TAPPED – Birch Water

When we at The Amazing Blog came across TAPPED, we were intrigued. This birch water beverage seemed like a very appealing alternative to water, as it claims to be hydrating and thirst-quenching!

Birch water is birch sap and is collected via tapping birch trees. Birch trees store vital minerals and vitamins, including anti-oxidising manganese, in their roots and every spring this water filters up through the trunk. TAPPED have bottled (well, cartoned) this organic goodness for us to enjoy as a refreshing and healthy beverage.

With a light delicate flavour, the birch water comes in three flavours; pure organic birch water, bilberry & lingonberry and apple & root ginger. Our favourite was definitely the apple & root ginger, as the ginger brings a lovely warmth and zest. The bilberry & lingonberry is a touch sweeter, perfect for when you have a slight hankering for something sweet. Bear in mind though, they have no added sugar or artificial flavour, so the drinks are not sweet like fruit juice or flavoured waters. Not only this, but they are pure organic, filtered by nature, never from concentrate and are only 10 calories per carton!

You can purchase from the TAPPED website here or in store from a range of stores such as Ocado, Selfridges, Whole Foods and Sainsbury’s. The price for a pack of 3 cartons is £9 and 12 cartons is £30.

London Cocktail Week

London is perhaps one of the best places for cocktails, with the endless trendy and quirky bars on offer in this cosmopolitan city. London Cocktail Week is celebrating this fabulous cocktail scene, together with 250 of the city’s best bars, to serve discounted drinks to the London masses. During Cocktail Week there will be a cocktail village at Old Spitalfields Market, where you can immerse yourself in a maze of pop-up cocktail bars and food stalls.

The bartenders can make your cocktail dreams a reality. There is no doubt that the array of ingredients and recipes will be abundant, but do not fret if you don’t drink alcohol! Mocktail lovers are welcome too. London Cocktail week isn’t just about gathering around and consuming alcohol though! There will be a whole host of fun events going on, including masterclasses, distillery tours, tastings and paired meals. Ever wanted to learn exactly how vodka is made? Hint: it's from potatoes. How to tune your palette to tasting nuances of flavours within a drink? Or maybe you just want to gather around and meet some Londoners with some drinks. We don’t blame you.

The week runs from Monday 2nd October to Sunday 8th October. All you need to do is purchase a Digital Pass to receive London Cocktail Week special offers, including unlimited £6 cocktails in more than 250 venues across the week and exclusive discounts in bars, restaurants and events.

Celebrating our gorgeous city’s vibrant cocktail scene is our kind of fun, so we’ll see you there! You can purchase the Digital Pass here for £10.

Friday Favourites Irish Alcohol

We at The Amazing Blog were lucky enough to be guests of Bord Bia (the Irish Food Board), at their Spirit of Sharing event at the Irish Consulate earlier this year. Bord Bia brought together 20 Irish drinks companies to introduce them to the UK market, and we have picked an initial few here of our favourites that we discovered (we'll be featuring a few more later in the summer for you to read about). It is no secret that Ireland is renowned for its quality alcoholic drinks - from Cider to Whiskey to Irish Cream, and Bord Bia presented some drinks that are truly authentic in quality, history and flavour. 

For all you who want lower alcohol content without compromising on taste then do we have the perfect drink for you; Finnbarra's Tobairín. This cider is crisp and light, ideal for a mid-day drink with lunch in the hot sunshine. Despite being just 1.5%abv the cider’s complexity and character doesn't suffer in any way. Light in colour, the drink has a distinguished ‘nose’ and a smoothness which is in part due to the naturally cultured champagne yeast included in the recipe. 

The apples in the cider are meticulously selected and are grown elsewhere in Ireland as the distillery is located by the sea which is not good for the growth of apples. This careful selection process helps the cider remain crisp and pristine.  Everything about this drink has been carefully selected, including the name. Tobar means “well” (as in wishing well) and “ín” means small or light, coming together as Tobairín. 

So, if you are looking for a low alcohol, refreshing and almost champagne-like tasting beverage, then this is the one for you. 

As Finnbarra is currently looking for a distributor if you would like more information on pricing or to find your local stockist you can contact them at info@finnbarra.com

Another cider from Finnbarra has made it onto our list, and it’s Stonewell Tawny. If you enjoy a more opulent and rich cider, you should look no further than this delightfully dark drink. This viscous cider possesses a blend of complex bittersweet flavours that is deliciously moreish. The cider is created by chaptalizing the blends of Michelin and Dabinett apple juice while it ferments. Once the fermentation is complete, and the alcohol content reaches 15% Stonewell arrest the fermentation. This leaves residual sugars which encourage the developments of the cider's highly complex flavours to flourish during the minimum 12-month ageing process. 

The Tawny cider is produced in incredibly small quantities, around 3000 litres a year. Each bottle is sealed with food grade beeswax and an individual label identifying the bottle number.  This is a still cider and perfect for a leisurely picnic in the sun, as an aperitif or as an accompaniment to cheese or desserts. This cider reminded us a little of Calvados.

As Finnbarra/Stonewell is currently looking for a distributor, should you want more information on pricing information, or to find your local stockist you can contact them at info@finnbarra.com

Now,  when one thinks about Irish alcohol, Irish Cream is always one of the first to come to mind, and for us, Feeney’s Irish Cream is a really good example. Feeney’s know that to create the freshest and richest tasting Irish Cream you need to look after and nurture the cows being milked. It is this belief that has given their products the high-quality taste and has helped them win award after award; including a 2015 Platinum Sip Award and a 2015 Great Taste Award.

The cream produced by these pampered cows is then combined with a fine three-year-old barrel aged Irish whiskey. All of this careful selection leads to a scrumptious product where every sip tastes sweet, creamy and indulgent. This is delicious on its own, but our favourite way to enjoy Feeney's is to pour some over a bowl of vanilla ice cream!

Trust us, you cannot go wrong with this drink and you can purchase it here from Tesco for £15.50

For those of you looking for a delicious, traditional and aged whiskey then we recommend you try Hyde. Made in County Cork on the wild Atlantic Southwest Coast of Ireland, Hyde is producing some beautiful smooth Irish Whiskeys using traditional old age craft techniques. The family have been involved in the drinks business for over 12 generations since 1640, so you know that when they say they use traditional methods, you know that they truly do. 

Originally distilled in a traditional copper pot still, Hyde Irish Whiskey is double matured. We particularly love the Sherry Finish, which is a single malt aged in flame-charred, first fill, 200l oak bourbon barrel (giving a sweet vanilla flavour), before being transferred to a vintage Oloroso sherry cask for the final ten months. The sherry casks add a nutty, spice and dried fruit flavour to the last dram. The barrels and casks chosen are significant; as they put it, it’s all about the wood! Named after Ireland's first President, Douglas Hyde, the whiskey has an exceptional quality befitting its presidential namesake. Made in small, handcrafted and limited batches each sip of Hyde whiskey is filled with character. 

You can purchase a bottle for yourself here for £50.88
 

And Finally, but by no means least, for all of you honey whiskey fans out there is The Dubliner’s Honeycomb Whiskey. The Dubliner Whiskey and Honeycomb is a delicious blend of welcoming Irish Whiskey and honeycomb and caramel flavours, which have a smooth and easy finish. The Dubliner’s value the importance of the ingredients that are in their whiskeys, as such they use only the best ingredients in their products. As they say, “only the best goes in, no exceptions, no substitutions.” 

This whiskey was created by John Drennan and is one to savour and share. We guarantee you will want more, as the warm whiskey tones blended with the soft sweet honeycomb and caramel are incredibly potent!

You can purchase a bottle to share with friends here for £19.95

All of these brands are wonderfully authentic and have created some truly delicious and refreshing products for you to enjoy. We guarantee that all of them will help bring an added sparkle and Irish flavour to your next summer event! So what are you waiting for, purchase yourself and your friends a bottle or two now. 

Beauty Vitamin - Vitness

Here at The Amazing Blog, we know that beauty comes from maintaining a healthy lifestyle. That is why we pay just as close attention to what we eat and drink as what we put on our faces. Luckily, we’ve just come across a tonic that makes us feel good both inside and out.

Vitness BEAUTY VITAMIN gives our skin the ultimate boost! Each bottle is packed with skin-firming collagen peptides, potent antioxidant Resveratrol, and anti-aging vitamins to hydrate, illuminate, and revitalise the complexion. As a bonus, the drink is also low in sugar and lightly sparkling to speed up absorption of the ingredients. It comes in three fragrant flavours: cucumber & melon, elderflower & chilli, and rhubarb & rose. We tried the elderflower & chilli flavour, and it really awakened our senses!

Vitness BEAUTY VITAMIN tonic will be soon available to buy on their website. For the time being, you can currently get it at Harrods, Harvey Nichols nationwide, Grace Belgravia, Equinox Gym and high end retailers in Dubai.

Christmas Special - Drinks

At this festive time of year there’s nothing better than cracking open a bottle of the good stuff with family and friends. Here at The Amazing Blog we love nothing more than a cold glass of Baileys in the evening, or warming mulled wine, but we wanted to go on the search for some fun alternative Christmas drinks. These were the ones that came out on top.

Firstly we moved away from traditional festive beverages, to introduce Juniper Green Organic Gin. This is a refreshing and versatile spirit to give you a break from all the rich and heavy foods that we will no doubt consume too much of.

The strong yet smooth spirit is perfect for a delicious, crisp gin and tonic, but also allows for some creativity. We loved trying it out in Cocktail recipes, one named Strawberry Basiltini combined the gin with strawberries, syrup, lemon juice and basil. If you prefer a burst of citrus, add some lime or grapefruit juice to the gin with crushed ice. It was so refreshing to try new flavour combinations and a fun festive activity with our friends. If you want to get your hands on a not so traditional Christmas drink, Juniper Green Gin is available here for £16.90.

Next, we have a drink that will get every chocolate-lover excited. Rubis have created a Chocolate Wine. That’s right, combining two divine flavours to enjoy at once. This incredibly indulgent wine is the ultimate Christmas treat, blending tempranillo wine and rich chocolate that contains hints of cherry and red fruit. The flavour combination is typical of Christmas, it could be enjoyed as a light dessert or reserved for those special occasions. We couldn’t get enough of this beautifully rich and fragrant wine, it was truly delicious and luxurious.

We found it could be enjoyed best when chilled over ice, but it can also be served at room temperature. If you want to pull out all of the stops this Christmas, treat your guests to this ultimate chocolate experience, Rubis Chocolate Wine is available here for only £13.

Not quite chocolatey enough for you? Maybe try out the delicious Chocolate Rum Liqueur from Demijohn .

Distinctly unique, and perfect for chocolate and rum lovers alike (all the better if you love both!), this delicious blend of cacao and Golden Caribbean Rum is the perfect digestif, or even nightcap come Christmas Eve. Not as sickly sweet as some chocolate drinks, it certainly warmed us up.  Certainly a more adult way to enjoy a chocolate treat at Christmas, we’d be happy to see this delicious beverage in our stocking. Grab a custom bottle here , with prices starting from £4.92 for 40ml.

For something a little fruity, British Cassis is the ideal candidate this Christmas. This is a highly versatile alcoholic fruit mixer can be combined with our favourite spirit;, white wine, and Champagne. The mixer is inspired by the French liqueur, but given a modern British twist by using the blackcurrant crop. We thought it made a decadent after-dinner drink to provide some fruity refreshment after the heaviness of a meal. It added excitement to the dullest of spirits, sweetening up the bitterness of vodka, and contrasting the sharpness of gin. Our favourite combination was without a doubt British Cassis and Champagne, it created the most fragrant, luxurious and sweet sparkling beverage.

Get fruity this Christmas with your own British Cassis, available here for £15.

Lastly, Christmas isn’t the same without a warming, spiced beverage. Friary Liqueurs have created a delicious and fitting Christmas Liqueur, combining honey, French brandy and Christmas Spices. I can almost feel the liquid warming my belly just thinking about it. Best served warmed in a brandy glass, this festive drink makes a perfect evening tipple accompanied by a mince pie or two.

The fragrant liqueur sparks memories of Christmas’ past and present, the spices encompass everything we would associate with this time of year. If you want to enjoy a more traditional Christmas beverage, Christmas Liqueurs is the one for you. It’s available here for only £15.