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In the drink With Paul Antrobus
BY PAUL ANTROBUS
Holiday Cheer! Image: Roman Voloshyn / Shutterstock
As the festive season approaches, here are some ideas for your home stock. There is something for everyone.
W
e looked at fruit ciders for summer in August, but there is another one that is just right as a winter warmer. Rekorderlig Premium Spiced Plum Cider is “bursting with warm seasonal flavours,” says the brewery, “pear cider with plums, cherries and a mix of spices including cloves and cinnamon.” Serve it by the bottle or warm it for a winter party punch, with extra lemon and orange slices and cinnamon sticks added to the saucepan. Last month I could not find it on any supermarket shelves, although that may change closer to Christmas. However, it
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Contributors David Henshall Simon Everett Paul Antrobus
is available online from revl.co.uk, three 500ml bottles for £5.99 plus delivery.
No/Lo alco
These days you need several nonalcoholic drinks with adult flavours. Kombucha fermented tea works well with several iterations in mainstream supermarkets and is definitely on trend. My choice is Nexba naturally sugar-free elderflower and lemon kombucha at Sainsbury’s, £2.75 a litre. The Thomson & Scott Noughty vegan sparkling white wine is made from 100 per cent organic Chardonnay grapes, de-alcoholised then lightly carbonated to create the fizz. It is not widely found in
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regular supermarkets, but many sellers come up online. It is usually around £8.99 for a 75cl bottle. Adnams 0.5 per cent Ghost Ship ale gets my vote for beer, not to be confused with the 4.3 per cent, darker colour version. About £1.30 for 500ml bottle.
I found Pallini Limoncello at Morrisons, £14.50 for 50cl, at 26 per cent liqueur strength. They promote a cocktail, Pallini Lemon Bitter: two parts Limoncello, three parts tonic, two drops of Angostura bitters and a quarter wedge of lemon.
Regular favourite beers
White Port is an unusual twist on a favourite perennial and very flexible (white means the grapes used, the colour is pale brown.) It is suitable as an apéritif or later with a chocolate dessert or creamy cheese. I picked up Cockburn’s Porto Blanco, 19 per cent, £12.49 a litre at Waitrose. Their mixer suggestion is Port & Tonic, one part Porto Blanco, two parts tonic, ice, slice of lemon and a sprig of fresh mint. A simple festive treat.
Charles Wells Bombardier Amber Beer, at 4.7 per cent, is a good party drink, £1.90 at Morrisons. Shepherd Neame Bishops Finger at 5.4 per cent is almost a winter ale in terms of flavour and texture, £1.85 at Morrisons.
Limoncello cocktail
For an exotic treat how about Limoncello Italian liqueur? It is very flexible, drunk neat for an apéritif before the meal or a digestif after, or as the base for cocktails mixed with more or less anything you choose. You can find some ideas at www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ collection/limoncello-recipes or www. thespruceeats.com/limoncello-cocktails.
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Decadent
Budget for the future
Changes to Excise Duties on alcoholic drinks were presented as a ‘good news’ part of the UK budget in October. The teetotal Chancellor said the 380-year-
old system is “outdated and complex”. Draught beer and Prosecco were singled out for specific mention for price reductions, and fruit ciders got a name check too, maybe because of their growth in popularity. Newspapers declared “prices will be slashed” with changes favouring lower alcohol content. But do not hold your breath! The new system is planned to take effect in 2023 with an implementation programme through to 2027. The Guardian calculated that the price saving on a draught pint of beer would be 3p and only 1p for a bottle of Swedish Kopparberg cider. It is a bit more optimistic elsewhere though, with an estimated 87p reduction on a £7 bottle of Prosecco. So the impact on ‘prices at the (beer) pump’ are possibly being exaggerated, but government awareness of the drinks market and the hospitality sector is welcome. Odd it took a teetotaller to spot it…
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