Mike and Ike – Jolly Joes (Yankee Pop) [By @SpectreUK]

These Jolly Joes Chewy grape flavoured candies were made in Pennsylvania in the USA. You can see from the photograph that these were bullet shaped dark purple gummies. They were hardened on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside. There were roughly a dozen gummies in the cardboard box that amounted to 22g which were 80 calories, with no fat and 14g of sugar. Their ingredients contained natural and artificial flavours, were gluten free and included sugar, corn syrup, modified food starch, pear juice, citric acid, carnauba wax, white mineral oil, magnesium hydroxide, red number 40, and blue number 1. On first taste I quickly decided that I preferred an actual real grape to these gummies as they can be sweeter and more appetising looking. The sweets tasted slightly of grape, but more chemically, like they’d been created in a laboratory. In my opinion when I want something sweet and sugary I prefer it not to taste of chemicals. Personally I’d prefer to go and buy a bag of dark grapes over these gummies. A good dark grape is sweet and full of juicy flavour; they’re like nature’s natural sweets. These gummies do not compare, sadly, and come across as some mad scientist’s idea of what a grape should taste like, who hasn’t actually eaten one before. A big cross on this one, as it does seem a little pointless to try and copy a sweet that already exists naturally and just tastes better! The slogan on the back of the box stated; “A great candy isn’t made... it’s Just Born.” When it should read; “... it’s Just Grown.”

By Spectre

Ceylon Cinnamon (@cinnamon_hill) [By @Cinabar]

I’ve talked a lot on this blog about my love of cinnamon. And it’s true, it is by far my favourite spice, I love the way it makes my taste buds tingle. Recently the nice folks at Cinnamon Hill got in touch with a simple email stating that if I tried their cinnamon I would never again buy my regular brand. That’s quite a statement, so I took them up on their nice offer of a sample.
I have to be honest though, even with my love for the great spice I have never thought much about the brand, or even that cinnamon from different areas may taste different. Cinnamon is just cinnamon isn’t it?
Well apparently not. I made myself some toast, and spread it with a little of my dad’s fabulous honey (benefit of a beekeeper in the family) and went to prepare my new cinnamon. The grater they sent is fab looking, don’t judge me but I’ve never ground cinnamon before, I’ve only ever bought the powdered stuff. I love the smart box too, and every stick is individually packaged for the ultimate freshness. When I opened the first stick, I could tell it smelt different; it had almost a floral edge. When I actually started grating it onto the toast everything became clear, this really was something special. It’s like cinnamon, but there is extra element to it, it’s far more aromatic and the aroma has so much more depth.
I tried my toast, and just couldn’t get over how the cinnamon tasted, it was like it had a sharpness too it, it was tangy, but floral and so much more fragrant than any cinnamon I’ve tried before. The warmth and usual buzz was there, but it felt cleaner with loads of flavour packed in.
It is hard to explain the nuances between this and regular cinnamon in words, but for me this was like cinnamon mark two – a better improved version of my favourite spice. When Cinnamon Hill offered to send me a sample I feared I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but one thing is for sure you can consider me converted.

By Cinabar

Propercorn - Fiery Worcester Sauce & Sun-Dried Tomato [by @NLi10]

Ah - pop corn.  Boring stuff isn't it!  Not anymore - the modern world realised that it's pretty cheap and easy to flavour up and sell on to punters like me.  I picked this up at Marylebone Station in London at the Bagel place.

This is a Fiery Worcester Sauce variety, but as it's suitable for vegetarians and Worcester Sauce contains fish I'm dubious of how much it contains! That said we took this to see Dispicable Me 2 the other week to try it out and it really went down well.

We did have a drink with us to quell the flames just in case but this wasn't too deadly.  Instead it was a lovely warm flavour with a decent amount of tomato depth too.  The popcorn wasn't too soft or too hard, and the bag wasn't full of unpopped bits at the bottom.  It was much more luxurious than I expected for a pound!

I think that I would pick these up again, but am likely to try the other flavours too.

Edit: After the review went up the company contacted us to say they make their own variety of Worcester Sauce which means that it is totally veggie friendly.  This is a genius move and highly commended.

Nina’s Savse Beetroot, Apple, Avocado, Lime, Mango and Lemon “Super Purple” Smoothie [By @SpectreUK]

Instead of “Cleansing” this smoothie was described as an “Antioxidant” on the bottle’s label. The ingredients were unpasteurised with no added sugar and were measured out as; 150ml apple, 80ml beetroot, 8ml lemon, 5ml lime, 5ml mango, 2ml avocado in the 250ml bottle. Per 100ml there were 44 calories, with 8.8g of sugar, and 0g of fat. I gave the bottle a good shake before opening. There was quite a strong smell of beetroot and the dark red liquid looked like liquidised beetroot, which made me worry quite a bit on the taste. The odour was mainly beetroot, sweetened by a zingy apple aroma and hint of sharpness from the lime. The taste was actually not that bad. The beetroot mixed surprisingly well with the apple which took a lot of the earthiness away from flavour. There was a beetroot flavour to start with, but not too strong, then apple and then mango. Finally there was a hint of lime and sharpness from the lemon. Fortunately no bananas were harmed or tasted during the drinking of this beverage. This Super Purple grew on me while I drank it. The beetroot is muted, and I couldn’t taste it as much as I first thought I would. I was expecting to hate this drink and I actually preferred it to the Super Green, as it was smooth and it didn’t have any banana in it. The smoothie didn’t have the full blast of beetroot, as all the other fruits in the drink muted its earthy taste that can bite at the back of the throat. This drink was an all together pleasant experience. If I wanted to cleanse or antioxidant myself or detox or whatever you have to do to stay healthy these days, I’d pick this drink!

By Spectre

Jelly Belly Dessert Toppers (@americansoda) [By @cinabar]

When American Soda got in touch and asked if we would like to try the new Jelly Belly Dessert Toppers, I jumped at the chance! I love the idea of novelty flavoured sauces, and thought these would be perfect on top of ice cream. My first decision was to go for a vanilla ice cream base just so that I would be able to focus on the taste, purely for reviewing purposes. I decided to lace one bowl of vanilla ice cream with two sauces and see what it was like.

Jelly Belly Toasted Marshmallow Dessert Topper
This sauce is the pale cream coloured sauce on the right in the pictures. As I poured it out I wasn’t aware of any strong smell, but when I gave it a taste it managed to taste exactly like liquidised marshmallows! The white ones to be specific! It was creamy, there was plenty of vanilla and it had an almost honey like quality to it. It’s a soothing sauce, and a proper sweet treat. I can’t wait to try this on chocolate ice cream, as I think that combination would make it come alive.

Jelly Belly Strawberry Cheesecake Dessert Topper
This is the pretty looking pink sauce on the left in the photos. I liked the gentle colour of this sauce, it looked pretty without being too harsh or red. The taste did remind me of the jelly beans, the flavour was sweet, fresh and fruity, but it still maintained that creamy background taste of cheesecake. This sauce was a real winner for me as I’m not a fan of the bright red generic strawberry dessert sauces you can buy, they taste far too strong and overpowering. This sauce was perfectly balanced, delivering plenty of strawberry flavour but in a good balanced way. It was perfect on the vanilla ice cream by the way.

If you are thinking of putting together some ice cream sundaes as a treat, you really wouldn’t want to be without these fabulous flavoured sauces. If you wish to buy you own have a look at: American Soda

By Cinabar