Fizz and mango

Welcome to September. Happy Labor Day to those marking it.

We’re getting the tail end of Hurricane Erin. After a summer of heatwave, a bit cooler, heatwave, we’re now in beautiful sunny, incredible downpour. Rinse and repeat for the next five days. Boy, is it humid.

As I write I’m wearing Victoria Beckham 21:50 Reverie for the first time in months. This really is a very good and weird vanilla.

But, that’s not where we are today. Rather, fizz and mango.

Got ya. Not perfume. I bet you were expecting aldehydes and tropical fruit and was it any good?

No, today we’re looking at my home fizzy water maker from a UK cookery etc products company. I first experienced a seltzer machine when staying with my friends in Prague last September. Theirs is a fancy label one. This: not so much. But, it does the job.

Anyway, I grew up with seltzer – as opposed to tonic water, etc. It’s what my father would buy every once in a while and it’s what made vanilla egg creams at diners. Boy, do I miss real vanilla egg creams.

Anyway, Mark and Gabriela just used it to make fizzy water and usually added sliced cucumber, which is what I do too.

When it’s hot, there’s nothing more refreshing, even ice cream.

Here’s my machine with its bottle and the glass carafe that lives in the fridge.

Then, mango.

I recently read about a new Lush shower cream for Diwali, the Hindu autumn festival celebrating various gods. A big thing at Diwali is fireworks.

Where I used to live in London, we could see the big firework display at Wembley (a bit north of us, the sports stadium).  It clearly was very loud, and very beautiful.

Mango Lassi is one of a number of seasonal specials. It’s mango, coconut, vanilla and orange oil. Like a mango lassi drink you get in Indian restaurants.

A good sweet lassi (as opposed to a salt lassi) isn’t really sweet. Rather, ever so slightly sour but juicy. Very more-ish.

The shower gel is a shape-shifter. When you squeeze on to the hand, it smells like orange creamsicle. This was never my ice cream as a kid. It was my mother’s however – and whenever something smells like one it’s her I see enjoying it. I liked those soft serve cones dipped in chocolate which cooled to a coated crunch, chocolate crackling with each bite.

Anyway, once the gel hits water it’s mango lassi all the way: tart yoghurt feel, almost sour mango, a bit of vanilla and a whisper of orange. Really nice.

Here, this is limited edition, and it had not quite been released at my local Lush – meaning they had it in the back but only in the huge bottles for £30. I got it in any case, clearly, and I’m glad I did. Between this and Sticky Dates, I’m good in the shower for quite some time.

Anyone into fizzy water? And does the idea of Mango Lassi float your boat?

Pics: Pexels, Wiki, mine