The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 87

We’re back with another fun-filled podcast and this week we’re joined in the studio by special guest Christian Smith. Listen in as we chat all about the perfect mixers for your tequila, a great hangover cure, 24-carat gold covered fish and chips and more!

What’s in our glass?

This week we’re focussing on great mixers for tequila and have chosen Franklin and Sons Grapefruit and Bergamot tonic water and Pink Grapefruit Soda.

Bergamot is what you associate earl grey tea with and the tonic didn’t disappoint. Subtle and floral with a nice fruity edge from the grapefruit, it made for a beautiful and very refreshing drink alone and then in combination with the tequila led to a more savoury drink with a slight peppery edge to it. Nom! 

Size: 200ml
Find here: £17.50 for 24

The Pink Grapefruit soda is a beautiful and very sophisticated soda that we would quite happily enjoy on its own as a soft drink. Today, however, is all about the tequila mixers and this soda did not disappoint. It smells just like that burst of oils you get when cutting into a grapefruit and tastes just as good with a touch of zesty lime on the finish. 

Size: 200ml
Find here: £17.50 for 24

Third Drinker

This week we are joined in the studio by Christian Smith who is the online editor for The Drinks Business. He shares with us his favourite stories, including one about 24-carat gold adorned fish and chips being sold for £80 in Glasgow, a stunning whisky and tells us more about what it is like to work as the online editor for The Drinks Business!

The Three Drinkers in Ireland Wins an Award

For those who haven’t yet heard, The Three Drinkers in Ireland won an award for ‘The Best Contribution to Wine and Spirits Tourism’ at the Drinks Business Awards this June! If you haven’t seen the series yet, all 6 episodes can be found on Prime Video!

Drinkers Discovery

Stepping away from our usual Drinkers’ Discoveries this week, we bring you ‘Phizz’. These are orange or apple and blackcurrant flavoured tablets that dissolve in water and enable you to absorb 3x the amount of water you would from just drinking a glass of it. Full of natural electrolytes, like sodium, potassium and zinc, not only are they perfect for rehydrating but they’re also great for your skin, hair and nails… and we reckon they would work a treat when you have a hangover too ;)

That’s not all though, we also have a fantastic ‘Buy it or Bin it’, Aidy brings back his ‘Wine and a Whine’, we share a dishwasher hack for your cloudy glasses and talk about vines grown in space! Listen in today!

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 86

It’s that time again and this week we have a very special podcast for you as we are joined by the fabulous Bruce and Paramjit Nagra, owners and producers of Crazy Gin, as we talk about some rather risqué drinks news, what it is like to be a woman in the drinks industry and a wine brand doing good. We also sample a very questionable drink in ‘Buy it or Bin it’ and of course, sip away on Crazy Gin’s Lassi and Punjabi Chai gin! Listen in via the player below for all this and more!

What’s in our glass

First up is the Lassi Gin. Thought up after a bad Indian takeaway, the idea behind this gin was to create a British Indian fusion drink just like there is British Indian food. It pushes flavours together that people wouldn’t normally associate working together and wow if it doesn’t do just that! The main botanicals are turmeric, coriander and black pepper, as well as juniper, pomegranate, black cumin and yoghurt. Then whole thing is also fat washed with ghee leading to a really smooth gin that you can enjoy neat at 41%. We reckon it would work beautifully in a martini and equally well in a G&T with for example, a coriander garnish!

Size: 500ml
ABV: 41%
Find here: £39.95

The second gin we sip on is the Punjabi Chai Gin, another very tasty gin, this one taking inspiration from their Grandma’s secret Chai tea recipe. It has botanicals of vanilla, black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, juniper and black pepper and is fat washed with coconut. It also has a unique colour derived from the use of not just any old saffron but ultrasonic saffron!

Size: 500ml
ABV: 40%
Find here: £39.95

Drinks News

There’s nothing like having a pint at a pub and company ‘Nothing on Events’ have taken this well-loved past time one step further, introducing naked pub meets! First held in Guildford, Surrey, the aim behind these meet-ups is to put an end to body shaming. Listen in to see whether we’ll be participating…

Buy it or bin it

This week’s wonderful treat for our buy or bin it segment is a warm no-low drink. It’s vegetal, smoky and seaweed-y. It’s very earthy and has a taste of kale and spinach to it. ‘What is it?!’ we hear you ask, why it is organic, premium ‘Duckshit’ tea from the Guangdong province in China! The question is who decided to buy it and who is binning it?!

Drinks Doing Good

We love a good chat about drinks that do good and this week we are giving a shout out to wine brand ‘Madame F’ as they have donated money to the founding and building of Britain’s first LGBTQIA+ museum, Queer Britain. That’s not all though, they are also holding a yearly bottle design competition where they give a cash grant to artists from the LGBTQ+ people to help them explore their artistic nature and the winner then has their art placed on the bottle.

Mailbag

Finally, it wouldn’t be a podcast without one of your mailbag questions and this week we tackle ‘What is London Dry Gin?!’ Listen in to hear the answer!

If you want to listen in to more of our podcasts just follow this link!

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 85

Another week, another fun-filled podcast to listen to! This week we discover two gorgeous Californian wines from Talbott Vineyard, chat about why playing music to vines is important, taste test a Mastiha spirit distilled from the resin of the Mastic tree, and share with you some must-try canned wines for your summer picnics! 

What’s in our Glass?

We’re not strangers to Talbott Vineyard, in fact, this time last year we were exploring the Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay (Episode 55). In Episode 85, however, we are sipping on Kali Hart Chardonnay from Monterey in California. It is a beautiful wine - not too oaky or tart, it has notes of vanilla and marshmallow on the nose and gentle peach, apricot, pear and vanilla to taste.

Size: 750ml
ABV: 14%
Find here: £19 // $19.99 

Not wanting to leave out the other grape California is renowned for; we also sip on Talbott Vineyards Kali Hart Pinot Noir. Named after Rob Talbott’s daughter, this 2018 pinot noir is a delicious glass of strawberries, raspberries, hints of vanilla and a kiss of oak. It is amazing value for a premium Californian wine and would pair perfectly with pasta.

Size: 750ml
ABV: 14.5%
Find here: £19.99 // $22.99

Drinks News

Did you ever wonder why some winemakers play music to their grapes? Well, this week we have the answer! Studies have shown that the baseline very subtly causes the wine to move in the barrel which increases its contact with oxygen making for a more complex and tastier wine! Music is also played in some vineyards as apparently there is a certain pitch that stops aphids from attacking the vines!

Drinkers Discovery

This week our drinkers’ discovery is wine in cans! Let’s face it, they used to be very mediocre with a bizarre smell and a sulphury taste, however, this is not the case anymore and in fact, there are so many tasty cans out there these days you are spoilt for choice! Listen in to see which Helena rates!

World Drinks

Have you tried Mastiha spirit?! Well, this week we popped open a bottle of Axia and did just that in the studio. Mastiha spirit is a clear spirit from Greece distilled from the resin of the mastic tree. On the nose, it’s smoky and spicy but in an elegant way that doesn’t jump out of the glass at you. To taste it is very aromatic, with savoury notes. It’s almost herbaceous with a slightly aniseedy flavour, liquorice spice and fennel. We reckon it would make a cracking variation of a Bloody Mary!

Size: 700ml
ABV: 40%
Find here: £31.95

Mailbag

We love your mailbag questions and this week’s question did not disappoint as you asked us which rosé wine, other than those from Provence you should have in your glass. Listen in to find out what we recommend!

If you liked this you can find this episode as well as previous episodes via this link.

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 84

Welcome back to another episode of our Bring a Bottle podcast! This week we chat about tasty mixers for your rum, give a shoutout to brand new vodka brand, Vodka 4 Peace, taste test a drink that looks like alcoholic pink chocolate milk in buy it or bin it and Aidy catches up with the wonderful Briget from Étän Rum! Listen in to hear all this and more via the player below!

What’s in our glass?

We’re taste-testing mixers for rum this week and we’ve got our hands back on Franklin and Sons Pineapple and Almond soda*. When you drink this mixer on its own the pineapple really stands out, however, we found that when mixing it with rum there is a real marzipan note to it as the pineapple is toned down and the almond shines through. The mixer itself is a great drink to enjoy if you just fancy a nice drink that isn’t alcoholic but we’re curious to see what it would taste like with mezcal…

Size: 200ml
Find here: £17.50 for 24 bottles

* For our American friends, soda in the UK is flavoured water.

Drinks doing Good

We love to shout out about drinks brands that are doing good and this week we’re putting Vodka 4 Peace in the spotlight. Set up by peace-loving entrepreneurs including Anastasiia Rosinina who was forced to leave Ukraine this year, the brand has been created to help Ukrainians in need and to support humanitarian organisations worldwide. The vodka itself is a premium grain-based vodka, triple-distilled under German quality standards and 100% of all the profits made from sales will go to charities to help until 2026 with £5 from every bottle also being donated.

Size: 700ml
ABV: 40%
Find here: £29.90

Personal News

Helena has been busy helping Wines of New Zealand with their petition to get a white wine emoji. You can find out more here. Aidy on the other hand has been getting into the art of journaling!

Buy it or Bin it

Buy it or bin it is back and this week we have a drink that looks like alcoholic pink chocolate milk and smells like raspberry blancmange! ‘What is it?!’ we hear you ask… it is in fact, Dead Man’s Fingers Raspberry Rum Cream Liqueur! A definite guilty pleasure, this would taste amazing poured over ice cream, be that vanilla, strawberry or chocolate!

Size: 700ml
ABV: 17%
Find here: £15 

Third Drinker

Aidy catches up with Briget, one of the five fabulous sisters behind rum brand Étän, to discuss where the idea of Étän rum came from, what it tastes like, the BEST street food you can find in Cameroon and the most underrated rum cocktail you need to try. Listen in to find out more and if you want to get your hands on a bottle of Étän rum, here are the details…

Size: 700ml
ABV: 40%
Find here: £40

Mailbag

Finally, it wouldn’t be a Bring a Bottle podcast without one of your fantastic mailbag questions. This week you asked ‘What are the differences between light and dark rum?’.

Listen in to all this, and a whole lot more, by clicking on this link!

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 83

Whether it be the best crisps to pair with your champagne, beer that tastes like chardonnay, stunning mixers for your vodka or £5 wine that tastes decent, we’ve got a little bit of everything for you in Episode 83 of the Bring a Bottle podcast! Listen in now via the player below!

What’s in our glass

We’re making our way through more of Franklin & Sons mixers this week and this time we’re mixing them with vodka. First up we tried the Rhubarb and Hibiscus Tonic with Assaranca Vodka – the result was a creamy well-balanced drink very evocative of childhood memories of rhubarb and custard sweets. The herbal nature of the vodka matched the rhubarb, which is also quite herbal in flavour, really well and the whole drink wasn’t overly sweet due to the slight bitterness from the tonic making for a delicious sip.

Size: 200ml
Find here: £17.50 for 24

The second mixer we tried was the Guava and Lime soda. The guava came through first, more on the nose than the palate, and then the lime came racing in the back making for a very refreshing drink. This mixer would also pair beautifully well with a white rum such as Equiano white.

Size: 200ml
Find here: £17.50 for 24

Assaranca Vodka

Size: 500ml
ABV: 41%
Find here: £26.99

Drinks News

This week it’s all about Champagne and what to pair it with. Some say caviar works best, many say fish and chips are the way to go but Champagne Laurent Perrier have created the perfect bag of crisps to pair with their Champagne! This bag of crisps, aptly named ‘Chip Shop Scraps and Fries’ is a playful take on fish and chips and contains scraps of batter, thin-cut fries and crunchy peas seasoned with salt and malt vinegar! You can pick a pack up from Sainsbury’s for £1.75 and if you want the champagne to match you’ll only have to fork out an extra 24x the price of your crisps ;)

Bryan Rodriquez

We are joined in the studio by the wonderful Bryan Rodriguez, wine and spirits buyer for Harvey Nichols. He tells us all about his upcoming wedding, what it’s like to be the wine and spirits buyer for Harvey Nichols and shares a few drinker’s discoveries you’re going to want to try!

Drinkers Discovery

We are treated to a Drinker’s Discovery this week as Bryan has brought a bottle of Boom Beer into the studio all the way from Belgium! This particular beer, VAT31, is a lambic style sour beer. It was brewed in 2015 before being naturally fermented in big old barrels which have been around for over 100 years before finally being bottled in 2020! The beer itself will last until 2040 and will age like fine wine. To look at, it is cloudy and orangey, it smells like beer but has a California chardonnay note to it and a lot of light woody influence from all its time in the barrel. It’s creamy to taste and not gassy at all and would work wonderfully with sushi, fish and chips and roast chicken. This would be a great way to get wine drinkers into beer although it is very hard to get your hands on in the UK. For those looking for something easier to find, Burning sky is a UK-based sour beer producer well worth looking into.

Bang for Buck

You can’t beat a bargain and Helena has found a corker! Tesco has a new range of £5 wines that are produced fairly and taste great for their price point! You can find out more here.

This next one is not a cheap bargain; however, it is still a big bargain. Harvey Nichols Napa Cabernet Sauvignon is actually made using the same grapes that are de-classified from Insignia, Joseph Phelps's world renowned 3-figure iconic wine. Considering a bottle of Insignia retails at nearly 10 times the price of this bottle, it is an absolute steal and it will age beautifully for another 10+ years.

Size: 750ml
ABV: 14.5%
Find here: £35

If you like the sound of this and want to hear more, make sure to listen in today and to read more of Bryan’s recommendations, click here!

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 82

Another week, another exciting episode of the Bring a Bottle podcast to listen in to! This week we’re joined by special third drinker guest, Romy Gill, as we talk about her gorgeous gin and brand new book, a new breed of spirit from Holyrood Distillery and Aidy’s BBC Radio 4 documentary 'The Truth About Tourette's'. Listen in via the player below today!

What’s in our glass?

This week we’re looking at some great mixers for gin and we’ve picked up Franklin & Sons Elderflower and Cucumber tonic. Elderflower and cucumber are really complementary flavours for many types of gin and we found this to be the case here too. The cucumber was the stand-out flavour at first with a subtle hint of elderflower that came out more in the glass as time went on making for a very refreshing and floral G&T.

Size: 200ml
Find here: £17.50 (for 24 bottles)

Drinks News

Helena has spotted an interesting event taking place this Summer, Wetherspoons 11hr bus pub crawl! The boozy experience is £22, includes breakfast, lunch and booze and will take you to 7 venues between Southport and Blackpool all with the aim of uniting solo drinkers and giving them a chance to make friends. Listen in to find out more!

Personal News

Aidy has some big news this week as he has launched a documentary on BBC Radio 4 called ‘The Truth about Tourette’s’. Aidy himself has Tourette’s Syndrome and he is very eager to share the true facts and figures about the condition and to let people know that Tourette’s can be a superpower and not a burden. Listen in as he interviews people with the condition as well as his friends and family to give you a truthful insight into what living with Tourette’s is like.

Third Drinker

This week we are joined in the studio by the fantastic Romy Gill MBE. Romy is a chef, author and broadcaster whose specialty is Indian cuisine with a British twist. Listen in to hear us chat all about her latest book, her Mango, Ginger and Lime gin and her guilty food and drink pleasure!

Drinker’s Discovery

We taste test a new breed of spirit from Holyrood Distillery, enter ‘Strong Water’. Essentially new make, it is made with certain types of heritage barley. We tried ‘Charmed Circle’ made from Golden Promise barley, it has notes of orchid fruits and a bitter sweet finish of dark chocolate and liquorice. We reckon it would work a treat with Franklin and Sons Rosemary and Olive mixer!

If you’ve enjoyed this summary, make sure you tune in to hear more about our ‘word of the week’, the cheeky antics of two rival beer distilleries and more…

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 81

Welcome back to another episode of our Bring a Bottle podcast! This week we chat whisky mixers, weird and wonderful tasting notes, pornstar martini spas and innovative water that tastes like more! Listen in via this player to hear all this and more!

What’s In Our Glass?

We love a dram of whisky but sometimes you just want to mix it up. So, that’s exactly what we’ve done this week using Franklin and Sons mixers and sodas. First up was their Mandarin with Ginger soda (for our US readers, soda in the UK is spring water with flavour) and it worked so well. The mandarin jumped out the glass, it was floral, fruity and then had caramel chiming in from the whisky. A perfect drink for a whisky lover that wants something a bit different or for someone wanting to get into whisky itself.

Next up we went down a more traditional route of ginger ale. Listen in to find out what we thought and the difference mixing drinks with ginger ale makes vrs ginger beer!

Drinks News

We have two crackers this week, Aidy brings some of the weirdest whisky tasting notes made by professionals to the table… toilet duck whisky anyone?! Whilst Helena lets us know about the first-ever pornstar martini spa, (that you can acutally bathe in)!

Drinks Doing Good

We love a drinks brand that does good and Aidy has found one that does just that. Introducing Sea Change wines which are an eco-friendly brand that help fund ocean conservation projects across the globe through the sale of every one of their bottles. Aidy tried their Negroamaro wine, which is produced on the southern edge of Italy and is almost like a blend of malbec and merlot in taste. It’s a big, bold wine with notes of cassis, blackcurrant, cherry, a kick of tobacco and dark chocolate and the great news is it’s only a tenner!

Size: 750ml
ABV: 12%
Find here: £10.49

Drinkers Discovery

Let’s talk water. We’re supposed to drink 6-8 cups a day but is it just us or does anyone else find this difficult?! Well, worry no more as Helena has found an innovative brand that has changed the way you will drink water forever, Air Up. Using aroma pods that sit at the top of your bottle, your mind is tricked into thinking that you are drinking flavoured water when in fact you are just drinking water. From apple to kola to iced coffee, there is an aroma to suit all

You can pick up a bottle and aroma pods set here from £30.
Extra Aroma pods are sold in sets of 3 from £6 

Third Drinker Tasha Iny

Third Drink Tasha Iny joins Aidy for a chat all about what’s Mijenta tequilas stunning bottles, where to find the best pisco sour around and female empowerment in the tequila industry. Tasha also shares one of her favourite cocktails to mix up with Mijenta Tequila Blanco which actually happens to be the predecessor of the margarita; The Toreador.

Ingredients
50ml blanco
25ml apricot brandy
25ml lime juice
5mls small squeeze agave
Method
Shake it up, pour it into a glass and enjoy!

Mailbag

It wouldn’t be a Bring a Bottle podcast without one of your fantastic Mailbag questions, this week you asked us all about white Malbec and whether it is actually a thing. Listen in to find out what we had to say…

To listen to all this and more, along with previous podcasts, click on this link!

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 80

We are back for a brand new series of the Bring a Bottle podcast! Follow our journey as we make more drink-y discoveries, uncover the latest drinks news ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous and share some great sips that we think should be in your glass!

What’s in our glass?

Episode 80 is all about the best mixers for Cognac, and wow are there some great ones out there! We tried Franklin and Sons Mandarin with Ginger mixer and Pineapple with almond mixer. Both could easily be drunk neat as a nice soft drink, however, when mixed with Cognac the Mandarin with Ginger mixer was a party in the mouth! The toffee and caramel notes of the cognac worked really well with the ginger element, and the citrussy notes matched the mandarin flavours perfectly. The Pineapple with almond mixer was equally as good. It tasted like stewed caramelised pineapples, wasn’t sugary or overpoweringly sweet and the Cognac stood out whilst the pineapple shone through. It would be a great option for someone who was looking to get into Cognac.

Size: 200ml (24 bottles)
Find here: Mandarin with Ginger £17.50 // Pineapple with Almond £17.50

Drinks News

Helena’s news is all about an incredible canned drinks bar in Peckham Rye called Bo Kiri. Introducing a whole new way of doing hospitality, Bo Kiri is a really open space with around 70 fridges inside stocked full to the brim with canned beer, cocktails, wine, hard seltzers – you name it and it’s there! There is a big emphasis on brands that do good and with all the cans available to either drink in or take out you are bound to leave with a smile on your face!

Brands Doing Good

This week we are giving a big shout out to Ukrainian vodka brand, Dima’s Vodka. The vodka itself comes from a 125-year-old distillery on the outskirts of Kyiv and is made with three grains: barley, rye and wheat. It is sweet and velvety smooth making it a great sipping vodka although it works equally well in cocktails too. Since the war in Ukraine began, Dima’s Vodka has really stepped up its efforts to help people in Ukraine by raising money via limited edition bottlings, tastings nights and pre-bottled cocktails, every penny made going to help Ukrainian charities. You can find out more about the latest events and bottlings here.

Size: 700ml
ABV: 40%
Find here: £35

Drinkers Discovery

This week’s discovery is Tom Savano cocktails and specifically the Patagonian Sunset Passionfruit Martini. It is made from a blend of Fairtrade Quinoa vodka, Fairtrade Argentinian passionfruit liqueur and Madagascan vanilla with a touch of lime. Unlike a lot of passionfruit martinis, it is a lot less cloying and sugary sweet making for a great drink. The brand works tirelessly to source organic, Fairtrade ingredients for their cocktails and puts real emphasis on helping you to get the best out of your home cocktail experience by telling you exactly how to enjoy your drink right down to the temperature and garnish! If you haven’t already, look them up!

Size: 500ml
Find here: £29

In other news, we discuss kummel and Unicum (no, we’re not making those names up) and tackle the mailbag question ‘Is there a difference between Cognac and Brandy?’ amongst much more. Listen in here today!