May Product Picks

These aren’t necessarily newly launched products, but are new discoveries for me!

A few weeks ago I headed down to London for the first time in 9 months. The main reason for my trip was to see the new Fortnum’s food & drink studio and their revamped 3rd floor, but when I booked my trains I made sure to plan enough time for a visit to Selfridges too.

I always love having a look around the Selfridges foodhall. It’s a great place to discover some new brands, and they’re always up to date with the latest food trends. And it’s no secret that I love Fortnum’s too, they feature a lot on the blog!

I couldn’t resist buying these hazelnut praline biscuits* from Fortnum’s. I’m a huge fan of all their biscuits - I used to be buyer for biscuits when I worked at Fortnum’s - and I’m always excited when they bring out something new.

The hazelnut praline biscuit is delicious, packed with lots of big pieces of hazelnut, and it’s covered in a thick layer of creamy milk chocolate. These are very moorish! And I love the packaging design too.

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Acid League* are a brand I discovered for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and I spent ages checking out their different products at Selfridges. They describe themselves as… ‘a team of designers, food scientists and food fanatics that make creative pantry products for modern home cooks’.

The range includes hot sauces, broth concentrates and vinegars. I couldn’t pick one product to highlight because they all look so good, but the ones I’m keen to try first are the shio ramen broth concentrate, and pineapple habanero hot sauce.

Pea & Mint ketchup* is a new one for me, and it sounds intriguing enough that you just have to buy it to see what it tastes like. And it has to be the ultimate condiment to have with your fish and chips!

Puckett’s, who are local to me based in York, suggest to mix this with cream cheese or crème fraiche to make a fresh dip that goes perfectly with tortilla chips. They make all sorts of delicious sounding chutneys, check out the full range here.

This pineapple & turmeric kraut sounds delicious, absolutely full of flavour with the fermented spiced cabbage combined with sweet pineapple.

This is the kind of thing I would just eat on its own straight out of the jar, but London Fermentary recommends using this in a hummingbird cake in place of pineapple, or in a smoothie. And of course being kraut, it's gut friendly and healthy too!

This pad thai sauce* from Farang makes creating your own pad thai at home super easy, and it’s super tasty! There’s a vegan version available too.

Farang is an amazing thai restaurant in Highbury, it was my local when we lived in London, and is well worth a visit.

Despite it being mid May, it still feels like hot chocolate weather to me. I’ve heard a lot of great things about Knoops so I had to pick up a tub of their 54% dark hot chocolate* when I saw it in Selfridges.

Even though this is a dark hot chocolate, because it is only 54%, it's still very creamy and quite like a milk chocolate. It’s nice and sweet, but not overly so, and was delicious with the ultimate and only hot chocolate toppings in my view - marshmallows and whipped cream.

It’s vegan too!

Citizens of Soil is a brand I discovered on Fortnum’s new 3rd floor… an innovative space with a food & drink studio, and gin distillery, and a wonderfully curated range of cookware and ingredients. You can read more about it here.

This is a small batch and single-origin olive oil from Crete. The female-led brand uses regenerative farming techniques with minimal intervention to make a fresh and natural olive oil.

Fortnum’s are selling this online as part of a bundle* on their website with some other products from their new 3rd floor range.

And finally, not something I saw in London, but a new product to share with you… Betty’s have just launched a new range of loaf cakes, and this carrot cake looks dreamy. I’ve tried the individual size carrot cake from Bettys before and loved it.

There’s a lot of ingredients in this cake… walnuts, sultanas, coconut, pineapple, mixed spice, and of course plenty of carrot. So it’s not just your average carrot cake, more like an elevated version. And It’s decorated with buttercream and candied orange. Yum!

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