The Daring Diver

Hey Everyone!

Today I am going to be sharing my thoughts on a new beer called the Daring Diver* released exclusively to Morrisons by Badger Ales. The name celebrates a mischievous mallard in the River Stour which I thought was quite funny.

I was kindly provided with two samples to try out and I am going to give you all the low down on what I thought. 

First of all, and this is the beauty blogger in me talking, the packaging is quite cute. I like the badger logo and the illustration of the aforementioned mischevious mallard after which the beer is named. 

The drink is an amber beer at 4.7% abv for a 500ml bottle brewed with Slovenian Celeia hops, which they say lends a rich and pronounced citrus hop character to the beer complementing a moreish biscuit malt base. 

After I had a sip test, I could definitely taste a light hint of lemon citrus which gave it a nice sharpness when mixed with what I would describe as a toffee/caramel biscuitty like taste which was sweet and all round very pleasant. I enjoyed drinking it and would definitely have it again. I can imagine it being quite nice to sip chilled on a sunny afternoon which reading a book in the garden with food off the BBQ.

If you would like to try out the Daring Diver for yourself, head over to your local Morrisons where it is exclusively sold. There are also other beers under the Badger Ales brand so worth checking out the different varieties.

Thanks for reading and leave me a comment below with any other drink reviews you would like to see!

Love Sally X

Summer Festivals - Drinks on a Budget

Hey Guys!

As part of this festival series, I really wanted to be able to offer some tips on how to save some money as the tickets themselves are often quite expensive and I think most of us have been stung by the inflated food and drinks prices on site. This post is going to be focusing particularly on the drinks side.

My best advice for saving on drinks at festivals really is to simply take your own. Obvious right, but it's not something everyone does and possibly more should consider. Now this will be a lot easier for those of you driving down to the venue as it saves you carrying too much, for those that aren't driving though I'd definitely consider checking out what nearby supermarkets there are because you can stock up and take them back onsite that way. 

One thing to bare in mind though is checking the rules of the particular festival, some say that glass bottles need to be emptied into plastic ones so for example you could reuse a big cola bottle and some also have limits to how much you can take so check those out and then you are good to go!

Below I have included some ideas for really affordable alcoholic drink options, a selection were sent to me from Aldi to try out and when I checked the prices I was just really impressed and thought they'd be perfect to demonstrate my point so here they are!

First up is the Steinhauser German Lager*, this comes in at £3.99 for a pack of 6 330ml bottles and has fantastic reviews on the Aldi website. Customers have rated it 4.8 out of 5 and I thought it was really nice, light and satisfying.

Next are the Alska fruit ciders which are £1.49 each for 500ml bottles and come in pear & lychee, peach & raspberry and nordic berries. They are so fruity and I absolutely loved all 3 flavours, they are definitely something I would drink of a summer afternoon while sat in the garden with a book. 

Lastly we have the Orchard ciders which come in premium pear or apple cider and are 85p per 568ml bottle and I would say they taste very similar to the more expensive equivalents at just a fraction of the price.

These are just a few top picks but there are loads more varieties which you can check out here, and also you can use the nifty store locator to see where the nearest Aldi is to your home or festival you are travelling to.

I hope you enjoyed this post and it gives you some ideas.

Thanks for reading and have fun at the festival!

Love Sally X 

**Always drink responsibly**

Raisthorpe Manor Review

Hey Guys!

I hope you're all well and having a good week.

Today is going to be a drinks review of a couple of samples I was sent by Raisthorpe Manor and hopefully they might give you some ideas for Christmas gifts for family and friends. 

Raisthorpe Manor Fine Foods is a company that set up in 2008 and create homemade gins and liquers, chocolates and preserves. All are created with the finest ingredients (locally sourced where possible) and using traditional methods, they have won numerous awards which I think is testament to how good their products are.

I was kindly sent the Raspberry Gin Liqueur* and Damson Port Liqueur* to have a try out, here is what I thought.

First of all, the drinks come in a variety of sizes, I received two 5cl bottles which retail at £4 and £3.50 each which I think is a really good price point if you just want to give them a try without committing to a bigger bottle. 

The packaging to me looks very luxurious and expensive, perfect for something like a dinner party or a gift where you are looking to impress.

Now the taste!

First up is the raspberry gin liqueur which uses locally sourced raspberries matured with London gin and sugar. The first thing that hit me was the smell, it was a gorgeous raspberry scent and this was exactly what I could taste, sweet berries with a real crisp, fresh bite to it. Yummy!

Secondly I tried out the Damson Port Liqeuer which is made using the finest port and locally grown damsons and sugar. I've never tried or known what damsons are prior to this, FYI it's a small purple-black plum like fruit! The taste was very rich and powerful, nothing like I've tasted before actually, it was sweet and fruity but definitely had a bit of oomph to it. I really enjoyed it though and it would go great with fancy cheeses or alongside a meal. 

I hope this helps anyone thinking about trying out these drinks for themselves, if you want to check out their website it's : http://www.raisthorpemanor.com/ and there are a number of gift sets and hampers perfect for Christmas, the last order day to receive your bits in time is the 20th December.

I hope you enjoyed this post and my other Christmas ideas I've shared, I have a couple more for you coming soon so keep an eye out for those. 

Thanks for reading. Love Sally X