhere, but I'd not appreciated that a small set of islands like the Canaries would have their own regional variation too.

We can prove that it's not exact by looking at the calories.

It's more fattening than English Pepsi? No wonder I put on weight while we were away! (well maybe it was the all you can eat buffets in the hotel).

I wonder if these are just due to the necessities of local production (availability of sugars?) or tuning to local flavours?  When I'm in Spanish countries I live on Aguarius anyway (which is bade by the bad guys - Coke) so don't tend to see the bottles.  Maybe the Tenerife one is purely designed to be used as a mixer?

Something to add to the list of human geography tourism things to look out for in local supermarkets while away.

Pimm’s Cider Cup Summer Fruits (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

I remember I tried the strawberry flavoured Pimm's Cider Cup last year around this time and enjoyed it. I figured I needed another pick-me-up when I watched the weather forecast last night. Snow, sleet and freezing cold rain on the way, as well as storms and dim skies. Lovely. This 4% volume Pimm's Cider Cup Summer Fruits should brighten me up a bit, if not the gloom outside…. Although they shut the outdoor pool at the gym today, because it was having problems with its temperature. I've seen TV programmes with hardy folk swimming in freezing lakes before now, and my gym is worried about a degree or two below legislation…

… Anyway, on opening the bottle there was a pleasant fizz from the cider, with a cool smell of cider apples and mixed fruit berries. From the front of the bottle it looked like a mix of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. This cider had a deep red colour on pouring, and a rather cheerful fizz. On taste the flavour explosion of Pimm's mixed with an amalgamation of berries almost completely overshadowed the apple cider. This was strange as cider was quite prominent in the smell. If you're looking for a cider drink mixed with Pimm's and summer fruits, you may be mistaken. This is Pimm's mixed with summer fruits with cider as an afterthought. It's no bad thing, I suppose, but I prefer a little cider with my fruit rather than the other way around!

New Cadbury Freddo Biscuits (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar

If you are buying a Cadbury Freddo product, I’m guessing it is because of the cuteness of Freddo the frog. The brand Freddo has quite a few edible chocolate goodies, but I’m not really sure where the frog originated, was there are a cartoon at some point I missed? Anyway for me it was the obvious “new” label that encouraged me to purchase them, from there they jumped into my basket.
To be honest these Cadbury Freddo Biscuits are quite plain in terms of newness, they consist of a neutral biscuit coated in chocolate. The flavour is fine, the biscuit has a nice creamy edge, but with a hint of wheat flavour. The chocolate if fine, as you would expect from Cadbury, and adds a lovely cocoa sweetness. The texture was good too, they are fairly firm and have a nice crispy crunch. They hold together well for dunking. The biscuits are difficult not to like, but I was struggling to love them, because they didn’t add anything new for me. If I’m honest I wasn’t particularly keen on the Freddo element either, I didn’t think this particular version of him embedded into the biscuit showed his best side, the picture on the back looked like a cross between Freddo and Jabba the Hut. Oh well, tasty enough biscuits all the same.