A Big Hello and Goodbye

This is just a quick post to explain my absent on this blog the past few months. As I hinted at in previous posts I have decided to move away from reviewing sweet things exclusively. So instead I have started a brand new blog called Geek Boy Babbles.

I have already posted a few pages on there. So if you are missing my blog at all you can always find me here: http://geekboybabbles.blogspot.co.uk/

Hope to see you soon.

Turkish Delight time

So last week marked the start of lent. I myself am giving something up, not out of any religious belief. No, I give up something because I am rather stubborn and enjoy a good challenge.

What have I given up? Well I hope you’re sitting down for this… I’m giving up the sweet cocoa ambrosia itself, chocolate! Shocking I know and many of you may shout impossible or fear for my wellbeing. Fear not friends, this is my fourth year of giving up the smooth stuff that pretty much flows through my veins. Two of these three previous attempts have been successful. The first time in fact went so well it stretched until Christmas! Last year was the failure and I only lasted a week before caving to my craving. It wasn’t my fault a friend made me do it. Honest!

So what can I possibly be reviewing as a result? Well not chocolate clearly as that’s well and truly out the window for the time being. But fear not I present to you some uncoated Turkish delight.  Weirdly though a firm lover of jelly and general gummy-ness I have never given it the time of day, until now that is. Before I have often been a bit turned off by the perfume aroma, it smelled a bit too much like soap or Grandma. Neither of which were really that mouth-watering as prospects go.

However due to recent developments I found and purchased this box thinking it’s time to take a dive into Turkish territory (should probably rephrase that as it’s rather controversial topic that!). Anyway this box doesn’t just contain the regular Rose flavour, No! It has lemon too! So without further ado and a lack of sugar I pop one in my mouth, pausing only to take in the soapy smell.

I take a Rose one first and am immediately surprised at the gummy texture. It’s quite pleasant and an odd mixture of gummy bear and rubber. Whilst this doesn’t exactly sound nice I kind of like it. Perhaps the chocolate shortage has caused me to go mad… madder. People have told me in the past that the texture is the turn off, too rubbery but I find it’s rather like a slightly warm wine gum. Not too chewy either as it melts really quickly and smoothly in the mouth. The taste isn’t too bad either with a nice Rose hint without being over powering or like swallowing washing powder. The lemon was just as great with a nice subtle sweet taste unlike the usual bitterness.

Overall both were nice, a reason I like to break the odd habit every now and then. You never know what you’re missing out on.

Score
Rose - 6 out of 11
Lemon - 6 out of 11

Found
Lidl

Final Thoughts
Sorry for the late post, still rather busy and lacking the usual chocolate sugar rushes.

Cadbury Combinations

I know, I know once again I haven't posted in an age. Fear not I haven't given up blogging. It's just been a combination of being snowed over by University essays and a lack of Internet in my house for about a week. As I say have no fear as I will keep trying to post and hopefully there will be something exciting on the horizon for my blog.
But before I divulge too much information I will talk about some new products I have tried recently. Once again Cadbury seems to be having some kind of crazy inspiration phase and have released a lot of new products. Two of which I have tracked down and tried recently. These are the Ritz and Lu cracker combinations that have been released. I found these rather easily after hearing about them and they immediately surprised me in a few ways. Firstly their price at fifty pence for four rather large squares I was impressed by the quality for my moneys worth. They come in a nifty snack size packet that can also be resealed, which is awesome in two ways.
Taste wise I was mostly impressed by the Ritz version which has a nice salty Ritz cracker taste that's quickly followed by the usual Cadbury milk chocolate sweetness. Which is where I found a problem, namely that the chocolate is rather overpowering. Worse still is that the Lu cracker has no discernible flavour of it's own and really only adds a crunch to the slab of chocolate.

The tiny crackers are soooo cute 

Perhaps there is indeed a problem with how sweet the Cadbury milk chocolate is. The UK version is well known for being much sweeter than it's continental counter parts but usually I have no quams with it. I love how creamy and intense the flavour is alone but in combination bars it would be nice if they could reign it in somewhat. It feels a bit pointless in bars such as these and the other combo ranges, when all you really can taste is the chocolate. Perhaps I'm expecting too much.


Overall these are nice bars and at a good size/price, but perhaps it's time we reigned in the sweetness.

May have been a bit disappointing but it didn't go down the (snigger) loo!

Score
Ritz - 6 out of 11
Lu - 5 out of 11

Found
One Stop convenience minishop

Final Thoughts
Something wickedly exciting this way comes!

Lindor Strawberries & Cream

So today is my birthday, the day when I deserve to do whatever I want to! Want to know what I choose? Well being a now 21 year old student at university I think the answer is pretty much expected. I want to stay in doors eat chocolate and blog about it. Admittedly not the most exciting ways to celebrate but considering the weather today and my boring nature I think it's rather understandable.

Plus there is some excitement to be had indoors, actually quite a lot, in fact most excitement happens in doors. Anyway back on task, yes there is excitement to be had. As I have found the elusive Lindor Strawberries and Cream limited edition I mentioned in my last post. Admittedly it didn't take me long, although I bought them from somewhere selling them at practically double the price of Sainsbury's. I hope that they are worth it, if not I'll be doubly depressed in money and taste buds.

What a beautiful day!

To be on the safe side at the same time I also purchased a box of the coconut Lindor's too, again at a slightly inflated price. Then again I am a sucker for an impulse buy and still have access to a student loan, lets face it who needs good food when baked beans are 25 pence? So first up the coconut Lindor's in their baby blue foil. which after unwrapping allows me to take in a very sweet coconut aroma that signals good times ahead.

For once the coloring isn't dictating gender

Biting through the usual thick and creamy milk chocolate shell, easily melting like fudge on the tongue I gain access to the coconut core. A smooth and also creamy ganache which whilst appearing solid has a thick liquid like texture to it. The taste of coconut is intense and very sweet without becoming sickly. Together the flavours become very rich and suffer from Lindor's usual problem of feeling a bit heavy. I often can't and won't have more than a couple at a time because they can become sickly and filling.

This won't, however, stop me from popping the next one in my mouth. Contrasting the baby blue theme with a pale pink I unwrap the foil. The smell isn't quite as powerful with only a hint of strawberry. Throwing one in my mouth whole in excitement I'm met with an amazing taste of subtly sweet strawberry and milky white chocolate. Whilst not tasting exactly as it title suggests, more of strawberry milkshake than the summer dessert, it still tastes amazing. I hope this one isn't too much of a limited edition and carries on long after valentines day.

Though I didn't feel very manly nomming these, damn you society!

Overall both were nice if a little expensive. It's my own fault I could probably have got these on offer in in a week, but it is my special day so I pampered myself.
poundland

Score
coconut 7 out of 11
strawberries 8 out of 11

Found
Superdrugs

Final Thoughts
Celebrating birthdays always seem odd to me, yay I survived another day... Again!

Thorton's Strawberry Heart Lolly

It’s an odd time for chocolate at the moment, a time when the confectionary aisle has developed the worrying traits of split personality disorder. There seems to be a battle going on between the forces of Valentine’s Day and Easter. Retailers aren’t quite sure which to focus on. Add to that the problem of left over Christmas stock (and god-forbid Halloween) you have a three way war on my attention and my wallet.

                It’s Valentine’s Day that’s the problem, you see it is only one day so understandably they don’t want to prepare too much, except unlike Halloween it’s a single day that is very heavily gift orientated. It’s odd how us humans can take a concept of love and easily interweave that with money. Essentially the day is proving you love someone with items, which ironically is against its very idea. However this is a rather negative way of looking at it and hay ho it also means lots of lovely chocolate!

They won't evade capture for long!

                I’ve seen the usual influx of new and limited products sweeping the shelves in anticipation of the big day, the one I most want to try is Lindor’s strawberry and cream. It seems however everyone else has the same wish and I find that the shelf is bare when I go to grab a box. As you can imagine this leaves me slightly disappointed and with a hole inside, a hole only chocolate can fill. For instance the other day on finding a lack of product I consoled myself with a Thornton’s strawberry and white chocolate love heart. These are pretty big too so it definitely cheered me up after the devastating lack of Lindor.

                They look nice and obviously fittingly themed and shaped, although the fact that it’s on a stick worries me. It’s a rather horrific idea if you think about this in another way. I get the obvious symbolism of, here (insert loved ones name) take my love (represented by heart shape).  Lovely on the face of it, except in this instance they will then devour your love leaving you with a stick and a wrapper ready for the bin. Perhaps I’m thinking too much or maybe I’m just a terrible cynic.

Mine didn't last long enough for photos

                As a chocolate it’s nice though so I’d quite happily devour it. Really this is just a re-sized and re-shaped Thornton’s strawberry smile, but those taste great anyway so I’m not complaining. It has a great sweet fruity aroma which carries through to the taste. As soon as you bite down you get a beautifully sweet strawberry taste that’s neither over powering nor artificial. It melts perfectly too with the texture of cream, fitting rather considering the age old British summer tradition. The mix with the white chocolate is what provides the delicious texture and creamy aftertaste that thankfully doesn’t distract from the fruit taste.

                Overall these Valentine’s Day treats are great and it will be a shame once they have left us alone and seeking comfort in a weeks’ time. Then I will need consoling again, this time I’m thinking mini-eggs!

Score
7 out of 11

Found
Superdrug

Final Thoughts
By Easter is Christmas chocolate retro?

Slug and Lettuce Winchester

January was a bit of a fail really! I’m sure I can’t be the only one glad to see the back of it. The whole month is notoriously thought of as the most draining and dreary month of the year. It even contains the least productive and downright depressing day of the year Blue Monday!

                A combination of Christmas and New Year excitement hangover and being the epitome of bleak mid-winter, ensures the whole month feels like one long early morning commute. It also hasn’t helped that I’ve had some rather distracting personal issues that have kept me from blogging. I won’t go into the details of my tales of woe, but let me tell you they are harrowing. If I’m honest though no matter how hard things got they weren’t the main cause of my lack of productivity.

Mostly harmless... unless I'm around!

                No, the main cause of procrastination and bad blogger guilt was the video game Ni No Kuni an amazing game for the PS3. I won’t go into a review for it here, partly because I have a review already in mind but mostly because I’m still trapped in its world at the moment! The one thing that I did manage to achieve is sorting out a place to live for next year, it was if I’m honest more important than defeating the White Witch. To celebrate our continuing home ownership, I and my house went out for a meal. Nowhere fancy, we are after all “poor students”, but a celebratory dinner none the less. Why however they are celebrating living with my madness for another year is beyond me (anyone who knows of the “Olive Incident” can attest to this!).

                We picked the Slug and Lettuce as our venue of choice and settled down to chow their food. I opted for a Jerk chicken salad, essentially two chicken kebabs with a bowlful of leaves I know but when you consider I had dessert in mind you’ll forgive me. Anyway the chicken was amazingly spicy and the salad allowed me to discover the delights of pomegranate seeds which are juicy and refreshing. None of this mattered really though as dessert was constantly on my mind. With such a good selection it was a tough choice let me tell you.

                I finally found my saviour in the form of the slightly sickly though amazing sounding Toffee apple crumble and picked ice cream for the side. I didn’t hold much hope for the toffee part and was expecting just your usual apple crumble (I say usual it doesn’t stop it being one of my favourite foods consumable in vast quantities.) However when it arrived and I breached its crispy crumble topping I found the filling to be a beautiful golden hue suggesting a toffee treat. It was great not at all sickly with a great combination of sweet sugary toffee and slightly tart apples that balanced each other out. The topping was really crispy and almost dented the spoon. I found the ice cream to be a good a compliment with a subtly sweet vanilla taste that helped achieve the balance.

                Overall it was a great night out, brilliant food, awesome company and generally a nice way to counter the January blues. 

A ban on Carrots for me!!!

Ouch, Yeash, Ooopsy! Which ever expletive you prefer the meaning is the same. I have been slacking a bit lately and those show if I'm honest that I don't really have an excuse. It's been almost three weeks since my last post. I'd like to say I've been super busy, but in honesty that would be a lie. If I took the honesty further I'd have to say I think my one post a day challenge burned me out.

Also the fact that I am no longer limiting my blog to just sweets has meant I in theory do have more topics open to me. So what does one talk about when they have the entirety of the cosmos to talk about. Well I think considering this blogs history the obvious answer is food. It's on my mind much of the time and as of recently rather on my body too. No don't worry I've not got into weird food fetishes over the festive period (that would just be plain odd). Nope, according to some however my latest obsession (snacking on carrots) has taken an amusing and worrying turn.

It was noticed the other day by a "friend" (a true friend may have let me enjoy my blissful ignorance perhaps) that my hands had taken up a bit of an Orange hue. Of course like a good chum they didn't pull me to one side let me know subtly and let me go dignity in tact. No, they chose the true friend fashion of telling everyone in the vicinity and embarrassing the hell out of me. To be honest that's a true sign of love right there. Better still was this was during another friends birthday celebration meaning my whole group could revel in my strangeness.

So there I stood for about ten minutes with my hands upheld for inspection by all. The outcome was several speculations and helpful hints. Followed by a ruling from my girlfriend telling all to watch my carrot intake and from now on. I felt a bit like a drug addict at rehab, except my habits not quite as cool. Although it does mean I too see things in the dark.

At the time of writing I feel my obsession with the orange "sin sticks" is passing and hopefully I will return to "normal" soon. But I am also weirdly concerned and intrigued as to what my next food craving could be. It also brings up a cool discussion point please comment below about your food ravings that seemed odd or had a colorful affect on your life. I look forward to seeing the craziness put forward. In the mean time I will be playing with the blog and the layout as I still haven't updated it since being truthful about myself at New Years.

Carrots gotta love em'