Smokin' Hot!

When my coupons arrived for the latest campaign for Orchard that involved Tesco Finest Cheese, I was excited to see what the range had in store.

My local store however only offered a small selection of the range and with being 4months pregnant I was only able to try the hard cheese as normally I would have gone straight for Tesco's Finest Goat's Cheese.

The first cheese that I opted for was the Smoked Extra Mature Cheddar which I have learned is produced by Wykes Farms in Somerset.

This cheese appealed to me as I am a fan of Applewood and as this promised a similar balance of flavours it was an easy choice.

The cheese is tightly packed and is not resealable, one of my main frustrations with cheese as you end up with lots of little packages made up of aluminium foil in your fridge, especially at Christmas time.

The cheese was fairly dry when I opened the packaging and it was clear the cheese had been smoked with the aromas that wafted out of the packet and the clear smoked tinge on the edges and throughout the block of cheese.

I cut a few slices off to try and was overpowered by the flavour. The strong mature flavour of the cheddar with the smokiness hit me straight away and I was unsure if I liked the taste. I had expected more hints of the cider to flow through the cheese but the actual taste was masked behind the smoked flavour.

I went for good old cheese on crackers to try out this cheese to begin with and was a bit unsure, I sliced it thinly, the cheese then went from the dry texture and found that it was a little wet and stuck to the knife when cutting which I think if left out to get to room temperature would make it more of a softer cheese such as the similar tasting flavour of Applewood, I did however, find that the cracker complemented the richness of the flavour of the cheese and would infact be a great addition to a cheeseboard.

I added a few slices of Black Garlic cloves to see how the combination worked with the cheese as it offered a sweet flavour and found it a tasty combination but again the actual cheese is very overpowering and when teamed with other foods can be a little overbearing.

I did find however that the taste stayed with me and left a pleasant aftertaste and would definitely be a cheese I would consider having in the future for special occasions.

As an everyday cheese however, I would have to avoid.

Sweet meets Savoury

I was invited to join the latest Bzz Agent Campaign to review the latest offering from Jacobs in their snacking range 'Cracker Crisps'

 

In my box of treats I recieved 1 of each flavour of the 150g Share Bag and some coupons to pass along to friends who would like to give them a try for themselves.

 

 

First up was the Thai Sweet Chilli Flavour.

I was expecting the flavour to be somewhat overpowering but found it more mellow and subtle but extremely tasty and after each bite wanting more and more.

As someone who has followed a healthy eating plan for years and maintained my weight for a while now and cut out most of my snacking habits but when the weekend arises, I do find it hard to resist the share bags of popcorn or crisps so as a 'healthier alternative' these really fill a gap in the healthy snack market in my opinion.

 

I decided to try creating a dip for my cracker crisps and opted for the reduced fat creme fraiche which was really a great combination with the cool flavour combined with the sweet flavour of the chilli.

 

Another idea would be to chop up some fresh chives and combine with the creme fraiche for a healthier cream and chive dip.

 

The recommended serving is 25g which would work out to be 3pp.

 

For me, these are my new treat at the weekend and a new found snack that isn't so sinful.

 

Back to review the other flavours shortly.....

Which one will you choose?

As a mum of a 4 year old boy when you are out and about finding something suitable for them to drink can be quite difficult especially when you have a fussy eater like I do.

I don’t like to give my child fizzy drinks, preferring to give him a squash based drink when possible.

Fortunately for me my son does really enjoy the Fruit Shoot range and when we received the latest Bzz Agent kit he was very excited to join in the campaign with me.

I always prefer to offer something to my son where no added sugar is involved so the Robinson’s Fruit Shoot range has always seemed like a healthy choice and is usually widely available in child friendly food places and is the alternative to fizzy drinks in places such as McDonald’s. However just because they are widely available are they the healthy alternative to fizzy drinks that I am led to believe?

With there currently being a huge buzz around reducing the amount of sugar in our diets I was interested to see where the Robinson’s range sits and it appears that Robinson’s have took notice of this with the introduction of the No Added Sugar range rather than providing the standard Fruit Shoot ranges which offered 10g of sugar and the low sugar version which offered 2.4g of sugar the replacement range of Fruit Shoot No Added Sugar contain 1.6g of sugar in comparison.

Britvic, which manufacturers Robinsons Fruit Shoots, provide clear nutritional information on all of their packs to help you to make an informed decision.

The Fruit Shoot Hydro a now offers 0g of sugar making it the healthier option and were the one’s I was looking at trying with my son as they seemed the healthier alternative for him in the long term.

First of all we tried the 200ml Fruit Shoot in Orange flavour, previously when I have tasted these they have always tasted overly sweet and not a drink that I enjoyed to sample, however to my 4 year old he really enjoyed the sweet taste and within about 10 minutes he had finished the drink.

Watching him drink I could tell that he didn’t really notice too much difference and he would have mentioned if he did not like the taste so it certainly passed his taste test. For me I found it was much easier to drink as the overbearing sweetness seemed to have been reduced but would still not be my drink of choice.

The next day we opted to try the Fruit Shoot Hydro. I myself had often looked at these in the supermarket and wondered about trying them with my son. We had received the Apple and Blackcurrant version to sample and although he did not drink it as rapidly as he had the Fruit Shoot he still enjoyed it, pointing out that it was water as he obviously recognised that there was no colour to the liquid but as he tasted it he like the flavour and again it had passed the taste test with my son asking to have more of these in the future.

As the Fruit Shoot Hydro is a sugar free still water drink this definitely appeals to me as a parent but the fact that it contains artificial sweeteners still causes me a slight area for concern. From the list of ingredients the Hydro contains Sweeteners (Sucralose, Acesulfame K) which has been rumoured to be a danger to health in the long term but having looked at the information published on the NHS Website it has been approved for use and considering that my son would not be drinking several of these each day and would more likely to be one or two in a month time frame this is not a huge concern to me at present.

I tried this drink and found it to be the best tasting of the three, it was not too sweet to the taste and I felt it was a healthy alternative to the other Fruit Shoot range.

The final drink that my son tried a few days later was the Fruit Shoot MY-5, again another drink I have looked at for my son as it boasts containing one of your child’s five a day. Now I am sure many mothers can relate about the worries we have about our children eating the right foods and often struggle in getting them to eat fresh fruit and sometimes vegetables so I can see how this can appeal to parents.

The MY-5 is 80% fruit juice mixed with a splash of water and contains no artificial colours, flavourings, sweeteners or preservatives so seems to offer an overall healthy drink, but take a look at the packaging and this drink offers a whopping 17g of sugar that’s 4 teaspoons of sugar!

Although the drink appeals as being the healthy option and appears to be a good way to get your child to have one of their 5 a day for me as a parent the level of sugar at such a young age could lead to other issues such as tooth decay so I don’t think we will be purchasing any more in the near future.

I found the drink a bit too rich for my taste and although the flavours tasted  the most natural out of the three products offered in the Fruit Shoot range, I just couldn't justify providing that much sugar to myself let alone a 4year old boy.

Out of the 3 drinks that my son sampled he preferred to drink the Fruit Shoot Hydro which for me I will look to switch over from the Fruit Shoot No Added Sugar due to the lower sugar levels but with the concern over sweeteners I would not like to offer him too many.