FOODSTUFF FINDS

6 January 2011

Gingerbread Drinking Chocolate (Hotel Chocolat) [by @NLi10]

My sister received this for Christmas and graciously offered to make me a mug one evening. I'm not a massive fan of gingerbread itself, but decided that it'd be worth a shot as our friends at Hotel Chocolat have not steered us wrong yet. The first and most noticeable thing about this was the smell while it was being made. The kitchen filled with a wonderful cinnamon aroma and even though it's early January the house smelt like it was Christmas once again.

When the drink was finished and shared out the taste was similar to the smell, it was gently spicy and the chocolate was quite reserved and unassuming in comparison which surprised me. It's a very nice drink, but one that I don't think you'd need large quantities of to be satisfied. The whole experience seems designed to remind you of Christmas and while it’s not that chocolaty, it's certainly the most romantic hot chocolate on the market .

I'd recommend picking some of this up for the next festive period, and then popping some on whenever visitors come round, or just to get into the holiday spirit on Christmas eve. For this year though our 12 days of Christmas are up and the festive food sales bargains will begin to appear.

by NLi10

5 January 2011

Milky Way – Thick Shake (Asda) By [@SpectreUK]

The bottle proudly states that this Milky Way Thick Shake tastes just like the usual Milky Way chocolate bar. It has 2% fat, no added sugar, no artificial colours or preservatives. It boasts its “Milk goodness” is a “source of calcium for teeth and bones”. There’s technical mumbo jumbo on the bottle that states each 200ml portion is 6% of an adults guideline daily amount of Kilo Calories, 17% of their sugar, 3% of their fat, 7% of their saturates and 6% of their salt. Yet here’s the thing, and it’s not a new thing as it happens all over the place in a variety of countless products - this bottle is 440ml, which is two and a bit portions! 200ml is not a lot for a daily portion and what do you do with the extra 40ml after you’ve carefully measured out your two guideline daily amounts? Do you seriously have to collect 40ml from the bottom of five bottles to make that 11th day portion? How much time do Mars think I have on my hands? The drink itself was a disappointment. There is a light smell of malt before you tuck in, then just the lightest hint of malt as you drink and even less of chocolate. Where was the Milky Way taste I was promised? There’s nothing unpleasant about this drink. It’s not over sweet or sour. It just tastes mainly of milk. I’d have been better off eating a Milky Way bar whilst drinking a bottle of milk. I drank the whole bottle after a short session on the weights and tried not to rant too much over the whole portion thing. Yet I still felt that I needed an energy boost, so I ended up watching Human Target whilst crunching on Mr Porky Pork Scratchings and downing another beer before bed. You just can’t get an energy boost from a “thick shake” like you used to!

By Spectre

4 January 2011

Sizzling Teriyaki Baked Deli Chips [Penn State] [By @Cinabar]

These ‘chips’ actually got me googling the word ‘Teriyaki’. I have eaten Teriyaki sauce many times, and am used to its rich, sweet, soya sauce flavour. What confused me when I ate these was that although all the expected flavours were present, there was also some serious chilli heat. I don’t think I have ever had a spicy hot Teriyaki sauce, even in proper Japanese restaurants, and the Chicken Teriyaki Bento at Mount Fuji’s is one of my favourite dishes. These crisps had a burn hotter than a lot of ‘chilli’ flavour crisps I’ve tried, but they certainly weren’t unpalatable or uncomfortably hot.
The heat also didn’t mask the other flavours thankfully, and they had a tasty rich meatiness with an aftertaste of recognisable Teriyaki. The texture is lovely too, these are fluffy chips, that crunch easily and pleasingly, they are lovely and light to eat.
Now I am a fan of chilli flavours, so I have to say I really liked these crisps. They are perfect snacking food as they have both great texture and a full flavour. As they are baked, they have less calories than regular crisps, so are also perfect if you are cutting down after the Christmas festivities.
I’m not sure about the authenticity of the spicy flavour, but if you don’t care about such things, these are some seriously good crisps.

By Cinabar

Spectre reviewed Penn State Spicy Jalfrezi Baked Deli Chips here.

3 January 2011

Cadbury Dairy Milk Biscuits (Tesco) [By @Cinabar]

To be honest with last year’s launch of a Cadbury biscuits range, I would actually have though that these ones would have been the first variety out. Cadbury brought out their Turkish bars as biscuits (which I really liked) and both Crunchie and Caramel bars as biscuits too, so Dairy Milk seems like an obvious flavour choice.
These biscuits might be the simplest of recipes, but that doesn’t mean that these shouldn’t be fully appreciated. The thing that struck me most about them was that the chocolate was so wonderfully thick and flavoursome. It had the usual Dairy Milk taste, and the substantial chocolate is covering a rich dark biscuit that manages to still add a decent biscuity flavour, and a satisfying crunch.
The only disappointing thing about these biscuits is that there are only six in a box, which if you open them when friends are around, don’t last long at all. A perfect chocolate biscuit fix, loaded with an ample supply of Dairy Milk, but you might wish you had bought two packs if you intend to share!