The Mini Dark Gianduja Egg / The Mini Pink Champagne Truffle Egg (@HotelChocolat) [By @Cinabar]

These two eggs from Hotel Chocolate are part of their Easter gift range, but are the smaller editions. Each egg has a chocolate shell and is neatly filled with two large truffles. This would make them ideal to share between two, or not as needs be! :-D

First up I tried the dark egg. The chocolate in the shell was a luxurious 70% cocoa, and it had wonderful rich tones with a good warm flavour that almost tasted like it contained a spice. The chocolate was quite firm and snapped well as I broke pieces off, but melted easily and pleasingly when eaten.
The truffles also have a lovely coating of thick dark chocolate, but are embedded with sugar sprinkles which make them look pretty and taste a little sweeter. Inside is a rich hazelnut praline, which is full of a fantastic nutty chocolate flavour. Hotel chocolate do pralines so well, and these are a total treat.

The champagne egg is made with Hotel Chocolat’s milk chocolate base, but again contains two truffles inside. The milk chocolate is full of cocoa flavour, but is a little softer to break. The taste is smooth and mellow and perfectly constructed. It manages to be indulgent but the flavour is clean enough to not become too rich.
The truffles with this egg are pink in colour and the coating contains a hint of strawberry to add to the flavour. The filling is silky and wet with a champagne tang that adds a certain layer of sophistication but works well with the milk chocolate base flavour.

Both of the eggs have outstanding chocolate and truffles within, they may be small but both have packed in the wow factor. The packaging is beautiful too, and adds to the whole experience. These eggs are the perfect token gift and it would be impossible not to love receiving them.

By Cinabar

Whiskas Chicken Bite'n Chew - ready meal for one [By @Nli10]

As regular readers will know I'm a big fan of bachelor chow - that is food that is self contained and easy to cook for the solo guy at home on his own. Whether you live alone, or have just been left to fend for yourself on a Sunday it's often much preferred to make something nice and quick rather than to go to all the effort of a full meal. Past favourites in this have been the Beef & Basil Meatballs which can be cooked straight from the bag and makes a good meal.

UK food manufacturers Whiskas have jumped on this band-wagon with a series of mini pouches that are designed to appeal to the modern, metrosexual guy with cute kittens on the box, and the one I had for lunch today is from their new 'Bite 'n Chew' range - presumably to counter the critics who thought that their previous range was a bit on the slimy side.

The cooking directions aren't that clear and the pouch looked a bit metallic so I popped it on a side plate and microwaved it for 90 seconds until it was nicely steaming.

With a side of fresh (ish) rocket and sprinkles from their crunch range it made quite an appetising looking lunch!

The smell was quite strong, and unlike most ready meals quite tangy. While the 'Bite 'n Chew' means that you can feel the lumps as you eat it, this still decomposes in a very strange way in the mouth - the extra crunch is needed! The flavour is fairly unique and can only be described as sharply vinegary and the chicken is almost hidden behind a wall of mysterious meaty flavours. I wouldn't describe it as amazingly appetising, but once you get used to that initial bitter hit and suppress the gag reflex then it's nicely filling.

The Beef, Trout & Salmon flavours all come in the same pack (12 pouches seems a bit much) and I think that the Trout could be a winner with it's strong fishy overtones and briney aftertaste. There seems to be a whole untapped world of potential in these mini meals, and I look forwards to seeing more in the range.

By Nli10

Rekorderlig – Premium Strawberry and Lime Cider [By @SpectreUK]

Last time Cinabar’s brother came to visit he arrived just after dinner. I walked into the room as he was tucking into a sandwich, with this beer shaped bottle unopened on the table next to him. I immediately mistook it for one of my own beers and selfishly dived to recover it. He quickly mentioned that it was a present for me to write up for the blog. Feeling marginally guilty, I then noticed what it was and its flavour. Not much of a cider fan, as I remember being violently sick from drinking too much of it when I was a lad. This Strawberry and Lime Cider by Åbro Bryggeri, Yimmery, in Sweden, sounded like it could be a refreshing summer’s treat for some, but I’ve never been much of a fan of sickly drinks either.
With the onset of hot weather (well, a few degrees above the frozen norm), I cooled the 500ml bottle, and decided to drink it on a sunny afternoon. On opening the bottle I noticed a strong sweet smell of strawberries mixed with sourness from the lime. I let Cinabar have the first sip of this pinkish beverage. She immediately said that this drink should be frozen and made into ice lollies. I have to admit that this cider tasted great. The sweetness from the strawberries mixed with the sour kick from the lime made this cider the perfect sunshine indulgence. It was much more refreshing than most pretentious sounding cocktails, and there was not a hint of any alcohol in the flavour. This drink went down too quickly, and I certainly wanted another bottle once I’d downed the first. At 4% volume, Kids, don’t try this at home... or anywhere else for that matter, unless you want to get all dizzy, throw up and hurl abuse at Lego policemen!

By Spectre

Club – New Honeycomb Flavour (Sainsbury’s) [By @Cinabar]

I haven’t had a chocolate Club bar for years, which in itself is a bit shocking. I used to have Club bars quite regularly in my lunch box as a kid, but never quite seem to buy them as an adult. Perhaps it’s the fear of getting the theme music “If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our club!” stuck in my head. Oh dear! Perhaps it is the fact that it treads a line somewhere between being a chocolate bar and a biscuit, and as such confuses me! Either way the fact they have a new variety out was, on this occasion, enough for me to pick a packet up again.
The biscuit in a Club bar is quite dry, but has a nice buttery shortbread flavour and a substantial feel. The chocolate was thick enough to coat the biscuit well and provide a lot of sweet milky cocoa flavour. The new part in this bar is the layer of honeycomb cream. One of the things about honeycomb is its crunchy texture, so it is a bit odd to deliver the taste as a cream, but I guess Club bars are already pretty crunchy with all that biscuit. The layer of flavoured cream may not be very noticeable on the photo, but the flavour is actually balanced really well. You can certainly pick up on the distinctive honeycomb taste, with its brown sugar and slightly caramelised flavour. I found it worked well with the chocolate and biscuit and made a wonderfully sweet treat. The flavours are a perfect match, and the Club bar was perfect for an afternoon snack at work. Impressively the bar only had 116 calories, so I didn’t even feel too guilty either!
I can’t believe its been so long since I last tried a Club bar, and I may have to have a bit of a nostalgia trip and pick up a few of the classic flavours. I feel like I have re-discovered a favourite treat. Even if I am still humming that darn tune to myself!

By Cinabar

Reese's Crispy Crunchy – America [By @NLi10]

This was in my snack parcel I got from the America's a good time ago - it contained the coke and lots of other little bits. This I'd been saving for a special time when I was at work, stuck and starving. One morning this occurred at about 11ish and I devoured the bar before heading to the 12 O'clock meeting.

This wasn't really a short term mistake, the bar is basically an American Toffee crisp - but longer. There is also an important difference in the sheer amount of mind bending chemicals that are hiding in here. I was slightly hyperactive for the whole day! I had to continually check that I wasn't just randomly talking out loud and over reacting to the situations. I also had to force myself to sit down and carry on with things. Hyperactive energy is great to funnel into work though so I got a lot done.

I think that the small Reese's things are fine as I only eat one from the pack per snack attack, but finishing all of this at once was probably a bit much.

By NLi10