Unicorn Black, Robinsons Brewery - Beer Review

I like dark beer, and Unicorn Black from Robinsons Brewery is one of the best stouts I've had for a long time.

Unicorn Black is delicious, and pleasantly thrist-quenching for a stout.

It poured a dark brownish black in the glass, with a slight sugary brown head.

Aromas of chocolate, coffee, caramel, toffee, and roasted malt.

I thought it had quite a strong flavour of black liquorice, and a touch of roasted malt, coffee, and dark red fruits. I really liked the strong liquorice taste.

It had a perfect balance of sweetness, and a bitter slightly citrus flavour to the finish. 

Mr.R also thought this was a very decent stout, and we'll definitely be buying this brew again in the future.

From the label -
A modern twist on an aged old recipe, Unicorn Black is a dark, mysterious, ebony coloured stout with a distinct aroma of roasted malt and chocolate.

Rich, full bodied and deeply satisfying, Unicorn Black delivers a palate of roasted coffee and peppery hops leaving a robust after bitterness. It is perfectly balanced with a hint of sweetness.
4.1% Vol. 
Hope variety, Goldings. 

Unicorn Black from Robinsons Brewery is so good I felt it deserved to have two photos on this blogpost - even though they are fairly similar to each other. 

I was too preoccupied enjoying the beer to spend time taking photos. 

Have you tried Unicorn Black, Robinsons Brewery?

What did you think of it?

Are you a dark beer drinker?

Aldi Supermarket, Rotten Mouldy Tomatoes, and Bad Customer Service

A few days ago, after we'd been out visiting family, on the drive back to our house we popped into an Aldi supermarket to purchase a few things.

Among various other items we purchased was a pack of six tomatoes.
When we got them home and took them out of the packet 3 of them were rotten, covered in mould. Nasty!

I shared a photo of the rotten Aldi tomatoes on the companies twitter and facebook accounts.

I received a reply from Aldi on twitter and facebook, which said the same thing, ''We're sorry to hear this Laura, please return your proof of purchase and packaging to store for a full refund!''

What a joke!
I replied saying that it would cost me more in petrol to return the rotten fruit, than the original cost of the mouldy tomatoes; 58p for the pack of six.
I never heard anything from Aldi again.
But looking at the Aldi hashtag on twitter, I saw that lots of their customers have been treated equally badly, or in some cases worse than I was.

I am unimpressed with the attitude of Aldi bad customer services.
I expected more from them. They're behaving just like the big four supermarket chains in the UK. Which is why I don't shop in them.......

I've never had a problem with shopping in Aldi before this. 

I like, or should I say I used to like shopping in Aldi. 

And Lidl, I'm a big fan of the smaller shops, with less choice (the big four appear to give you more choice, but it's all the same products, but in tons of different size jars etc. so there's not really a lot of choice, just aisles and asiles of variations on sizes and pakaging to get you to buy more and make them even more profit).

Oops, rambling, a bit, I also like Aldi and Lidl for their better value products, there's less faffing about, shopping is quicker, and usually their products are decent quality.

So, I'm not writing this blogpost because I dislike the lower priced supermarkets. Or because I am a snob.

I just wanted to share the fact that despite buying six tomatoes from Aldi, I couldn't make for lunch that day, what I wanted to because I only had three tomatoes that were useable.

And if I'm sold six of something, then I want to be able to use, and/or eat, six of something, not three. 

Right, that's the end of my Aldi tomato woes, and it wasn't all rotten tomatoes, we did buy lots of wine in Aldi too - which was completely mould free, thankfully.

Do you shop in Aldi?

Have you ever unpacked your shopping to find Aldi has sold you rotten mouldy food?

Nacreous Clouds - Absolutely Stunning Sky

About a week ago, we were up and out early to take the dogs to the beach.

I shot this photo as we drove, through a very dirty car window. Not bad eh?

Barley, our rescue and Lurcher, and Porter, our rescue Rottweiler, are both crazy about the beach. Literally.
They always know when we're going to the beach, beacause they see the rucksack with their balls etc. ready for the car drive.

On this particular morning Barley and Porter seemed even more excited than usual, they were jumping about all over the place, and they whined the whole way to the beach. Thankfully it's only a ten(ish) minute drive.

Anyway, it was during the drive that I noticed how beautiful the sky looked.
It was still fairly dark as we drove along towards the beach, the sun had yet to rise, but the clouds were quite luminous, they looked as though they were backlit, and reminded me of a rainbow.

On the beach, just before sunrise 

I tried to take some photos as we whizzed along the coast road. I only managed to get one that was in focus.
And I took a few more photos once we were all down on the beach.
The sun was rising, which changed the colour of the sky, but the clouds were still so beautifully rainbow coloured.
Maybe that's why Barley and Porter had been over-excited on the drive to the beach - because they were in awe of the gorgeous clouds? Hehehe!

Necreous clouds, stunning sky at surise

I had to include a photo of Barley and Porter - complete with nacreous clouds in the distance

Later on when we were back at the house, I shared some of my cloud photos on IG (InstaGram), which is where someone told me they were called nacreous clouds.
I hadn't known their name before. I can never remember the proper names of all the different type of clouds.
And I don't recall ever seeing nacroeus clouds before either.
The clouds made for an absolutely stunning sky, which made my morning, as I am a bit obsessed with clouds, stars, the moon - the sky in general really.
Are you a cloud obsessive?
Have you ever seen nacreous clouds?

Wooden Hand Brewery, Pirate's Gold - Beer Review

We drank this beer last Summer, but from what I remember it was an quite a light drink.

It didn't pour into the glass as golden as the name may suggest, it looked more like a traditional English bitter, not that that's a bad thing necessarily.
It had aromas of sweet malts, hops, and yeast, basically it smelt beery, with a touch of caramel, nuts, coffee, and a vegetal smell.
On the palate it was lightly fruity, with a slight tart taste, plus flavours of toffee, nuts, biscuity malts, and apples. The apple flavour reminded me more of a bitter.
The finish was distinctively hoppy and sweet malt flavours, and quite dry. 


Wooden Hand Brewery, Pirate's Gold, was a drinkable beer, but I doubt we'd buy it again.

From the label -

Pirate's Gold
Easy Drinking pale coloured ale, a tempting hop aroma with light fruit notes. 
Strong malt and hop flavours with a dry tangy fruit finish. 

This beer contains Maris Otter malted barley, torrified wheat, crystal malt, amber malt, English and European hops married with a fine English ale yeast. 
Best served slightly chilled. 
Brewed and bottled in Truro, Cornwall. ABV 4%

Wooden Hand Brewery
Grampound Road
Nr Truro
Cornwall
TR2 4TB
www.woodenhand.co.uk

We weren't overly impressed with this Cornish beer - the label was probably the most interesting thing about it.
Have you tried Wooden Hand Brewery, Pirate's Gold?
What did you think of it?
Would you drink it again?