J. J. Whitley Elderflower Gin

J. J. Whitley Elderflower Gin is what a good gin should be.

No distilling in giant vats for J. J. Whitley Elderflower Gin! Indeed not!

For J. J. Whitley Elderflower Gin is batch distilled in a proper and very traditional copper pot still.

It is the type of gin my wife prefers and recommends to people who ask her the best gins to try.

There's a reassuring sound as the cork is pulled from the bottle and then there's the heavenly scent that wafts from the contents of the bottle.

There are floral scents -is that a hint of an English hedgerow, there? I rather think there is!

But the difference is the first taste. Oh, my word, that first taste!

It's a gin, so yes, there is juniper... but there's a depth of character, too. There's the taste of the elderflowers, plus the added spiciness of the coriander and cinnamon. But not too much, and other  there's just the right amount to take this gin out of the ordinary and to elevate it to the sublime gin drinking experience.

It's smooth and sweet. In fact the smooth easy drinking of this gin belies the fact that it is 38.6% volume of alcohol!

Drink it neat with some ice, or drink it with a nice tonic (Fevertree is a good one to match this gin)  or use it to make some exquisite cocktails. The choice is yours.

The J. J. Whitley family have been distilling gin for eight generations, and there experience shows in this most excellent gin, which contains 8 distinct botanicals.

It should cost around the £25 mark for a 70cl bottle.

If you can't find it in a local shop, you can find it at https://www.masterofmalt.com/gin/halewood-international/j-j-whitley-elderflower-gin and other online retailers.

Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream

Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream is a truly amazing drink.

It is a strawberry cream liqueur with just a hint of Tequila.

You can serve it at room temperature, or chilled, which is probably the best way, to be honest.

My wife is not a particular fan of either strawberries or Tequila for that matter, so her liking for Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream is a matter of some wonder.

Basically, it is a strawberry based cream drink with just enough Tequila to make things a little bit more interesting.

You can use it to make cocktails (we'll include some recipes) but many people just prefer to chill it and sip it. Sat outside on a hot, summer's day, there's nothing like a chilled  bottle of Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream to help the day pass more smoothly.

And at only15% alcohol by volume, it's lighter on the alcohol than you might think.

So, what about these recipes, then?

Mix it with Irish cream, or coconut flavoured rum, or vanilla or toffee flavoured vodka, serve with ice, crushed or chunked, add some real dairy cream and you have a wide and perhaps wild range of cocktails.

And here's an off the wall idea, when you are making a strawberry cheesecake, add some Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream into the mix and chill well before serving. Obviously you'll need some glasses of chilled Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream to help it go down!

It's distilled in Missouri and is imported exclusively into the UK by those very nice folks at Halewood International in Liverpool.

It should be available in all good stores throughout the UK.

For details of Liqueur de Tequila Rose Strawberry Cream and other products please visit http://mccormickdistilling.com/tr/

Heck! If you like cheese, you'll go Nuts about these!

Yes, indeed! Heck! If you like cheese, you'll go Nuts about these!

There are a number of different types of vegetarian sausages that are available.  But there is only one Heck Nuts About Cheese!

These sausages are made by Yorkshire's Heck Foods and they are made from cashew nuts, two types of cheese, some flax and chia and a tiny bit of chilli to add a bit of zip and zing to the proceedings.

You can taste the cashew nuts, there's a hint of the flax, plus the chia comes through with a little hint of chilli (but not too much, thankfully!)  but the predominant flavour is that of the cheeses.

The cheeses are Mozzarella and Cheddar and the taste combination is utterly sublime!

You can have them as sausage sandwiches or served in the traditional way, as bangers and mash (perhaps with fresh green beans or baked beans, with a fried egg or two?)  or you can use these as the vegetarian option next time you do a BBQ, perhaps with seeded baps?

However, you'd better get extra packs in as the meat eaters may well be tempted to start wolfing these down, too!

Learn more about them and the other sausages in the range by visiting www.heckfood.co.uk.

English Heaven in a can from Folkington's

Folkington's is a modestly sized and utterly independent drinks firm based in the English county of Suffolk.

They have launched a new range of effervescent (but not too gassy)  drinks.

They are charmingly called Folkington's Garden and are a range of four fruit pressés.

There's an utterly delicious and very traditional elderflower drink, with just enough Sicilian lemon juice to add a little bit of a zip to it. Works very nicely with the genuine wild hedgerow elderflowers.

There's a fiery ginger beer that uses some awesomely hot West African ginger root. Very refreshing! (That one was my wife's favorite.)

There's a very nicely created English Rhubarb and Apple drink. Often when drink firms make anything with rhubarb, they tend to overdo the rhubarb, which can create an over tart taste, that sets one's teeth on edge.

This is simply not the case with Folkington's English Rhubarb and Apple drink. The predominant flavour is that of real English apple juice with just the right amount of rhubarb juice to add a very pleasing tart zing to the drink.

Then there is the more than excellent Lemon and English Mint drink which has a perfect combination of  refreshing lemons and calming mint.

Each can is guaranteed free of things that many children can't have (artificial this, that and the other!) and as each can contains less than 100 calories, even those who are on a diet can sip their way through a can without any guilt.

They make ideal companions on a picnic or at a family garden party or BBQ and they make excellent mixers for artisan gins and the like. Or as part of a delicious range of mocktails for those who do not want any alcohol.

They also make a packed lunch in the office taste just a little bit more special.
 
You will find Folkington’s Garden range in independent shops, cafés and delis.

To learn more about the wide range of drinks that are available please do visit them at
http://www.folkingtons.com.

Wild West Deli Beef Jerky Thai Spice Flavour, Chilli and Lime Flavour

Wild West Deli Beef Jerky is a high protein snack range from the Meatsnacks Group of Buckinghamshire.

We were fortunate enough to try this product, recently.

It is described as a "softer beef jerky" and that is exactly what it is.

It is beef jerky, marinated in Thai spices and smoked over applewood.

The result is a softer and utterly delicious taste experience.

They make the point that they only use ingredients for their own marinade that you would be able to find in your own kitchen store cupboard.

Whilst that's true of some more advanced foodies, I think that Meatsnacks are being more than a little modest, here. For in the opinion  of my wife and myself, the herbs and spices used by Meatsnacks are probably of much higher quality than might be found in some family kitchens.

How so? Well, you can taste the sweetness of the real Demerara sugar, but there's a whole range of other flavours, there, too. Garlic, the tang of both the apple cyder vinegar and a hint of lime and the other spices and herbs that go together to make this jerky.

Apparently you van use the jerky in some recipes which you can find at www.meatsnacksgroup.com/wild-west-deli. But as my wife said: "Good luck to anyone who is trying to keep the family out of it long enough to cook with it!"

There is also the equally delicious Chilli and Lime Flavour softer beef jerky, also made in Scotland using select cuts of UK and EU brisket beef.

My wife is not a fan of chillies, but she made the point that Chilli and Lime flavour beef jerky from the Wild West Deli range has none of the harshness and over done heat of some shop bought products.

We noted that there was a well-balanced combination of flavours with a pleasant chilli kick and the sublime tartness of the limes.

These softer beef jerky snacks are idea for snacking, make an excellent and interesting course during a larger meal, are great to serve with a salad, perhaps out of doors, during a BBQ.

They go very well with a nice wine, maybe a Riesling or perhaps a bottle of something like Prosecco?  Or perhaps a nice red? The choice is yours!

Heck Chicken Italia Sauasages

Heck Chicken Italia Sausages are delightful sausages that are made with 100% British chicken meat.

Which is just like the other chicken meat sausages from Heck.

However! In the Chicken Italia sausages we see a special combination of herbs, spices and other ingredients that are mixed together to create a perfectly balanced, somewhat exotic sausage that does, indeed, have a  hint of Italy about them.

There's some basil, some garlic and a range of other spices that join together to create a fantastic taste sensation!

How to serve it? You can serve them as some of the most tasty sausage sandwiches that you can think of. Especially if you have some rustic Italian bread.

Or cook them, slice them up and mix in with Mediterranean style salad leaves and tomatoes to make a most excellent Italian salad, with lashings of olive oil dressing, of course!

Or what about slicing the cooked sausages up fairly thinly and spreading them over a pizza?

Or how about making some garlic and potato mash with olive oil and lots of freshly ground black pepper and making some bangers and mash the likes of which you have probably never tasted before?

New from Mrs Crimble! Mrs Crimble's Authentically French gluten free Madeleines

Mrs Crimble's Authentically French gluten free Madeleines come in two flavours, both a classic vanilla madeleine and a chocolate variety.

And they are made in France, the traditional home of the Madeleine sponge cake recipe.

They are traditionally baked -in proper little scallop-shaped moulds!- and are proper little sponge cakes.

They are available in two varieties, delicious plain sponge and yummy chocolate, which comes with a fantastically delightful and very tasty liquidy chocolate sauce filling.

The great thing about Mrs Crimble's Authentically French gluten free Madeleines is that they are all guaranteed to be 100% gluten free.

They come in packs of six, but each one comes in its own individual wrapper, so they make ideal and very healthy additions to the lunch boxes of children, or adults, who have a problem with being able to process gluten in their diet.

They should be widely available in health shops and also in the "free from..." section of most major supermarkets. And if not, request them to start stocking them.

To learn more, please visit www.mrscrimbles.com/blog/ooh-la-la-mrs-crimbles-goes-continental.

They should cost £2.50 for a bag of six.

Tsingtao Beer. Lager. As it should be.

Tsingtao Beer is lager beer, as it should be.

I remember taking a sip from a glass of my late father's lager back in the early 1960s. And I enjoyed the taste.

However, when I came of age I found that lagers that tasted as refreshing as the lager I had 'borrowed' from my father's glass all those years ago were few and far between.

And then  I found Tsingtao Beer.

Tsingtao Beer is brewed in China and has been brewed by the Tsingtao Brewery since 1903, that's a proud record of over a century of brewing excellence.

What does the beer look like? It is a delightful golden colour, more golden than many other lagers, it has to be said.

It is made of water, malted barley, rice and hops. It has a respectable, but not ridiculously high, alcohol content of  4.7% Vol.

So, what does it taste like?

The bouquet is of lager hops, with a tang of something fruity.

The taste is a revelation. It is very, very similar to the delicious lager beer that I managed to take a sip of from my father's glass all those years ago.

It is refreshing, and you can notice a proper, balanced combination of flavours. There's even a hint of summer fruits, including ripe wild berries.

It goes very well with all types of foods and I think that an iced bucket filled with bottles of
Tsingtao Beer will be an excellent addition at any party this summer.

And every bottle is brewed in China. There's none of that "brewed under licence business", here!

It's also available in Wetherspoon pubs and most good off licences and many supermarkets.

To learn more please visit www.tsingtaobeer.co.uk.

Heck Zesty Chicken sausages

"Heck Zesty Chicken Sausages?" "This should be interesting," we thought as we opened the package.

The label says: "bursting with peppery watercress and lemon freshness."

And that was exactly right.

The predominant flavour was of tender, moist British chicken. Well, with 85% chicken you would expect no less!

There was, however, a very well-balanced taste sub plot going on, here, too.

The watercress was there, adding a nicely executed watercress flavour, which is peppery, but not overly so.

And what else was there? Yes! A definite hint of a lemon flavour, too.

But the watercress and the lemon had been included in the recipe to assist the chicken, not to overpower it.

We enjoyed these sausages very much.

We had them with some fresh three seed long rolls, but they would be equally at home with a salad (perhaps chilled after cooking and sliced up?) or perfect with fresh mashed potatoes and some homemade gravy, too? Or served with new potatoes and homegrown beans direct from the garden?

The choice will be yours!

Heck sausages are available from Morrisons and several other leading supermarkets.

To learn more please visit them at www.heckfood.co.uk.



 

Overhang it revitalises you very quickly

There are many drinks that claim to revitalise you. Some of them work, but others not so much.

Firmly in the former category of drinks that do revitalise you is Overhang.

It is based on a traditional Italian family recipe that has been passed down through the family for generations.

Recently late one evening I was developing a headache. I had been busy working all day, had forgotten to have lunch (that's never a good thing) and by the evening a migraine was threatening to start.

I remembered that there was some Overhang in the fridge and I took the bottle out, shook it (not necessary, but I always like to play it safe!) and poured it into a glass and started to drink it.

The first thing I noticed was the delicious taste of oranges, but with an underlying tang which I think was the limes coming through.

Then there was the noticeable and very welcome (but not too strong)  bite of the ginger.

Wow! That started me feeling better straight away!

Intrigued, I looked at the label and was impressed with the ingredients of Overhang. 

Orange juice, lime juice, ginger, burdock root, milk thistle, raspberry leaf and a whole host of vitamins C, niacin, pantothenic acid and B6.

I retired to bed and the next morning the migraine that had been threatening to start was just a sort of dull memory of what could have been a really bad migraine.

I would imagine it would be good if you have overindulged the night before, if it's been a hot day or if you have had a stressful day at work, or you have been working in the garden, doing a workout or whatever. 

Keep some in the fridge ready for when you need to be revitalised.

Where you can get it? Various retailers, including Holland and Barrett where it costs £2.49 for a 500ml bottle.

You can learn more about this drink and its unique history at http://overhangdrinks.com.