A Lavender Breakfast in Bed for Mum on Mother’s Day
with Riverside Lifestyle Farm Shop
What to buy or do for your mum this Mother’s Day can sometimes prove to be a problem – after all there are only so many chocolates she can eat or flowers she can arrange, nice though they may be! Enter Riverside Lifestyle Farm Shop with a great idea for Breakfast in Bed – a basket of treats, with lavender, champagne and olive oil as part of the ingredients. I received this basket to review as part of a blogger review team, and I have to say that it was a lovely mixture of sweet treats to eat, as well as some fragrant “pamper” products. My beautiful basket comprised:
A pot of Lemon and Ginger Marmalade
Lavender and Champagne Truffles
Lavender Bath Creamer
Lavender and Olive Oil Body Oil
Lavender Bath and Shower Gel
I was also supposed to receive some lavender tea bags in my basket, but sadly the lavender tea thief stole them and I never had a chance to try them! The idea behind this basket is that you can treat your mum to breakfast in bed with tea, jam or marmalade and chocolates, and then she can have a soak in the bath afterwards, or a refreshing shower with some lovely lavender and olive oil bath products. It’s a nice idea and something a little different from just giving chocolates and/or flowers.
The basket was attractively packed with lilac paper straw and the basket itself was handy, as I am now using it as a TV remote control and magazine “tidy”! Had I received the tea bags, the whole collection would have made a nice alternative gift for my mum, but, I would have liked to have picked the flavour of the preserve as my mum is a jam person and is not keen on marmalade. I am not sure if this is a gift basket that can be personalised (I have looked on their website and cannot see this basket) insofar as you can choose what goes into it, if so, then that is a far better idea. Other preserves that Riverside have on offer are:
Lavender and Raspberry
Strawberry Jam – with Gold taste award
Strawberry and Lavender
I personally think that marmalade is more a “Father’s Day” type of preserve, and my mum would have preferred ANY of the above lush sounding jams! Riverside Lifestyle say that they……..”have olive oil and lavender at the heart of their lifestyle dream – where olive groves and lavender fields take them to a place and a lifestyle full of charm, and where life is easy, relaxed and simple”………it’s a nice idea as I said before, and anything with lavender in it or on it has my UNDIVIDED attention, as I love it! On their website, Riverside suggest that the perfect Mother’s Day would begin with a much-needed lie-in, followed by an indulgent breakfast in bed, in peace, snuggled up with a good book or the Sunday supplements……..I will certainly go along with that.
The Lavender and Lovage Taste and Bath Test:
The chocolate truffles were delectable and with just a subtle hint of lavender and a gentle whack of champagne.
The lemon and ginger marmalade was a bit too chunky for me, having just made numerous jars of marmalade for the Marmalade Awards (and winning a Silver and Bronze) I prefer a clearer and finer shred; however this would be perfect for men (dad) with its robust ginger flavour.
The lavender creamer, is a bath ball and is rolled in lavender petals, and was lovely! It did indeed live up to its relaxing and tranquil ideal, and it is lovely to relax in a bath (instead of a shower) now and then.
The lavender and olive oil body oil did the job and had a nice texture and lovely fragrance. Mine came in a miniature bottle and was gone in two “sittings”, and I am not a lover of miniature bottles, as they are fiddly to open and seem a waste of a small bottle!
Lavender Bath and Shower Gel lathered up well, and like all the Riverside beauty products I had tried already, had a lively subtle lavender fragrance and was light on the skin too. Again, it was a miniature bottle, and I am not keen on them.
Overall score: 4 out of 5: the chocolate truffles were lovely, and the marmalade was nicely flavoured with ginger , but the shred was too chunky and the it was also quite dark. I loved the bath products, but dislike miniature bottles, they remind me of hotels! Had I been sent the lavender tea bags, my overall score might have been slightly higher , but, I did enjoy the products that were sent to me; however, breakfast in bed MUST always include tea! A nice idea for a gift for mum, and all the better if you can choose what goes into your basket. (I have no prices available for this basket)
Disclaimer: With thanks to Riverside Lifestyle Farm Shop for sending me this basket to review, all opinions and thoughts are my own, and I was not influenced in any way by the fact that I was sent it for free to sample and review. Karen S Burns-Booth
Riverside Lifestyle Farm Shop
Maya Russell says
Wow, that really is luxurious. I’d like to try the Lemon & Ginger Marmalade.