Bourbon Biscuit Ice Cream Sandwiches from ASDA

Living in the back & beyond it sometimes takes new products a while to reach us, although granted it doesn't normally take 6 months. ASDA's range of biscuit inspired ice creams have finally arrived in my little city, hurrah! I told my other half about the range way back in June, and although he rarely gets excited about food (I do enough of that for the both of us) he was really eager to try the Bourbon Ice Creams. Two seasons later he was a little more nonplussed, but I bought them anyway and hoped that ASDA would deliver upon our high expectations.

As far as supermarket own brand ice creams go, they're quite pricey at £2 for a box of six. The 'biscuits' are quite dinky, and so we figured that two is a more reasonable adult portion.

The biscuits tasted rich and cocoa-y, and actually bared a genuine resemblance their tea-dunking counterparts. Now don't get me wrong, they haven't got the snap that's a key factor of a good biscuit, but I didn't expect them too. They're soft and chewy which renders them more cookie-esque, but as we all know cookies-and-ice cream is a classic combination that needn't be messed with. The ice cream centre is chocolatey, but not in a dark intense way, more like a creamy chocolate milkshake... Mmm!

When it comes to this kind of product, I still prefer the Walls Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches (especially as they're only currently £1 for a four-pack at Farmfoods!), however these are a cute idea that I'd have again in future.

8/10

NEW! Milk Chocolate Bubbly Santa from M&S

Merry Christmas!

Santa visited! Well chocolate Santa did, but he's got to be the best kind.

The Santa's moulding is a little fancier than tM&S' white chocolate Polar Bears  -atleast he has eyes- but as you can see he's been in the wars a little bit... probably what Santa looked like after he's been down a million and one chimneys last night! 

Now I don't know about you, but I prefer to keep my chocolate in the fridge. I mention this because the casing is pretty thick, which made Santa a bit difficult to chomp on once refrigerated. The bubbles were less delicate than an Aero's, although not unpleasant -just texturally different. The flavour was rich with a deep cocoa flavour, which made the chocolate taste more luxurious than many leading brands. 

Again, I'm pleasantly surprised by M&S' chocolates and I'll be buying more of their non-seasonal range in future!  

8/10

Have a wonderful day; may you eat drink and be merry!

Bahlsen Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)

It's Christmas Eve -the big day is almost here! However, if like me you have been unfortunate enough to face the Supermarkets these past few days, you may have felt your Christmas spirit wane ever so slightly. If that's the case, and you'd like to be reminded that not everyone is like the crazy trolley bargers that take it upon themselves to be even more rude in the run up to Christmas, then I'd like to tell you about a little bit of festive food kindness I experienced this week.

On a quest to educate myself about as many of the continental traditional festive biscuits as I could*, I saw on Waitrose's website a few weeks ago that they stock 'Zimtsterne' which translates to 'Cinnamon Stars'. As a huge fan of anything even remotely cinnamon-y, I hot-footed it down to my local store to pick some up, but alas, they didn't have any. Nevermind, I thought, I'll buy some in Cardiff when I visit my sister (they're bound to have some!) but yet again, my mission was unsuccessful. I returned to the local Waitrose, who told me the closest store to stock Zimtsterne was in mid-Wales, and at that point I gave up. Fortunately, the people at Bahlsen heard of my thwarted quest and offered to send me a pack in the post, "as it's Christmas". True to their word, and only 36 hours later, a parcel arrived at my door...

Not only had they sent me two packs of the Cinnamon Stars, but a Poppy Seed Stollen to boot! This was extremely welcome as I previously mentioned in the Toffee Apple Mulled Cider review that I hadn't managed to get any Stollen from Waitrose either! 

So Bahlsen's Zimtsterne are more accurately 'Star-shaped cinnamon spiced hazelnut biscuits.' They are soft, and more cakey than biscuit in texture with a powerful cinnamon and hazelnut aroma. The hazelnuts account for 38% of the total ingredients, so its not surprising that you can not only smell them but taste them too. They're quite rustic looking -and tasting- which gives the Zimtsterne a lovely homemade feel. The cinnamon is balanced nicely, and the icing adds an extra touch of sweetness- it is Christmas after all! 

I really love these Stars, and I think I'd even consider making the journey to mid-Wales next year to buy them again. A huge thank-you to Bahlsen for kindly sending me a German Christmas care-package. 

Merry Christmas!

9/10

* My other Continental biscuit reviews, If you're interested:
ASDA'S Lebkuchen Stars
Weiss Pfeffernüsse

Party Melt-In-The-Middle Chocolate Brownies by Sainsbury's

I mustn't be the only person who does this- who buys Christmas food meant for the day itself (or Boxing Day in this case) but who gives into temptation ahead of time? No? Well, I'd bought some party food with the best of intentions, and I swear these mini brownies called to me from the freezer "Eat me! Eat me!" 

So, with only a few days to go, the Brownies got opened. I bought them from Sainsbury's frozen range as part of their 3 for £5 party food deal.The packet advises that you can eat them cold or hot, but why not have them warm and gooey? Handily, they come in individual cases so you can microwave one (or more) at a time. I popped 4 in the microwave for the stated 25 seconds, but they came out tepid and -as I was eating them with ice cream- I nuked them for a further 10 seconds.

The brownies offered an intense dark chocolate burst, and despite the extra microwaving, maintained a small but undeniably gooey centre. They were as as squidgy as any good home-made brownie, however they are only tiny, so even the two I ate didn't touch the sides! 

If you're looking for sweet, inexpensive party food nibbles, and are a chocolate fiend like myself then I recommend these mini melt-in-the-middle brownies from Sainsbury's.

8/10

Take 5, Mike and Ike Zours, Twizzlers & Nerds (Taffy Mail Conclusion)

Take 5
The item I was most undeniably excited about in the Taffy Mail goody box was this Take 5 Bar. It's an unusual concept, and it's called Take 5 because it consists of 5 components: chocolate, pretzels, peanut butter, caramel and peanuts. The packet told me it contained 2 bars, and I was expecting them to come in a 2-finger format like Twix, but instead they were a couple of square-ish shaped blocks.

Once the blocks were sliced into, you could easily distinguish the chocolate, caramel, peanut butter and pretzels, which were evenly distributed (unlike the Cadbury's marvellous creations bars). As a fan of cleanliness and order this pleased me enormously. The structure of the bar meant that you could taste each of the elements in every bite. The chocolate wasn't great, and it reminded me of the coating of Reese's PB cups (I then read the packet and realise that it is indeed made by the same company- Hershey's). The caramel was gloriously sticky, although there wasn't a great deal of it because the bar is so compact. I could taste the peanuts & peanut butter which resembled the filling of a Snickers bar. The most enjoyable element however came as a surprise- it was the pretzels- which added a lovely saltiness to the bar and complemented the sugary chocolate and caramel wonderfully. 

The amalgamation of 5 completely different constituents resulted in textural heaven: bite, chew, smooth and stickiness. Yum.

If you're a fan of the sweet/salty combination I'd definitely recommend Take 5!

9/10

Mike and Ike Zours

These little pellet shaped sweets pack a punch. I'd describe them as a Jelly Bean version of Haribo Tangfastics -minus the sugary coating. Each flavour is perfectly represented (lemon, apple, watermelon, blue raspberry and cherry) and is chewy without pulling being filling-removers. They're utterly different to what we have in the UK, and I'd happily buy them again

7/10

Twizzlers
I've seen these in the import sections of both B&M and Tesco. Twizzlers are another Hershey's product and are strawberry twisted licorice. The flavour was mild and very synthetic, and although they're quite fun to eat in a 'Cheesestrings' kind of way, I'd probably opt for normal strawberry laces in favour of Twizzlers.

3/10

Nerds
Nerds were something I remember enjoying as a child, and this duo pack of cherry lemonade and watermelon apple rekindled my love of these little crunchy miniature sweets, although I'm not sure I could identify the flavours if asked!

7/10

Taffy Mail Conclusion
Once again, a huge thank you to the guys at Taffy Mail for sending me a sample of their Classic Box to review.

Christmas is just a couple of days away, and if you're panicking that you've not finished buying gifts for those you love, then why not subscribe to Taffy Mail for them, boxes start from just £7.49 and that way they recieve a box each month!

Alternatively If you've got a sweet tooth, and crave something a bit different to what's available on the UK market, Taffy Mail might just be your answer.

For more info please visit: www.taffymail.co.uk

NEW! Heston's Toffee Apple Mulled Cider from Waitrose

I went into Waitrose yesterday on a Stollen mission, which was unsucessful because firstly the staff member didn't know what it was (what the hell!) & secondly I'd left it too late and they'd sold out.. boo.

When I was leaving the store however, this mulled concoction from their Heston Blumenthal range caught my eye. I'm not a fan of Heston -I find his arrogance grating- however I am grateful to him for opening our eyes to the wondrous nature of salted caramel. Anyway, this bottle of Toffee Apple Mulled cider was just over £3.00 a bottle and so I decided to give it a go. 

The bottle doesn't say whether to heat it or chill it, so I opened it at room temperature and then realised it should be drunk cold like traditional cider, so I cheated and added some ice to my glass. The traditional mulling spices came through well, but the concoction was lacking the dark caramel tones that it promised. It was generally just very sweet, and not a particularly great quality cider.

The low alcohol percentage (5.5%) combined with the sweetness of this Toffee Apple Cider means that it would probably appeal to fans of alcopops, but sadly its not one for me. 

5/10 

Cadbury's Yule Logs

Hannah & Lucy have been hot on the case when it comes to the battle of the supermarket Yule Logs, and I highly recommend reading their reviews if you're undecided as to where to buy one from this year. 

As there's just two of us (and our mutt Monty) in our house -and my other half isn't keen on chocolate cake- I thought I'd buy the Cadbury's Mini Yule Logs rather than miss out altogether. The pack of 6 was bought from ADSA for £1.50, and Cadbury describe them as 'Chocolate flavoured sponge with chocolate flavoured cream, covered with milk chocolate and sprinkled with a light sweet dusting'

Unwrapping the logs I was pleased to discover that they looked as chocolatey as they promised, with a light sugary coating and the tell-tale icing ruts mimicking bark. Cutting it in half however, I realised that visually it was a very dry sponge, and the taste confirmed my suspicions. It was completely devoid of the naughty gooey buttercream that makes a Yule Log so delicious, and the milky creaminess of Cadbury's chocolate. I wouldn't have guessed that this was a Cadbury's creation at all, as it bared no resemblance to their chocolate. 

What a disappointment, these Yule Logs a more like a lacklustre mini roll. Cravings unsatisfied, I might have to give in to the recommendations of Lucy and Hannah... 

4/10