Marks and Spencer Cream Cheese with Wasabi

I've been dying to try this wasabi cream cheese from M&S for ages now. I love these innovative combinations they've done for the summer of flavour range - taking the exotic and intense and applying it to every day foods.

Again, this takes a regular staple of mine - cream cheese - and combines it with a polar opposite. Cream cheese is mellow, cooling and mild. Wasabi is intense, hot and spicy. The packaging certainly sets up the sense awakening powers of wasabi with bold and vibrant colours.

Opening it up it looks like a standard block of cream cheese - albeit a particularly thick and creamy one. This being M&S, it's a full fat and indulgent product - none of that reduced fat here! I liked the fact the pack is resealeable for freshness. That, coupled with a plastic lid as well means it stores really well and keeps it creamy and lucious consistency.

Now I used this on toast for breakfast for a real power punch to my senses at the beginning of the day to wake me up. It spreads beautifully, instantly melting across the warm toast and sinking in, permeating every crumb with indulgent richness. The wasabi wasn't overly strong to my tastes but I love wasabi and apply it liberally to sushi. Others who tried it said it was definitely pretty hot for them.

For me, I got the flavour and a little bit of heat but it's certainly not like eating wasabi by itself. The cream cheese's coolness certainly blankets any intensity out so you get a little pep and spirit that makes it different to regular cream cheese but it's not a sinus hitting powerhouse by any means either.

I really enjoyed this and it's nice to try genuinely new. My only issue is that at £2.49, it's fairly pricey and whilst the ingredients list of cream cheese, salt and wasabi makes it very natural - it also means you could probably replicate it by just squirting a little wasabi into regular cream cheese. Nevertheless, this is a new and exciting eating experience and certainly makes a really interesting alternative to just butter or regular cream cheese on a bagel or toast.

Price: £2.49
Available: Marks and Spencers

Pros: Rich, creamy, decadent cheese. Interesting and innovative. Resealable pack. Flavour but not too spicy
Cons: Pricey. I'd like it a tad stronger

Score: 7.5/10