Suffolk Blonde Beer (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

I fancy a blonde. Although I can't seem to resist a blonde. Especially one with big eyes and a sad story. That's not what I'm talking about here. This is a blonde from down south. This Suffolk Blonde ale was brewed by St. Peter's Brewery. At 4% in volume the bottle states that it has a "caramel aroma with a bitter touch". Like I said, I can't seem to resist a blonde.

On opening the bottle there was a strong malted barley smell from this frothy deep golden blonde ale. There were hints of sweet caramel in the aroma and a little herbal hops. On taste this Suffolk Blonde ale had an almost sweet malt biscuit flavour to begin with. This is a hearty brew indeed. One of those fill you up per mouthful. Really flavoursome.

The biscuit notes had sweetness of caramel malt with a hint of bitterness at the end from those herbal hops. This is a lovely beer. One to enjoy with a packet of Ready Salted crisps in the pub with a good book or with friends, followed by a packet of pork scratchings and a box of Digestive biscuits to finish. Of course, I'd want more than one of these Suffolk Blonde ales. No doubt.

Willies Cacao Hot Chocolate (Holland and Barrett) By @cinabar

I’m always searching for new hot chocolate, and this pretty packet caught my eye on the shop shelf. Well it is hard to miss, isn’t it, with the psychedelic spirals on the packet of the Willies Cacao Hot Chocolate. Although I buy a lot of hot chocolate, if I’m completely honest, I don’t actually like that many. I’m super fussy, and want it to taste seriously good. I have noticed that price doesn’t necessarily correlate to taste either. This is a mid-range price drink, and before I knew it the bag was in my basket and on its way home.

This hot chocolate is one made with milk, which is usually a good start. I am pleased to say that it mixed easily into the hot milk and dissolved without leaving lumps behind, another irritant of some hot chocolates. The drink looked pretty dark and I gave it a sip. Gosh, I was glad that I had picked this bag up, the hot chocolate was properly full of flavour. There was a nice sweetness to it which was soothing, without it being too sugary. The cocoa is the star. There was tons of chocolatey goodness packed in here, and it was such a lovely full flavour. A proper hug in a mug.

Chasewater 1940s Steam Day + Vegan Magnum Ice-cream (@NLi10) @ChasewaterRail

I think I took for granted where I grew up. My parents deliberately chose somewhere with good public transport links and lots of green space.  Some of this green space is actually blue space - Chasewater - which is a large reservoir which feeds the local canal network.  The blue space is also surrounded 3/4 of the way by a railway line for steam trains - based on the original bits but largely reconstructed.

They often have events like this weekend's 1940s day.  Instead of paying to go in, I decided to walk the larger site and explore what was on offer in nature.

The main station was covered with war-time memorabilia from both sides and lots of people in costume.  This smaller station round the corner was nice and quiet and still made up on theme.

As they are all kind of on their break in between trains I decided not to 'interact' and to let them all rest 

It's a genuine working station with signal boxes and everything.

As there was a war on I paid extra to not have to use my ration book and had a bacon sandwich for £3 - it was just what I needed after the long walk on the hot (but overcast) day - and a £2 Fanta topped it off nicely.

I carried on walking to the end of the line, then back round the reservoir to the main station.

The railway's website is here

YouTube footage of the trains here!!

Leaving Station  & Returning across Reservoir

The whole loop is a fairly pleasant walk, but I went through the rougher parts off the path and I saw the wild deer

Back by the busy, carpark side there are more things to do.  This little castle was put up in the 70s and we climbed all over it - now it's purely for the birds.

Instead you can pay to do lots of extreme hire things on the little businesses that have popped up.

Or get some 'nosh' at The Shed. I had a normal ice-cream here and it was good. The Gelato is really special.

The one thing I did pick up that was review worthy (from the 'Innovation Centre' cafe) was the Magnum Vegan.  I'd wanted to try these before - as they seem to be on all the posters but not always in the freezers.

A dairy -free Magnum is a great idea for two reasons - one being that Vegans can eat it, and the second is the potential of lovely dark chocolate!

I wasn't disappointed, it's a dark delight!  The ice-cream is authentic enough for me - it wouldn't pass expert inspection for dairy as it melts too fast (don't order this one in the heatwave!) but its refreshing and high quality.  I think that you could easily switch the machine making the normal magnums off now if I was in charge.  I'm not sure how easy you could make a white & pink Magnum like this but when they try I'll get those too.

So yeah - growing up I assumed everyone had steam-trains and a beach in their back garden (OK - a 10 min walk away), I guess now I know better. 

Oreo Twists Vanilla & Caramel flavour (Asda) By @SpectreUK

So, you know I said that I wasn't bothered with Oreos? Well, I enjoyed the Vanilla & Raspberry flavour so much, I just had to try these Vanilla & Caramel flavoured Oreos. I even managed my calorie intake so well that I could have some Caramel Swirl ice cream from Hagen-Dazs with it.

There was a strong smell of vanilla and then of sweet caramel on opening the packet. As you can see from the photograph, there was quite a hefty filling of vanilla and caramel in between the two Oreos. Wow, these Vanilla & Caramel flavoured Oreos are really soft and creamy. There was a familiar crunch from the chocolate Oreos, followed by a strong taste of vanilla, and then the sweetness of the caramel kicked in.

Unlike the Raspberry Ripple flavoured Oreos (I know, but they should be called that, I reckon), I was compelled to eat the top biscuit first, then eat out the rather full insides followed by the bottom biscuit. I couldn't help it, these Vanilla & Caramel flavoured Oreos made me feel young. They also went perfectly with my caramel swirl ice cream from Hagen-Dazs.

Information on the packet; There were 11 Vanilla & Caramel flavoured Oreos at 70 calories each, with 3.3g fat, 6.1g of sugar, and 0.08g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Oreo Ice Cream Cones (Ocado) By @cinabar

I think I have done something terribly British. It was hot wasn’t it, really hot, so I filled the freezer with ice cream. I over ordered, and now I’m eating ice cream and thinking it is too cold to eat ice cream. You don’t need to see my passport to know I’m British. We obsess about the weather and complain whatever it is.

So, as I have a freezer full, I decided to try this interesting-looking Oreo Ice Cream Cone. It is interesting because the cone is Oreo dark but also because the ice cream itself is covered in an Oreo cookie coating, making the whole thing almost black in colour.

As someone who likes texture, having a slightly crunchy biscuit coating around the ice cream really did work for me. I loved the dark chocolate biscuit flavour, but the main taste was the sweet creamy ice cream inside. It is sweet and soothing. There is enough biscuit and cone to give a good flavour of Oreo and its contrast with the creamy filling works perfectly. I thought it was a delight to eat and the fact that it looks quite dramatic is a fun bonus.