Nellienoo Fudge Review: Biscoff, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Zesty Lime, & Lemon Meringue (Online)

The lovely Nic of Nellienoo fudge gave me the most wonderful surprise a couple of weeks ago when I came home to a packet containing not just one, but FOUR of her fabulous fudge packets. You can imagine how excited I was by this delivery, especially given how much I loved both her Caramac and Malteser Fudge....

Even better, Nic had included two of my absolute favourite flavours (biscoff and chocolate peanut butter) as well as two summery flavours: lemon meringue and zesty lime. 

Zesty Lime

"This white chocolate fudge combined with zesty fresh lime juice has such a wonderful flavour, subtle and fresh."

Here's where I admit that I'm not overly fussed on lime. It's not something I crave -mostly thanks to my grandmother's obsession with feeding us lime jelly. Put it this way, I never want to suffer three day old Banana Chartreuse* ever again. Anyway, I tried to forget the memories of Hartley's florescent jelly whilst taking a bite into Nellienoo's fudge.

Jeeeeeeesus, that's good. Nic you are a genius! The white chocolate base was as creamy as all of her other fudges -honestly, I've never known anything like it. Cutting through the sweetness, the lime offered a perfect zing that was utterly delicious. My only possible suggestion for improvement would be for the fudge to include some ginger biscuits within the mix, but then it wouldn't be gluten free. 

Lemon Meringue

"Fresh zesty lemon fudge with sweet crushed meringue pieces throughout."

This was another refreshing flavour. I thought that perhaps the meringue might make it either too sweet, or perhaps make the unbelievably smooth fudge feel a little grainy. Silly me. Of course Nic had mastered both the flavour and the texture. It was absolutely scrummy and a must buy for all lemon lovers!

Chocolate Peanut Butter

"This white chocolate fudge combined with peanut butter is delicious, it has milk chocolate chips stirred through at the end to give a marbled effect and a milk chocolate drizzle finish."

I'm sure Nic is a wizard. She certainly works magic on her concoctions. I was pleased to see that she hadn't watered down the flavour with any caramel. This fudge reminded me of white chocolate Reese's cups (still one of my all-time favourite treats) and it was a struggle to not gobble it down in one sitting!

Biscoff

"This delicious biscoff fudge is packed full of flavour. Smooth creamy texture with chunks of biscoff biscuit throughout. Perfect treat to have with a coffee."

You might think it was the chocolate peanut butter that had me most excited, but you would be wrong. Biscoff fudge? I was all over it. 

I had every right to be excited too. I mean it was everything I hoped for - and more. The sweet cinnamon spice came through in each soft, chewy nibble. The biscuit pieces hadn't gone soggy and added that beautiful caramelised crunch into the mix to really exalt the eating experience. It was sheer heaven. 

You know it's love when I was enjoying my fudge this much and offer a bite to my biscoff loving, but fudge hating other half. Bert seriously detests fudge. I mean he won't go near the stuff at all. Normally. But... Nellienoo fudge apparently doesn't count. It's that tasty that not only has it won him over - but I found myself hiding the rest of the pack from him. What have you done to us Nic?

I'd like to say another huge thank you to Nic for sending me some more of her magnificent fudge. Please do pop on over to her website where you can buy all of her super-duper treats for £3.50 per pack -it might just be the best money you've ever spent.


*An odd dessert made with banana, lime jelly and cream. It was meant to look something like this (photo courtesy of the Food History Journals) but hers never quite did...

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream (M&S)

Last spring M&S went positively potty with a huge release of their Spirit of Summer range. Some of the goods have since been re-branded and retained under the normal labelling -such as the peanut butter cookies, which I wasn't particularly fussed on, much preferring the softer style of Grandma's or Lenny & Larry's. Other products have held on for dear life and, despite summer having been over months ago, can be found lingering in corners of the food hall. The Mud Pie & Key Lime Pie ice creams are two such items, although they've finally been reduced to clear this week.

I wrote a review of the Mud Pie last year so I thought I'd write up a quick review of the Key Lime Pie in case you're worrying about spending 75p on snapping up the 500ml tubs. I joke but I did briefly question my purchase actually, not because of the monetary element for once, but because I wasn't entirely sure how or if a lime ice cream could work. 

"Dairy key lime flavoured ice cream with key lime sauce (10%), digestive biscuit pieces (8%) and meringue pieces."

Hang on a second, shouldn't M&S have used ginger biscuits instead? 
...Although a quick google search later proved that Delia uses digestive biscuits, so maybe it's just me who uses gingernuts in citrus based desserts! 

Anyway, the pale green ice cream was fairly easy to scoop straight away, and I was only one spoon down before I uncovered a treasure trove of goods (biscuit chunks). That's what I like to see Marks & Sparks! The lime sauce wasn't so evident, but I could smell a strong zingy scent straight away. 

What a welcome surprise! The lime worked much better than expected as an ice cream flavour, with the zing counteracting the sweet creaminess wonderfully. It wasn't bitter either, which is always my fear with citric desserts, but was very refreshing on the palate (I imagine it would be particularly good after a curry). As for the abundant digestive pieces, they were crispy -but tasted more rich tea than digestive. Their crunch was gladly received, making the ice cream much more interesting to munch on, but I still think that ginger biscuits would have worked even better! Occasionally I would fall upon a pocket of sweetness coming from the meringue pieces, but they were subtle in their inclusion and wouldn't have been missed if omitted completely. 

The biggest shock with this Key Lime Pie ice cream was that even flavour fussy Bert liked it. I didn't tell him what it was before he tried it for fear that he would refuse to even sample it, but he actually said that he enjoyed it! Quelle surprise!

M&S' Key Lime Pie ice cream was an innovative and unusual addition to their 2016 line up and I'll be stocking up on tubs whilst they're so cheap. I'm also looking forward to seeing what they bring out this year... any ideas?

*Fingers crossed for banoffee pie.*

8/10

NEW! Haribo Scaremix (ASDA)

It's October and finally cold enough to stick on my parka and pull up the big fluffy hood before leaving the house in the mornings, which means that it's perfectly acceptable to publish a Halloween themed review! Hurrah!

Do you get into the spirit of the festivities and look forward to the dressing up and trick or treating? Or are you of the opinion that it's a gawdy, dangerous American holiday that facilitates begging and makes children greedy? To be honest, Halloween doesn't really bother me. I quite look forward to seeing the little'uns dressed up as witches, or putting a bed sheet over their heads pretending to be ghosts (the pesky teenagers don't have the same effect, and just cause me to roll my eyes and ignore them). Perhaps my ambiguity is because I live in a rural city where there's not a huge deal of crime (or trick or treaters for that matter). Halloween does however bring a few seasonal products and releases, and that's what I do welcome with open arms.

Last year the only Halloween Haribo I spotted was the scary minions edition, which seemed a bit pointless, and I didn't even bother picking up a bag. This year the company have had the good sense to seize the opportunity and bring out two new 'Spooky Editions' -which are available in both Starmix and Tangfastics style selections and appear to have replaced the Frenzy Carnival bags of the summer.

The 'spooky flavours' are shown in the picture below:

As usual there seemed to be a lot more bears in the packet than anything else, which always annoys me! Surely everyone reaches for the foamy sweets first?

That's exactly what I did anyway. First up was the toffee apple 'Monsters Eyeball' (fried egg to you and me) which had a strong, pleasant apple flavour, but a rather odd and slightly synthetic toffee taste. I wasn't keen. It was a Good job there wasn't too many of them -although my other half disagreed and really liked them. Next I tried the 'Vampire Hearts' which were also rather peculiar thanks to the inclusion of bubblegum and blackcurrant. Also not my cup of tea. Bubble gum should be kept to gum not sweets OR ice cream for that matter. Fortunately, I liked most of the gummy sweets; especially the cherry bears (although not as good as the banana bears), and blood orange 'witches brew' (aka cola bottles). The other sweets left me feeling a bit meh. The apple and blackcurrant rings tasted like squash, and the blackcurrant & blueberry rings and lime bears weren't anything special either.

All in all, I'm not prepared to begrudge the option of new Haribo. It's lovely to see a new concoction of flavours, even if they aren't particularly 'spooky'. The Little Cupcakes were far more ingenious, and I much preferred the summer edition of Starmix.

6/10

NEW! Müllerlight Copacabana: Passionfruit Orange & Lime Yogurt

It's been a while since I last reviewed a Müllerlight yogurt. The last one I wrote about was the divisive peanut & caramel one that I just couldn't get along with. I don't buy them very often but when Richard told me about the new Copacabana edition on Twitter, I was intrigued. Orange, passionfruit and lime isn't a flavour mix that I'd think of when it comes to yogurt, and I have to admit that it didn't sound particularly appealing either.

So why did I buy it? Well, the new Müllerlight kept playing on my mind for some reason, and when I was filling my basket with the 12 for £3 Müller promotion at ASDA I thought of no good reason to resist sampling it.

The yogurt was an insipid pale yellow, flecked with orange bits reminiscent of the zest you might come across in real orange juice. A lovely tropical scent hit my nostrils the moment the lid was peeled however, and I started to feel slightly less dubious about the new Müllerlight.

Well, this new Copacabama yogurt was an unexpected slice of sunshine! Shutting my eyes and ignoring the sound of the hail on the windows, I might be forgiven for thinking I was in sunnier climes. I had wrongly assumed that the citrus flavours would trounce the more delicate passionfruit, and they would be overcome still by the sickly artificial taste of Aspartame. Instead the symphony of tropical fruits were well balanced and rather refreshing. Yummy. 

What a lovely suprise Müller. I might not think that your new Gold corner or Chocolate & Caramel rice pot is up to scratch, but the new Copacabama Müllerlights is the perfect summer yogurt. 

Thank you Richard for bringing it to my attention!

8/10

Chilli & Lime Portlebay Popcorn

The popcorn that sounded the second least appetising to me in the box that Portlebay sent was the Chilli & Lime Kracklecorn. Again it's just because it's a savoury product that it doesn't appeal to me, but given how much I enjoyed the Wasabi & Sweet Ginger, I wasn't entirely dreading it.

When I opened the bag I was met with quite a strong spicy aroma. The popcorn was a dusty orange colour, and I worried about whether they'd blow my head off. I like my spice, but I'm more of a Rogan Josh than a Vindaloo kind of girl. I don't understand the enjoyment of eating food that makes you sweat. I'd appreciate any insight from anybody who's a Scotch Bonnet fan! 

The popcorn didn't taste as spicy as I feared, and actually reminded me of tikka. The heat intensified as I continued through the bag, but not to the point where I couldn't eat it. I could taste a refreshing hint of citrus coming from the lime, but it was only just distinguishable against the spice. I offered a bite to my discerning taxi driver who was surprised to discover that he enjoyed it. He compared it in similarity to Tyrell's chilli rice crackers but I can't pass comment having never tried them. 

I'm pleased to have had the opportunity to  try this flavour, and I don't think it's unpleasant, but I also don't think I'd buy it again. If you like curry rice crackers and/or crisps, this might be your cup of tea- it's just unfortunately not mine. 

2/10

Limited Edition Key Lime Pie Müller Light

When doing the weekly shop this week I stopped in the yoghurt aisle at the Müller section as usual to pick an assortment of corners and rice pudding when this limited edition flavour caught my eye: Smooth Key Lime Pie.

I'm not normally a Muller light kind of girl as I find them quite runny and prefer thick Greek style yoghurt, but I found myself contemplating whether key lime pie yoghurt is an ingenious concept, or a repulsive concoction resulting from somebody's odd cravings. I decided that they only way I could end my quandary was by sampling the yoghurt for myself.

Let's get a few things clear first, I'm not a huge fan of key lime pie. I mean, I'd eat it if offered to me, but I'd never choose it at a restaurant- favouring anything banana, chocolate, caramel or coffee flavoured. I do like limes, but I tend to have them in a glass of Pepsi (and then suck them at at the end!) My nan used to constantly make lime jelly when I was a child, so perhaps I've just had lime overload.

I uncovered the dubious looking minty green yoghurt and wondered what I let myself in for. Sometimes food that looks the worst tastes the best though, right? My first mouthful was almost minty, but I think that's just because I'd linked the taste to the colour.

 By the second mouthful I was able to determine the citrusy lime flavour.. Which wasn't unpleasant. Half way through I realised that i was actually starting to enjoy the yoghurt. It was different and struck me as being refreshing (particularly after my ham and marmite sarnie.)

I do have a bone to pick with Müller's flavour name 'Key lime pie' which I think is borderline false advertisement because there's no pie in it. It's simply a lime yoghurt- I even checked the ingredients. I guess they figured that key lime pie flavoured yoghurt sounded more appetising.

Although I enjoyed trying something new and different, I won't be buying any more of this flavour. I hear however, that Müller have released an Apple Strudel variety which I'm definitely keen for! Hats off to them for constantly creating new and exciting flavour combinations instead of sticking to the tried and tested. Bravo.

4/10