The Final Flavours and my Personal Favourite

I hope you’ve been waiting in anguish since my last post to find out which one of the final three came out on top as my personal favourite flavour of Beanies coffee.

I wish this upon you only for the reason that I had to wait almost two weeks to try the Creamy Caramel flavour, which I assumed would arise as my number one.

Sadly, this was not the case. The caramel smelt amazing but to my disappointment it tasted very generic. It smelt a lot more like the yummy caramel that I was expecting than it tasted.

So sadly my taste buds and heart were let down by the Creamy Caramel coffee which I waited two weeks to enjoy.

All hope was not lost however, I found two real gems in-between. I was so shocked at one of the two that I so much enjoyed since I don’t even like this taste in general.

Ginger Bread!!! I am so completely shocked, I don’t like ginger at all. Except maybe a bit with my sushi. I don’t eat ginger cookies, I don’t drink ginger ale- nothing!

Yet the ginger bread flavoured coffee made it to my top two, I actually ended up not only drinking mine but my boyfriend’s ginger flavoured coffee too!

My favourite however, was the…wait for it…

Cookie dough flavour! I was very impressed with this flavour! It was so good, creamy and yummy. A friend of mine who also tried the Beanies coffee was asking me about my flavour journey and mentioned that he didn’t like the cookie dough so I guess it’s not for everyone.

I really enjoyed this adventure through the flavours especially since it was the only kind of adventure I could have while our country is on lockdown!

I’m looking forward to the day I can go to a restaurant again, and buy some wine!

Please Stay Safe!

Jo xo

Jo’s Take Away’s

When you buy a low calorie coffee expect it to taste as such
Be a little open minded
Always make the best of tough situations

The Flavoured Coffee Journey Continues

My apologies, I intended this to be a daily post but realised one flavour to review at a time would be a very short post!

I currently have a favourite flavour, which I’ll share shortly, and a very close second which even surprised me.

At this point there are four that I haven’t had yet, three of them I will never have the privilege to try due to a sensitivity to nuts. I won’t be able to try the following flavours

Amaretto Almond
Nutty Hazelnut
Cinnamon Hazelnut

If you try any of those please feel free to share your experience in the comments.

The fourth one I haven’t tried yet is the creamy caramel- I am waiting in suspense to try this one tomorrow morning, hoping that I have saved the best for last.

The day after I had tried the double chocolate flavour, I was a bit sceptical about trying the rest of the flavours and didn’t go in with an open mind.

The second one I tried was the Irish Cream, OH. MY. GOODNESS. I was pleasantly surprised, I accidentally let it get cold, but I still drank it. You don’t understand the magnitude of this, I don’t even drink Nescafé if it’s too cold.

The only thing though about the Irish Cream is that I am not sure if it actually tasted like Irish Cream. It tasted good yes, but did it taste like what it was supposed to? That – I can’t answer.

Next, we had the Choc Mint, I guess Beanies haven’t quite gotten the formula right for flavours containing chocolate. It really wasn’t great, was a bit like having coffee after brushing your teeth.

Then there was the Very Vanilla, I had a sip of my boyfriend’s one a few days prior to having mine since we didn’t always do the same flavour. I was not impressed, it made my toothpaste combo seem like it tasted good. However, when I had mine, it wasn’t half bad- I really enjoyed it. It had a light coffee taste with slight undertones of vanilla. I think the difference between my boyfriend’s Very Vanilla and mine was that he used sweetener and I used refined sugar which we used for a few days.

The next one was the Coconut Delight- not actually that memorable, it wasn’t bad but wasn’t amazing either. I do remember the slight aftertaste of coconut though. You know after you’ve eaten a lamington and that last bit of coconut is stuck to the underside of your teeth without you knowing? You might gnaw your teeth a little and have that crunchy coconut taste in your mouth. That’s what it’s like after having a sip of the Coconut Delight!

The last one which I am going to tell you about in this particular post is the Chocolate Orange. You know that I said they haven’t mastered the chocolate flavour’s formula yet, right? Well they should use the this one’s ratios. It’s perfect! It reminded me of the KitKat citrus chocolate, which I quite enjoy. Still this wasn’t the best one I’ve had so far though.

Want to know which one was best? Look out for my next blog post on these coffees which will reveal my favourite flavour so far and if the creamy caramel could knock it off it’s throne.

To be continued.

Jo xo

a Series of Flavoured Coffee Reviews part 1

So, the boyfriend and I went on an essential shopping trip, you know for the normal things.

Trash bags, lemon juice, distilled water and so forth. We have a tendency for trying new things, and of course, as a true theology student, I have an intense love for good coffee.

Years ago, there used to be caramel instant coffee which I can’t seem to put out of my head- the search for its equivalent is ever present in the back of my head.

We went to one of the supermarkets in our area which is open during lockdown, and kind of dwelled around hoping the items in the aisles would spark our memory of what is lacking at home.

Of course, we would end up in the coffee aisle and find a box of Beanies flavoured coffee with 12 sachets of coffee in! This we had to try, so we decided to get each of us a box, sadly not the box with the salted caramel flavour though (which is one of my favourite flavours for anything).

So, with dinner we decided to try out the first one, ‘double chocolate’. I must say at first, I was underwhelmed, it seemed to have a bit of an identity crisis. Not enough coffee to be a coffee, not enough chocolate to be hot chocolate and not enough of both to be a mochaccino.

I will admit some error on our part as the kettle had recently been boiled and we did not re boil it and I am not a fan of cold coffee. Also, we only added 2 sweetener which is the equivalent of what we add to Hug in a Mug.

So I did warm my coffee and add another sweetener and then it was actually quite nice, still not as flavourful as I had hoped though. It smelled amazing but the taste did not quite live up to the smell.

That might well be because I am more accustomed to a stronger blend of coffee though, so if you are fond of the less intense coffees and in the mood for something exotic I would definitely suggest you try these!

Jo’s Take Away’s

Make a shopping list
Make sure you aren’t allergic to any of the flavours before you buy the box
Use smaller mugs for stronger coffee

The next flavour I will be reviewing is the Irish Cream, really hoping that it will impress me more than this one.

Hope you are surviving lockdown and staying safe.

Jo xo

Something Cheesy about Loaded Fries

Mc Donald’s recently had a promotion/limited edition item on their menu – chilli cheese fries. I originally saw an ad for these fries on Facebook, an ad with a very enticing picture attached that is!

These fries have actual jalapeno slices in them! I knew that I absolutely had to try them.

Early one Monday morning my boyfriend and I set out to try these chilli cheese fries- boy was it worth it! We were up and about at 6 a.m. for reasons not worth mentioning but it was freezing!

I was actually in my pyjamas so was quite thankful that such a thing as drive-thru’s exist!

The chilli cheese fries consisted of the amazing mc dees chips with cheese sauce, jalapeno pieces and drum roll please- jalapeno sauce!

Now if you know me you would know that I don’t very often eat things that burn, I have a list of less than 10 things that I eat which are spicy. One of these things happens to be the jalapeno burger at McDonald’s. The fact that they added this sauce to the chips just put it over the top for me.

The warmth of the chips sent our stomachs into absolute heaven! It was a little bit too spicy for me though, extremely delicious but very burny! I regretted not ordering a milkshake with this dish!

A few weeks later we decided to visit one of the local Burger Kings in Port Elizabeth. On their menu we noticed loaded fries i.e. chilli cheese fries. These fries had cheese sauce and jalapeno slices, sadly no jalapeno sauce though.

These chips were amazing, they tasted delicious and didn’t burn too much (well actually it was more like I could handle the level of spice). I really enjoyed these chips- I could handle them!

I must say in comparing the two, the McDonald’s chilli cheese fries wins, it’s the better dish. I personally prefer the Burger King fries though as I could handle them. If you like a slight spice to your food I would suggest Burger King loaded fries. If you prefer like you had just battled a dragon in your mouth than the McDonald’s chilli cheese fries are waiting for you to give them a try!

One thing that I didn’t expect with both dishes was that the jalapeno slices would be refreshing. They have a burn to them yes but they had a very fresh taste to them. I would eat raw jalapeno again any time!

May you find your favourite chilli cheese fry! If you feel there are more chilli cheese fries that need to be tried let me know in the comment section!

Love Jo xo

Jo’s Take Away’s

Don’t be scared to try something new
Know your limits
Find that which you like

Mc Donalds

Burger King

Mc Donalds

Review of American Diner/Grillers

If you have ever had a girlfriend you would know how important it is to keep her fed. I apologised to my boyfriend yesterday at the restaurant when we went there for lunch since I will never be the girl that only orders a salad.

That being said he picked the perfect place for us to stuff our faces! American Diner (also known as Grillers) in Newton Park- just thinking back to the food I feel full!

They have such friendly service, even the car guard was super friendly!

Grillers has regular specials as well as specials for each day of the week. My boyfriend and I opted to order from the daily specials. He chose the monkey gland burger and I had the chicken schnitzel. Our plates were overflowing with food. We decided to have water with our meals until I saw the alcoholic drinks menu that is.

The lady had already brought our water to the table, and I did some vivid hand gestures and accidentally knocked over my entire glass of water. I decided to save myself from the embarrassment a little bit by saying that when I noticed there was alcohol I realised I didn’t need the water anymore.

I was really blown away by their prices on the alcohol, less than R15 per glass. I had a glass of semi-sweet white wine and it was actually quite a nice wine. The wine tasted much better than I expected for that price.

I barely had my first sip of wine before our food was brought to the table, I expected a much longer wait as they make a comment on the menu that the food might take long.

The food was delicious, we both opted for veggies with our meals, green beans & pumpkin. Wow was it delicious! In my dish I got two large pieces of chicken and ended up giving most of the one piece to my boyfriend. It was really way too much food I do think, though it is part of the novelty of Grillers to receive such large portions. My boyfriend had me taste the sauce on his monkey gland burger, it tasted almost like a barbeque sauce with some added sugar – a bit too sweet for my taste.

I still can’t believe we did this, but we had dessert on top of our way too much food lunch. My boyfriend and his brother discovered long ago that you can order a waffle with bar-one sauce even though it isn’t on the menu.

It was amazing, we opted for cream & ice cream on this bar-one sauce waffle! It was thoroughly enjoyable although it was quite sweet, the ice cream did a good job of breaking the sweetness. I must say we waited longer for the waffle than we did for our food.

My biggest criticism is that it’s too much food but that’s why take aways exist. I promise this is a non-biased review, and if you don’t believe me please go check them out for yourself!

Oh yes I almost forgot our bill (before tip) was about R196, that’s for lunch & dessert (although we shared the waffle) for 2 people! Definite value for money!

Jo’s Take Aways

The right person will love you as you are, huge appetite and all
Be mindful of your actions in a restaurant
Even though dessert goes to the heart, make sure you have space!

Remember to follow @imjoxo on Instagram!

The Pizza that had too much to live up to

IMG_20190707_182043 So if you’ve been following my recent blog posts you would know that I now have someone in my life. So my boyfriend (yes I love saying that) had for weeks been telling me about this Nachos pizza at San Fernando’s since he knows that I love avocado!

He has been telling me how amazing this pizza is, and I really couldn’t wait to taste it. Finally the day came when we decided to go out for dinner to have this nachos pizza that he has been bragging about.

I must say the service at San Fernando’s at Sunridge Village is amazing, very friendly and very quick as well.

I had the most amazing bar-one hot chocolate and that I would recommend to absolutely everyone. IMG_20190707_180946

The pizza came (quite quickly may I add) and it looked amazing, except when you bear in mind that my boyfriend thought I would enjoy this pizza because I love avo and you notice that here is only a small dollop of guacamole on every slice. I ignored this though and dived into what mostly looked like an amazing pizza.

My boyfriend’s brother joined us for the pizza and to my happiness didn’t eat avo so most of his gaucamole came to me…yay!

The first bite of the pizza was delicious, but on the next bite something tasted a little floury or doughy maybe. At first I couldn’t place it but later realized some spots of the pizza’s base didn’t completely cook through.

I’m not a large fan of tomato flavoured things so I think I’m slightly biased on this next point, but as the nacho base on top of the pizza base they use tomato flavoured corn chips. The taste is also a bit dry which might have added to the floury taste and also the tomato taste kind of overpowered the rest of the pizza.

We opted for the plain pizza as I am asthmatic and need to be very careful of things that are too spicy, but the pizza came across a bit bland. I would have enjoyed it if the pizza was slightly tangy. I mean yes, when I eat spicy things I get to a point where I would just as well sell my birth right for a glass of water but with this pizza I thought I would sell my birth right for a little bit of spice.

They only have the plain option and the spicy option on the menu- I would definitely recommend that they add a mild version of the nachos pizza on the menu and if they do I would give it a try for sure!

I think at some point during consuming the pizza my facial expression must have changed since my boyfriend felt it necessary to express that he forgot that I critique food.

I would just like to say that I might not have enjoyed the dish but I did enjoy the place! They have some amazing specials and are worth checking out!

Love Jo, xo

Jo’s Takeaways:

There is no such thing as too much avo
Plain doesn’t have to mean tasteless
Don’t oversell a dish