After Eight Mojito & Mint Edition (Tesco) By @cinabar

This years latest After Eight edition sounds like a fun twist on the original, here we have After Eight Mojito and Mint variety. This is quite an adventurous choice for a flavour but one that does sound like it should go well with peppermint. The box is a fab lime green colour and looked bright and fun. Inside there was a cute message about it being time for happy hour which was quite sweet.

In appearance the chocolates and the sleeves they are in look identical to regular After Eights, the filling is white, the chocolate dark and the envelopes had the usual logo on them. The flavour is very fresh and works a treat, it was different but rather like a mojito. There is still plenty of peppermint but there is also a taste of herby fresh garden mint and a bit of acidic lime that makes these seem very grown and clever. They are a complex flavour but they are well balanced and work well with the dark chocolate. If they keep just one of the many flavours we’ve tried as a permanent side line I’d pick these After Eight Mojito & Mint Edition (so far).

Buttermilk Artisan Confectionary, Padstow - Orange Chocolate Buttons, but Vegan @Buttermilk_uk (@NLi10)

Occasionally you see a new brand in a shop window and have to wander over and take a look.  At first glance this was just one of the many (many) fudge shops here selling their wares - but with a few pre sealed bags to try.

Except Buttermilk is the shops - own brand - confectionary.  They've been here so long, and had so many fans that they can justify some neat packaging and flashy pictures.  It'd be rude not to queue and go in!

I chose the chocolate orange flavour - which is my default for this sort of things.  And it's pretty darn 'free' of the modern contaminants that creep into our sweets.  

There are even more on the back - and there is a button on top for proof of it's Mega status.

Recyclable, vegan, no gluten or palm oil - this is the kind of thing that should eventually show up in all the health food shops (and probably does locally).

I mainly did the pack shot like this to show you that they are all in tact - these haven't been bashed around as they've not travelled far (well until we drove them back to the Midlands I guess). 

This isn't the full portion by the way - this was one of those occasions where the dairy-free chocolate was passed round twice and people took seconds.  This is 100g the good stuff!

The flavour was quite sparkling for an orange chocolate - there is some texture going on here to prevent the goo that often comes from removing the dairy.  And while these didn't naturally melt in the same way that traditional chocolate would I didn't find the experience a negative one.  I'd say that the strong flavours caused me to stop at two on my first try - not the textures.

All in all a win - and something that I'll be looking for locally in the health-focused snack shops (or buying online) but that apparently is stocked in Tesco!  A great little shop, and a fab brand that deserves to go far.

And it looks like they do Advent Calendars...

Jellani Baobab & Black Tea Beer (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

This Jellani is a "superfruit infused beverage" brewed in England with an "Essence of Africa". I don't often repeat what it says on the bottle, but Baobab and black tea beer sounds quite interesting. I have no idea what it's going to taste like. I've never tried Baobab before. I like black tea, but usually hot with a little milk.

I guess it depends on how busy I am at work. I've sat right next to a full hot cup of tea before now and been so busy it's gone cold whilst I've been working. I guess a lot of people are like that. I've been pretty busy at work this week in my new job. I've been pretty happy actually. I'm slowly learning the ropes and filling out bulk orders to make sure vaccine sites get their required vaccines for second jabs and boosters for older folk.

This Jellani is very low in alcohol at 0.5% in volume. It's also low in calories at 20 calories per 100ml, so 66 calories for the 330ml bottle. So I get more pudding tonight! This very pale gold almost transparent beer has a lightly fruity malted barley aroma with a little herbal hops. It's bizarre as it doesn't taste of much. Jellani is a weak beer connoisseur's beverage.

The excitable head disappeared as quick as the taste arrives and goes again. I can see why it's so low in alcohol by volume and so low in calories. It's difficult to pinpoint a flavour. There is a little fruitiness, a little bitterness of hops and a little sweet malted barley, but all of that seems mainly in the aftertaste. And there's not much aftertaste either. I once knew a person I worked with that would only have the teabag dipped for a couple of seconds in freshly boiled water and then had lots of milk! Jellani is like that too… It's as if someone wafted the ingredients quite far away from a big barrel of water. This one is not for me, I'm afraid.

Cadbury Dairy Milk - Birthday Cake Marvellous Creation (GB Gifts) By @Cinabar

This is another import bar, I can’t help buying them, I like limited edition chocolate and the grass is always greener. This one is from Australia and is in their equivalent of the Marvellous Creation range, presenting Cadbury Dairy Milk Birthday Cake. Now it isn’t my birthday for a fair few months but I don’t care, I wanted to try this fun sounding bar. The bar looks very much like the funky shape of the UK Marvellous Creations bars, with the chunks in fun shapes, although this is never easy to share out but we did our best. I turned the bar over and you could see all the goodies packed in, this bar is flavoured with added marshmallows, biscuits, and 100s&1000s.

I really liked this chocolate, it is creamy Dairy Milk with loads of texture thrown in. There is crunchy bits from the biscuit and 100s&1000s and there are squishy bits from the marshmallow. It was undeniable fun to eat and it made me smile. Significantly though what it didn’t do was make think of Birthday Cake. The bar is called Cadbury Dairy Milk Birthday Cake Marvellous Creation and I didn’t get. Where was the rich vanilla cake batter flavour? Where are the bits of sponge? There wasn’t even any frosting. So yes, the bar is good even though it doesn’t quite bring back the flavours it promises.

Lotus Biscoff Vanilla Creme Sandwiches - Poundland (@NLi10)

Disclaimer: I don't really get Biscoff.  Sure - they are the in thing right now, but they were always the little biscuit with coffee in my day.  That little biscuit got bigger and then people started using it to make cheesecake bases and all kind of things. 

But once you do that - it's just a weak gingerbread.  The unique bit was the small crunchy burst of flavour with your coffee. Like I said - I don't get it.

Here we have an Oreo style arrangement with two of the larger Biscoff biscuits with a lovely vanilla creme in the middle.  Its a good idea as ginger and creme goes well - Fox's Ginger Crunch has been doing it for years.  

And they look pretty good too.

And they taste great too - that light ginger flavour and the creme to balance it out.  Much softer biscuit than the traditional version too.

Maybe the popularity is due to them being a little toned down from the traditional ginger biscuits, maybe the crumb was a little softer and people liked that?  Maybe it's just a cool brand that we associate with expensive coffee and it makes it feel more luxurious at home?

Eitherway at a £1 for 11 this feels a little steep, but as a nice holiday treat we quite enjoyed this.

Even if we had it with tea instead of coffee.