Home & Living - Food & Drink (Upcoming blog)

What is it?Tropical Wholefoods produce dried fruits, nuts and cereal bars made with nuts and fruit bought from farmers in developing countries. They are fairtrade importers and work with partners mainly in Burkina Faso, Uganda and Pakistan. As well as paying fair prices, they also share technology and help develop and market farmers' products. Their foods and snack bars are produced at Fullwell Mill in Sunderland. I tried their Organic Mango and Brazil Snack Bar.

Who is testing it? Me and my dad, who loves eating nutty snack bars!

In Use: The Organic Mango and Brazil Snack Bar is really moist and fruity. You can really taste the mango and, although there's no sugar in the bar, it was really sweet and delicious. The honey also gives the bar a lovely flavour. The bar was just the right size for a snack.

Any negatives: My dad loves brazil nuts and felt that this bar was a bit too fruity, he would have preferred more nuts. I, on the other hand, was more than happy with a fruity bar, so it depends on your taste!

Price and Availability: The snack bars are available directly from Tropical Wholefoods at Fullwell Mill, and cost 52p +VAT for single bars or £14.65 +VAT for a box of 28 bars. Other retailers can be found on the stockists page of the website.

Other flavours include apricot and kernel, banana and honey, date and walnut and pineapple and cashew. All the bars are organic.

Overall: A delicious, chewy organic snack bar from a fairtrade supplier.

Verdict: 4/5

What is it? The Ndali Estate is a mixed tropical farm in the Ndali Volcanic Field, Western Uganda. The farm specialises in producing high quality fairtrade vanilla extract and vanilla pods. The pods are blanched, sweated and reheated in the tropical sunshine, then slowly fermented in wooden boxes over a period of months to develop their complex aroma. As well as growing their own vanilla, Ndali also buy from local fairtrade farmers. They pay their farmers a price for their vanilla which covers their true production costs and gives a fair profit margin, plus a premium which goes towards community development.

Who is testing it? Me

In use: The Ndali Vanilla Pods came in a stylish glass tube. They look great and would make a lovely present for a foodie lover. The Vanilla Pods themselves are very soft and moist, not at all dry. They looked and smelt gorgeous and I couldn't wait to try them. I used the Ndali vanilla pods in a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall custard ice-cream recipe. They are full of lots of little tiny vanilla seeds which added a really wonderful, intense vanilla flavour to our ice-cream.

Any negatives? Absolutely none

Price and Availability: Ndali Vanilla Pods come in packs of two. They are available from Tropical Wholefoods (£4.95) and Greenlife (£4.35). They are also available for £4.29 at Tesco. Ndali also produce Intense Vanilla Pods and Vanilla Extract.

Overall: