Skeeter’s Original BBQ sauce (Aldi) By @SpectreUK

I love barbecue sauce. I haven't written about a sauce for a good long while. I always like barbecue sauce on chips, and sometimes even potatoes. I also have a habit from when I was a child in fast food takeaways, of dipping my cheeseburger in barbecue sauce. I would not dip it in any other sauce mind, only barbecue.

So you can see that barbecue sauce is probably my favourite sauce of them all. Sure I like tomato ketchup, brown sauce, curry sauce, and other sauces, especially hot sauces - though they have to be tasty hot sauces, like Cholula. If a hot chilli sauce just burns my mouth out and stops me from tasting the rest of my food, it's a waste of time to me.

Cinabar saw this Skeeter's Original BBQ sauce in a local supermarket. It was produced by Bramwells. There's not much information on the bottle, but it seems like a classical American barbecue sauce to me. There are so many barbecue sauces on the market, just another one of many needs a flavoursome taste and should probably be a little distinctive from the rest. So chips and a cheeseburger here I go.

There was a good sweet and smoky aroma on pouring out the sauce. I see why they have a bull on the front of the bottle. This is a perfect barbecue sauce for steak and chips, and of course, a cheeseburger and fries. That sweet smoky barbecue flavour really enhanced the chips, and then on dipping my cheeseburger too. The sweet barbecue sauce slapped my tastebuds making my mouth water, and the smokiness complemented the beefiness of my cheeseburger. I'll definitely have this sauce in regularly from now on.

Wispa Gold Salted Caramel (Tesco) By @Cinabar

Oh my, it is salted caramel. That signifies worrying times ahead. If a company wants to bring out a new flavour but times are difficult, you need something that will be a definite win. That translates to the obvious choice of salted caramel. It is safe, so very safe. It isn’t exciting, and in a product that already has caramel, it is such a minor change that I’ll be interested to know if it is worth it.

For the record, I do like salted caramel, which I guess is the point as to why it is so low risk, but it does annoy me because it isn’t imaginative. Still trying to be open minded, I unwrapped the bar. Nothing different in the aroma to the regular Wispa Gold, it all looks much the same. I gave it a try, and have to say there was a reasonable amount of salt. This was nice with the sweet flavours, and the contrast was tasty. The chocolate did carry it well. Will I be bothered when they get discontinued? Not particularly, they are good but not that interesting. I bought enough to keep me going anyway. Did I end up buying six bars because the crafty lady in Tesco upsold me? Yes completely true. I bought three and the lady said they are on three for two. I replied and said I know. She replied, so if you buy one more you get two free. So I did. Her mind games were next level.

Costa Coffee Frappe - Choc Fudge Brownie (Ocado) By @Cinabar

It is another hot and muggy day, and not one of those where you can even enjoy the sunshine. Thunderstorms are predicted, which will hopefully break the heatwave. In the meantime, I’m still searching out the best ways to keep cool. Obviously, as a caffeine addict, iced coffee is high on my list. I also have a sweet tooth, so this Costa Coffee Frappe Choc Fudge Brownie drink sounded perfect for me on this warm evening.

The bottle looked small but I was pleased that it filled my glass nicely. The colour of the drink is more coffee than chocolate milkshake but I could pick up on the sweet chocolatey aroma. I gave the drink a sip and I was impressed. The drink is substantially a sweet coffee, but the chocolate brownie flavour was sweet and added depth. It was far too easy to drink this ice-cold Costa Coffee Frappe with Choc Fudge Brownie, it was sweet and caffeinated and was the perfect pick me up. I will have to get more, even if the heatwave doesn’t persist.

Kulfi Ice - a true taste of the east (@NLi10)

It's too hot again - and so I decided that I'd do a 'still eating this' review about Kulfi Ice.  I mean we used to get through tubs & tubs of the stuff so I must have written once or twice about it already, right?

Turns out - no! Back in those days we mostly stuck to snack bars and so on, so tubs of Kulfi iced deserts didn't make it on.  But - a few years ago we switched to getting the Kulfi on a stick version.  Less flavour variety but so much easier.

So what are they?  If you are from the UK they are basically a more grown-up version of the Mini Milk.  You freeze a milkshake and then you eat it! This has pistachio and various other things in it to make it a grainy and sophisticated experience.

OK, it's basically milk and sugar and some flavours and colours (along with the nuts) - but it is very nice.

We tended to see it originally as a desert in the many many Eastern restaurants around Birmi9ngham then realised we could be eating it at home too. It survives this ludicrous heat really well - I think it might be designed not to just fall on the floor like all English Ice-Creams are.

As I've been eating these for at least 15 years ( I remember siting in the garden with a tub shortly after we moved in) it's safe to say I'm a fan, but these stick versions are really much easier.  

If you like the flavour of cooked milk and pistachios then give it a go.

Flake & Sauce Ice Cream Pale Ale (@WeeBeerShop @NMBCo) By @SpectreUK

Ice cream pale ale, what better beer to drink in a heatwave. Cinabar excitedly showed me lots of beers she was ordering from the Wee Beer Shop online. This Flake & Sauce Ice Cream Pale Ale was produced by Northern Monk. At 6.2% in volume the back of the can stated that it was a "soft & creamy pale ale with raspberry & chocolate." I do love Raspberry Ripple ice cream as some readers may have found out from my blog on Wednesday night. So raspberry, chocolate and vanilla in a pale ale on a hot summer night after another long week at work sounds pretty perfect to me.

There was a fruity chocolate smell on opening the can. I would go further and say it smelt more like Raspberry Ripple and chocolate. On pouring the contents you can see from the photograph that this Flake & Sauce Ice Cream Pale Ale had a pinkish tint to it. On taste this pale ale had a sharp tart raspberry flavour to begin with, with sweet malts behind it and then it was smoothed out by sweet roasted chocolate malt to the finish. This was a lovely fruity sweet and chocolate malty pudding beer. Very tasty indeed. I'd certainly recommend it.