The Bee’s Knees Honeyed Ale (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

The Bee's Knees can traditionally mean the "height of excellence", and also something "sweet and good" from "when bees flit from flower to flower the nectar sticks to their legs". This golden English Ale from the Hogs Back Brewery, was brewed with honey and dry herbal hops. At 4.2% volume the label talks of sweetness from the honey, herbal and grassy notes from the bitter hops, and the light toasted flavour of sesame from the roasted barley. of course, ever the trooper, I won't take their word for it… I'll have to try The Bee's Knees myself.

On opening there was a sweet almost syrupy roasted barley smell, almost like dates, to start with followed by a sheer herbal hoppiness. On pouring this beer is a deep reddish brown colour, not as golden as I had been lead to believe from the label. On taste I wouldn't say "smooth" was the first word that came to mind. There was a syrupy fruity sweetness with a hard roasted edge to The Bee's Knees in the initial taste. This was followed by bitter herbal hops that produced a sort of smokiness to that sweet roasted flavour whilst moving into the aftertaste of the beer. I can imagine this beer would go well washing down barbecue ribs or pulled pork. However on its own it seems to be begging for a sticky smoky sauce smeared all over a meaty meal, rather than something to be enjoyed with a good film. Maybe some barbecue flavoured crisps would do it… now there's a thought!

Turkey, Bacon & Guacamole Signature Wrap (Subway) By @Cinabar

Well it is Friday lunch time and as I’m at work and that means I have my semi-regular visit to Subway. When I arrived I spotted a poster in the window showing off Subways’ new range of Signature Wraps, and I opted to try out the Turkey, Bacon and Guacamole variant. I chose this one as it sounded quite healthy, and also because avocado and guacamole are really in at the minute, they are seen as being a bit hipster. The lady making it started out with a round wrap, which was flavoured with tomato and basil and it was a slight orange in colour. She spread guacamole and then stacked up on it turkey, bacon, cheese and then asked the usual requirements over salad, where I added lettuce, tomato, cucumber and olives. She said the recommend sauce for this wrap was Ranch, so I went with that. She folded it all over and confessed that when she had sliced some before and they had a habit of falling apart and she would have to start again. Perhaps this justifies the £5 price for a single wrap, which is quite pricey for Subway.
Oh well, I started by trying a little bit of the wrap on its own and found it to be lovely and flavoursome the tomato and herbs did stand out and made an excellent base for this wrap. The guacamole was mild, but had a nice avocado flavour; I’d have just liked a bit more seasoning in it. As a whole though the wrap really came together, the turkey and bacon were filling and the ranch dressing made this a tasty wrap. Each mouthful was different with varied texture from the meats and salad. I was pleased that the wrap held together and it was surprisingly easy to eat, and I didn’t lose any filling. The flavours were lovely together, there was lots of flavours and meatiness and the wrap did make it fun to eat. It is something I would have again, even at the higher price (for a non-toasted take out) lunch.

Nutri Extracts Matcha Tea - Ceremonial Grade (@extractsnutri) by @NLi10

Sometimes things get reviewed and written up instantly.  Sometimes I forget about things and it takes ages to try them.  In this case I tried the product the day I got it (and many days after) and then didn't write it up.  This is my own fault because I often try to do too many things with these reviews.

Here we have the product.  It's Matcha Tea powder.  It's in a very unassuming package and came direct from the internet.  I wasn't sure that the PR company would send us samples - but we got two HUGE bags.  This is practically a life-times supply of Matcha powder.

Luckily I still have the stirrer and kit from the last time I made this stuff at work so I can drink away.

The ingredients are pure, the preparation guide has the right temp and that you'll want to whisk it, and also suggests way to make it more palatable to us westerners.

It really is good grade stuff - and makes a stonking cup of green tea.

The taste is a little more 'down' than the brand I'd been drinking so a dash of sugar perks it right up.  Superb.  Not much more to say about it really.

Well - except that if you go to the website www.nutriextracts.co.uk and use the code MATCHA15 you'll get 15% off which makes it a pretty good price too (£8 a bag before discount when I paid £20 for my smaller tin!).  If you know someone who doesn't mind the fairly plain packaging then it'd make a great gift!  You should probably ignore some of the health claims though, but it's good for mild relief of my arthritis symptoms, and due to the slow release caffeine you get a nice buzz for 6 hours.  

And that would be that - review straight up & done - except the packaging said that I should try using it in recipes.  And I was at the time supposed to make scones for my birthday (7th July) and take them to work - and green tea scones would be awesome! But - scones require a decent amount of wrist energy to make, and don't like the hot weather we are having.  I'd end up with painful wrists and overly floured scones! I mean - this is all clearly just procrastination - but at some point I will bake things again - and I have no doubt at all that I'll have some of this left ready to pop in half the mixture to see what happens.

Peckish Tangy Barbecue Rice Crackers (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

Always on the lookout for any tasty alternative snacks to crisps and peanuts, these Peckish Tangy Barbecue Rice Crackers seemed to fit my rather loose requirements. Rice Flour is used in producing Peckish crackers, which makes for a lighter crispier cracker than the usual off the shelfers (yes, I just made up a word – I’m a blogger, I can do things like that, well, maybe…). They are gluten free and are baked in rice bran oil not fried for less saturated fat.
I like the serving suggestion on the front of the packet recommending the cracker muncher dip them in a barbecue sauce, although I’m slightly worried now that these Peckish Tangy Barbecue Rice Crackers are actually just a plain flavour and don’t taste of anything unless you dip them. However, that could be an idea to add the dipping sauce into the packet and just get the customer to do all the work!?
Anyway, there was a strong smell of rice on opening the packet, which made me worry slightly more. The well rounded crackers had an orange tint from the seasoning which made me worry less that I’d have to go out and buy a barbecue sauce to enjoy these with. I don’t think there are any fast food joints around my work I can quickly duck into and nab a couple of free sachets. On taste these Peckish Tangy Barbecue Rice Crackers are pretty subtle though, so you could probably do with something for them to dip into. They’re quite a pleasant barbecue flavour, but not particularly ‘tangy’. The word ‘tangy’ screams sweet lip-smacking flavour to me and these crackers are too understated for that. However, I reckon they’d go well with a piece of light cheese, nothing to strong mind, and perhaps some barbecue sauce daubed on top!
Information on the packet:
The 20g packet has 89 calories, with 1.9g of fat, less than 0.5g of sugar and 0.21g of salt. Please see photograph for ingredients.

McVities Moments Choccy Rocky Road (Asda) By @Cinabar

This is a new product from McVities, normally famed for there biscuits. They are a tray baked item, and there are four squares in the packet, they are called McVities Moments Choccy Rocky Road. Each one consist of a biscuit base, and it topped with chocolate, marshmallow and cherries, which sounds like an excellent combination.
There is a lot of chocolate in the recipe, and I am quite happy with that as I was really enjoying the cocoa flavour. As you can imagine being made by McVities, biscuits feature heavily in the flavour too, and the wholesome taste of Digestives shines through as the base is made with these. It was firm, but not hard to bite through. I liked the addition of the marshmallow chunks as these added a fun squishy texture and an extra bit of sweetness. The cherries worked well, they broke the flavour up with a good sweet and sour taste, they also added a nice juicy element to the texture. I like a mix of textures so Rocky Road works well for me.
These were a fun snack to eat, with lots of chocolatey goodness and a nice Digestive biscuit flavour, which is in keeping with the McVitites name.