Gummi Lightning Bugs

These Gummi Lightning Bugs have beef gelatine in them as well, so I wont be eating them, but frankly I'm not sure that's the point of these. In the pack you have a selection of gummy sweets that look like larvae and a set of electronic tongs.Clasp a bug in the tongs (with the lights out) and voila! The bug glows.
It's a simple but impressive gimmick. It's just a shame about that beef gelatine, really.

Giant Size Mallow Burger

I bought this giant mallow burger, but discovered that it had beef gelatine in the ingredients and being vegetarian, I'm not going to eat it.Looks impressive though, doesn't it?

Rachel's Organic Mood Yoghurts

Rachel's Organic have released a range of yoghurts that are supposed to enhance your mood in an apparent response to consumer demand. I can be a bit up and down sometimes, so I figured these were worth a road test.
There are currently three moods available in the range; revitalising, refreshing and relaxing.
Last night I had the relaxing mood which was made up of plum, honey and lavender. It's a nice yoghurt and was I scraping around the tub for dregs in no time. As to it's relaxing qualities, I'm not so sure. I didn't feel any more relaxed than I already was. Mind you, I was watching Spike Lee's harrowing Hurricane Katrina documentary which probably didn't help.
I then tried the orange, lemon and ginger refreshing mood with my breakfast this morning. Again, the flavour of the yoghurt was excellent. The potentially overpowering ginger was kept to a minimum letting the citrus shine. However, my eyelids are drooping a little as I write this and I'm thinking of getting a cup of coffee in a minute.
Update: This morning (being the morning of the 29th), I tried the revitalising with my breakfast. The banana, blueberry and siberian ginseng was very tasty, but the yoghurt did nothing to brush away the excess of a long bank holiday weekend.
Overall the taste of these yoghurts was uniformly delicious, but they really didn't seem to do a great deal for my mood. Available only at Waitrose, these are worth grabbing if you're looking for a tasty yoghurt but perhaps not if you're feeling a bit crabby.

Innocent Smoothie For Summer

I've got a couple of healthy posts for a change starting with the Innocent Smoothie for Summer. I'm already a fan of Innocent smoothies. Their drinks are generally just crushed fruit stuffed into a bottle and they have that Ben & Jerry's type of ethical quirkiness.
Innocent usually have a variety of short run flavours and this is the one for summer; cherries and strawberries. The bottle has a hand drawn lawnmower on it and declares that this is; "The perfect smoothie for summer, season of flip flops, freckles and rained off barbecues". There is also a small section of the label that tells you all about the world record for spitting cherry stones. All Innocent bottles have these strange facts on them and I have never read the same one twice. Impressive.
The drink itself is delicious. There is a strong taste of strawberries that is brightened by the addition of cherries. It's not quite summer in a bottle, but it's close.
There is nothing to fault here. Whimsical packaging (I'm always impressed when there is more to read than the contents on a label), natural ingredients and a moral conscience all add up to a fabulous drink. Get one today.

Pop Rocks Roller

Ahhh...Pop Rocks...a source of great childish amusement and fodder for many an urban myth. Perhaps feeling threatened by Mento's as the instant Coke fizzer of choice these days, Pop Rocks have started appearing with a variety of novelty add ons, in this case a candy roller.
You have a pot of Pop Rocks in a mock paint tin container and some stripy candy posing on a plastic handle as a paint roller.You get an generous amount of Pop Rocks which explode like crazy in your mouth although the popping sensation doesn't last as long as higher quality Pop Rocks. They also got stuck together in the tin very, very quickly making it difficult to get them out with just the roller. The roller itself doesn't actually roll either, it's fixed in a static position and you can't get the whole thing in the tin, just the end. Overall, it's a nice idea cheaply executed.

Schweppes Summer Punch Lemonade

As the balmy days of summer begin dwindling, I though I'd grab a bottle of Summer Punch Lemonade before it disappeared off the shelves to make way for Autumn fare.
It's an interesting flavour with a distinct fruit tang and an underlying taste of mint. As a stand alone drink it's not that great, but I could imagine it going well with Pimm's.

Kellogg's Smorz

The campfire treat whittled down to a breakfast cereal? This should be interesting.
Smorz or rather s'mores traditionally consist of two graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate. The marshmallow is heated over a campfire and when it is sufficiently gooey, stuck between the graham crackers with the chocolate. The heat from the marshmallow should then melt the chocolate, thus creating a s'more. This is generally an American treat, so I'd never really had one until a few years ago. I've got a Hershey s'mores maker that I brought back from the States stashed somewhere too.
There is an Ice Age 2 tie-in on the box where you get a frisbee with characters from the film on it. Unfortunately you have to send off four coupons and be a resident of the U.S.A. to qualify. Bah! One day....
The cereal itself is made from grahams and is coated in chocolate. There is also a generous helping of marshmallows thrown in to help create that s'more authenticity. Does it work though?
Frankly, no, these do not taste anything like a s'more. It's unsuprising though, when you consider the effort required for a real s'more; build campfire, cook marshmallow for 5 mins, stick in graham crackers and eat as opposed to; pour in bowl, add milk, and eat.
It is pretty good cereal though. It has nice chocolate taste that isn't too overpowering and it's not too sweet. I'd eat it again.
Here's a link to a recipe for s'mores. It shouldn't be too hard to recreate a s'more round an English campfire as I saw graham crackers in Waitrose yesterday.

Sparletta Sparberry

I wandered past a South African deli the other day and thought I'd pop in to see if I could find something to blog about. I found this can of sparberry drink. I have no idea what sparberry is and flavourant is as good as the ingredients get.
The can looks kind of amateurish with 70's style graphics depicting bubbles and rocket ships. However, the slogan "a product of the Coca Cola company" reveals Sparletta to be no smalltime operation. When I gave it a taste I still had no idea what sparberry's might be. The drink was a pleasant fruity flavour which wasn't too overpowering or sweet. It reminded me of a generic red drink that I used to have as a kid. I didn't know what that was either, as you tend to define flavours by colours when you are a child; "I want the red drink!" etc. I'd drink this again if it didnt cost me 95p a can.

Monmouth Coffee Shop

I had to attend a meeting in London Bridge today so I took the opportunity to have a cup of the finest coffee that you can get in the city. There is a food market in London Bridge called Borough Market and it has a great old London atmosphere to it. There are stalls selling fresh fish, meat, bread and vegetables and all of it is mmmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just outside the market on one corner is the Monmouth Coffee shop and it is simply the best coffee that you can get in London.
I had a cappucino and it was lovely. A smooth rich, dark blend with a slight licorice aftertaste. Beat that, Starbucks!

McDonalds Rolo Milkshake

Chase and I ventured out of the office to give the limited edition Rolo Milkshake a try at McDonalds. Rolo's, for those that dont know, are round caramel filled chocolates. For years the marketing tagline for them has been; "Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo?". I'm not sure who thought this up, but if I stuffed myself with a packet of Rolo's and only had one left, my Wife would not be impressed. The whole pack is the only romantic notion that she would be pleased with. The last one would only imply that she was an afterthought and I would be in trouble. I digress, however...
I'm not a huge frequenter of McDonalds, but these milkshakes have piqued my curiosity. The cup has the same logo and colours as the rolls of chocolates and there is a conspicuous limited edition stamp on it to remind us that these are only around for the summer. Chase and I grabbed a couple and took a sip. They do taste like Rolo's. I'm pretty impressed actually. I don't usually like chocolate milkshakes but the caramel/chocolate combo that's been captured so well in this shake is a winner for me. Grab one while you can.We also picked up the kid's meal toy out of idle curiosity and it's Filmore, the VW camper van from Cars. He's got some friction action, but it's a bit slow. He wasn't even going fast enough to fly off the tray.

Fake Lego Riot Police

I was going to post about the limited edition Rolo milkshake that McDonalds are currently offering but they'd run out of shake mix in the one that I visited. So instead I picked up this fake Lego riot police car. There's probably no way that Lego would bring out riot coppers in their range so it's left to the bootleggers to fill that particular void.
On the back of the box it suggests that riot police are; "The conquerer of all violent and terrorist events". Cool. Rather more alarmingly it says 45 pieces....45 pieces? That'll take me all night.

Getting the stuff out of the box didn't exactly make me feel any better, but I set about it with resolve. 5 minutes later I'd assembled something similar to what was on the box, although there were some extra bits conspicuously lying around afterwards. None the less it looked OK to me. The back of the box shows a couple of variations like a jeep and a pick-up truck but frankly, I wasn't in the mood to faff around with a perfectly reasonable looking police vehicle. I must admit that I'm not sure about that red beret that the figure is sporting though, it looks more reactionary rebel than servant of the state. Maybe he'll turn on me and stage a coup later on.

Within seconds of being built he'd rounded up some trash talking basketball players and arrested them for disturbing the peace. Pretty impressive for 99p.

Mega Double Dare Dip & Lick Bubble Gum Filled Hot Chili Pop

I try a fair amount of odd stuff for this blog, but I generally steer clear of anything that I think will make me sick or looks as though it may irreparably damage my insides. Fortunately my colleague and occasional food daredevil, Chase has no such concern for his stomach's wellbeing and didn't even flinch at the thought of eating a hot chili pop.

The packet is red and yellow and a sombrero wearing chili pepper is waving a lolly and a pack of sherbert around on the front.
There is a tear coming out of his eye.
I was under no illusion that the contents of the pack were going to be hot.
Chase tore it open and took an investigative sniff; "Nothing too bad here" he said "It smells sweet". The colleague sat next to him took a sniff and suggested; "That smells wrong".
Chase dipped the lolly in and swirled some sherbert around his mouth. "It's alright. It's not all that hooo-o-o-o-o-t". His mouth suddenly formed a large O and strange noises started coming out of him. So it is hot. The curious colleague next to him took a dab. "It's not that bad...ooh, I dunno". The packet was passed around as Chase croaked; "It's still burning, man".

In a brazen display of machismo Chase then grabbed the bag and tipped half the contents into his mouth. Impressively, he then proceeded to describe the burning sensation in some detail, suggesting it had a character more like a jalapeno than mustard as it didn't burn your nostrils.
Once the mayhem had subsided a little, Chase then took the lolly to task and complained about the gum inside being of poor quality.
I honestly can't tell if Chase enjoyed this or not, but it was very entertaining to watch.

Marvel Heroes Bio-Synergy Bars

I eat way to much rubbish for this blog so when I spied these Marvel Heroes health bars I thought I'd give them a go.
Apparently for the superhero inside you, these bars are made up of dried fruits and combined together to create something sweet for kids to snack on.
I tried the pineapple, mango and apple wholefruit bar with The Flaming Torch on the pack first. It was nice and chewy and had a decent sweet tang to it. I wasn't so impressed with papaya, pineapple and coconut though, and that's despite it having Spiderman on the pack. It's consistency was a little dry and all I could really taste was the coconut.
There's nothing particularly stunning going on here, but I could see some kids being traumatised by the fact that Spidey and The Torch have sold out. Imagine opening a bar with Spiderman on it and finding out it's a healthy snack, and not a good one at that. Keep alert kids, and always check for those nourishing E-numbers before accepting snacks bearing superheroes from parents.

Pee Wee's Playhouse Calender 1990: August

It's August and it's the Puppet Band. Apologies for the lack of posts of late, I've just been a bit busy.