Wine, Chocolate, Green Tea, Noodles and Nuts on My Kitchen Table in September

Welcome to my kitchen table, if you haven't visited before then let me tell you that this is where I review a variety of different products that have been sent to me and I'd like to share with you.


So let's start with a nice chilled glass of wine.  I wasn't able to attend the Matua Sessions launch, but I was offered a bottle to try in the comfort of my own home!  Matua are a New Zealand Winery and the Matua Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc is fresh with a real citrus zing, reminiscent of grapefruit and perfect for a warm summer day, an ideal match for fish and seafood. 7/10


Ever thought you might like to be a Chocolatier?  Well you can design your own chocolate bar without all the hassle of tempering with Chocolat Chocolat.  The website is easy to navigate and you can choose both the base chocolate for your bar from different types of chocolate, dark,  white  and caramel chocolate, then you choose from a variety of toppings.  Here is what I chose:

Bar 1 - 70% Dark, toppings - apricots, pecans and amaretti biscuit crumble
Bar 2 -  34% Caramel , toppings - Cappucino Buttons, Honeycomb and caramelised almonds
Bar 3 - 55% Dark, toppings - cinnamon, cardamom and chocolate coffee beans

I usually prefer dark chocolate, but I also loved the caramel bar with it's sweet and crunchy toppings.  This would be a perfect gift for a chocolate lover, or a special treat for yourself.

One custom bar costs £5.95, two custom bars cost £10.95 and three custom bars cost £14.95

As well as ordering online you can visit the Chocolat Chocolat shop in Cambridge for the full range of glorious chocolately goodness.  9/10



It's no secret that we are lovers of really good tea.  Brian is particularly keen on chinese green teas and he was so impressed with the Emperor Sampler Set from Adagio Teas.  This Sampler contains generous portions of the following:

• gyokuro - Deeply sweet, aroma of freshly buttered greens - no grassiness or harshness. Soft with a balanced, delicate finish.
• jasmine chun hao - Sweet perfumy cup, notes of warmed sugar, slightly toasty like a fresh biscuit. Light, refreshing and not overwhelmingly floral.
• jade snail - The tightly rolled fuzzy buds unfurl to deliver intricate notes of roasted nuts, soft smokiness and a hop-like crispness. Delicate yet bold.
• dragonwell - Inviting, toasty aroma and sweet rounded flavour. Nutty, buttery texture, pleasantly dry finish.

We loved them all, but the dragonwell was probably the one that came out top in our tasting test. the Emperor Sampler costs £13 for four teas 62g , Dragonwell costs £15 for 85g which works out at 40p per cup  8/10


I must now declare that I have NEVER eaten a Pot Noodle in my life!  So when I received a pack of Itsu Crystal Noodle Cups  I was somewhat sceptical.  However, I was pleasantly surprised as the broth, which comes as a paste in a foil pack, was really very delicious and had not artificial flavours or after-taste.   I adored the 'spork' which was really necessary to drink the soup and fish for the noodles,even better each cup is only 171 calories.

Itsu Crystal Noodle Cups are available from Ocado at £2.29 per cup (currently on special offer for £1.75) 7/10


Nuts are such a great ingredient in recipes and also a delicious snack on their own.  Jumble Bee nuts are available through Tesco stores with 175g packs retailing for £2.39.  I decanted a portion of nuts into a small plastic box and took it to work to keep me going through the day.  The nuts were lovely and fresh and the fruit soft and sweet, absolutely delicious.  8/10

I hope you have enjoyed my eclectic mix of foodie treats this month.  I'll be back with more in October.  

I was supplied with these products for review, I was not paid and all opinions are my own. 

Labels: adagio teas, Chocolat Chocolat, chocolate, designer, Green Tea, Itsu, jumble bee, Matua, noodles, Nuts, On my Kitchen Table, Reviews, Round Up, wine

posted by Janice @ 20:54 8 Comments

All the Tea from China

 I can remember drinking Earl Grey with my Mum when I was in my teens and also asking for a pot of chinese tea to drink with a chinese meal we ate on holiday in Torquay.  The first gift my husband gave me was a tin of Gunpowder Green Chinese Tea, so you can see that tea is something I am quite passionate about.


TeaVivre is a company run by a group of tea lovers and aficionados from China, Canada and France, who all share a passion for drinking great tea and appreciate the healthy life style it brings.  They all live in China, and frequently travel through the country visiting China's tea plantations so they can track down only truly exceptional teas.  As a result TeaVivre are able to bring to us the absolute highest quality Chinese teas that are, wherever possible, 100% organically grown and produced.

 I chose to review the green tea sample pack and the black tea sample pack

The green tea sample pack contains two of each of the following teas, beautifully packaged in individual foil sachets inside a larger sealed foil package:

Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea
Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea
Organic Hangzhou Tian Mu Qing Ding Green Tea
Superfine Pre-Ming Dragon Well Long Jing Tea
Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls Green Tea

I tasted the Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls Green Tea, it had a light clean flavour with just a hint of jasmine, no overpowering floral taste that you can get with some jasmine teas.  I drink my tea black and not strongly brewed, so really enjoyed this delicately flavoured tea.  Here is how TeaVivre describe the tea:

Jasmine “Dragon Pearls” is a deliciously sweet green tea that combines the absolute highest quality green tea with a jasmine aroma and taste. Made from one unopened bud and one small leaf, this tea hand rolled into small balls, which slowly unfurl during brewing, releasing an amazing taste and aroma combination of green tea and sweet jasmine. Brewing a cup of this sweet, fragrant tea only requires a few tiny pearls!


The Black Tea sample pack contains the following teas:

Yun Nan Dian Hong Black Tea – Golden Tip
Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black Tea
Bailin Gongfu Black Tea
Organic Superfine Keemun Fragrant Black Tea
Lapsang Souchong Smoky Black Tea (Yan Xun Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong)

I am not a huge fan of Lapsang Souchong tea as I usually find it rather overpowering but, after enjoying the Jasmine tea, I thought I would see what the TeaVivre Lapsang Souchong Smoky Black Tea was like. It was a nice surprise to find that the smoky flavour was subtle and the tea had a clean taste, without any real bitterness.  Here is what is said about this tea on the website:

Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong (Lapsang Souchong) used pine wood or pine charcoal from Tongmu kuan in Wuyi mountain as materials. Because black tea has a strong capability of absorption, while pine charcoal will release plenty of smoke when burning. So the Lapsang Souchong, produced by hands and machines, has a heavy flavor of smoked and pine, which is suitable for people who prefer strong flavor.

I'm looking forward to trying more of the tea samples and reviving my taste for exotic tea.  TeaVivre ships to the UK, be sure to change the currency indicator, in the top right of the web page, to GBP to see the prices in sterling.   The Green Tea Assortment costs £7.40 and the Black Tea Assortment is £6.50, shipping costs depend on the weight of the parcel, but start at £2.70.  This might seem expensive but given the outstanding quality of the tea and the fact that you could easily pay that for a bottle of wine, it is really not such a high price to pay. I think any of these teas would be the ideal gift for a tea connoisseur. 

Labels: Black Tea, Chinese Tea, Green Tea, Jasmine Tea, Lapsang Souchong, tea, TeaVivre

posted by Janice @ 22:08 5 Comments