Food and drink news for the discerning consumer
Monday, 28 August 2023
That's Christmas: Why Not Try Crafting for Christmas?
That's Christmas: Why Not Try Crafting for Christmas?: Why not try your hand at crafting for Christmas this year? It’s a great way of learning new skills or honing old ones. And you will be able...
Feast for a Fiver as Waitrose ‘wraps’ up your lunchtimes with a new meal deal
And what's more, the Waitrose Food to Go range is made without compromising quality and also adhering to high animal welfare standards.
The new Waitrose meal deal will launch on 30th August. For £5 customers can opt from over 300 products and can decide on one of their sandwiches, wraps or salads, or sushi (from a special selected range), alongside a choice of snacks from a curated selection of cereal bars, crisps and snack pots, plus a drink.
Options available within the offer include customer faves like their Essential Waitrose Cheese & Onion sandwich, PlantLiving No Duck Hoisin Wrap, Waitrose Prawn Mayo sandwich, Waitrose Chicken & Bacon Caesar wrap, Waitrose PlantLiving VLT, Waitrose Chicken, Tomato & Basil Pasta, Taiko Crispy Duck Rolls, Waitrose Flapjack, Waitrose LoveLife Nuts, Fruit & Seeds, Deliciously Ella Cashew Cranberry Fruit Nut & Seed Bar, Waitrose Pineapple Fingers (120g), Waitrose Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice and Waitrose Strawberry & Banana Smoothie.
Jennifer Moscardini, who is Waitrose's Food to Go Buyer, said: “We’re a nation of sandwich lovers. Sales are up almost 40% over the past three years. More people are returning to work from their offices again, and travelling more, so obviously they're looking for a fantastic meal deal option.
“This lunchtime deal means our customers will be able to get a great quality sandwich, wrap, salad or sushi, plus a snack and a drink for £5, and if they have a myWaitrose loyalty card, and a reusable cup they can get a free cup of coffee at the same time!"
She went on to say: "And we haven't compromised on our standards, either. We use British higher welfare chicken, pork & beef in all our sandwiches, MSC prawns and salmon, and all our eggs come from free range hens.
“This year we’ve introduced more meal deals than ever before to help our customers with the cost of living crisis, plus investing £100m in new lower prices across our aisles, too.
"Our best-selling sandwich over the last ten years has been prawn mayonnaise, followed by Egg Mayonnaise and the Classic BLT - but now wraps have become increasingly popular with one in four people buying a wrap instead."
List of top ten best-selling sandwiches 10 years ago:
Waitrose Prawn mayonnaise
Waitrose Egg mayonnaise and cress
Waitrose Classic BLT
Essential Waitrose Tuna Mayo
Waitrose Smoked Ham & Cheese
Essential Waitrose Egg Mayonnaise
Essential Waitrose cheese & onion
Waitrose Salmon & Cucumber
Waitrose Salmon & Cream Cheese
Waitrose Chicken & Bacon
List of top ten best-selling sandwiches/wraps today:
Waitrose Prawn mayonnaise sandwich
Waitrose Essential Cheese and Onion
Waitrose Essential Egg mayonnaise sandwich
Waitrose Steak & caramelised onion chutney sandwich
Waitrose Hoisin duck wrap
Waitrose Chicken & Bacon Caesar wrap
Waitrose Essential Tuna mayonnaise sandwich
Waitrose Salt Beef & Mustard Mayonnaise sandwich
Waitrose Salmon & Cream Cheese sandwich
Waitrose Classic BLT
East Horsley store relaunched as new Sainsbury’s Local
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Sainsbury's has joined forces with North Guildford Food Bank as its local food donation partner, thus ensuring donations and excess food from the shop will go to local people in the community who need it the most.
The charity joined Sainsbury’s colleagues, around half of whom are new to the store with the other half transferring from the previous store, to cut the ribbon and celebrate the opening morning.
Conveniently located at the end of Ockham Road South’s popular shopping parade, the new 2,000 sq. ft Sainsbury’s will serve and help customers between the hours of 7am and 11pm, daily.
The opening will bring a carefully curated selection of Sainsbury’s great value, high-quality foods, drinks, plus general merchandise within easier reach of East Horsley residents, whose nearest Sainsbury’s store was over six miles away in Fetcham until now.
Offering everything from fresh bread and cakes baked daily in-store to delicious fresh fruit and veg, meat, fish and meal solutions, the new store is specially designed to bring more convenience and choice to customers.
As well as a dedicated Costa Coffee machine, customers can also take advantage of a new Click & Collect service in the store, conveniently which enables them to order online from Sainsbury’s much-loved Argos, Habitat and Tu Clothing brands for collection whilst they pick up their groceries.
Patrick Dunne, who is Sainsbury’s Property Director, said: “It’s always a genuine pleasure to bring Sainsbury’s to a new community for the first time and we’re really pleased to have completed work on this fresh Local in East Horsley.
"I hope our customers in the village will enjoy their new-look convenience store, both for the fantastic colleague service and the high-quality Sainsbury’s products now on offer in the same convenient location.”
Ryan Thompson, who is Sainsbury’s East Horsley Local Store Manager, said: “I’d like to thank everyone in the community for all the fantastic support we’ve received leading up to our opening, particularly the colleagues that make up my new team in-store.
"I’m really proud of how we’ve come together to make the store’s launch a success. I’d also like to thank our customers for bearing with us whilst we transformed the store, it’s great to now be welcoming everyone to experience it for themselves.”
(EDITOR: My wife and I plan on making a visit to our new Sainsbury's local store which is a short distance from our home.)
Lidl predicts jump in ice cream sales, despite gloomy weather
Despite a somewhat varied, mixed weather forecast, Lidl is still predicting a rise in sales of its ice creams and lollies, after it saw sales of its frozen range surge during recent a recent spell of wet weather.
Shoppers are guaranteed to bag a bank holiday Monday bargain after Lidl GB was crowned cheapest supermarket for seven months in a row by the Manchester Evening News newspaper, whilst being named the cheapest supermarket for BBQ essentials by Which? magazine.
Despite the mixed weather forecast, with temperatures set to drop again this bank holiday, Lidl GB is predicting a surge in ice cream sales, after seeing an 8.1% in sales of its frozen range during the recent rainy period.
The update comes as Lidl GB confirms its bank holiday opening times, while sharing the quietest times to shop as customers gear up for the bank holiday.
On the Bank Holiday Monday, today, stores across England and Wales will open between 8am and 8pm, whilst Scotish branches will remain open as normal. Some store opening times could vary, so customers are advised to check the store finder on Lidl’s website for details on their local Lidl branches.
Customers planning to stock up on frozen treats can get their hands on wide range of ice creams and lollies, including its Gelatelli Classic Ice Creams (£2.65) that recently received the Which? Best Buy accolade in June 2023.
You can find your nearest Lidl store, here:
Aldi expects to sell a bottle of fizz nearly every second
Shoppers can pick up a bottle of Aldi's popular Specially Selected Valdobbiadene Prosecco for a mere £7.99 a bottle, obviously available while stocks last.
Multiple Retailer of the Year, Aldi, is expecting bumper sales of its award-winning fizz range this Bank Holiday weekend, including today.
Despite a lack of sunny weather conditions, Aldi expects sales to jump 35% week on week, as we Brits celebrate our extra day off work.
Revellers are set to consume almost two million glasses of fizzy wines, that’s nearly a bottle of bubbly flying off Aldi’s shelves every second of the day.
So shoppers will be absolutely delighted to learn that Aldi's slashed the cost of its popular Specially Selected Valdobbiadene Prosecco (75cl) across stores all over the country.
Reduced to £7.99 a bottle from the original £8.49, this quality Italian sparkling wine is favoured for its light, creamy flavour and it delicate floral touches. Making a refreshing and aesthetically pleasing bottle of bubbles, perfect for raising a toast to the Bank Holiday weekend. No matter what the great British weather throws at us!
Aldi’s Specially Selected Valdobbiadene Prosecco is available in stores now, whilst stocks last.
You can check on the opening times of your nearest Aldi store here https://www.aldi.co.uk/opening-times/bank-holiday.
Asda announces 425 branded and own-label price cuts
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It's investing £23m to reduce prices by an average of 11% on some of the most popular products bought by customers on a weekly basis. This includes nappies, infant follow on milk, bread, cheese, cereals, pasta, fish fingers, sausages and chicken breasts.
These reductions follow on a £13m investment last month to cut prices on over 200 own-label products by an average of 9%.
Asda is increasing support for its customers as its latest Income Tracker shows family budgets remain under pressure from rising living costs. Despite the CPI inflation rate easing last month, family disposable incomes remain much lower than before the cost-of-living crisis, down by over £100 per month for the average household compared against July 2021.
Kris Comerford, who is Asda’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “While the headline inflation rate may have eased slightly last month, our own figures show us many customers continue to struggle with rising living costs.
"So we've targeted this latest price investment on products our customers buy week-in and week-out, to help their shopping budgets stretch a bit further. We’re also continuing to work closely with our suppliers and whenever there's a chance to pass on commodity price savings to customers we'll do this.”
The price reductions are already effective in all stores that stock those products and online.
Asda's also continuing to offer support to families by extending its hugely popular ‘Kids Eat for £1’ café meal offer for the rest of this year. Since launching this initiative in July 2022, Asda has served 2m meals from its cafes and invested £1.3m to keep the meal prices pegged at £1.
Sunday, 27 August 2023
Bumper British melon crop harvested
Shoppers will be able to judge for themselves when the predicted 11,000 UK-grown watermelons, the biggest crop ever produced and harvested in Britain, -exclusively hit Tesco shelves this coming week.
The fruit has been produced by the UK’s biggest watermelon grower, Oakley Farms which is based in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, under the careful guidance of melon growing expert James Cackett.
James, who is as a fruit technical manager for Tesco, has spent the last 15 years working with both seed houses and British growers on developing varieties that are perfect for the UK climate and soil.
James said: “This is an absolutely massive achievement by Oakley Farms as their previous production record was around 5,500 watermelons a few years ago so to double that inside two years is a fantastic achievement.
“The growing of watermelons in Britain is still a small and developing industry with only a handful of producers scattered all over the UK.
“When we first started selling them, in very small quantity, about 10 years back, Tesco customers were curious as to whether such an exotic looking fruit could ever be grown over here in the UK.
“But they're now very popular with shoppers firmly committed to supporting British growers and each year demand gets stronger, so it doesn’t take very long for the entire crop to sell out.”
Oakley Farms and Tesco have worked together on watermelon production for seven years and while the rainy July certainly slowed production somewhat, lesson learned from previous years has still resulted in a record-breaking year in terms of volume of production.
The farm is also the UK’s biggest producer of pumpkins and also grows courgettes and pumpkins and courgettes are both members of the cucurbit family, as are watermelons.
Oakley Farms manager Nick Molesworth added: “We began growing them after Tesco approached us and offered to work with us on the project and we felt that it made good sense as the crop would fit in perfectly between production of courgettes in late spring and pumpkins in the early autumn months.
“We've tried several different methods of growing the watermelons and are now getting more fruit per plant so the hard work is beginning to pay off for us.
“However, I have to say that they're not that easy to grow and the British climate can also be a bit of a challenge, but we’re very pleased with this year’s crop. We believe that growing watermelons is a natural evolution for our business.”
The water melons are set to go on sale in x Tesco stores and will cost £3.49 each for the standard size and £2.50 for the mini size.
Brits stock up for last big BBQ feasts of the year ahead of the Bank Holiday
Forecasts for temperatures around the 20C mark have set up the August Bank Holiday for probably the last big BBQ parties of the year.
Since last Thursday sales at Tesco of typical BBQ foods like burgers, sausages, fish and plant-based meat alternatives plus beers and wines have been in high demand.
And as a result of a 25% off six bottles of wine and fizz (Clubcard deal members only) running from until Monday, Tesco predicts it expects to sell more wine than beer over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Tesco BBQ meat buyer Lucy Draper said: “This August Bank Holiday is likely to see the last big BBQ parties of the year with schools starting up again the following week and people returning to the UK from their summer holidays.
“Also a result of a wetter than normal summer, Brits have had fewer BBQ occasions than usual to enjoy so we believe many people will seize the chance for one last hurrah and go all out to invite family and friends over to enjoy the great outdoors.”
Across the Bank Holiday period Tesco expects to sell:
1.25 million packs of sausages
Over 300,000 packs of burgers
Over 225,000 plant-based meat alternatives
Over 1 million packs of fish
Over 300,000 packs of BBQ meat
Over 1 million packs of burger and hot dog rolls
Over1 million punnets of strawberries
Almost 300,000 packs of Greek/salad cheese
Over 2.25 million ice creams and lollies
Over 4 million bottles/cans of beer
Almost 8000 bottles of Pimms
Over 300,000 packs of ice cubes
Over 500,000 cartons of fresh cream
Over 5 million bottles of wine
Something in the region of 100,000 bags of BBQ fuel
Friday, 25 August 2023
Cocchi? Coo! Celebrates All Things Negroni This September with Cocchi
Tying in with celebrations that will take place next month in September, cocktail devotees will be able to enjoy a range of Cocchi-based Negronis for a few weeks with each venue presenting their own twist on the classic. Showcasing the versatility of this drink.
Available all through the month of September, The Zetter Townhouse in London's Marylebone will offer guests a negroni menu of three Cocchi-based drinks. On Sunday 17 September an exclusive takeover will also take place at the venue.
Alex Palumbo, co-owner of award-winning Edinburgh bar, Hey Palu, will take part in a one night only guest shift, serving a curated menu of four Cocchi Negronis to mark the launch of Negroni week.
The takeover menu cocktail menu will include:
Strawberry Sbagliato: Cocchi Rosa, strawberries, Barsol pisco, aperitivo, prosecco
Mezcaloni - Cocchi Storico Vermouth di Torino, Los Siete Misterios mezcal, bitter, aromatic lime leaf
Negroni Minerale - Cocchi Americano, Botyard Double Gin, Fino Sherry, celery extracts, green olive
Caffe 'Serale - Cocchi Dopo Teatro, Lot 40 rye whisky, banana, bitter, coffee aromas
Cocchi is also partnering with famous Sri Lankan restaurant Hoppers King's Cross to offer their take on a Negroni-led menu. Following rom its successful summer terrace cocktail activation, Hoppers' bar manager Martin Balo has put together a menu of three Negronis with a tropical spin, ideal to enjoy before the end of the summer.
Hopper's King's Cross menu will include:
Kokova Negroni: cocoa and orange spiced rum – Campari – Cocchi Rosa
White Negroni: gin – lemongrass and fennel bitters – Cocchi Americano
Negroni Sbagliato: Cocchi Storico Vermouth di Torino – pomelo Campari – Prosecco
Finally, if you would like to make a Negroni at home, here's Cocchi's recommended recipe:
25 ml Cocchi Storico Vermouth di Torino
25 ml gin (we recommend Boatyard Double Gin)
25 ml Campari
Method: Add all of the ingredients into a stirring glass with an ample amount of ice and stir for about 30 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice cubes.
To attend Sunday 17 September takeover (19:00 – 22:00), book a table on The Zetter Townhouse Marylebone, website: https://thezetter.com/townhouse-marylebone/ - Zetter Townhouse Marylebone 28-30 Seymour St, London W1H 7JB
For reservation at Hoppers King's Cross, 4 Pancras Sq, London N1C 4AG please use: https://www.hopperslondon.com/kings-cross/
Cocchi Storico Vermouth di Torino is available nationwide including Waitrose and Amazon. RRP: £26.71 (70 cl)
Nibbler, Middler or Squeezer. How do you chomp your samosa?
Now, a renowned food futurologist has revealed how you eat your samosa says something about your own personality.
In a new report created on behalf of Takul which makes halal convenience foods, including a range of three different types of samosa, Lyndon Gee has defined four distinct types of “samosa eater” as follows:
The corner nibbler
Methodically and tentatively nibbles each crispy corner of the samosa before gradually working their way to the centre, and all the filling. The nibbler is obsessed with delayed gratification.
The middle grounder
Going straight for the centre of the samosa, with military precision they carefully take a bite from between each of the three corners, leaving those crispy edges intact to relish last. These individuals are dull but organised.
The samosa squeezer
Strategically bites one corner of the samosa then squeezes to extract the filling, leaving the empty shell, which they gobble down whole. Greedy, they find this the quickest way to eat a samosa.
The pernickety peeler
Like to examine their food before eating it. They carefully and precisely nibble around the edge of the whole samosa, then gently peel off the top layer exposing the filling, which they meticulously inspect before finally munching. Indecisive and afraid to take a risk.
In his report, Lyndon Gee also predicts halal food is set to become mainstream in the coming years, following in the footsteps of other cuisines such as vegan and plant-based options.
He said halal food has evolved from being a religious dietary choice to being a marker of safe, healthy, hygienic and reliable food.
With trust being so key to what people choose to buy, especially food-wise, Lyndon said, “various research studies indicate that non-Muslims have a positive opinion of halal food products and show significant intention to buy them, as they know halal food is appropriately processed”.
He added that halal products “will be chosen for non-faith-based reasons, simply because the food appeals, offering manufacturers even greater opportunities as halal products move into less traditional dishes”.
Lyndon Gee has broad experience in the halal food industry. He's worked with Diabetes UK on various recipes for Ramadan aimed at the Muslim community and was creative consultant for a halal fast food burger concept.
With almost half of the UK Muslim population under the age of 24, the report also reveals how pivotal the younger generation are in terms of shaping what halal food looks like today.
Lyndon said: “Cash rich and time poor, the younger generation seek convenience and speed. Gen Y and Gen Z consumers are more adventurous and looking for new flavours and different food experiences than their parents. Products such as pasties or samosas that can be eaten in one hand are ideal.”
He added: “Mealtimes have become blurred and there's been a big rise in snacking, whether the on-the-go meal replacement, or sitting down with friends and enjoying a film or a game and sharing a selection of foods like pizza, charcuterie, or samosas. The social aspect of eating should never be underestimated, but with busy lifestyles people are looking for easy, cost-effective solutions to entertain their friends.”
Takul makes a range of convenience meals and snacks which include pizzas, samosas, pasties and deli meats which are available in selected Tesco and Sainsbury's stores nationwide. For further details please visit https://takul.co.uk/store-finder
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