I'm Alive!!!!!!

After a bit of a hiatus (partly due to starting a new job in a different state and mostly due to laziness) I am back to blogging.  I didn't realise I'd been away so long.  There have been a lot of fun products come out since I last blogged, most of them I tried, and I even took photos.  Rather than trying to play catch up, here are some of the products I sampled (some new, some just random stuff I tried) since I last wrote but won't be providing reviews of:

Samboy Atomic Tomato: Back on shelves (in IGA anyway), hurrah!

Menz Choc Apricot Balls: Menz is a South Australian company that dips various lollies in chocolate, was happy to see these (that I grew up knowing as Fruchocs) on shelves outside SA.

TNT Cola Sour Straps: They're cola, they're sour, what could go wrong???? Not good

Nestle Butterfinger: A very nice friend got me onto these, so good, wish they were easier to find in Australia.

Garlic Bread Beer Pretz: The best salty snack I've had in a long time, the flavour was so buttery and garlicky, delicious!

Skittles Darkside: If you read this blog regularly you know I love my Skittles, these were so disappointing :(

Fried Chicken Doritos (Japan): Quite peppery but otherwise surprisingly good.

Hello Kitty Jelly Belly: No new flavours but I thought this was cute.

Nestle Walnut Whip: Another lovely friend sought this out for me, it was nice but I won't go out of my way to find another one.

Creaming Soda Aeroplane Jelly: It's jelly that tastes like creaming soda, exactly what you expect

McDonalds Crunchie McFlurry: When did McDonalds stop mixing in the ingredients? Was OK

McDonalds McGrilled: So dry, not enough sauce, bad combo

Cadbury Marvellous Creations - Clinkers, Raspberry Chips and Marshmallows: My new favourite chocolate bar, yum!

KitKat Caramel Duo: Can't remember so I would say neither good nor bad

McDonalds Big Tasty: Nice enough but not exciting

Lindt Caramel Balls: There is good caramel flavour and bad caramel flavour, these fell in the bad category

Snicker Hazelnut: Variations on Snickers flavours remind me how good the original is

Cadbury Marvellous Creations - Clinkers, Gummi Bears, Choc Biscuit: Probably my least favourite of the range

Star Wars Angry Birds Gummis: For my nephew's space themed birthday party

McDonalds Son of Mac: The one I got was terribly made, not enough sauce or lettuce, but would love to see this on the regular menu

Mentos Mystery II: The mystery flavour is Berry Yoghurt, it kind of tasted like sick

Toffifee: Was happy to see this on supermarket shelves, great with a cuppa

Snickers Slice n' Share: Only in America! The nougat/caramel ratio was a bit off, and the nougat seemed dried out, but lots of fun

McDonalds McSpicy

Once again, a special thanks to B1 for trying the spicy foods for me, with B1 eagerly chomping into the McDonalds McSpicy, one of the new chicken burger range offered at McDonalds here in Australia.

Similar to the McChamp, the McSpicy has a crispy chicken breast, served with lettuce and a 'fiery' mayo on a wheat germ bun.

According to B1, the mayo is the real winner here, having a nice kick to it but not too overbearing in the heat department. The overall heat of the burger being determined by B1 to be slightly less than the KFC Zinger burger.

Rating: B1 says simply "Would eat again, 9/10"

McDonalds McChamp

Hot on the heels of the Tastes of America Promotions, now sadly gone, no more New York burgers :( McDonalds has released it's new range of Chicken Burgers, the McChamp, the McSpicy and the McGrilled.

I decided to try the McChamp first, a crumbed chicken burger served with lettuce, tomato relish and a garlic mayo served on a wheatgerm bun.

I'm not sure if this is the way it is meant to be served, but the two sauces were completely separate, covering half of the burger each.

The crunchy chicken breast was fantastic, not necessarily better than the wonderfully processed chicken burger of the McChicken, but great in its own right.  I wonder if the separation of the sauces tainted my experience though, the garlic mayo was delicious and I happily chomped through this half of the burger.  On the other hand, I didn't really like the relish side, the relish having a tomato paste-type taste to it.  Towards the end, I did try to get a bite with both sauces, it improved the relish taste but I would rather just have the whole burger drowned in the special mayo.

Rating: Overall great burger, one good sauce, one average sauce (or a slightly better than average mixture of two sauces), 7/10

McDonalds Mean Green Frozen Fanta

McDonalds has been rotating their Frozen Fanta flavour for a while now but I have yet to be tempted to try the Fanta flavour over my preferred Frozen Coke... until now! The latest flavour is the Mean Green Frozen Fanta, giving no clues to the actual flavour of the drink, I was immediately tempted to try one!

I have read a few different theories on the flavour of this drink, my take was that it was a fresh, slightly sour lime flavour, absolutely delicious, I will be definitely drinking more of these while they are still available.

Rating: Fresh, tasty, tangy frozen lime with just the right hit of sourness (for a normal person, I would happily kick the sour up a few notches), 9/10

Grape Fanta

A big thanks to my brother (B1) a connoisseur of all grape soft drinks for writing the following review for me:

I love 'grape' flavour, hence my excitement when hearing that Fanta was bringing out a 'grape' flavoured drink here in Australia.

First impression is that there is a lot of purple colouring in the drink. It is very dark. Getting down to the flavour of the drink, unfortunately the 'grape' flavour is overpowered by the sugariness that is Fanta. My tastebuds would prefer a drink with a little bit more sourness or tartness. It definitely has that 'grape' flavour but is just a bit too bland. Toddlers and young children would love it.

Note: 'Grape' tastes nothing like grapes at all and is reminiscent of that playground smell of hubba bubba bubblegum.

Rating: A+ for finally bringing grape soft drink to Australia but the flavour needs work, 6/10

Cherry Ripe Double Dipped with 60% Cocoa

Another chocolate bar variation currently on shelves is the Cherry Ripe Double Dipped with 60% Cocoa. For this review I also picked up a regular Cherry Ripe for comparison. The original Cherry Ripe I picked up has a loving message on it, one of the leftovers from Cadbury's Valentine's Day promotion.

First of all, apologies for what could be the worst photo I have taken on this blog! As you can (sort of) see, the double dipped version (top) indeed has a much thicker layer of chocolate than the original (bottom). The chocolate is also darker and richer in colour.

As for my verdict, I much prefer the original. The use of a high quality dark chocolate didn't really add to my experience, and I found that the double dipping altered the filling to chocolate ratio negatively, resulting in the a reduction of the delicious cherry/coconut flavour.


Rating: As with most movies, the original (9/10) is much better than the sequel (5/10)