Harviestoun Schiehallion Beer (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

I don't often write about lagers, but this one is highly vaunted, so I thought I better give it a go! Schiehallion is an idyllic mountain in Scotland. This Harviestoun Brewery lager has taken its name from that mountain, suggesting an intrepid side to this wheat malt and lager malt 'Champagne of Lagers'. Anyone who calls their beer the 'Champagne of Lagers' must be pretty confident that people will like it. I don't actually like Champagne, so I'm glad its not involved in the brewing, however, I know what they mean. It also won the WBA World's Best Pilsner Award in 2008. So that's a bit of a hint there…

On opening this 4.8% volume lager I could smell the wheat malt and the yeastiness almost immediately, with the lager malt at the back of the aroma. On pouring this bright golden Schiehallion I noticed it wasn't as bubbly as lagers often can be. On taste this lager has an initial light citrus crispness with the wheat malt nosing its way through the hoppy bitterness, and the slightly sweeter lager malt coming in towards the aftertaste. This is definitely a fulsome flavoured craft lager and a delight to drink. Rather than one of those belly burping mass-produced lagers I served to many a guzzler when I was a barman way… way back when!

Christmas Spiced Cappuccino (Costa) By @Cinabar

As much as I love a seasonal menu in a coffee shop I am aware they usually arrive loaded with cream and syrup and aren’t the healthiest thing. They are good fuel for Christmas shopping though as everyone needs a treat after that. One of the more easy going sounding drinks from Costa this year is this Christmas Spiced Cappuccino, it doesn’t have cream but it made with seasonal spices and has cinnamon sprinkles on top.bI love cinnamon.
I found this drink easier to have with a savoury sandwich than say the lushness of the Irish Velvet Latte which is more of a dessert drink. Well a dessert in drink format I guess.
The Christmas Spiced Cappuccino has some of my favourite spiced running through it and the tones of cinnamon and nutmeg make it a wonderful warming drink that does taste of Christmas. It still very much tastes of coffee though which is sometimes lost on the more elaborate drinks.
Although there is sweetness with this Costa Christmas Spiced Cappuccino the drink isn’t overly so and I say that as someone who doesn’t take sugar in coffee. The spices enhance it, I love the mix of cinnamon in this drink and found it a wonderful winter warmer. I do think there is a place of cream and syrup but this may well be my drink of choice this season with its fabulous spices. Christmas in a mug.

LoveRaw Butter Cups - Peanut & Hazelnut (By @NLi10)

After the abject disappointment of the Hershey's Halloween offering I decided that I'd invest in some more me peanut consumption.

Here we have a LoveRaw Peanut butter cup - and I say invest because these are £1.99 for two!

It's raw, dark chocolate so it's vegan (and so nice) and the peanuts have nothing nasty added to them.

They look a little dry and unappetising copmared to the pack shot so I'm wondering if these got heated in transport.  But! They taste great and have a real peanut flavour which the Americanised ones just can't come close to.  And these are satisfying to eat - you don't feel like you need a 2nd right away - well... 

We did have a 2nd right away as we cut them in half!  Again this didn't really travel well - a little more card to protect them may be necessary.

The hazelnut one was basically a Nuttella cup and given the choice the one I'd gravitate towards most again.  At £1 per cup it's quite hard to justify as an impulse buy from Holland & Barrett but I'm sure it'll happen occasionally.

Kolibri Cardamom & Chilli (Degusta) By @SpectreUK

Keeping with the theme of trying to warm myself up with food and drink, I thought I'd try this Kolibri Cardamom & Chilli drink. This carbonated spring water drink is blended with Cardamom and Chilli natural extracts, and lemon juice. There is also a fun, or a slightly complex, depending on how you look at it, Kolibri Drops container to tailer your drink with added syrupy sweetness. As you can see from the photo below, you have to use the screw top of the glass bottle to push down on the top of the Kolibri Drops container to release the syrup. Make sure you tip the carbonated blended water from the bottle into a glass first and then tailor it with the amount of Kolibri Drops you want to add. As you may have guessed, I'm an all or nothing kind of person, so I dumped the whole container into my waiting blended spring water filled glass.

I tasted the transparent blended carbonated spring water first before adding the syrup, and it tasted like liquidised curry. Or rather like those weird shaped things that flavour the rice before you add the curry sauce. I have a habit of burying the cardamom pods in the rice by mistake and then biting into them when I least expect it. The intense flavour always catches me and makes my face twist and I always say "Blurrgh!" when it happens.

The transparent blended spring water changed into a rather pleasing golden colour once I had added all of the Kolibri Drops. The added syrupy sweetness changed the flavour markedly to a much sweeter curry type flavour, which was instantly rather refreshing. Being alcohol free and at only 36 calories with all the Kolibri Drops added, this drink would be really ideal to wash down a good curry and popadoms meal. I can see myself routing out another bottle or two to try that out.

Pip's Hot Chocolate Coins (@DegustaboxUK) By @Cinabar

Part of the inspiration for the start of this blog was an at-work quest for a decent hour chocolate, and it has always remained a keen topic for us here at Foodstuff Finds. I actually had started to believe I was super fussy with hot chocolate and have even been known to tip mugs of the stuff away as I didn’t think the drink was worth the calories. I know, proper drama queen. So when I found a selection of these Pip's Hot Chocolate Coins in my latest Degustabox I have to admit I was cautious about being too excited.

My first thought was that they looked too small to flavour a mug of milk but as I took the wrapper of i realised they were actually quite chunky, think the tardis or something. I heated some milk and when it was hot added in the Pip's Hot Chocolate Coin and stirred. It took a little while to start dissolving but did and once it began to then melted and mixed in easily, I gave it a little whisk with a fork too. The drink looked dark enough and I hoped for good flavour too.
When it came to the taste test it passed with flying colours. The flavour of the drink was rich and chocolatey, there was lots of soothing cocoa and just enough sweetness for my tastebuds. It is soothing rich drink which is what I think a hot chocolate should be. I found myself looking forward to the other Coins included in the box and even checking out the other flavours available on their website, to see what they do. Black Forest looks like it will be in my Christmas list!