Godiva Blood Orange Dark Chocolate (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I do really like Godiva chocolate but it is a brand I associate mostly with being a gift and I quite often forget they do quite a bit for the impulse buy too. I found this Godiva Blood Orange Dark Chocolate bar in Waitrose and just fancied something a bit different, for myself. The tasting notes on the bar describe one of the stages as ‘a crunch of orange’, which sounded curious! ORanges do not normally crunch and if they do you should eat something else! :-D
I unwrapped the bar and it is quite dark in colour, the aroma is rick and fruity. I tried a pieces and was very impressed with the flavour. The dark chocolate is quite full on, rich and and quite intense. The orange does balance it out perfectly it is sweet, and so very zesty that it brought balance to the bar. It was a magic combination. The flavour was packed into blood orange crystals which is where the curious crunch come from, either way I was sold.

Oggs Victoria Sponge Cakes (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

It was Spectre’s birthday so as a treat I wanted to order his favourite cake from the supermarket, Victoria Sponge. I had a look and the only thing that wasn’t out of stock was this box of individual cakes. That seemed like it would work for us so I added them to the order.
The box arrived and my first thought was how much smaller they were than I thought they would be, this is the problem with internet shopping you can't judge it like you would in the shop. This was meant as a birthday treat so I was hoping for something a bit naughtier.
We shared them out the Oggs Victoria Sponge Cakes, and had one small cake each. The cake sponge was moist and soft, the buttercream was sweet and nicely textured. The jam inside was pleasingly fruity. All together they made a nice Victoria sponge treat. My only negative comment was that I would have liked more jam, the fruity taste adds contrast and I would have liked more fruit. Other than that I enjoyed the Oggs Victoria Sponge Cakes very much, they made a lovely birthday treat. It was only after uploading the picture of the box that I realised they were vegan! Now that is impressive, nobody noticed! :-)

Blue Dragon - Thai Red Curry Kit #Vegan (by @NLi10)

Authentic Thai food can be a pain to find - especially if you want it to be veggie - so meal kits are great.  Where as the jar sauce contains the fishy bits, the kits let you decide to add in the nam pla yourself.

This is one we've had waiting around to be used.

I figure it's for two as children are not the best at spicy food!

Essentially you pop the paste on your meat/quorn and then once that's all coated you put the coconut milk in and simmer away.  We only put one of the three chillies in.

Then after I took out my partners portion I put the other two in just mine - yum!

With the sticky rice that i got in a sack it made a nice little meal.  I decided not to put the extra water in at the end to make it authentically sloppy (there are a few other suggestions on the sleeve too) but it was a great, quick meal for two!

Will buy again - we tend to alternate between the colours for variety.

Carullo Especial Beer (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

I was trying to find out where this Carullo Especial was produced and stumbled over a few reviews of this lager, which seems to have been brewed in the Netherlands. The reviews were a little scathing or at least the drinkers seemed to believe that nothing Especial is happening with this lager. Oh well, I've decided to write a review about this 4.8% volume, Carullo Especial, so here goes…

I must admit I've written quite a few reviews about beers from all over the place, but I can't for the life of me remember writing or even drinking a beer from The Netherlands. There was a lot of red on this bottle, which I suppose was 'red rag to a bull' to some people who drank it (pun intended regarding the bull on the front of the bottle). I did notice on the back of the bottle in tiny writing (give me a minute… I'm getting old and can't see so well) that the calories are 108 per half pint, which is quite high for a regular beer. I'm just glad I've worked out today.

So after the one time revelation of reading other people's reviews of a beer, even the bright red label wasn't particularly inspiring me to open the bottle, but open it I did… There was a deep wheat and yeasty smell to begin with, almost toast like in aroma. This bubbly lager had a deep golden colour with a slightly frothy top. On taste there was that almost toasty flavour of wheat and mixed sweet malts, with a lightly herbal hoppy bitterness closely following. It was pretty inoffensive, and I couldn't quite tell why people seemed to dislike it so much.

I agree with one of the reviews that the frothy top disappeared pretty quickly. I must say that I didn't dislike this beer. I know many people said that it is a mid-range uninteresting less than Especial beer. Personally I kind of wish I'd drunk it with my evening meal though, instead of waiting until later. It would probably go better with a spicy dish though, rather than my salmon meal, so maybe not. I probably wouldn't rush out and get another one, but I certainly wouldn't be miffed if Cinabar bought another one back from the shops… it would probably go well with a good spicy curry!

Heinz Chilli & Lime Salad Dressing Spray (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

I eat more salad in summer than I do in winter, I’d say this season is healthier but I also eat more ice cream when the weather is warm so it balances out. I was having a look at salad dressings and I saw this spray-on dressing and it is low calorie too. My first thought was I had never worried about the calories in a salad dressing before, I mean you only put a splash on and the rest is literally lettuce. Do people loose sleep over calories in salad dressing? Anyway, it is low calorie, it is also in the form of a spray which seems quite innovative.
Opening the pack wasn’t fun, the plastic seal was quite thick and difficult to rip into on the ‘tear’ here strip. It broke, I fought with it, I won but it made me unhappy. I put some lettuce in the bowl and sprayed a few times, and then tossed the salad. I needed a few more sprays than I had anticipated but at 2 calories a spray I guess it doesn’t matter. The dressing was tasty though, the chilli was just a little warm but the zesty lime was fresh and tasty. It does work on a summer salad. I couldn’t decide if I liked the spray element but I’ll happily use up the rest of the dressing on summer salads.