Brewdog Parma Violets New England IPA (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

I honestly have no idea why Cinabar thought it would be a good idea to buy me this Parma Violets New England IPA, by Brewdog. I hate Parma Violets. To me they were the punishment sweets left at the bottom of the assorted sweets bag for someone else to throw away. Cinabar must be wanting to torture me for some reason or other…

Parma Violets are traditionally made with British Violets. If I had reading glasses I still wouldn't be able to read the ingredients on the insanely coloured can. At 5.5% in volume this Parma Violets New England IPA won't be strong enough in alcohol content to numb the flavour. In fact I can't imagine a percentage high enough that would numb the flavour. I realise you can only ever have 100% of something, but numbing Parma Violets would take far more than a gerbillion percent!

I initially thought this Parma Violets New England IPA would be a sweet pudding beer due to it's name. On opening the can there was the aroma of strong floral hops. Actually I thought it was a pretty decent smell. Strong, bitter and floral. I'm used to floral hops just as much as I am used to many other hops varieties. I remember I do love heather flavoured ale, so things were looking up.

On taste this murky golden India Pale Ale is really heavy in floral nature. I could say it was Violets in the flavour if I could have read the ingredients. I must get my eyes tested! I'm slightly frustrated that I liked it. Cinabar will be even more frustrated as I still reckon she is trying to torture me. I was so sure I'd hate this Parma Violets New England IPA and would tip it away in disgust, but actually it's a really floral flavoursome beer with a sweetness towards the aftertaste from the pale and possibly crystal malts. I don't think I've ever tasted such a floral ale before, definitely not in the pale variety. I'd actually quite happily have another!

Retro Corn - Strawberries and Cream Popcorn (Ocado) By @Cinabar

In my continued search for new and interesting popcorn to eat during film night I decided to have look and see what was available on the Ocado website, to add to my grocery order. I now have a full cupboard of popcorn and the new problem, choosing which to eat first. I reached in and picked out this bag of Retro Corn Strawberries and Cream.

The popcorn is made with the sweets Strawberries and Cream which are crushed up and used as a topping. I poured some out to munch on, and thought that there didn’t look like there was much topping on the popcorn. The crushed sweets were pale pink but sadly there wasn’t that much to see. I gave some of the Retro Corn Strawberries and Cream popcorn a try and it was mostly quite flavourless. Some of the pieces that had the pink coating were pleasant and sweet but even then still not that strong in strawberry flavour, others were milder still. The popcorn was fluffy and crunchy with a decent texture but taste-wise I needed more.

Don’t worry though I have a good selection of other popcorns to try and hopefully I’ll find the perfect bag of popcorn for movie night in.

Diforti - Pistachio Cannoli (@Nli10)

 

I do like Italian snacks - and cannoli is certainly the king of those.

This deluxe range was picked up for me to munch through.

These are a little bit special too - they are made of crispy sugary almonds and then filled with the pistachio cream - double nuts!

Look at all that goo!  Feels like something that you might find on bake off.

The cream inside is really smooth - not too strong a flavour, and maybe a little too sweet - but overall it's a lovely combination. A half of one of these makes a lovely accompaniment to a cup of tea, and a whole one is a little luxury pudding.

Yum!

Old Jamaica Rhubarb & Ginger Ale (Asda) By @SpectreUK

I generally have a diet Old Jamaica beer every evening to settle my stomach after dinner. I do love diet Jamaica Ginger Beer. It's got quite a kick to it. Ginger Ale generally doesn't have much of a kick as it's ginger flavoured carbonated water, rather than fermented ginger beer. However I have tried Old Jamaica Ginger Ale, and I can say that it's the most fiery ginger ale I've tried to date. So Old Jamaica are doing something right there.

I do love rhubarb. I used to go it in the garden and have rhubarb juice made for me by Cinabar. It was super sweet and tasty. This Old Jamaica Rhubarb & Ginger Ale is very pink in colour. It's 20 calories per 100ml, with 4.9g of sugar, which I'll frustratingly have to factor into my calorie counting.

There was a spicy sweet rhubarb aroma on opening the bottle and quite a fizz. On taste this Old Jamaica Rhubarb & Ginger Ale has an almost saccharin sweet taste of rhubarb, and with a warming ginger spice at the back of flavour. This super sweet rhubarb flavour was almost a little too sweet for me. I liked it, but it wasn't worth the 'hidden' calories that a diet drink can alleviate.

Choccie Dodgers (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

There have been various versions of Jammie Dodgers over the years usually with a jam filling, to keep to the name, but occasionally with twists like toffee. These are Choccie Dodgers and I won’t lie they did feel familiar from somewhere, was there once a version of Jammie Dodgers with a chocolate hazelnut spread? Or have I just eaten too many biscuits over the years and there was something similar from a different brand?

Anyway these Choccie Dodgers have no jam and instead have a chocolate centre with a chocolate heart showing through. They do look pretty in the pack. Jammie Dodgers aren’t my favourite biscuits (I hope that isn’t too controversial) but I can’t help feeling the jam at least brings balance when I eat them. As much as I like chocolate generally these ones seemed a little drier for the chocolate, even though it was quite smooth in texture. I think I prefer the contrast of a zingy filling be it the regular red jam or a zesty seasonal lemon flavour. These Choccie Dodgers are nice enough biscuits but there are better Jammie Dodger flavours and better chocolate biscuits out there.