Angry Birds Lagoon - Apple & Pear Drink (CyberCandy)

I recently reviewed the Angry Birds Space Comet cola and orange drink and found it to be a very tasty twist on a classic cola. I also bought another drink from the range - this Angry Birds Lagoon. It's not a cola this time, but an apple and pear fizzy drink. Originally made in Finland, these official Angry Birds drinks are available to buy from CyberCandy.

You can probably tell by now that we are a household of gaming fans, and yes, we do seem to have a rather large number of Angry Birds toys! I love the design of these cans; they are bold, fun and appealing, much like the gaming characters they represent. It turns out that the drink inside the can is colourful too, being a bright green shade.

The drink has a lovely taste too, the flavours are very fresh and light. There is a lovely burst of apple flavour at first which is sweetened by the subtle pear aftertaste. There is no sour edge to this drink, as I sometimes find with fizzy apple drinks, just a delicious fruitiness. Overall, this is a very refreshing drink, perfect for keeping hydrated during an epic Angry Birds playing session (is that just me?), and I will certainly be trying even more from this Angry Birds range.

There are four Angry Birds drinks available: tropical fruit flavoured ‘Angry Birds Tropic’, the mandarin and pineapple-flavoured ‘Angry Birds Paradise’, orange and cola flavoured ‘Angry Birds Space Comet’ and this apple and pear flavoured ‘Angry Birds Lagoon’.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Angry Birds Lagoon drink

RATING: 7 out of 10.
Buy them again?: Yes.
Nutrition (330ml can): 124 Calories.
Purchased: CyberCandy.
Price: £1.85p.

Other Angry Birds Reviews:
Angry Birds Space Comet cola
Angry Birds Gummy Sweets (Finland)
Angry Birds Ice Lollies (Portugal)

Angry Birds Space Comet - Orange Cola Drink (Cybercandy)

This range of Angry Birds Cola is so popular in it's native Finland, that it's even started to win the "cola wars" there, outselling the more popular brands of cola. Is this because the Angry Birds are so popular or is it because the drink just tastes better than rival colas?

I recently reviewed some Angry Birds sweets, which were also manufactured in Finland. I was really impressed by them as they were tasty and not pumped full of artificial ingredients. I picked up this Angry Birds Space Comet which is described online as an orange flavoured cola. I've had vanilla, cherry and a lime flavoured cola, so an orange flavoured cola was something I simply had to try!

The cola is the dominant taste at first, it's a very sweet and light kind of cola - not too fizzy or strong. After that first flavour of cola it becomes more of a fizzy orangeade as the citrus flavour kicks in. It's zingy and fresh without being overpowering. I enjoyed the overall flavour combination, it's very unusual but it works well.

The real winner is the packaging, which is striking and fun. As you can see from the pictures, the Grocery Gems' household contains a few gamers and gaming related toys, so I am always attracted to video game themed grocery products. I also love buying crazy drinks from all around the world at Cybercandy, and this Angry Birds cola kills two (angry) birds with one stone(!) Even better, it has the added bonus of being quite tasty! Not something I can say about all the gamer themed drinks and grocery products I've tried.

There are four drinks available in this range: tropical fruit flavoured ‘Angry Birds Tropic’, the mandarin and pineapple-flavoured ‘Angry Birds Paradise’, the apple and pear flavoured ‘Angry Birds Lagoon’, and this orange and cola flavoured ‘Angry Birds Space Comet’.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Angry Birds Space Comet

RATING: 8.5 out of 10.
Buy them again?: I'd go for the Angry Birds Lagoon drink next.
Nutrition (330ml can): 111 Calories
Purchased: Cybercandy.
Price: £1.85p.

Angry Birds Sweets (Fazer)

A few month ago I tried the US Angry Birds Fruit Gummies which I thought were awful beyond belief. We literally ate a few and had to throw the whole box away, they were so artificial and chemical tasting. I briefly reviewed them here. Luckily for Angry Birds fans there is a new range of gaming sweets available from European brand Fazer (which are made in Finland to be precise).

After my previous experience, I looked at these Angry Birds sweets by Fazer a little suspiciously, until I happily noticed the "100% Natural Flavours" tag on the front - sold!

But it's not just the flavour which is a million times better, the shapes used for the actual sweets are cuter and more interesting. The bag I purchased featured pigs, various building blocks and a few eggs - all with different flavours. The sweets themselves are a bit like jelly babies in texture, they are jelly like in the middle with a slightly harder coating on the outside.

Sweets to play with!

The flavours were all very good, thankfully there were no nasty flavours with these. The pigs had a pear or apple flavour and were fruity and sweet, without tasting artificial at all. The "wood" blocks were all passion fruit and pineapple flavour. The pineapple was not as flavourful as I was expecting, but they did have a pleasing vague tropical fruit flavour. The "ice" blocks had the strongest flavour of the bunch with their sweet lemon taste.

The egg shaped sweets are awesome because, once bitten into, they have a gooey centre that looks like the yolk. Fantastic stuff! They have a great caramel flavour that provides an extra sweetness amongst all the other fruity flavours.

The shapes all look fab, I loved all the little attention to details, like the "wooden" blocks which had little grooves to make them look like wood.

There is also a linked version of these sweets available which features sweets in the shape of the Angry Birds themselves. I haven't been able to find any of these yet which is a shame as it would be great to have both packs.

Grocery Gems Verdict: Angry Birds Sweets

RATING: 8 out of 10
Buy them again?: Without a doubt.
Nutrition per 100g: 350 calories, 2.0g protein, 84g carbohydrate, 0.3g fat
Purchased: Tiger Stores (one of my favourite shops!)
Price: £1.00p for a 150g bag

Nintendo Super Mario Candy Canes

I don't think anyone has ever looked at a candy cane and thought "you know what would make that more festive? Some Super Mario characters". They look like the kind of product that would either be found in CyberCandy or... in Poundland. In reality I picked these up at the Selfridges Food Hall for £1.99 for ten candy canes.

The box is not the most colourful I've ever seen but it does have lots of Super Mario characters emblazoned across all the sides. Each Candy Cane is decorated with Mario, Luigi and Toads on the wrapping. They are fruit flavoured which seems to be quite popular with candy canes, no peppermint for the kids of today!

My kids are crazy for Nintendo and Super Mario so these are a fun product. They are not very festive, (shouldn't Mario and Luigi be wearing Santa hats?)  in fact there is no mention of Christmas on the box but I'll still be popping a few in their Christmas stockings! 

Advent Calendar Round Up: Lindt, Mr. Men, Nintendo and...

Yes that's right, we have so many advent calendars this year that I've decided to do a "round up"! I realise I'm a couple of days late for the start of advent but I wanted to see what these were like before giving them a review. The price difference between our advent calendars is huge. I'll start with the grandest and most expensive; the Lindt Advent Calendar.

I love this calendar because it has such a fabulous selection of different chocolates. There are Lindor Truffles, Milk Chocolate Snowdrops, Gold Reindeer, Milk Napolitans (milk chocolate squares) and even a whole chocolate Santa! Each chocolate is individually wrapped which is brilliant if you prefer saving the chocolate to eat later. This advent calendar is for my hubby and even though he opens it before work each morning, he doesn't want to eat chocolate for breakfast ... not a problem the rest of us have of course!

The first chocolate treat in the Lindt advent calendar was a lovely Gold Reindeer, the next two days were the chocolate squares and this morning it was a Milk Chocolate Snowdrop. The chocolates are all delicious and they look gorgeously festive.

Next up is the medium value calendar, the Mr. Men & Little Miss Calendar which cost £3. We're a household of Mr. Men fans so I couldn't resist getting this for my youngest son.

The calendar has Mr. Men or Little Miss shaped chocolates, which are absolutely adorable, and there are even a few little gifts of stickers, a magnet and a larger milk chocolate bar for Christmas Day. It's great value for such a special calendar.

Finally the bargain of the bunch is this Nintendo Super Mario Advent Calendar which is only £1. It's perfect for any gaming fan with it's nice bright image on the front featuring lots of Mario characters. It also comes with a door hanger cut out activity on the back.

The chocolates taste good (so my kids tell me!), but I think with advent calendars it's more about the shape of the chocolates rather than their taste anyway! The chocolates were not Mario themed or shaped (how awesome would that be!) but instead are classic Christmas shapes such as stars and wreaths. My eldest son loves it anyway and looks forward to opening it every morning, so it's not bad for the price!

As you can see the boys in my family are sorted for calendars. So what about me? I don't normally get one but this year...

I got the most expensive calendar of the lot; the Ciaté nail polish advent calendar! Well I eat enough chocolate already ;)

In this set there are 24 mini bottles of gorgeous Ciaté nail polish. They look adorable and best of all they are calorie free!

Let me know which advent calendars you have bought this year! And if you haven't bought any then I leave you with the wise words of Mr. Grumpy...

BAH HUMBUG!

Angry Birds Ice Lollies

If you know your Apps from your Candy Apps then you'll probably know about the new Angry Birds game out today called Bad Piggies. Since I live with three gaming addicts I've heard quite a bit about it, non stop for the last few weeks, on and on. You could say my kids are quite excited about it.

I' d like to be able to tell you that I bought these Angry Birds Ice Lollies in a UK supermarket but alas this is another product I bought on holiday in Portugal. Although not as awesome as the Pirulo Jungly, these Angry Birds lollies were still very exciting. I'm always on the lookout for gaming related food or sweets but they are frustratingly rare. I recently tried the US Angry Birds sweets but they were beyond awful. I couldn't even bring myself to post a review because they were that bad.

These angry birds ice lollies on the other hand are pretty awesome. OK, maybe the best part is the actual box and branding. Those three Angry Birds flying across a generic city skyline at night look like they are ready for action. Inside the box there are three types of ice lolly; cola, lemon and strawberry. Each one is topped with a chocolate layer embedded with popping candy. My son was quick to point out that the lollies are not shaped like an actual Angry Bird. I think he expected a fully carved anatomically precise Angry Bird ice lolly for the € 2,99 we paid. Sorry son but these ice lollies are just a basic rocket shape, but on the bright side, at least they've matched the colours up to the Angry Birds on the box. Of course in the end neither of my kids were disappointed with these ice lollies. They now refer to them in a misty eyed "do you remember those amazing Angry Birds ice lollies?" kind of way.

Yet again I find myself asking, why aren't these available in the UK? I think they would be huge sellers. Don't companies know by now that we Brits like to eat ice cream in all weathers? Even rainy, cold and miserable countries deserve magnificent ice lollies!

I bought these from a supermarket called Continente. I'm afraid I have no idea who the maker is, it was hard enough taking a photo of them before the kids/hubby/me scoffed the lot.

Candy Apps by Au'some: Who needs an iPhone 5?

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

PLEASE DO NOT adjust your monitor/mobile device/iPad. What you are looking at on the right is not an iPhone 5, or even a prototype of the iPhone 6. It's a beyond awesome looking candy called Candy Apps. The company that makes the Candy Apps is so awesome it's even called Au'some! The word "awesome" wasn't enough, they had to misspell it to make it even more awesome.

Yes it's true, they are now making mobile phone application inspired candy. I just don't know why it took 5 versions of the iPhone before somebody came up with this stroke of genius.

Now, I'll admit it, I don't own a smart phone. My mobile phone is so old it does not take pictures or have internet access. I still have to use the number keys to type out my text messages. My husband bought me an iPad recently but I can't figure out how to use it because it doesn't have any buttons. But now the awesome Au'Some Candy App sweets are in my life, I have everything I need!

Not the inside of an iPhone 5

Unfortunately there is no touch screen, the candy will not appear if you jab at the "screen", you have to peel back the plastic front cover in order to reveal the sweets beneath. That's where the awesomeness starts to drift into averageness. And when I write "drifts" I actually mean "plummets". There are 8 compartments, containing a variety of violently colourful and oddly named candy; 3-DEES gummies, Mega Bitz, Crunchy Candies, Sour 3-Dees Gummy, Candy Roll, Au'some Nuggets and even a bizarre large Sour Candy Bone. Why a bone? The emoticons I understand, they match the App theme. But a bone? The sweets are not very tasty either, unless the thought of highly artificially coloured and flavoured candy makes your mouth water.

You should give Candy Apps a try if you find them. I bought them from a 99p Store. They make an amusing gift for the Apple obsessive in your life and are cheaper than an iPhone 5. However, once the 10 seconds of amusement have passed, your Apple obsessed friend will realise that these Candy Apps are not Au'some, just Au'verage.
 

 Leave a comment, I'd love your thoughts on these!

Super Mario Chocolate Lollipop (Cybercandy)

I bought this fantastic looking Super Mario Chocolate Lollipop in Cybercandy a while ago. I love visiting the Cybercandy store in Covent Garden and browsing some of the different chocolates and sweets that the world has to offer. Products from Japan are my favourite just because they often feature brilliant characters and interesting flavours. Anything edible that is Nintendo or computer game related is always popular in my house!

This Super Mario Lollipop was bought on it's cuteness alone, and just looks too good to eat. I decided to save it for Father's Day which means it is really for the kids to eat, something my husband is fully aware of! I can't tell you what it tasted like as it was hard enough for two boys to try to share it, let alone giving the adults a bite. All I can say is that my kids told me it tasted yummy!

I need another visit to Cybercandy soon, I've just seen this awesome Sonic The Hedgehog Speed Energy Drink on their website. Although that is definitely not one for the kids, they have enough energy as it is!