Yummy Aldi's fish cakes with minted pea filling

I tried Jive bars (Twix) and they're very nice. They're not quite what I remember Twixes tasting like years ago, though the last time I bought a real Twix a couple of years ago it was horrible. These are closer to the real thing, though the caramel is not quite there. Still miles better than Lidl's bars though. The only nice ones they do are 'Bounties'.

Jives are also a lot smaller than a real Twix, which is probably a good thing if you just eat one, or possibly a bad thing if it means you end up eating two at a time!

Aldi also seem to be going even more up-market recently, adding echalion shallots, cavolo nero (posh kale) and loose yellow peppers to their ranges, along with various other things. The shallots were one of the very few things that keep me occasionally visiting Asda, so that's one less reason. Kale was intermittent in Lidl and was another reason to go to Asda, so this is also good news.

My Aldi has had a bit of a makeover, with lots of new tall refrigerated shelf things added to the aisles, at the expense of cakes and tinned ranges (I'm not complaining), and loads of new staff. Those who used to be there every day now only seem to be part time, others have disappeared all together and there are loads of new faces. As far as I know, the manager is the same, but this must have been some big shake-up made by head office.

As much as I like Aldi and Lidl over Tesco and Asda, I'm savouring the time we live in now because you can be sure if the day comes when they overtake Tesco and Asda (both of whom were once dwarfed by Sainsbury's and Safeway), they'll quickly change and lead us back to square one!

Aldi have recently added reviews and ratings to their products on their website. However, this page shows a review 4 days old about a product that was supposedly only on sale from today:

https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuy...adshower-hose/

I'm always suspicious of any ratings and reviews on a company's own website, so this just suggest to me they're being added by staff. There are some other websites where I notice periodic deletions of negative reviews while positive reviews remain prominent.

My local one has also.
From the work being done I though they might be adding a bakery but it looks as though they just extended the fresh produce section.

Their specially selected coconut and treacle biscuits are out of this world! Why oh why aren't they available all year round? I think there's a window of two weeks a year when they have them in so I have to stock up but I'm down to the last box now

Aldi is having a good fruit week. The bananas and red grapes are delicious this week

Aldis red grapes are the best I have ever tasted I am addicted to them

Yes I agree. Like eating sweeties.

I have been a keen Aldi shopper for a couple of years now and have been reading through this thread to see what others recommend.

My daughter who has plenty of money and shops at Waitrose used to have a little smile on her face when I spoke about what I'd bought in Aldi. But her local Aldi has had a facelift and she tried it. Now gradually she's become a convert and her kids laugh at her about all the things she buys and will only eat Aldi apples.

My favourite items are:
Dry aged fillet steak
Salmon en croute with cheese and dill sauce,or prawn and white wine,I don't know how they do it for the price.£3.99
eggs are fresher than tescos
pink lady apples
free range chickens
camembert or brie cheese
unsalted butter
champagne

Disappointed that they no longer do the range of skincare and make-up they used to,

Aldi's fresh meat is very good and competitively priced. Their extra mature cheese is excellent for £1.75 for 350 grams, and the free range chicken I had last week was the best I've ever tasted.

I got a gammon joint with a sachet of honey the other day, £2.99, it was lovely!!! I also have a bottle of £3.99 Pinot Grigio in the fridge waiting for me, which is also very nice. Their own brand Baileys is delicious and the baked potatoes we had for tea tonight were as good as any i've ever had from a local grocers.

I love the place!!

Ooh, and I also made Titan crispy cake today as a cheapo version of Mars Bar Krispie - the whole thing was much cheaper due to using Aldi brand, and it tastes amazing!!

I often buy the chicken breasts and they are delicious too and I have recently discovered Aldis turkey mince which I highly recommend.

Good
Aldi doing Manuka Honey 10+ at 4 quid a jar

Bad
Aldi removing said Manuka from shelves and discontinuing it

Why? Was something wrong with it?

Noticed yesterday that they are again stocking the 1l bottles of Tamova vodka. I think it was £13.99. Most 'unbranded' 1L in supermarkets is around £16.

I have no idea what it tastes like but Aldi's version of Lucozade is called 'Explosade'. Lol, sounds like a cure for constipation, how on earth that name was given a green light is beyond me.

Not only have Aldi dropped their manuka honeys, they've now dropped their lovely "Specially Selected" range of ground coffees and their toasting muffins.

I'm really disappointed with all three, especially the coffee. I tried their normal Italian ground coffee and it's just not the same as the Specially Selected Java. Asda's Java is better than anything Aldi now offer, but is £1 more than Aldi's nicer but now discontinued Java.

Anyone noticed any other good lines being dropped recently? It's typical of a company to become successful and then stop doing all the things that made them better than the others in the first place.

Not sure about good lines being dropped but they seem to have different brand names.

I think their meat used to be Ashfield Farm? but now there are several other brands. I realise that most, if not all of these brands, are made up by ALDI themselves just so it doesn't say ALDI on the pack.

They have their Belmont Extremely Chocolaty Biscuit Selection boxes back for Christmas. I was surprised to see them and most of the other boxes reduced from £3 to £2.50 already, so I bought one and they are not the same biscuits as last year. They're cheaper and don't taste as nice.

Last year's was a pretty good clone of the boxes M&S were selling for £6. I suspect M&S boxes will be just as good as last year, but still more expensive.

I'm not a fan of Christmas, so I console myself with an annual bottle of Tia Maria. Imagine my delight when I found that lovely Aldi are doing a range of their own called After Dark. At £4.99 a bottle I bought a couple, and I have to say it's delicious!

The 'specially selected' premium fishcakes are really good. £1.99 for two though and you can get Cod/Cheese/Mint/Haddock/Salmon variety's.

Not sure how this compares to normal supermarket prices but £1.99 is a good price for a really good tasting fishcake.

Funny you should post that. I literally just came in from Aldi with a bottle of that, poured a glass to see what it's like and before taking the first sip switched on the computer and came to this thread.

I misunderstood what it was, thinking it was an Irish cream kind of drink, but it seems to be Irish cream without the cream. It's very nice, but I don't think it's made using the nicest coffee in the world. I wonder if I could mix this with single cream to produce Baileys?

It's probably good for use in deserts, if you want to add a coffee flavour by soaking sponge or biscuits in it.

It's nice, like a fortified wine with coffee added, though I'm not sure if I'll buy it again. I'm hoping either Aldi or Lidl will discount their premium Irish creams after Christmas like they did last year.

It would be similar/an alternative to a White Russian.

Only if you add vodka !

My aldi hasn't had the Harvest Morn cereal bars in for a few weeks I like having them as my mid morning snack so I hope this is just temporary.