Kelloggs White Chocolate Coco Pops (Asda) By @Cinabar

Gosh these new Kelloggs White Chocolate Coco Pops have had quite a bit of a marketing push for their launch. I’ve seen them advertised all over the place and was quite excited to finally find them in Asda. Although there have been various Coco Pops cereals out over the years I can’t remember one that isn’t for a milk chocolate based product. They generally change the shape rather than the flavour.
The box actually looks fairly basic because of all the additional white on the packaging, but at least it stands out as something new. The crispies look quite plain too inside the pack, although they do have a white opaque sheen on them. I poured myself a bowl full and added some milk, they crackled a bit and my first though was that they looked and sounded like Kelloggs Rice Crispies.
The taste isn’t quite as exciting as the hype had made me hope. The Kelloggs White Chocolate Coco Pops are tasty, sweet and a little bit creamy. They have a hint of white chocolate about them, but aren’t overly strong in flavour. Don’t get me wrong I did like them and as they have 30% less sugar so I was impressed by that. It is a nice cereal and one for fans of Rice Crispies who might like the extra creamy taste, they are just not quite as revolutionary as I thought they were going to be.

Pride Themed Brownies - Konditor London (by @NLi10)

Pride and inclusion are very important. While no one has come up with a reasonable flag for chronically ill people like myself (the closest is the nautical flag for FoxTrot whose meaning is 'I am disabled, communicate with me') I'm more than happy to see myself included in the rainbow, and represent my LBGTQIA+etc friends where possible.

So if I see a cake shop that is dressed up like this

And selling something tasty that looks like this

I feel obliged to purchase and share with my partner - even though pride month is apparently over we can still be proud of what we have achieved and who we have become

Especially if it involves eating rainbow brownies.  We ate it in our hotel room before going out to a concert, and I liked it although Sam said she found it a little too nutty.  I'd say it was luxury enough to be worth grabbing again.

Shore: Sweet & Smoky Seaweed Puffs (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

I was going to write about a huge bag of pork puffs I have in the Foodstufffinds cupboard today, however, I've been for a checkup at the Dentist and I'm having my rest day from the gym instead, so Seaweed puffs it is. Don't worry, I'll get back to the huge bag of pork puffs soon.

These Shore: Sweet & Smoky Seaweed Puffs are made by the Scottish Seaweed Co. They are marketed at being "under 100 calories", which is ideal for a rest day from exercise. Apparently a good handful of seaweed from the shore around Wick, in Scotland, is used to make a bag of these Seaweed puffs. I don't envy whoever has to pick the seaweed. I visited Wick for the day when I was a small child and all I remember was howling wind and sheets of rain. I'm sure the weather is nice there on other days though…

On opening the packet there was the initial smell of maize puffs with sweetness from the molasses in the ingredients, as well as a little seaweed aroma, with smokiness at the very end. That smell transcends to the taste. There is more sweetness to these maize puffs to start with, but there is then a heavy hit from the seaweed, which pretty much overpowers everything else. This isn't that bad in itself, but takes away the sweetness replacing it with thoughts of that rainy rugged Wick coastline. A little smokiness pops through the seaweed flavour towards the aftertaste, but is immediately drowned out again by the overpowering slightly salty seaweed.

I kind of like these Seaweed puffs, but would have preferred a little more Sweet & Smoky flavour. In fact the more I ate of these Sweet & Smoky Seaweed Puffs the less I liked them and couldn't finish the packet in the end, which is almost unheard of for me.

It was then I realised that the pork puffs were almost on date, so I tried them. They were too much "puff", too much salt, and barely any pork flavour for my liking. So, I didn't finish them either. I blame the dentist…

Information on the packet;
The 22.5g bag has 94.3 calories, with 3.6g of fat, 1.1g of sugar, 5.7g of protein for fixing those tired muscles, and 2.02g of salt. These Seaweed puffs are high in iodine and fibre which helps with your body's "energy yielding metabolism". They have no preservatives, are dairy free, gluten free, with no trans fats, and are Vegan friendly. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Magnum White chocolate and Cookies (Asda) By @Cinabar

It is officially ice cream season. As it is Britain it is still “take your your umbrella and sun glasses” season too, but the weather has at least heated up a little in temperature which means cold treats. I have been exploring the different ice creams available this year and I don’t think I’ve seen this flavour; Magnum White chocolate and Cookies, before. Disappointingly I couldn’t spot a “new” label. Inside the box were 3 Magnum ice cream lollies, and each one consists of white chocolate ice cream rippled with chocolate sauce, this is then coated in white chocolate covered in cookie crumbs.
I do like White Chocolate Magnums, so as a twist on them these ice creams couldn’t go far wrong. The added cookie pieces add some lovely texture to the chocolate and as a fan of texture I found that great. The cookie bits were fairly firm too which was good. I liked the extra chocolate taste from the biscuit too. The ice cream was rippled with chocolate sauce too which again I loved and I found very indulgent. Spectre is a white chocolate purist and found the added cookie pieces a bit of a distraction, nice enough but not necessary in his opinion. I loved this version, but this meant I “had too” buy him a box of plain White Magnums. Any excuse to fill up the freezer with our favourite ice creams.

Kinder Ice Cream Sticks (Asda) By @Cinabar

I used to love milk stick ice lollies when I was a kid, there always seemed to be some in a box in the freezer. When I saw these new Kinder Ice Cream Sticks in Asda I immediately thought of those, and was keen to try the Kinder twist on a classic. I realise that one of the purposes of milk lollies is to encourage kids to drink more milk, but it good for grown ups too. Also each ice cream is only 62 calories so it is a guilt free way to cool down in this weather.
There are 10 Kinder Ice Cream Sticks in the box which are individually wrapped. The ice lollies are part covered in milk chocolate, but it is just a thin layer, on what it a tall thin ice cream stick. I liked the addition of the Kinder chocolate but Spectre thought it wasn’t necessary as it drew away from the flavour he remembered from his childhood. For me adding chocolate to most things is a bonus, so I liked. It also tasted distinctively Kinder like and reminded me of Kinder Egg chocolate. The milk base is sweet and creamy and surprisingly refreshing. It was a nice mini treat after our lunch while enjoying the sunshine and without too much guilt. These are by no means the luxury Magnum end of the ice cream spectrum, but as a low calorie small treat I’m looking forward to eating the rest of these Kinder Ice Cream Sticks.