Birrificio Angelo Poretti 4 (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

I can't believe I haven't tried this before. Although I'm not much of a lager lover. The bubbles have a habit of giving me the burps. This Birrificio Angelo Poretti 4 was brewed by Carlsberg Italia, and imported by a brewery nearby, which Marston's Brewing Company. Birrificio Angelo Poretti brewery was originally established in 1877 by the entrepreneur himself, Angelo Poretti.

Four hop varieties from around the world were used in the brewing of this Birrificio Angelo Poretti 4, as well as barley malt. No wheat here. The calories were rather helpfully added to the label of this 5% in volume lager. At 277 calories for the 660ml bottle I'm going to have to manage my calories pretty well today to keep to my usual 2200. A tuna salad for lunch and a protein yogurt, with some fruit, and then a Chinese takeaway for dinner with this beer, and a little chocolate and ice cream for later should do it.

This shining bright gold coloured Birrificio Angelo Poretti 4 had a crisp hoppy aroma on opening with sweet malted barley in the background. On taste there was a light herbal hop bitterness to start with, followed by sweet malted barley to the finish. This was a lovely smooth and refreshing lager and not too bubbly. It certainly went very well indeed with my Pork Yuk Sung and also my sticky barbecue ribs for my takeaway. Yum.

Mars Triple Treat (Tesco) By @Cinabar

I don’t get it. I’m sorry, I just don’t know what they were thinking when they came up with this Triple Treat range. Of all the new bars the Mars one is the most bizarre. If you like nuts, get a Snickers. If you don’t get a Mars, that is the simple system. So why have they added peanuts to the new Mars Triple Treat? Why is it almost identical to the Snicker Triple Treat? They have one formula and have made small changes that are released to different chocolate bars. The snickers bar had: dates, raisins, peanuts and milk chocolate. The Mars version has: date, raisin, peanut, milk chocolate and fudge.

 

This bar, like the Snickers, did have a health shop bar taste. The squished date is a large factor in the flavour. The fudge pieces did give it a slightly sweeter flavour than the Snickers version, but yeah, not enough. I still am not overly impressed with it. I would still rather buy the ‘treat size' bars and calorie count than pick these up again. Sorry, not for me.

Curiously Cinnamon Churros - breakfast cereal! (by @NLi10)

 Churros are amazing, it's basically an excuse to eat long doughnuts that you dip into the goo instead of having the goo in the middle.  But - Churros for breakfast?

I'm certainly willing to give it a go - but I may use a bowl.  12 servings is very optimistic and hasn't considered the possibility of me opening the box and eating it like popcorn.

They've understood that this is weird and embraced it - dips, yogurt, jam, fruit, chocolate and all kinds of milk.  I'm surprised there isn't some kind of meat board going on too - surely these could be tapas?

I like that they labelled the fruit puree - although you probably could dip this in caramel too.

Less screaming, but they do look like the pictures which is a nice touch.

A nice calm bowl of cinnamon.

Now with almond milk

And they stay pretty crispy too.

And they taste as good as they smell.  A complete success - not too hard (protein cereal I'm looking at you) and interesting enough that the texture doesn't become too samey.  I think the shape helps them look authentic (complete with hole) and helps the milk and flavour bind together.

If these are affordable then I'd probably pick them up all the time as a nice change.

Now - do I re-review them with all the different dips and coatings...

Marmite Graze (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

Love it or hate it. Well it seems that most people have been leaving on the shelf this "New Marmite Graze broad beans, roasted corn and corn hoops in a yeast extract seasoning". Apparently the shop keeper pretty much threw a packet at Cinabar when she walked through the door. Reduced from £1 to 25p in the shop there was a big stack of these Marmite Graze on the shelf.

It puzzles me a little bit. Although I actually don't like Marmite spread on toast, I do love and I really mean love Walkers Marmite crisps. I've even enjoyed Marmite cheese in the past and the odd, and I mean odd Marmite beer. So why doesn't this New Marmite Graze cut it with the "Love it or Hate it" flock of fans? Well, it's unlikely it's the broad beans element in the ingredients, so it's more likely it's the roasted corn and corn hoops.

Personally I love alternative snacks to seeds and nuts. I miss nuts of all varieties and flavours, but with my dietary requirements I now have to look elsewhere for my snacking indulgence when I don't go straight for the crisps.

So on opening the packet there was a strong Marmite aroma from the assortment of broad beans and corn inside. The roasted corn tasted like Marmite flavoured popcorn, but without the 'pop'. The corn hoops tasted like Marmite flavoured very mini Hula Hoops, but without the Hula. The best part about this Marmite Graze was the broad beans. They were very crunchy and were packed full of Marmite flavour.

I'd have been happier if the whole packet had been broad beans. I'm not much of a Grazer these days, so I had these Marmite Graze with my dinner. They went perfectly well with my beef and tomato sandwich. Very nice. I'd have them again.

Information on the packet; At 28g this packet was 123 calories, with 4.8g of fat, 0g of sugar, and 0.42g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Mini Vienesse Mint Ice Creams (Aldi) By @Cinabar

So Britain is still super hot, so don’t mind me, but I have been buying up ice creams and ice lollies to keep cool. We don’t have air conditioning (in general) in UK homes, and we look forward to the sunshine each year, then we complain it is too hot when it arrives. This is the British way. My freezer is now fully stocked with chilled ice cream. This is the best thing to cool down.

These Mini Viennese Mint Ice Creams from Aldi were up next for taste testing. I unwrapped them and was impressed that there were two types of ice cream in the lolly, both mint and chocolate, with layers of thin crispy chocolate. I particularly like the look of the waves down the side, very retro and funky.

I am a big fan of mint, so these were lovely, sweet and creamy and the mix of chocolate was a delight. I liked the crispy texture of the chocolate layers and the novelty just made me smile. This is a good way to cool down. They are a mini ice cream, so not too big and just enough to help keep the heat at bay for a few minutes.