Summer Cocktail Recipes Feat. Chambord*

I love cocktails and any excuse to drink them or make them, I will! When I was contacted about trying some Chambord, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity! Having never tried Chambord before, I didn’t really know what to expect but now know that it is a luxurious French black raspberry liqueur with raspberry and vanilla notes. It is perfect to enjoy with champagne or any sparkling wine or in a host of cocktails, I have received some recipes below which I have personally trialled and fully recommend!

According to legend, Chambord was inspired by a luxurious raspberry liqueur produced for French royalty in the 17th Century.  This first recipe is very simple to recreate, and one that I can’t believe I haven’t tried sooner! In the recipe, I used my favourite Prosecco but you can replace this instead with Cava or Champagne.

Chambord Royale
Ingredients:
Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur
Champagne, Prosecco or Cava
One Raspberry

Method:
Pour yourself a flute of your favourite fizz and top off with a little Chambord. Most importantly, garnish with a single raspberry. I used a frozen one!

The light and fruity flavour of Chambord makes this this perfect BBQ or picnic accompaniment this summer. At RRP £7.50 for a 50cl bottle, it doesn’t break the bank! The next recipe I tried is the Chambord Spritz which is very refreshing and incredibly easy to make! See the recipe below!

Chambord Spritz
Ingredients:
50ml Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur
125ml Dry White Wine
Soda

Method:
Fill a wine glass with ice then top with 125ml of dry white wine. Add your Chambord, then top with some soda. The best Spritzer I have ever had!

Finally, the last recipe I tried out was the Chambord Cobbler. This one contains a few ingredients that I didn’t have handy in the house so is one to try if you want to go all out and impress those dinner guests! Recipe below.

Chambord Cobbler
Ingredients:
50ml Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur
25ml Lemon Juice
25ml Peach Puree

Method:
Shake and strain the ingredients over crushed ice into a glass. Garnish with some raspberries and a mint sprig. Voila!

Chambord is available in most supermarkets nationwide, will you be adding this to your basket this summer? Let me know if you try any of the recipes!

*I received this item free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.

Festive Cocktail Recipes feat. Fentimans Drinks*

Fentimans drinks are a favourite in our household and James and I associate these with fun days out. We’ve had these at Blickling Hall and consider them to be a nice luxurious treat. Drinking these natural drinks without any nasty additives or preservatives is a real refreshing experience so when I was contacted by Fentimans to try some of their new mixers, I couldn’t wait to sample them. The drinks come in 500ml sixed bottles, perfect for using as mixers for cocktails but can also be enjoyed on their own as a soft drink.

Seeing as Christmas is officially next month (scary I know!) I decided to create some fun and festive cocktails with some of the Fentimans drinks I received. It’s never too early to start stocking those cupboards for Christmas so I hope you like these recipes and they inspire you to create your own cocktails over the Christmas period

I thought the Ginger Beer & Muddled Lime drink would be perfect for Christmas as the ginger would really remind me of gingerbread. The idea came to me after attending the Norwich Blogger Cocktail Event to garnish the cocktail with a gingerbread man on the side. I served this with 25ml of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum which really went well with the soft drink and the spiciness added to that festive feeling. This cocktail to me tasted exactly like Christmas in a cup.

The Botanical Tonic Water is made with lime flower for a unique floral flavour. I decided to add some Midori Melon Liqueur to this tonic water to create this lovely elf green colouring. This fruity sweet drink was really tasty and a great one to serve at parties over the festive period.

The Rose Lemonade is one of my favourites and is made with the juice of real lemons balanced by an infusion of aromatic rose oil. The pale blush colour comes from the infusion of 100% natural steam distilled rose petals which also work to enhance the flavours. I thought I would mix this drink with 25ml of my favourite vodka and serve with a candy cane. The combination of the mint flavour from the cane, the alcohol and the smooth lemonade was the perfect mix. I think this would also taste great alongside gin. I wanted to drink this all day long!

When I saw the Premium Indian Tonic Water, I knew I had to keep it classic with a Gin & Tonic. This premium version from Fentimans has a hint of Lemongrass with kaffir lime leaves meaning it is perfectly accompanied with citrus flavoured gins. I decided to use 25ml of Gin, a squeeze of lime plus extra for garnish then topped the glass up with the Premium Indian Tonic Water and a couple of kaffir lime leaves. I think this cocktail would also taste great with the Pink Grapefruit Tonic mixer which is really zesty. The balance of sweet and sour is spot on and the drink is really refreshing on its own.

The Naturally Light Tonic Water served with 25ml Gin and garnished with a slice of lemon is great for those slimmers this season. If you want to control those calories then this drink is light and refreshing.

Will you be making any of these cocktails? For more information and recipes visit  the Fentimans website, you can also find your nearest stockist.

*I received these drinks in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.

Just Bee Drinks Review*

I hadn’t heard of Just Bee Drinks until I saw them on the SocialBerry Blogger Collaboration website and I was intrigued to find out more. Just seeing the packaging which is simple yet effective drew me in and I wanted to try the drinks out.  Just Bee Honey Water Drinks are essentially spring water infused with a single drop of honey. They contain no refined sugar and are less than 50 calories. The drinks come in three flavours, Lemon & Green Tea, Blueberry and Apple & Ginger and I was lucky enough to receive one of each flavour to try.

The Lemon and Green Tea drink is refreshing and light. This has a mellow taste and you can definitely tell there is both lemon and green tea infused in the drink. Apparently this drink is great for pre or post workout hydration and we all know how good Green Tea is for the metabolism. This contains only 43 calories per carton which is the least of the three drinks.

The Apple & Ginger drink is also lovely and said to be a good ginger beer alternative, but for a lot less calories. I really liked this one too.

Last but not least I received the Blueberry drink which is also only 49 calories. This one was also delicious and refreshing. I love blueberries and I drank this within seconds and it really hydrated me.

Bees are very important to our civilisation, a wise man once said “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth then man would only have 4 years left to live. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man!” – Albert Einstein. One simple way to help save the bees is to plant some bee friendly wildflowers in your garden, Just Bee are willing to send some free seeds, simply fill out their online form here. I think it’s lovely that they are supporting this.

Head over to Just Bee Drinks to find your local stockist, I think they are definitely worth trying and would buy these again if I saw them in store.

*I received these drinks free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.

Cocktail Masterclass - All Bar One Norwich*

I was recently invited along to All Bar One in Norwich for an Exclusive Blogger Cocktail Masterclass which I was really excited about attending. All Bar One is located on Tombland in Norwich and is the perfect place to start your night out. It has recently reopened after being renovated from fire damage and it’s better than ever before. When I arrived I was surprised to see that no other bloggers had turned up, I checked twitter and saw that Hannah was on her way and I was pleased it wasn’t just going to be me! Hannah then arrived and the manager said we were waiting for 6 more bloggers, despite it already being 20 minutes after the start time. The manager then decided to wait until 7 to start the event and apologised by means of a glass of bubbly for us both – we were happy. No one else arrived in the end which I think was quite rude as they hadn’t called to cancel or anything. All Bar One had set the table up for 8 of us and I did feel bad no one had bothered showing up, I am sure there were plenty of Norwich bloggers who would have loved to attend so we were both a bit disappointed.

We sat at our table and got ourselves comfortable and started on the nibbles that had been laid out. We met Sam who was taking the masterclass. He was very knowledgeable about the cocktails we were making and knew all of the recipes off by heart. He also answered any questions we had along the way. We got to make 3 cocktails, and of course drink them! As no one else had turned up we got a more personal experience and me and Hannah got a chance to use the proper Boston Glass and Shaker which is usually just used by the host!

The first cocktail we made was a Cosmopolitan which tasted the strongest of the three, but I still had no problem in knocking it back! Firstly we filled our glasses with ice to chill them then added 50ml of cranberry juice and 12.5ml of lime juice. Sam told us that by adding the fruit juice first, at least if you mess the cocktail up then you haven’t wasted any alcohol and can start again! We then added 12.5ml of Cointreau which has a very orangey taste, then we added 37.5ml of Absolut Citron Vodka, added ice and then it was time to shake! Sam taught us how to correctly place the shaker onto the glass, how to hold it and then how to remove it at the end. We had great fun doing this but it was hard work! We then double strained the drink into the glass and added garnish of orange peel and straws. This cocktail was very fruity and you could really taste the vodka. After just half a glass I already started to feel a bit woozy!

We then made a Strawberry Daiquiri which was my favourite of the three we made. This cocktail consisted of 12.5ml of lime juice, 12.5ml sugar syrup, 50ml strawberry puree and 50ml of Bacardi rum. Once again we then mixed this up in the shaker and double strained it to get rid of any excess crushed ice. Sam told us they do a skinny version of the sugar syrup (the calories were a bit shocking!) and skinny versions of some of the cocktails were also available. This cocktail didn’t taste alcoholic and went down far too easily. We garnished this with half a strawberry pressed onto the side of the glass. Things were definitely getting more blurry at this point and despite there only being 2 of us we had a really good laugh!

Lastly we made a Sun Rise which had the most components to it. When we were adding the ingredients, I didn’t think I was going to like it but it was absolutely delicious! This cocktail was served in what I can only describe as a noodle pot, which after 3 drinks me and Hannah found hilarious. This cocktail consisted of 12.5ml of lemon juice, 12.5ml of Bottlegreen Ginger And Lemon Grass drink, 50ml mango juice, 50ml Riesling white wine and 50ml Opihr Spiced Gin. Hannah did mention it smelled a bit like a curry – but it didn’t taste this way thankfully! The mixture of all of these flavours combined really well and we really enjoyed it. This one was served with plenty of ice too.

As there was only two of us, we had the added bonus of sampling Sam’s Creamy Christmas Martini he has designed for Christmas. I can’t remember exactly what went in it but it was absolutely delicious and considering it contained the most alcohol of all of the drinks we tried, it didn’t taste that way! We did suggest he add Holly and Candy Canes to garnish this so watch this space haha! Overall I had a really nice time at All Bar One and really enjoyed the cocktail making experience. I would love to return again with a group of friends. Would you attend something like this?

*I attended this masterclass free of charge. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.

The Soho Juice Co.*

In Summer 2014 in the heart of London’s Soho, two friends thought of an idea. The idea was to design a drink specifically aimed at the bar markets and to be named after the place where it all began, Soho. The main ingredient in all of this was the humble cucumber. They created a drink which is unique, fresh, contemporary and something that can be made into delicious cocktails. I was lucky enough to receive a bottle of The Soho Juice and a delicious cocktail recipe book and I have recreated some of their cocktails. Read on for more information.

This cucumber, mint, lemon and lime fruit juice has been specially designed as the perfect cocktail accompaniment as well as a standalone soft drink. Imminently to be launched first in the thriving Liverpool bar scene before going nationwide, The Soho can be found in many of the independent cocktail establishments around the city. I was kindly provided with some alcohol in order for me to create some delicious cocktails with trying out The Soho Juice.

The Soho Perfect Serve – You Will Need

Cubed ice

50ml Bombay Sapphire Gin

10ml lemon juice

Dash of soda

Lemon slice to garnish

Mix together and enjoy your refreshing Soho Cocktail! This cocktail is perfect for a hot summers day. I couldn’t get hold of a lemon so I garnished mine with a lime and it tasted delicious. The Soho Juice gave it that extra punch and this went down far too easy. This recipe came in the little cocktail book that I received.

Rum Punch Soho – You Will Need

Cubed ice

50ml Orange juice

50ml Pineapple Juice

50ml Foursquare Spiced Rum

1 bottle of Soho Juice (use 50ml)

I made this recipe up using some of the other ingredients that I had and this was also delicious. I wouldn’t feel out of place drinking this on a Caribbean beach I can tell you that for a fact. If you fancy something a little bit fruitier then this cocktail is the one for you. The citrus infused cucumber and mint Soho Juice teams perfectly with the spiciness of the rum. This is one of the nicest soft drinks I have tried in a while.

I have really enjoyed trying out new recipes using The Soho Juice. Find out more about the company here.

*I received some cocktail making ingredients free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.

'For Goodness Shakes' Protein Coconut Water*

Being on a diet, specifically Slimming World, means that when I want to refuel during or after a workout I have to waste a lot of calories (or syns) on a powdery protein shake. Often these protein drinks aren’t refreshing and I find myself trying to drink them as soon as possible. It seems such a waste! When I heard about the For Goodness Shakes Protein Coconut Water range I knew that I needed to try them as soon as possible and share them with you all. I have already had a great response on Instagram of fellow Slimmers wanting a similar product!

For Goodness Shakes Protein Coconut Water is a new range of deliciously-flavoured soft drinks which give you a protein boost, zero fat and no added sugar. The refreshing blend of coconut water and spring water, boosted with 10g Whey Protein Isolate is just what I crave when I’ve been in the gym. It comes in two refreshing flavours, Tropical and Orange & Mango. I received the Tropical and Mango & Orange flavours. These shakes are available exclusively in ASDA for just £1.99. My Gym just happens to be right next to an Asda which is an added bonus meaning I can pop in and pick up one of these before I start my workout.

I thought both flavours were fruity and refreshing but my favourite was the Mango & Orange flavour. Adding the extra protein into my workout pushes me to go for longer and I find myself doing more reps at a higher weight. The bonus is this is essentially water; you can drink this during your workout and it won’t sit heavy in your stomach. You can also drink this alongside a meal or keep it for on the go. Not only does it hydrate you, the protein will help you to grow and maintain your lean functional muscles when used as part of a balanced diet and exercise plan.

The fact that these are just 52 calories is mind blowing compared to some of the high calorie protein drinks I have had in the past especially as they taste so nice. There is no harm in adding in extra protein around your training and many people don’t wish to take this in the form of a supplement. This drink is refreshing and you’d never even know you were getting a 10g protein hit as an added extra. I love that this low calorie drink can be incorporated into my diet and I have been looking for a low calorie protein drink for what seems like forever!

Overall, I was really impressed with these drinks and they give my work outs that extra boost that I sometimes need and I don’t have to ‘waste’ 100’s of calories drinking a powdery bland protein shake. Find out more information about the For Goodness Shakes range over on their website. Have you seen these around? Will you be trying them out?

*I received these drinks free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way,

Dragonfly Tea*

I was recently lucky enough to try a range of teas from the company Dragonfly Tea. As a massive tea lover, I couldn't wait to try some new flavours. I love discovering new teas and I am yet to find one that I don't like! 

I was very kindly sent 4 flavours to try out and me being me of course, I wanted to try them all at once. I have since been taking these to work and having at least 3 cups a day replacing my usual cuppa and therefore reducing the amount of milk/calories I have been consuming. Win!

The first tea I tried was the Moroccan Mint Green Tea. I love green tea and I've never tried a mint flavoured one so this was an experience for my taste-buds. The tea tasted really refreshing and the mint wasn't overpowering. I allowed the teabag to infuse for 2 minutes to really make the most of the flavours. 

The second tea I tried was the Emerald Mountain Green Tea. Again this was really nice. I really like how the teabags have little quotes on the tags, as you can see above. I think that's a really lovely touch and encourages me to drink more because I want to read all of them.

I also tried the Swirling Mist organic white tea. I've never had a white tea before so I didn't know what to expect. The Dragonfly tea website states "White tea works well with chocolate based recipes such as brownies, cakes or biscuits". I didn't need to be told twice! I have been drinking this alongside a bar of dark chocolate and the two go hand in hand with each other. This tea is smooth and goes down really nicely and has a slight nutty flavour which is really different to anything I have tried before.

My favourite tea of the lot was the Indian Spice Chai black tea. this is the only tea that I drank with milk and is perfect for this time of year. The aromatic spices (Black Tea, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Ginger, Cloves, Black Pepper and Cassia Oil) combine perfectly to create the perfect tea for the colder months, and makes me feel super Christmassy!

On that note, I think I fancy a cuppa! If you like the look of these teas, or would like to see what else Dragonfly tea has on offer, please visit their website here.

*I was provided these boxes of Dragonfly tea free of charge for the purpose of a review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way. Please see my disclaimer for more information.