RECENT ADDITION: Magnum Black

Magnum is an old ice cream favourite of mine and, in general, their various offerings never fail to impress me. To that end, I was delighted earlier today when I was going through the large chest freezer and found a pack of espresso-flavoured Magnum Black's buried away between some leftover tagine and chicken live pate - on reflection, a frozen three course meal albeit an odd one:)

Given the espresso twist, the packaging was suitably sophisticated in its overall look with a black background and white highlights - almost mimicking stirred milk or cream.  Moreover, the type was kept simple and refined with serifs employed across the main Magnum logo. Finally, to break with the predictable contours of the design, the top left of the design was cracked as per the picture of the product. 

Tucking in, I was delighted to find a prominent wave of espresso. Indeed, the coffee wasn't toned down to the point I thought it would be and, consequently, all those deep, dark notes were evident. Of course, the slight sweetness of the base Magnum ice cream together with the chocolate shell offset the espresso, but not overly meaning the taste profile remained pretty mature. 

In summary,  the design felt consistent with the coffee theme and its extensive use of black differentiated the product nicely from other colour schemes commonly used in this category. Whilst, taste-wise, Magnum Black proved an impressively mature taste experience with the character of the espresso coming through well. I'll definitely be going back for more of these and, hopefully, this time they won't go amiss:)

BRAND LINKS

Unilever Website - Magnum Page

Wall's Website - Magnum Page

Magnum Website

Magnum Facebook

NEW PRODUCT: Cranstons Dalemain Marmalade Sausage

For those that don't know, every year in the historic Lake District house of Dalemain, the world's original and most renowned marmalade festival takes place. The marmalade-munching bear, Paddington, always shows up, lots of fun activities are put on for families to enjoy and, crucially, marmalade makers compete in the prestigious awards. Notably, the winner of the awards' 'homemade' category gets their marmalade sold in Fortnum & Mason for a year.  Fortunately though, this year the fun didn't end there because our local butchers, Cranstons, teamed up with with the festival to produce a special marmalade sausage. Having tasted this citrussy pork delight in store there was no way I was passing up the opportunity to do a very quick review.

Whilst the above picture doesn't do it justice, cutting in to the sausage, the marmalade made its presence known with a light studding of orange to the pork interior. Tucking in, the promise of marmalade was immediately realised with a wonderful wave of zesty orange cutting through the meaty offering. Moreover, with the base sausage being a peppery Cumberland, the slight sweetness of the preserve provided a welcome counterbalance to all that spice. Indeed, it was a delicious sausage that made for a great change in pace and I can certainly see myself stocking up.

BRAND LINKS
Cranstons Website
Dalemain Marmalade Festival Website

PACKAGING UPDATE: Pieminister Moo Pie

For those unaware, Pieminister, founded in 2003, is a British company that runs a number of pie shops in the UK and retails its range via select supermarkets and stores. I haven't seen their products for a while now because my local supermarket has seemingly stopped stocking them. However, out and about the other week, I managed to get a hold of their Moo pie and noticed some distinct changes. 

On the packaging front, it still has a fun, informal edge but the mature overtones are more pronounced. As for the ingredients, whilst I still thoroughly enjoyed the pie, there are plenty of little changes, including: a one percent drop in both the steak and ale components - not so good but the difference certainly wasn't noticeable; the ditching of vegetable suet - semi-good as they haven't replaced it with proper suet; and the inclusion of leeks and mushrooms - something I must admit I didn't detect at all when eating. Anyway, here's all the pictures and, if you wish, the old packaging is viewable here.

BRAND LINKS

Pieminister Website - Moo Page

OLD FAVOURITE: Spaghetti Bolognese

Based on a traditional meal served in the northern Italian city of Bologna, Spaghetti Bolognese, or simply 'Spag Bol', is a wonderful example of a foreign-inspired dish that we Brits have taken to our hearts. Indeed, here at GBD HQ, Spag Bol is a Friday night tradition with defrosted homemade sauce and garlic bread portion making for an ultra quick and flavoursome end to the week. To that end, I thought I would share the 1973 Reader's Digest inspired recipe that I grew up with and still use to this day.

RECIPE

See here.

RECENT ADDITION: M&S Scottish All Butter Heather Honey & Oats Shortbread Rounds

The other day I reviewed M&S's Eton Mess Shortbread Rounds (see here) as a Scottish instalment in the brand's growing 'Taste of..." promotion. Two problems I had with this offering were that the Eton Mess twist wasn't at all Scottish and, in the tasting, didn't really come through. That said, the core shortbread was lovely and I thought the range still had promise in it so I turned to this much more Scottish sounding oats and Heather Honey variant.

As with the Eton Mess rounds, the packaging for this offering is lovely.  Refined type, tartan strip and delightful photography come together in a mature design that reinforces the quality and provenance of the product. The rounds themselves aren't quite as visually interesting as the Eton Mess ones; however, they are still nicely baked with a slightly knobbly top thanks to the oats. 

Taste-wise, thankfully, these are a step up from the Eton Mess ones. The oats supports the lovely buttery shortbread with their coarser texture whilst the Heather honey comes through gently with its distinctive flavour appreciable. Indeed, there's a bit of the flapjack about these that's hard to resist. 

In summary, these shortbread rounds boast the strong basic packaging that's shared across the accompanying range. Moreover, they deliver on flavour with the character of the Heather honey evident and working in almost flapjack-like concert with the oats. Simple yet effective stuff that gets another recommend from me.