Quality Street Green Triangle Chocolate Bar (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I picked up the Quality Street Green Triangle chocolate bar recently, and the first thing I noticed was its shape. The bar itself is rectangular, and so are the individual pieces. Now, if you’re familiar with the original Green Triangle from the Quality Street tins, you’ll know they’re, well, triangles. A little ironic, then, that this bar went for rectangles. It would have been a nice touch if the pieces had diagonal lines to mimic the classic shape, but I suppose you can’t have everything.

Breaking a piece off was an interesting experience. The bar was surprisingly soft, almost bending as I pulled a piece away. Granted, I wasn’t keeping it in the fridge and the heating was on, but still, for a chocolate of this cost, it was impressively tender.

The chocolate itself is a treat. Inside, the classic soft, nutty praline melts beautifully. There are no bits, just smooth, silky chocolate with that satisfying nutty flavour. As a fan of nuts and chocolate, this really hit the mark. The flavour, if not the shape, stays true to the Green Triangle from the tins.

This bar works well as a snack, and it could even double as a festive stocking filler paired with a Christmas card. It’s a lovely format for enjoying this classic flavour, and I would happily buy it again.

Ritter Sport Pistachio - finally a decent 'Dubai Chocolate' [@NLi10]

 We love pistachios.   

We love Baklava - and the bird nest stuff is amazing.  

Dubai Chocolate combines the two, is confusingly expensive, and always disappointing - until now.

You see the one thing they never get right is that the chocolate still has to be the star.  So finally - the big brands are repackaging their Pistachio varieties and getting them into our hands for much cheaper.

I first fell in love with Ritter Sport in the 90s on trips to Germany.  There always seemed to be a new one to try and the variations all made sense.

The packaging is even fun to open properly, and it keeps everything where it belongs.  The ingredients are all here - except the lovely birds nest - but I have a shop that makes that fresh on my high-street so it's all good.

*snap* Luna approves of the smells here.

Like golden-era Cadbury's the chunks are a nice portion, always contain the novelty and the mix is always the same as there is only one size (Snickers - take note).

A lovely fragrant nutty undertone to classic Ritter Sport chocolate.

Lindt have nudged their Pistachio balls (which have been available for 5 years plus) into the limelight too - I wonder who else will join in.  First to make a legitimate chocolate version with the birds nest built in for non-import prices (and actually containing cocoa at decent rates) will win the market for sure!

 

Guinness Smoky Tomato Keychup and Guinness Rich & Spicy Chipotle Sauce (Morrisons) By @SpectreUK

I do like a Guinness now and then, but I prefer mine with a good steak. So, what do you do if you like Guinness, but it doesn't go so well with what you're about to eat? Try the new range of Guinness sauces of course.

I decided to do a double blog on these two Guinness Sauces. I have Calamari and Scampi and chips tonight, all oven ready and tasty with some veg on the side, mushrooms and a huge red pepper.

I first splodged Guinness Smoky Tomato Ketchup on my plate next to my chips. There was certainly a smoky flavour with the tomato ketchup sauce, and a hint of Guinness to it. I also thought it would go well in a cocktail, or for a soup flavour. Instead it went very well with my chips. So well in fact, that I also dipped my chip-butty in it a few times before polishing it off.

I finished off the rest of my chips with the almost black coloured Guinness Rich & Spicy Chipotle Sauce. Now this sauce was really tasty too. I preferred this sauce more than the Ketchup, simply because it reminded me of a mix between barbecue and brown Sauce, but with a spicy chipotle flavour and a hint of Guinness. Yum indeed.

Mr Kipling Caramel Tart Ice Cream (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

I usually associate new ice creams with the summer season, but we still enjoy them in autumn and winter. This one is from Mr Kipling and is based on one of his classic desserts: the Caramel Tart.

I have to admit, I don’t often buy caramel tarts. It’s not that I don’t like them, I’m just usually swayed by apple pies or mince pies instead. I have had them though, and they are lovely.

This ice cream is mostly caramel, which feels like a recipe for success, it’s one of those flavours that most people enjoy. It also includes caramel sauce and pastry pieces throughout, which give it that proper tart and pastry feel.

The tub isn’t too big, but when we opened it up, it scooped easily after a couple of minutes at room temperature. The ice cream has plenty of goodies mixed in, the sauce and pastry bits, which keep it interesting. The combination of textures works nicely, and the caramel base flavour is sweet, rich and full of that lovely burnt sugar taste.

It was an absolute delight, and I’m now thinking a scoop of this on a hot apple pie might just be the perfect autumn dessert. I really need to give that a try.

McDonald's World Menu Heist - International Disappointments [@NLi10]

 McDonalds have a lot of adverts at the moment for all kinds of exciting things.  And as I had a green Sprite there a month or so ago that was quite nice I let work talk me into a visit one lunchtime for their new (at the time) World Heist menu.

It was so exciting I forgot to write a review...

The gimmick is this was stuff they already had, that you'd see on holiday.

What's this - Polish fries?

Oh - it's salt-&-shake, but pepper and odd cream flavour.  And surprisingly it works - they are essentially turned into KFC fries.  These were a win.

The Pink Drink is cherry blossom, and its fine.  The green one was great, this is a solid 5/10 and you'd not be fussed if they forgot and gave you a normal Sprite

And the main event! It's a le big mac but with some bacon and some sauce

And it was absolutely terrible! The issue with these is the cheap meat and sweet buns are designed to be chewed easily and then you leave faster - but if the idea is to enjoy the texture and flavours then this is not the target.  Not one part of this improved the original, and if anything it was just a mess of flavours.

Overall then - for £11 - this was a massive disappointment and would put me off agreeing to the lunch time trips for the cheap wrap and iced tea.