The Bursting Bauble (Mummy Meagz) #Gifted By @Cinabar

I was very kindly sent The Bursting Bauble by the lovely folks at Mummy Meagz. My post corresponds with my taking down the baubles and finding the last chocolate one, and as Mummy Meagz specialised in Vegan goodies it is also Veganuary. Many people cut back on meat and animal products in January as a sort of a detox after the festivities and indulgence of the previous month. I have to confess I’m not doing this and as the only milk in the house is cow’s milk I have missed the point a little with this Mummy Meagz Vegan Bursting Bauble, I hope they forgive me.

So what we have here is a shell of a chocolate ball filled with marshmallows, the idea is you add hot (vegan substitute) milk the shell melts into it to form a drink and the marshmallows pop to the top. There is nothing more satisfying when it comes to hot chocolate than making this!

After a quick stir the drink mixed up pretty quickly and there were plenty of marshmallows on the top. The flavour was lovely, it was dark but had enough sweetness for balance. I loved making it and it tasted gorgeous too. I hope they sell these with out the Christmas theme because I want another!

Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange Snowman (Asda) By @Cinabar

I’m back to work tomorrow, I chose the Tuesday rather than the Monday as I have a lot of leave owing and I liked the idea of going back to a 4 day week, to ease myself in. It is also the last proper day of Christmas with the decorations needing to come down, so it seemed appropriate that I finish off the last of the Christmas chocolate, and eat this Dairy Milk Orange Snowman. For completeness you understand. We do still have snow in our region, but it is now melting which again is well timed.

Orange chocolate was really a big thing in 2020, it is nice that something was having a good year! These Dairy Milk Orange Snowman consists of a chocolate orange filling, which is sweet and has loads of citrus hit. The coating is Cadbury chocolate and is rich and sweet. This was nice afternoon snack with a coffee, and as I like chocolate and orange I enjoyed it. There was plenty of flavour and comforting chocolate. I hope you all managed to have a good Christmas and New Years and that 2021 is an improvement on last year.

Gunna Drinks - Moscovite (Mint Lemonade) & PinkPunk (Pink Lemonade) - @NLi10

So - we are continuing the theme of social drinks with the remaining two Gunna flavours from the NYE tower of soft drinking (the Green & Steelworks Gunna Cola are here)

After today I'm going to be drinking a lot of Kombucha!

First up we have the Raspberry Lemonade.  Probably the hardest sell for me due to my love of Fentiman's Rose Lemonade.

It looks pinker than my dodgy eco lighting suggests - I need to take more of the pictures during the day!

This has a lovely flavour, more reminiscent of the pink pop of my childhood than the more sophisticated blends, and it really benefits for it. Of the three this is the one I'd soonest buy for me, but frankly there are no bad options here.  Variety pack required!

This is probably the oddest of the three that we tried - it's basically a mocktail mojito.  Very refreshing, but more of a sipping drink or a mixer than a refreshing big gulp.

It's almost crying out for a sprig of fresh mint, and a tall glass with ice, and a summer...

Probably great with Mexican food too.

So - overall Gunna's Facebook post promised that they did familiar drinks with an interesting twist - and I agree.  These were all worth a look and far more exciting than the standard brands.  Although I may not be willing to walk back a full case of these from the high-street I'll Certainly adding these to online delivery orders.

 

Up State Beer - Stewart Brewing (Lidl) By @SpectreUK

Happy New Year, Everyone! :-)

I'm sure we're all hoping that this year will be a brighter, safer and happier year for everyone. I have hope that this will be a year of healing. For the last six weeks or so I have been working hard as the project manager for the technical side of vaccination centres in the NHS. I have an excellent team of people working hard with me, and we've already had our hospital and two general practitioners go live before Christmas. They have been vaccinating hundreds of people from front line staff to vulnerable 80 year olds and overs. In the next few weeks more vaccination centres will go live and we'll be helping to save thousands of lives in the coming months. So busy, busy...

To cheer in the New Year and year of new hope, I have a beer from our Scottish neighbours. This Up State pale ale was produced by Stewart Brewing in Edinburgh. It's brewed with American hops for a citrus bitterness akin to grapefruit, so I'm suspecting Chinook hops are chiefly involved. At 5% in volume there was a bitter citrus aroma on opening the bottle which indeed smelt of grapefruit. I do love grapefruit juice at breakfast time, so I often wonder if this type of pale ale would be a good 'hair of the dog' or 'liquid breakfast', as similar to the traditional liquid lunch.

On taste this deep golden Up State pale ale pounces on my palate from the get go with its strong citrus grapefruit bitterness. This bitterness keeps on giving for much of each lavish mouthful. The sweet malts kick in after a while smoothing and also working well with the grapefruit citrus hoppiness, with both flavours dancing a merry jig into the aftertaste. A moreish treat this Up State pale ale is definitely a winner for any celebration. I'm glad I picked it for this New Year. So may it be a happier year for us all. A year of hope and a year of healing.

Candy Pop Popcorn - Snickers (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

There is not a lot to do on New Years Day at the best of times but in a Tier 4 lockdown there is even less than usual, sadly. Luckily we have TV streaming services and popcorn so we decided to pop (pun intended) on a movie and try out this Snickers Candy Pop Popcorn I picked up online from GB Gifts. I bought this a little while ago with the intention of eating it with a film, so we decided to try out Hamilton for a bit of culture and history and as we can’t get out to the theatre properly at the minute.

 

I started by trying to open the bag of Snickers Candy Pop Popcorn and it didn’t just pull open, I had to use the rip tear on the side which meant opening the popcorn sideways, which worked out ok as it formed a sort of bowl. The popcorn was rather tasty, there was chocolate and caramel and nuts all mixed in making this a very moreish bag. As with many popcorns some pieces had more topping than others and those that had all the ingredients were indulgent and super tasty. Some pieces were a little plainer but it added to the mix and kept it interesting.

I would definitely by this popcorn again, it had good flavours and good textures, I liked the idea of combining chocolate bars with popcorn and hope there are some other combos in the future. Hamilton too was fantastic, I had no idea who Alexander Hamilton was before is started and no idea of his impact on the American Constitution or his eventful life.