Peeps - Fruit Punch (Candy Mail) By @Cinabar

The only thing better than a hot chocolate is a hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. The Americans have a huge brand of marshmallows called Peeps which are usually shaped as chicks but often seasonal editions in different shapes too. I bought a selection of their marshmallows to have with hot chocolates.

This box is the Peeps Fruit Punch edition, and the chicks inside are a bright shade of red. They sit in rows and pull apart quite easily. I popped one onto a bed of cream on top of a mug of cocoa. They do look lovely and very instagram worthy on top of the drink. I allowed the mallow to melt a little before giving it a taste. The coating on it was sweet and sour. Sherbet-like is probably the best description, but with a taste of Fruit Salad sweets. There was citrus and tang. The mallow smoothed out to a gentler flavour and was a lovely topper for a hot chocolate. I loved these Peeps Fruit Punch edition mallows. They are super cute and make me smile when making hot chocolate. I also can’t wait to try some of the Easter editions I picked up too. They are perfect fuel for my hot chocolate addiction.

Milk Snacks! Oreo & Milka varieties by @NLi10

The nice people at Kinder make a lot of hot weather chocolate things like the Kinder Pingui - and it looks like I missed that other people have done the same!

 Both of these are very familiar brands - Milka is a great Euro choc, and Oreo is the oddly popular American version of a bourbon biscuit (which I still enjoy).

Milka is basically just the same as a Kinder Pingui - maybe with a little less sponge and a little more milk.

Looks nice, very refreshing and perfect if the hot weather ever appears.

Oreo is the main event here though - just a little more excitement in the recipie.

First off it's dark & has crunchy bits on the outside

And a lovely spongy base too.

Good flavours on this version - a little more exciting.

I keep these at the top of the fridge so that they are cold, but not frozen.  I've seen people deliberately do the opposite making them as cold as possible so they are more like a mini-milk.  Eitherway it's a cheap way to cool down and manage to eat chocolate in a hot place.

Fierce Café Racer Beer (Sainsbury) By @SpectreUK

Dun, dun, dun, da da laaa! Nope I don't have shark for dinner tonight, but I have a can of beer with a shark on the front. I do have rib-eye steak and chips tonight, which is one of my favourite meals. Cinabar and her mom have also slaved in the kitchen this afternoon to make me my favourite pudding, which is apple crumble and custard. So I'm sure you can understand that I'm really looking forward to my dinner tonight. What better than to go with a steak and chips than a Coffee & Vanilla Porter?

This Café Racer was produced by the Fierce Brewery, possibly hence the shark? At 6.5% in volume it's described on the back of the 440ml can as "pitch black with espresso on the nose, has a rich velvety mouthfeel and a long smooth vanilla finish." Sumatran Espresso coffee and Madagascan Vanilla were used in the brewing. I'm expecting some strong flavours here, and perhaps a bitter bite of hops and hopefully not from the shark on the can.

On opening there was a strong aroma of coffee and a little roasted chocolate malt. Gosh, they weren't kidding when they mentioned this Café Racer is pitch black. This Porter is smoother than I expected on first taste, packed full with coffee flavour, followed by a light roasted chocolate malt and then yet smoothed out further with creamy sweet vanilla. Gorgeous. Perfect with my steak meal. Next up, apple crumble and custard.

7up Cocktail Exotique (Candy Mail) By @Cinabar

A limited edition 7UP is a rare commodity and one that I couldn’t resist buying online. My favourite online import shop seems to be closing, so I tried this new site to see what they had, and in amongst the goodies I found this can of 7UP Cocktail Exotique. It sounded very intriguing, so I was looking forward to trying something a bit different.The can is in French, including the ingredients, but my GCSE meant I could translate enough to understand that it is a full sugar drink, rather than a diet version.

I got my glass out to pour the drink out and see what it looked like and then remembered 7UP is clear, so sorry the photograph isn’t more exciting. The drink was super fizzy, possibly because 7UP always is and also possibly because it had taken a run in the Royal Mail postage system.

The flavour was nice, though the main flavour was still classic lemon and lime. The twist of exotic fruits came through and I liked the touch of pineapple in the mix. For my taste, I was hoping for a more dramatic change in taste but it was more 7UP with just a touch of tropical fruit. This 7UP Cocktail Exotique was a pleasant and refreshing drink, but one of those where once you’ve tried it you are content not to worry about getting another can.

Shreddies - Toffee & Apple Limited Edition by @NLi10

 I do t usually go in U.K. discount store B&M, but Iceland closed at 7 and I wanted a few bits and pieces so I ventured in…

…and to my surprise found some left over stocks of the Toffee & Apple variety that I’d wanted to try when it came out!

Value stores are often good for this - seasonal variation didn’t sell, get it here instead!

I did indeed got this one!

I also got a box of the ace pumpkin spice version too. Winter goodness.

The apple one is nicely flavoured but it’s not that strong. It’s vaguely fruity and vaguely sugary. I added raspberries after the initial taste test and they overpowered it easily.  I’m going to enjoy eating this, but it’s not got the ‘winter taste’ as nailed on as the pumpkin spice has. 

A good thing that I’m happy to munch through - and maybe I’ll get to sample further boxes of these by braving the always stressful queues of B&M.