Luscombe Hot Ginger Beer (Shugborough Hall) By @SpectreUK

I had a few days free before I started my new job this week. We had a couple of days out here and there. One of the places we went to was Shugborough Hall. Late afternoon we stopped wandering around the house and grounds for a short time for a quite drink and a piece of gooey flapjack. I tried this Luscombe Hot Ginger Beer to wash my flapjack down with.

This Luscombe Hot Ginger Beer had quite a ginger buzz on opening the bottle. It also had quite a bit of ginger sediment in the bottle. My initial reaction on trying it was; "Yep that is hot. Woooo. That is very hot. That is nose tingly hot. It burns in the back of my throat." Peruvian root ginger with Sicillian lemon has an oddly pleasant bitter and sweet citrus and yet fiery ginger spicy hot flavour.

There is a taste of lemon at the back of the flavour just trying to poke through the firewall of ginger spice. So to start with its hot ginger, then it turns into a little lemon with hot ginger, and the lemon is bitter with a touch of sweetness into the aftertaste. This Luscombe Hot Ginger Beer is a spicy hot bitter drink. There was even ginger sediment at the bottom of the glass. Having said that, I rather enjoyed drinking it and it also perfectly complemented my flapjack.

My new job as a project manager started today. After some unfortunate wrangling with an unhappy laptop, I am now able to work at home for the duration. It's just a three month contract, but I'll be working on the vaccinations. I worked on the vaccinations late last year and early this year helping to set up seven vaccination centres, including a hospital and two max vaccination centres converting them from leisure centres. I'm not sure what I'll be doing here, but I'm hoping it will be helping the people of the local community to protect themselves, their loved ones, and also get back to some sort of normality. It's a little like fighting a war against contagion on an ever changing battlefield. It was last time anyway, and I'm happy to stand with those who have been working so hard to continue the fight.

Cadbury Bournville Brunch Bar (Iceland) By @Cinabar

I think my love of cereal bars came from daily commuting and the fact they were quick and easy to add to my lunch box for a sweet treat with a coffee at work. Although I mostly work from home these days I still buy cereal bars and Cadbury Brunch ones are a favourite. I like chocolate, I’m not trying to claim they are healthy, I go for the chocolate content as an influencing factor! I was quite excited to see a Bournville edition of my favourite bars in Iceland and bought a box to try. Bournville is Cadbury’s dark chocolate and although the cocoa percentage isn’t as high as some posh dark chocolate bars, for my sweet tooth it offers a boost of extra cocoa without loosing the much loved sweetness.

The bar looks similar to the regular Brunch Bar but the chocolate chips are dark as is the coating. I enjoyed the taste and texture of the bar, chewy but not sticky and with enough cereals to keep it interesting to eat. There is a dash of honey and the flavour with the dark chocolate was lovely. It was a little bit richer and the Bournville chocolate worked well. I hope these aren’t a Limited Edition because these will be a regular purchase for me in the future.

Maltesers Marshmallow Flavour (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

These Maltesers Marshmallow Flavour chocolates are an import from Australia. I picked them up because they looked so different and products aren’t usually flavoured with marshmallow. We get tons of orange and mint, but marshmallow is a rarity. Then I started to think about it and I realised that products aren’t usually flavoured with marshmallow because the thing that makes marshmallow fun to eat is the texture not the flavour. Also isn’t the flavour just vanilla? It is at least a mild flavour at best.

I opened the bag and there was a slight change to the aroma from the marshmallow flavour, something sweeter and candy like but it was subtle. Inside the Marshmallow Maltesers also looked exactly like regular ones, the ball of malt and a chocolate coating but nothing else new.

The flavour was a regular Maltesers but with a hint more sugar and a hint more vanilla. These are tasty because all the base flavour are there with the malt and the chocolate but they are just not that different to the regular product. They are a cute idea, they sound fun but in reality just aren’t that special. Tasty yes, but not worth rushing out for.

Cornwall Holiday Treats - Orange Shortbread & Eton Mess Waffle Pot (@NLi10)

Holiday time is here again, and in the special Gloucester services on the way down to Cornwall I had a giant Orange shortbread and a lovely Gusto Cola.

Look at all the lovely botanical sediments!

We have more of these at home but i've not got around to writing about them.

We also picked up a HUGE Birthday cake for later today (shhh).

While out walking earlier in Wadebridge we fancied a snack so I went big and ordered the Eton Mess Waffle

Super luxurious portion of my 5 a day - and interestingly Gelato but I loved it!

 

Fruit Lupe Beer (Brass Castle Brewery) By @SpectreUK

This Fruit Lupe beer is another offering from my box of beers produced by Brass Castle Brewery. Fruit Lupe is a Sabro and coconut pale ale, and has an ABV at 4.8% in volume. Apparently Sabro is an aroma hop with a complex fruity and citrus flavour. It certainly sounds complex as it's known for its "tangerine, coconut, tropical fruit, and stone fruit aromas, with hints of cedar, mint, and cream." Wow that does sound complex, and yet by it's very complexity it does worry me a little…

I could smell the hops and tropical fruits, but also spiciness on opening the can. Fruit Lupe is a straw gold colour. There was an unusual aroma from the Sabro hops, which has fruitiness, and also spiciness. There was a woody aroma that gave this beer a little bit of a Christmas feel, a bit like Christmas pudding. There was also orange fruitiness and tropical fruits, but I was just not sure on the coconut previously described in the aroma.

Fruit Lupe Is a bizarre tasting beer in a way, I tasted the sheer bitterness from the hops first, then fruitiness with an almost peppery spice to follow, and then the citrus tropical fruits behind that. There was a slight creaminess from the coconut after the hops, which mixed with the pale malts giving this beer a little sweetness, and there was also a weird nuttiness in the aftertaste. This beer felt like something you may find in a Rock bar, but I was just not sure that I liked it, and I don't reckon I'd have another…