Alcopop!

Yes, our first alcopop. we surely are scrapping the barrel now.

This is Liberte's Rum & Lime "a blend of rum and soda with lemon and lime flavour". 75p a bottle, 5.4 % vol.

It just tastes like sprite to me. Typical alcopop really, i guess this is why the kids love them. Not much else to say to be honest. Think of sprite and there you have it. Lesley and I both like it and would happily drink it again. I drank mine in about 10mins.

It says it contains colour, but it is clear. Lesley likes the minimalist packaging, so do I. It also has a screw top!

Recommended! Buy it for your 14 year old cousin.

(and yes Innes, we did drink this in our office).

Sweet Berry

Another friday, another trip to Lidl in Newington!

This is a first for us, fat free sweets. 'Sweet Berry' are strawberry flavoured jelly shapes. They have a white base and strawberry body, and i assume they are meant to be the shape of strawberries but they're not.

They retail at 89p.

I have to admit to liking these. On the first one there was not much of a taste, it displayed a rather subtle flavour. However, the more i ate the more that fake strawberry taste came through. Lesley pointed out that if you chew them more then more flavour is released.

Externally they are covered in sugar which contrasts well with the foamy interior.

Like always I have eaten too many and now feel sick.

Lesley doesn't like them, she thinks the subtle flavour means you have to chew them too much.

A lukewarm recommendation on this one. I wouldn't buy them again but didn't find them too offensive. I just think sweet corner needs to try a bit harder on these ones, the potential is there.

(They also contain pork gelatine, not for the vegetarians!)

wild mice and white strawberry chocolate

(no camera today, so photos to follow - promise)

so, after the success of our friday pub lunch, paul and i decided that it was nigh time for a trip to lidl. we emerged with a bar of amanie 'extra fine' white strawberry chocolate and a bag of wild mouse sweets.

on reaching the office paul decided to begin with some wild mice (89p). these a a foam-jelly composite sweet. the body is a marbled foam mouse with a long jelly tail. they look a bbit like brains with tails, but on closer inspection are definitely mouse-shaped. i thought the foam tasted slightly better than the jelly part, but both paul and i agree that the contrast between the two was great. they look somewhat disturbing, but taste good. the packet also informs me that wild mouse are fat free but, given that glucose is listed as the first ingredient, we remain unconvinced to their health-giving properties. and no spinach...

paul is a big white chocolate fan and the white strawberry chocolate (79p) claims to be 'finest chocolate', so we had high expectations. on opening the packet we were presented with the bottom of the chocolate bar (i managed to open it upside down), the appearance of which is vaguely reminiscent of a bad case of acne on peely-wally skin. all the strawberry bits had sunk to the bottom so turning it over made for a more appealing aesthetic. the chocolate was nice enough - not strawberryish enough for our liking and a bit sickly. we had one row of chocolate each and that was more than enough. strawberry chocolate is ok, but i'm not sure i'd go so far as to call it 'extra fine'.

DIY Tools of the Trade

Are you tired of how whack your house looks? Do you long to turn your slum into a palace? Do you wish you had a tool that was up to the challenge? Maybe you've thought of putting up a shelf, servicing your pipe-work, changing a light bulb? Why yes i hear you cry!

Well now thanks to everyone’s favourite supermarket Lidl, DIY just became easier! The new 'DIY Tools of the Trade' sale, starting Monday the 18th of September sees a whole range of toolboxes, penknives, ladies briefs and other awesome tools slashed in price. For the man about the house, this is a must. Never again should you have to suffer the humility of a disappointing toolset. Thanks to Lidl you can now swing around your impressive tool without shame for all to see.

Like Yorkies, not for girls!

The case of the disappearing vitamin friends

Lesley raised this concern a few weeks back on the afternoon of her party. Where are the vitamin friends, the best sweets Lidl sell? There were none to be had in the Newington or Leith stores.

Joanna and Paul took a trip to the Newington store on Saturday for a walk (this is what they do in their spare time). They went to get some spinach and new potatoes for a salad. Paul went to the sweets section to peruse the sugary goodness. But lo and behold, still no vitamin friends!!

So a call out to the other Lidlers. Maybe a letter to Lidl UK is in order, but before we pursue this course of action maybe the other lidlers could go and check out the case of the disappearing vitamin friends. Are they missing in your local Lidl? Or is it just a Edinburgh problem? We would love to know!

new additions to the joy of lidl

it seems that the joy of lidl blog 'family' is ever growing - and expanding it's geographical range. our latest addition is david, also known as 'spark209', who will be lidling from lovely newcastle-upon-tyne. this makes paul is the only lidler that has met every member of this blog.

Lidl Airways?

Finally Lidl is bursting free from just the normal discount supermarket fare. They are now offering discount flights on Air Berlin!

You obtain a voucher from your local Lidl to obtain a pin code and then vist airberlin.com/lidl to book your flights.

Lidl is "cutting fares, not service!"

Apology

I feel I must apologise for the lack of lidling over the past few weeks. This has been unfortunate but necessary due to half the reviewers being away and myself moving flats.

Hopefully we will start up again on Monday after a weekend of lidling.

Hang in there, and thank you for your continued lidling support.