Hello hungry peoples,

It’s tasting panel time! This tasting panel was all about trying new things, without knowing what they actually were. It was an odd experience as eating with your eyes is definitely a thing. We were all strung up in blindfolds and were then plied with all kinds of things. Sounds kinda dodgy right???!!

My daughter Bea came along as I was single parenting that week and she was given the task of distributing the first tasting (which she enjoyed immensely). It turned out that we were sampling the range of Harry Potter Jelly Belly beans. These beans include sought after flavours such as “boogeys”, “earthworms” and “grass”. I got lucky and got a fruit one but this was followed by an earthworm flavour that tasted legitimately like dirt. It was kinda impressive how accurate the flavours were but obviously not all of them was a pleasant experience.

Next we moved on to the real business, a blind tasting of three mysterious bottles. Our only hint was that we were tasting them with bread. It turned out to be pretty easy to work out what we were eating once I hit one full of balsamic goodness. Luka Ciano is an Australian chef who has been working on a food range. Many of the panel had sampled his pasta sauces, which they unequivocally loved. We sampled three of his salad dressing with flavours such as “Sicilian Citrus”, “White Basamic and Figs” and “Rosemary, Garlic and Balsamic Reduction”. My daughter spent her time trying to steal all the bread for the tasting.

We also sampled some sweet goods thanks to the panel members bringing in some intriguing items. We tried Callebaut Ruby chocolate, a brand beloved by pastry chefs everywhere.

The chocolate is a bright pink colour, due to the type of cacao bean used to create it. It was an interesting experience as the bean also produces a different flavour, kinda tart and yoghurty. I imagine there are so many amazing desserts you could make with it. You will have to order online though.

Lastly we got to try Koko Black’s “Plum pudding Bites” which are available for Christmas. These were amazing, with a perfect pudding flavour and a bit of a groggy kick all package up into tiny chocolately balls. I would recommend these but I think next time I’ll go with the dark chocolate because I imagine it would be even better. Nom nom!

What I ate:

• Jelly Belly Harry Potter Beans
• Callebaut Ruby Chocolate
• Luka Ciano Sicilian Citrus + EVOO dressing
• Luka Ciano White Balsamic and Fig + EVOO dressing
• Luka Ciano White Balsamic and Fig + EVOO dressing
• Koko Black Plum Pudding Bites