Slush Puppie The Original Ice Cream Blue Raspberry (Iceland) By @Cinabar

Slush Puppie has been going a long time, I associate it with fun days out in Summer and having the famous blue drink to cool me down and quench my thirst. This ice cream is based on that famous blue slush drink and is raspberry flavoured. It is a hot day here, so a perfect day to have ice cream for dessert. Anything to try and help us keep cool.

I opened up the tub and scooped some ice cream into a bowl, I got very distracted by the colour, it is very blue. I mean seriously bright blue. Not in a good way, something about it being milk based made the colour worse. I gave it a try anyway and loved the taste, the raspberry flavour is good and was very refreshing. It is sweet and tasty, but not as strong as the drink was. I started to ignore the shocking blue colour and just enjoy the ice cream for the fruity flavour that it was.

When I was finished I caught myself in the mirror, my tongue is bright blue!!! Oh my, there is no forgetting the colour after all!

Too Hot - Drink cooling Jasmine Tea (@NLi10)

Britain is currently Too Hot.  To this end I bought and carried a couple of litres of ice-cold tea for bumbling around the shops (which was silly - should just buy one at a time).  Only one was *new* to me and of interest.

We mostly spent the day in the Custard Factory looking at the cool new market area on Floodgate Street and hanging in Wayland's Forge.  Here I am hiding in the shade and guzzling tea.

It's a relatively simple affair - and I was warned before buying it - there is no sugar in this!

There isn't much of anything - what a swizz!  Well, actually an unsweetened Jasmine tea is just what I fancied.  I'd have preferred a deeper flavour (this is from powder - oops) but it was too grassy for my sister so it's probably just my taste buds.  It was refreshing, icy, watery, fragrant Jasmine tea.  And I felt very refreshed afterwards.

Goose Island IPA and The Welcombe Hotel Stratford-Upon-Avon (@BestWesternGB) By @SpectreUK

We haven't been away on holiday since September 2018. What with my knee recovery after the operation, which was soon after that date, and the pandemic, there just hasn't been opportunity to do so. My Birthday is coming up and every spa hotel seemed to be fully booked. Cinabar tried Secret Escapes and found the Welcombe Hotel, in Stratford, and she booked a two night stay.

 

We had a lovely couple of spa days, and the staff were very welcoming and attentive. On the first night we sat down for a restaurant meal in a classical room in the mansion house. There was a beautiful view outside.

We had a crab and spinach tart to start with, then I had a sirloin steak for my main meal. The food was excellent and the portions were rather filling. I washed my meal down with a Goose Island India Pale Ale.

Goose Island IPA is a six-time medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival. Dry-hopped with Cascade hops, as well as using Pilgrim, Celeia, and Centenniel hops in the brewing. My 5.9% in volume Goose Island IPA had a pleasing herbal and citrus hoppy aroma.

On trying my pint the herbal hops come to the fore first, which were bitter and crisp, with sweet pale malts to follow with a little hops into the aftertaste. Mmm… lovely with my steak meal. I had Cheese and biscuits with a Cockburn port for dessert. I liked this meal so much, I had it both nights.

The full English Breakfasts in the mornings were enough to fill me for breakfast and lunch too. We had a wonderful relaxing couple of days, and we're looking forwards to a return trip there soon.

Reese’s Overload (Co-Op) By @Cinabar

I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, it doesn’t seem that popular here in the UK but our American friends are masters of the flavours. The brand Reese’s do have a few more bars out in the UK than they used to and this is one I haven’t seen before, Reese’s Overload. I spotted it in our local Co-Op while I was doing a top up shop. This takes the winning combination of peanut butter and chocolate and adds a new element of texture, salted pretzel.

Inside the wrapper are two mini bars both coated in milk chocolate. I gave one the taste test and absolutely loved the texture, the pretzel adds crunch making it a very satisfying bar to eat. The salt from the pretzel goes well with the peanut flavour and the addition of some caramel meant the flavour was very much full on. I won’t lie I put portion control aside and ate both pieces in one go. There was chocolate, peanut, caramel, salt and pretzel, there was all the good stuff here, the bar was absolutely divine. I was nice to munch on and so very much full of flavour it totally lived up to its name, Reese’s Overload. Definitely one to pick up again.

This seasons Krispy Kremes - mint choc chip, raspberry ripple & Biscoff (@NLi10)

 Tesco have made it easier to buy some Krispy Kreme for my birthday.

It looks a bit sparse here but I had just taken 12 out.

I got a mixed box so I could try all the new flavours.

Here we have a lovely Dolce Gusto coffee and the new raspberry ripple doughnut 

Filled with amazing jam, one of my colleagues called it her new favourite. Essentially a raspberry and vanilla mix. Excellent 

 

For the more choc minded person we have the mint-choc-chip. A minty topped doughnut filled with choc creme.

Lastly we have the Biscoff - which I think I’ve had before but happy to have again

Crumbled on top and with wafers of white choc it’s very nice

Yum! Probably the least exciting of the trio, but really nice too.