Food: Marks and Spencer: British Elderflower Cordial

Food Rating: 9
Value for Money: 8
Overall: 9

In A Nutshell

"A refreshing fragrant cordial made with handpicked british elderflowers from gloucestershire's seven springs plantation."

So, there I was waltzing through the aisles of my local M&S when the non-alcoholic drinks selection of goodies caught my eye. Right up there at the forefront of my attention was a cordial of elderflower. It's Southern Comfort, light yellow soothing colour inside the bottle, combined with it's pleasant looking front label, lured me into its midst. Being a lover of the countryside and wishing to immerse myself within its bountiful beauty, slurping on some elderflower seemed just the tonic, although it's a cordial of course. Anyhow ...

I have to admit I didn't know what a cordial was. Being a bloke, I was going to not even bother reading the instructions, but I luckily did, because cordials are not to be drunk neat. That's not to say you have to dress up in a suit to have these. One refers to the need to mix 4 parts water with 1 part cordial. This sounds like a perfect way to take ages to get through the bottle, but I started off quite liberal with my own slightly altered ratio mix or "That looks enough" combined with "I'll just add some of this. Oh too much!". You really don't need a lot of the cordial, even with a cup full almost of water, because the taste is gentle, but pleasant and oozes through the water in a light, refreshing way.

The cordial is sparkly, which isn't my usual choice of drinks, but given you add so much water, the actual overall fizz is extremely mild. Unless you're highly sensitive to fizz, you'll hardly notice but a little ripple. The lightest of elderflower fragrance captivates your drink from first slurp until last gozzle. Oh a mildly warm sunny day, there's little else of a refreshing way to hydrate yourself.

What I liked

Well, I got more cups of drink out of it than I thought was possible. Probably about 6 or 7, although I was quite generous with the cordial initially. I reckon that's just about value for money given it's £1.50 price tag.

Gentlest of fizz. Mild elderflower taste. Great refreshing drink, especially when you use chilled water.

What I Didn't Like

The fizz was a surprise, given the label doesn't really shout out that it's sparkly, although there is Citric Acid in the ingredients of course. Usually though drinks do highlight fizz. Given it's such a low sparkle once you add water, it's negligible I guess, but not zero.

Huh?

Spring Water, Sugar, Lemon Juice ... and then you get to the elderflower. Guess it has to be that way or you'd be munching on petals if it was the otherway around!

If you're one for calories there's not a lot to each cup really. ~26kcal, depending on how generous you are with the cordial.

And Finally

As good as it looks. If you are a non-alcoholic and looking for a new drink to sooth you whilst every once else boozes around you in your garden, then you can't really do much better than this.

Food: Marks and Spencer Cappuccino Bar 34g

Food Rating: 10
Value for Money: 8
Overall: 9

Trust me, this tastes amazing!

In A Nutshell

OMG! After spending ten minutes looking around the sweet aisles of M&S, I decided to spend my cash on this little baby of a bar. I love my chocolate. I also love my coffee. On top of all that, I also love my coffee chocolates even more. If you also do, then this is about as good as it gets. It's soft, smooth, chocolatey, and has the added little sprinkles of coffee within and outside it, that are just like whacking that weight with the hammer and watching it spring up to the jackpot.

Technicalities wise, the label calls this a "white and dark chocolate bar with a coffee mousse centre (58%) decorated with milk chocolate (7%)" but that could be reduced to just one word, "delish".

What I liked

Everything! Milk Chocolate. The white chocolate. The mousse on the inside. The coffee taste. The way it feels so silky in the mouth and fluffy.

What I Didn't Like

Well, at near £2 for a bar no bigger than a Mars Bar, it's not cheap.

It's also not very big. I did nibble it to try to extend its longevity but lets face it, this should be gone in two chomps really.

Huh?

Heaven in my hand

How can something so small bring so much joy? Seems to be a recurring sentence in my life.

And Finally

It's not cheap, but for once it's a chocolate bar worth paying double the normal price for. It's lush, it's sophisticated and it's darn well tasty. If you like smooth chocolate and coffee, you should love this.