Mummy Meagz and her original Rocky Road

 

Have you heard of Mummy Meagz and her Original Rocky Road?

These are some utterly out of this world chocolate treats that you really must try.

What flavours are available?

Original Rocky Road

Sea Salt & Cinder Toffee Rocky Road

Orange Rocky Road

Minty Rocky Road

Mummy Meagz Orange Choccie Bar

The flavours and the textures of these bars is out of this world. They actually look and taste as if a confectioner has made them for you in your own kitchen. 

This is sort of what has happened, but they were actually made for you in the kitchen of the confectioner and chef, Meagan Boyle who, with her daughter Willow Boyle, launched Blondes Coffee Shop in the village of Cottingham, East Yorkshire, back in 2003.

When I had to opportunity to taste these bars I was feeling a bit low. COVID 19 will do that to a person!

However, I was lucky as it hadn't (thankfully!) taken away my sense of taste or smell. These bars are awesome and I believe they actually helped me get through the irritation of being under a total lockdown, not even able to go out on our usual 10k steps walks, my wife and I.

Crunchy and delicious biscuit pieces, perfectly tasty and soft vegan mallows and covered with some absolutely delicious Belgian chocolate and with some fruit, too, with some of the bars.

In the past I have had some Rocky Road bars that were a bit too rocky and a bit too road-like if you know what I mean, but these bars are smooth and utterly, utterly delicious.

They are 100% vegan friendly. I am not a vegan, but now I know that Holland and Barrett stock these wonderful treats, I know where I'll be going when my lockdown is over. My nearest Holland and Barrett branch!

To learn more (or to buy direct from Mummy Meagz) please visit them at https://mummymeagz.com/

And they produce a whole lot more, including the decadent Chuckie Egg, Sunnycomb Bars and seasonal treats.

The Engineer Shiraz Tempranillo from McGuigan

 

The Engineer Shiraz Tempranillo 2019 is a new wine from the McGuigan family of Australia.

They combine Tempranillo grapes and what they describe as "luscious blue and black berries from the Shiraz."

OK, so how does this 13% red wine work?

The scent is heavenly. Yes, I know wine experts call it the bouquet, but I am not a wine expert, but I do know what I like. And I like this wine very much indeed!

What is it like? It's a bold and strong wine, but the taste is exquisite and gentle on the palate.

There are tannin notes and definitely an underpinning of fresh hedgerow fruits, with a good fruity finish.

It pairs very well with a wide range of foods. We happened to try it with a roast chicken dinner and it worked remarkably well, together.

It's available in a range of stores, the Co-Op sell it at £10 a bottle, but I have seen reports of two quid being knocked off the price at the Co-op.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this wine and we will be visiting our local Co-Op store to buy some more bottles of this really rather super wine.

You can learn more about McGuiguan's at https://www.mcguiganwines.co.uk/ or https://www.mcguiganwines.com.au/.

McGuigan Zero

Founded by Brian McGuigan, McGuigan's is a leading name in the Australian wine industry. 

In recent years their experts have worked on a range of alcohol free wines. 

One of these is McGuigan Zero, an alcohol free Chardonnay style wine.

It's an attractive wine with peachy notes, plus a hint of honey and melon on the finish.

It's very similar to McGuigan's Chardonnay. Is there something missing, without the alcohol? It would be wrong of me to say that there wasn't. There's the unmistakeable "tang" of the alcohol that is missing, but that's all that is missing. Many wine companies that make alcohol free wine seem to remove more than the alcohol, I.E., there's some of the taste that has gone missing, too.

But this is most certainly not the situation with McGuigan's Zero Chardonnay, as it is just a full of flavour as the other McGuigan wines. 

It will cost about £7.00 and is worth every penny.

Not drinking alcohol for reasons of health or religion or in order to stay sober for driving or for work reasons? Then McGuigan's alcohol free wines are ideal.  

Heineken 0.0. It's Dutch lager but kinder

Curses! Here I am with my regular winter bronchitis. It's bronchial asthma, so my old Doctor told me many years ago.

Dosing up with antibiotics to help cure a parasitic infection that always occurs I read the paperwork that came with it (hint: always read them!) and I noticed to my dismay that alcohol is not allowed to be consumed with these particular antibiotics.

But then I remembered that I actually had a four pack of some Heineken 0.0, which has no alcohol in it. So what better time to run a taste test?

What's it like? Colour-wise it's not distinguishable from other Heineken lagers and the scent on it is of a nicely hopped and nicely yeasted Dutch lager.

What does it taste like? It's got a reasonable mouthfeel to it. You can certainly taste the hops the malted barley. 

What difference does carefully removing the alcohol make to the flavour? I'd like to say no difference, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate, because I find that alcohol does add a little extra bite to the experience of consuming alcoholic drinks.

But! Having said that, if you are not able to drink alcohol, due to an allergy or religious reasons (for example) are on medications that preclude the consumption of alcohol or you have decided to get yourself fit, then Heineken 0.0 is an excellent option. It's available in bottles, in cans and on draught too, in some of our more enlightened establishments. 

What's my final opinion of Heineken 0.0? I like it and I'll definitely get some more on my next trip to the shops, at least as soon as my antibiotics have finished!

PS Do you run a pub or other establishment that sells beers, etc? If you want to sell Heineken 0.0 on draught you can get Heineken's funky bar top Blade dispenser by visiting https://www.heineken.co.uk/alcohol-free-beer-is-now-widely-available-on-draught/