Tag: port elixabeth

Guess Who’s Back…Again

Wow, it has been a minute (more like a few years) since my last blog post and honestly, I really miss it. SO many things have changed in the time I have been absent from this side of my life. I got married, we bought a house (which is currently being painted as the photo shows) and I (okay we) have two more dogs and I have made several career shifts.

house covered in white paint can see garage kitchen window and drain
two dogs Zoe beautiful brinjal puppy on the left and Zorba handsome brinjal puppy with white paws on the right
menu for date night at the beach hotel


The special has changed slightly since January of this year (2023 in case you’re reading this in like 5 years or something), it costs R385 per couple for a three-course meal and a bottle of wine or a non-alcoholic drink.
When we went in January the menu consisted of a salad as a starter, the main course was either chicken schnitzel, steak, or hake and dessert was either homemade cheesecake or red velvet cake.
Now before I tell you about our experience and what our taste buds thought about everything there’s something you need to understand. My husband and I are not salad people (if you knew our weights you would have been able to guess that). Our favorite salad would be potato salad and lately, I make couscous salad although I’m not sure the way I make it really counts as salad. My point though is that the salad we had that night, a butternut, beetroot, and pumpkin seed salad still haunts me but in the absolute best way.

delicious salad with feta pumpkin seeds lettuce and beetroot

I intend to remake that salad as it is absolutely divine and inspired me to want to try out-of-the-ordinary salads (so please spam me with ideas). The salad we had that night made me realize it’s not that we’re not salad people, it’s that we’re not typical green salad people especially since neither of us can or should eat tomatoes.
The main course, we both had the steak and as I am writing this article I’m going through the photographs and wishing in my heart of hearts that time travel actually existed. I would love to be transported back in time through the photograph of that dish and eat it again… it was that good, my compliments to the chef, soft juicy steak, yum!

juicy steak with sauce


The dessert oh my goodness! I am not actually the biggest cake person; I would prefer a mousse or a tart as I find most cakes can be quite dry. I must admit 8 months is a long time ago to remember if the cake was moist enough for my liking. Still, since I don’t have a distinct memory of disdain for the cake and judging by the photographs, I am going to say that the cakes were divine, one of them had an edible flower on which I absolutely loved! It makes me feel adventurous and so la di da when I get to eat flowers.

gorgeous cheese cake smothered in a red sauce with a strawberry on top
lovely red velvet cake with a red edible flower on top

Jo’s Take Aways
If you’re in a relationship make date night a priority
Expand your taste bud’s horizons
If you enjoy something and it doesn’t harm anyone keep doing it no matter what others think or say.

Until next time


Jo XO

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

  1. Amaretto Almond
  2. Nutty Hazelnut
  3. 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