REVIEW - Starbucks Banana Caramel S'mores Frappuccino

There are lots of things that indicate that summer is coming. The birds are awake at 4am, everyone's having a barbecue, and your skin turns a brilliant shade of pink because you neglected the suncream. That, and everyone's wandering around clutching Starbucks frappuccinos - thanks to Happy Hour.

Happy Hour (or 'Frappy Hour') is that one glorious week in May when, between 3pm and 5pm, all Starbucks frappuccinos are half-price. Great! You can get a nice cool drink to freshen you up! The only problem is that everyone else has the same idea.
If you've not experienced the joy of a university-campus Starbucks during Happy Hour, just picture: a queue snaking out the door, a scrum of people building up at the end of the counter, stressed and hot staff, constant confusion regarding which drink belongs to who, an ever-depleting supply of straws, and more frappuccinos than you care to count. If you're in a rush to be somewhere - forget it. You'll be in there for a good 20 minutes.

It's the staff I feel bad for; I've worked my fair share of retail jobs (and still do) so know full too well how awful busy periods can be - not to mention how dull it must be, having to make the same drink straight for 2 hours. I wouldn't have actually ventured into Starbucks, had I not really, really wanted to try the new 'Banana Caramel S'mores Frappuccino'. I LOVE banana, and coffee, and caramel - so I had to face Happy Hour.

REVIEW - Galaxy Duet Toffee and Popcorn

My friend Laura is wonderful, for many reasons. One of those reasons is that she quite often surprises me with spontaneous little gifts, the most recent of which was a bar of Galaxy's Toffee and Popcorn Duet. I've never actually tried any of the Duet bars before, despite always being intrigued by them, so I was pretty excited to give this one a go (and was also incredibly grateful to have been gifted chocolate at a time of immense stress i.e. dissertation hand-in).

The bar is described as "milk chocolate with a toffee flavoured caramel filling, popcorn pieces and toffee pieces". Me being me, I got distracted whilst eating it (I'm incredibly absent-minded) and failed to notice if the bar was split equally with caramel down one half and popcorn down the other. I would presume so... but a repeat purchase might be necessary to make sure...

REVIEW - Gu Zillionaires' Puddings

I can't be the only one who doesn't really understand Valentine's Day, can I? I'm all for showing love and affection to your partner, but I don't think you need a designated day in the middle of February in which to do so. I also don't understand why shops and supermarkets seem to think that all women would LOVE an enormous teddy bear as a gift (sure, they look cute, but they take up a lot of space).

Still, I do appreciate Valentine's Day because it means that there's always lots of nice food on offer in the shops. There's also usually an abundance of half-price chocolate in the days that follow. Tesco have currently got Gu puddings on offer for £1.50 (half price!) and, fancying an indulgent treat, I picked up the Zillionaire puddings the other day, which I haven't tried before. With 2 in a pack, these are an ideal Valentine's dessert for a couple - but, for singletons like myself, it's even better because it means you don't have to share.

Valentine's treat for one

REVIEW - Muller Light Peanut and Caramel

I find it difficult to believe that we're well over halfway into January now. Christmas seems like a distant memory, there are Easter eggs filling the shelves of the supermarkets (why?! I don't understand?) and the newspapers are taking great delight in informing us that the country has "come to a standstill" (it hasn't) under "4 feet of snow" (there's not). And I am slowly but surely battling my way through pages and pages of exam notes as I try and emerge from my January exams reasonably unscathed. One exam down, two to go!

As I've been constantly cramming my brain full of information on polyphenols, fat metabolism and dietary assessment methods, I haven't had much time to venture to the supermarket (or beyond my front room, if I'm honest) and pick up some new foods to try. However I did manage to get my hands on this new 'peanut and caramel' Muller light yogurt, which has been intriguing me ever since it popped up on social media a week or so ago. I'm not the greatest fan of peanuts (but will eat a Snickers bar if there's really nothing else going) but I wanted to give this a try all the same.