Lemon and Passion Fruit Whips (Marks & Spencers) By @Cinabar

The usual association with chocolate whips is the classic walnut whip, but Marks and Spencer have expanded there selection with a number of flavours. For summer the new variety is Lemon and Passion Fruit Whips, topped with a little dollop of meringue. There are three in the box.

I started by eating the meringue from the top and it was light crunchy and sugary. Then I tucked into the Lemon and Passion Fruit Whip itself. The milk chocolate coating was wonderfully thick, and of Mark and Spencer usual quality. The chocolate has a sumptuous thick melt, and its sweetness is very indulgent. The flavour inside the whip is mainly from the top where the sauce drizzles down. The sauce is is tropical tasting, and the passion fruit mellows out the zingy flavour of the lemon. The chocolate and fruit flavours are lovely and summery, and the whip itself was light and fluffy. The only negative part was that the fruity flavour was at the bottom of the whip, as the sauce hadn’t really made it there. I think I would have liked the fruitiness blended with the whipped filling instead. The fruit flavour was so nice, I wanted more it.
Even as it is I think this is an excellent addition to the range of Whips in Marks and Spencers, and one I’ll be buying again.

Rowntrees Watermelon Ice Lollies (@Morrisons) By @Cinabar

Oh my its been hot, and as much as I’ve been enjoying the weather I do need something to help cool me down. I went to the shop to have look for some new ice lollies and found these interesting looking ones from Rowntrees flavoured with Watermelon. There are four in the box, and I opened one up.

I loved the design of these ice lollies, as they had been made to look like slices of watermelon. They even had a few (chocolate) seeds for decoration. The flavour was just what I needed, it was sweet and so very fruity. The watermelon tasted natural, but sweet and juicy. It was refreshing and a very good representation of the flavour. The chocolate drops didn’t add much to the flavour as there were so few, but were very decorative. They did also taste nice, I just wouldn’t have minded a few more, after all actual watermelon is full of seeds! As I worked my way towards the stick I realised that the green section of the ice lolly at the bottom was a different flavour, and it was strong and zingy apple. This was a nice tangy end to the ice lolly and a great contrasting flavour with the watermelon.
I found these Rowntrees Watermelon Ice Lollies very refreshing and absolutely loved the flavours. They were perfectly refreshing on a warm day, and properly hit the spot. The bonus is that they also only have 61 calories per lolly, so I didn’t even have to feel too guilty about the treat.

GNAW bars of choc with bits (Malt Kiln Farm Shop) by @NLi10

While walking along the Fosse way towards Stretton Under Fosse we decided to visit a local farm shop that has recently been done up.

It’s a lovely area, and the fields of strawberries on the road down to the big barn of the Malt Kiln Farm Shop are really tempting.

The entrance makes people look tiny.

 

And it has a garden centre vibe inside, but is lovely and airy.

Fortunately for me, amongst the local produce is a valid review target. We like GNAW, they crop up in charity shops and make lemon meringue chocolate bars.

 

Here there is a new addition to the range, bars with bits in. One contains raisins so we laugh at that one and move on. Two contain seeds and granola and good things so we can buy those. 

First up we tried the milk chocolate variety

It’s essentially a slab of chocolate with peanuts granola and seeds. None of these really stand out as much as the salt on the peanuts which when you hit it is amazing. Yum. 

 

I think I preferred the dark version overall, while the orange flavour kind of vanished after the first bite the dark choc and seeds was much more my bag. My partner disagreed and preferred milk, but they were both good enough to try again. 

It’s mostly choc though, so not really ideal for a hot day.

 

If I’m honest though, I’d rather have another large bowl of the fresh strawberries we picked up on the day. Yum! 

Sweet Cheeks Cider (@glouc_services Farm Shop, M5) By @SpectreUK

This Cotswold Cider is called Sweet Cheeks and was named to celebrate the great embarrassed British 'Blush'. It's a blend of cider, blackberry and elderberry. It's name and illustration on the label reminded me of a fairly prominent birthmark of mine. Nothing kinky I assure you. I have a strawberry mark or Strawberry Hemangioma on my right cheek. I have been blessed with a fairly rosy left cheek so it's not all that noticeable all the time, just when I'm too cold (which I suppose can be often in the UK) or feeling ill, although I see it every time I look in the mirror. It was a birthmark that returned in my early twenties and hasn't gone away. I've had few jibes about it, other than the "you've got something on your cheek" or such like, probably because I've often been told that I don't suffer fools gladly.

Anyway, back to this Sweet Cheeks cider. I hadn't been expecting this medium cider to be carbonated, so the cheeky fizz on opening the 330ml bottle was a pleasant surprise. It first had a dominant cider apple smell to it, followed closely by a punch of blackberry and a kick of elderberry. This cider smells of summer. It's a hot day today (which makes a change), although I can still see the mark on my cheek as I've been off work with an upset tummy for a few days. I'd recommend checking an outdoor hotel swimming pool for dead bugs before you swim in it. There's serious fruitiness in the first taste of this deep red cider. Straight away there's cider apples bashing against blackberry whilst elderberry seems to nudge in between them trying to break up the fight, with a tussle of these flavours right through to the aftertaste. Big on flavour and long on refreshment, this 4% volume Sweet Cheeks cider could certainly make anyone blush on both cheeks at the same time, or one after the other…

In art college we were taught to draw face portraits symmetrically, whereas that's often not the case. It just reminds me that it's okay to be different. We are all different in such a variety of ways, whether it may be by skin, size, abilities, learning or beliefs. We are often all just trying to get along with the everyday. We all just have to work out a way to respect each other for that.

Teoni's Marshmallow Cookies (@glouc_services) By@Cinabar

I think some of the most visually interesting cookies I saw at the farm shop that is on the unlikely place of the M5 and disguised as Gloucester Services, were these Marshmallow Cookies by a Devon company called Teonis. They looked really interesting because each one of them consists of a thick chunky cookie, with a sunken middle and a melted marshmallow on top. The biscuits are big too, and looked like a proper treat.
The flavour was sweet and wonderfully oaty with a good hit of sweet golden syrup. I found myself really enjoying the flavours. The oats gave them a lovely wholesome taste. The marshmallow meant the the thinner middle section was quite sticky, and although visually it made the biscuits look intriguing, I’m not sure it added that much else. The marshmallow flavour didn’t come through that much and the stickiness wasn’t the best representation of what would have been a big fluffy mallow. As much as I like marshmallows, this made me want to try Teonis plain cookies.
One important thing though, these biscuits are perfect for dunking, they are thick and chunky and hold together really well. They also absorbed my coffee well, and the flavours worked perfectly together. Now all I need to do is work out where I can buy this brand in the Midlands.