Summer Gatherings with Glenfiddich Whisky Cocktails!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

This past weekend saw the hottest day of the year hit the UK with temperatures exceeding 30C. With even more gorgeous weather forecast over the coming days, now is the time to get outside and enjoy the summer while it’s here. After all in this country you never know when it will be back again!

With this in mind we decided to have family over for an informal garden party with Glenfiddich cocktails and snacks, thanks to the Glenfiddich Summer Cocktail shop from Collective Bias.

Glenfiddich

Glenfiddich

When we moved into our house the garden was completly paved and concreted. This seemed such a shame as it was an original Edwardian walled garden and we vowed to restore it. It’s taken a lot of time and work (thanks hubby!) but we now have plants and grass aplenty and the garden is finally nearing completion. This made it the perfect time to enjoy the garden with guests.

Unfortunately Whisky is not an ingredient I use often so I had to Google to find suitable recipes. With my list at the ready we headed off to our local Asda Superstore. I managed to resist buying a whole new wardrobe and completed my shop relatively quickly. To see how I got on take a look here.

When I started researching for this shop I held the traditional view that you can’t make cocktails with Single Malt Whisky, surely you can only use blended? Fortunately I was wrong; I found a website called She Does The City which had three gorgeous summer drinks all made with Single Malt Glenfiddich 🙂

Glenfiddich Cocktails

Glenfiddich Cocktails

Here you can see all three cocktails.

Sonic Boom Cocktail

Sonic Boom Cocktail

The Sonic Boom looks like summer in a glass, it wasn’t my favourite of all three but it seemed to be a popular choice with my guests. It helped to squeeze a little of the lemon slice into the glass.

Margarita

Margarita

The Margarita was fabulous! We did make a small difference between the original recipe and the cocktail here, we used Blue Curacao purely because we had some at home. It certainly didn’t spoil the flavour and we all thoroughly enjoyed this cocktail.

Summer Nectar

Summer Nectar

The Summer Nectar was beautiful to look at and beautiful to drink, such a cute little cocktail with a deceptively innocent taste. You definitely need a ripe pear for this recipe though.

Cranachan

Cranachan

Finally we partook of some Cranachan courtesy of a Hairy Bikers recipe. I think this is the perfect summer dessert, fresh, fruity and sweet. They kept disappearing as soon as they were made so I can safely assume they went down well with all our family. I really liked the addition of half fat Creme Fraiche to the recipe, it lightened the cream just a little which in this heat is certainly welcome. Top tip. Replace the Whisky with Orange Juice for the kids.

We all had such a marvellous time that we stayed out until the sun had faded and the solar lights hidden in the Mint patch and along the wall came on.

It really is so important to take time to spend time with your family and friends, it’s so easy for relationships to slip away through lack of contact. What better way to keep in touch than with some time in the garden drinking fabulous cocktails and eating scrummy food, I wholeheartedly recommend it!

For more info on Glenfiddich and to view their products check out their website here.

Bombay Sapphire Gin & Wimbledon!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

Bombay Sapphire Gin

When you become a parent (especially a parent of twins) you quickly realise that days of rest and leisure are behind you. An evening out has become an evening in, heels replaced with slippers and you can’t remember the last time you watched the telly and had any clue what anyone was saying (without subtitles!)

But does staying in have to be a sacrifice? Is it possible to have a great adult style day or evening at home? I was really keen to test this theory with the Bombay Sapphire shop from Collective Bias.

Cocktails and Strawberries

I enlisted my husband for help with Gin based cocktail recipes (he has a book or three on the subject) and armed with our shopping list we set off for Sainsburys to purchase our ingredients.

Sainsburys does seem to have gone a bit Wimbledon mad at the moment with special offers, themed food, drink and even cardboard tennis balls attached to the shelves! It was easy to be swept up in the excitement and we bought strawberries and cream for our food. We planned to spend our afternoon watching world class tennis as we sipped cocktails and ate strawberries. To take a look at our shopping experience just click here.

Cocktails are easy to love, they’re fun, tasty and pretty to look at but I much prefer having them mixed for me! Thankfully my husband has more experience in this regard and under his tutelage I made a Chocolate Martini. It was wonderful (even if I do say so myself) so simple to make, but really indulgent. Definitely worth a try if you’re a cocktail novice like me (the recipe is below).

Chocolate Martini

Next we partook of a Strawberry and Cream cocktail (an invention of my husband). If the Chocolate Martini was indulgent then this was downright decadent! Probably not very kind to the waist line, but it’s heaven for the taste buds.

Strawberry & Cream Cocktail

Strawberry & Cream Cocktail

Then followed some expert commentary by myself on the state of British tennis. In reality I tend to say how sorry I feel for people like Andy Murray and Laura Robson, Wimbledon must be very stressful with the weight of expectation they must feel.

Watching Wimbledon

I resisted the urge to have a siesta at this point and finished up with a Gin and Bitter Lemon. A very simple drink but really refreshing and great as a daytime cocktail. A nice alternative to Gin and Tonic as well.

Gin & Bitter Lemon

Gin & Bitter Lemon

My test was now complete. So can you have a fabulous time in the comfort of your own home without feeling deprived? My answer…

Yes!

Cheers!

Cheers!

I loved all of the cocktails we made, I loved watching the tennis while eating strawberries and even more so I loved the fact that I could wear my slippers and curl up on the sofa! Plus an afternoon/night in is actually very economical, without high bar prices and taxi rides home you can really indulge.

Could it be improved in anyway?

I secretly wanted the Bombay Sapphire Gin to actually be blue in colour and not just the bottle. I appreciate that’s not really the point, but one of the things I love about cocktails is their flamboyant colours and presentation. It is fantastically fragrant though and smells like summer!

A box of chocolates randomly appearing on the kitchen counter wouldn’t go amiss either 😛

Chocolate Martini Recipe

45ml Bombay Sapphire Gin

15ml Chocolate Liqeur

15ml Vermouth

7.5ml Fresh Lemon Juice

Pop some ice into a cocktail shaker and then add the ingredients. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

SodaStream Naturals Review & Fruity Fizz Recipe!

SodaStream became a household name back in the 1980s and it’s recently been making something of a comeback. With gorgeous new machines that would grace any kitchen side, SodaStream are moving with the times. It’s not all about aesthetics though. We are all increasingly conscious of the foods we put into our bodies and the potential damage we could be doing. Fizzy drinks do not traditionally conjure up healthy images, but SodaStream have recently launched a brand new Naturals range which hopes to combat past prejudices and encourage us all that fizzy can mean healthy.

SodaStream Naturals are available in three flavours:

  1. Lemon & Lime
  2. Blackcurrant & Pear
  3. Pink Grapefruit

With a sub range created just for kids which is also available in three flavours:

  1. Apple
  2. Strawberry
  3. Orange & Peach

I received Apple, Strawberry and Lemon & Lime to review.

I was surprised by the size of the bottles, they are quite a bit larger than a standard SodaStream concentrate bottle. Each makes up six litres of sparkling soft drink and every bottle of flavouring has to be refrigerated after opening. If you open more than one bottle they take up quite a bit of space in the fridge. This was problematic for myself as I only have door storage where they will fit.

The drinks are made by carbonating tap water in your SodaStream drinksmaker. The flavouring is then carefully added. All the flavours in the Naturals range have no artificial colours, flavours or sweeteners, using only cane sugar and natural fruit juices. Plus the Naturals for Kids range also contains 100% RDA of Vitamin C per serving.

Flavour wise the drinks are very refreshing and obviously more natural in taste. I would liken the flavour to a quality fruit juice, gentle, delicate and wonderfully fruity.

To really add to the appeal of this new range, they make the perfect base for fun and fizzy cocktails. The following recipe makes a non-alcoholic ‘mocktail’ that’s perfect for the kids at Christmas.

Fruit Fizzy Recipe

  • Fill a tall glass with ice.
  • Top with equal parts of SodaStream Naturals Apple and SodaStream Naturals Strawberry.
  • Garnish with an orange slice and a sliced strawberry.

Would I recommend this product?

Yes, they’re fun, fruity and have a lovely delicate taste.

Could they be improved in anyway?

I found the bottles a little hard to fit in the fridge, but this is more of a niggle than a point needing improvement.

Details

750ml bottles of SodaStream Naturals syrups are priced at £3.99 each.

SodaStream drinksmakers are available from John Lewis, Selfridges, Comet, Argos, Robert Dyas, Lakeland, Harvey Nichols, The Range, Maplin, Curry’s Megastores and selected Sainsburys, Asda and Homebase stores. Prices start at £49.99.

500ml standard flavour concentrates are priced at £3.29.