April Tongue Teasers

1. Cirio brand tomatoes
There are tinned tomatoes and there are tinned tomatoes! Some of the lower priced tins are mostly a thin, watery liquid with one large plum tomato or a small amount of chopped tomatoes in this liquid.

Cirio are authentic Italian tinned tomatoes which are thick, packed tightly with tomatoes.

They are full of flavour giving any dish that you are cooking that real Italian, sun packed tomato flavour.

Of course your normal range of tinned tomatoes will contain  plum tomatoes, chopped tomatoes and one or two brands will have a cherry tomato. Cirio have Cherry Tomatoes, Peeled Plum Tomatoes, Baby Plum Tomatoes, Finely Chopped Tomatoes, Tomato Fillets and Chopped Tuscan and not to forget the super double concentrated tomato puree.

If you want more information as well as loads of recipes click here.

2. Lavazza Prontissimo - new instant coffee from Lavazza, Italy's favourite coffee.

It seems these days that everyone is coming out with an instant version of their ground coffee and Lavazza has done just that.  You can now get an authentic Italian coffee experience ‘in an instant’ with their new instant coffee called ‘Prontissimo!’  

Lavazza has been roasting coffee since 1895 and through four generations of family however still has its passion for great coffee as well as providing education and information to help people living in the coffee growing countries.

Prontissimo! Is available in two varieties: Prontissimo! Medio, a medium roast, sweet and round bodied with low acidity and Prontissimo! Intenso a dark roast which is well balanced with notes of roast and caramel.  Both are made using 100% Arabica beans sourced from Columbia.

Mr R is especially pleased with these two new blends – he loves his Lavazza espresso and can now have it ‘in an instant’!

Prontissimo! Is now available in a range of Sainsbury, Waitrose and Tesco stores with a RRP of £4.70 for the 95g tin and £3.75 for the pouch.

3. The Fine Cheese Company - Bath

And of course the evening wouldn’t have been complete without The Fine Cheese Company from Bath who treated us to some of their finest cheeses and wines to pair with them at the GBSCC judging last year!  This year they brought a selection of new buffalo milk cheese (which is rich and delicious but easier to digest) with them, my favourite being the Penny Bu, a lovely and creamy brie like cheese.

We also tried their two other buffalo milk cheeses as well as a goat’s cheese.  The exciting news is that The Fine Cheese Company is opening a new shop in London on Motcombe Street on the 12th May 2016!  I think I will be a regular visitor getting my fix of all the outstanding cheeses they will have.

4. British Cassis

When I have been in France one of my favourite drinks is Champagne.  The French love to add a small amount of their wonderful black currant liqueur called Cassis to a dry white wine and they call it 'Kir' however adding this dark purple liquid gem to Champagne it become 'Kir Royale'.

Now there is a British company producing a special black current liqueur on the market.  I was able to taste this at a recent event, appropriately in a glass of Champagne!  It is a drier product giving your drink a more 'any time' quality rather than just an aperitif.

British Cassis works really well neat with an ice cube or as an ingredient in fine chocolates.

I am hoping to be able to travel to Herefordshire where British Cassis is grown and produced and to get to know the process of growing, harvesting and producing and I will of course follow up with a blog post.

These are just a few of the products I was sent or given to try last month.  There will be further 'Tongue Teaser' posts coming up soon.

I was not paid to review the above products and as usual all photos and opinions are my own.