BRAND NEW - TGI Fridays Cocktails*

I absolutely love cocktails and as the festive season starts to near, I love the thought of going out on a cold crisp evening after work and having a cocktail or two in a warm bar or restaurant. After all, it’s all about having that Friday feeling. Now you can have that Friday feeling all day with the new range of TGI Fridays’ brand new bottled cocktails.

The bottles come in 500ml sizes and contain 10% alcohol content. 

I was lucky enough to receive all three and had great pleasure in testing them all out for you. First up was the Long Island Iced Tea, this was blended wit fruit alcohol and vodka and had a nice tangy lemon flavour to it, like most previous Iced teas I have had in the past. I am not usually a fan of iced tea but this cocktail was sweet and had a really nice flavour.

The next cocktail I received was probably my favourite, the Pink Punk Mojito. I loved the vibrant colour of the cocktail too, perfect for a girls night in. The cocktail contains pineapple juice, cranberry juice, lime juice blended with fruit alcohol and vodka.It has a slight minty flavour which makes this the perfect festive drink, you could even serve it with a candy cane.

Finally, I received the Passion Fruit Martini, which was also equally delicious. Serve with a side of prosecco for that extra special feel. Bring TGI's into your own home and feel like an amazing host this Christmas. Your guests will be spoiled for choice.

With these cocktails it always feels like Friday. Find TGIF Cocktails at the following social links: @TGIFCocktailsUK and @TGIF Cocktails UK

*I received these items free of charge in exchange for an honest review. 

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.

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.

Gin Festival Norwich 2016*

Having been to the Norwich Beer Festival a few times (and not really been a fan of beer!) I was intrigued when I heard that Norwich were also having a Gin Festival and thought this sounded more like my cup of tea, or gin as it were. I was kindly invited along for the day by Laura, the events assistant and chose to attend the Saturday afternoon session on 9th July at 12:30pm. I brought my boyfriend along who doesn’t like gin but is great at taking photos so he had his uses, and kindly took some of the photos you will see in this post for me – although the room was dark so apologies!

Gin Festival  holds a large number of events up and down the country and is the UK’s original biggest and best gin festival. The event was held in Open Norwich and I couldn’t wait to enjoy a few G&Ts! As complete gin novices we were assured that there would be something we would like as there were over 100 different varieties of gin to sample.

 We arrived about half an hour early and picked up my entry passes on the door. Tickets usually cost £7.50 per adult and include one of Gin Festival.com’s iconic copa glasses, free to take home and a brochure full of information on all the gins you can try, a little about each company and the suggested garnish. Drinks tokens cost £5 each and include tonic and a fresh garnish and we were very lucky to be provided with 4 tokens. 

The first drink I tried set me back 2 tokens but as a gin novice I was assured that having a cocktail would be a nice way to ease me in. I went for a cocktail called the Drunken Tulip which consisted of Black Shuck gin, Prosecco, pomegranate juice, elderflower cordial and fresh lemon. It was absolutely delicious and nice to have it made fresh in front of me. It didn’t taste alcoholic at all which is what I like when it comes to gin, I can’t handle anything too strong! 

The atmosphere in the room was great, everyone was out to have a good time. It was fairly busy but you could comfortably move around the room and didn’t have to wait too long for a drink which was good. There was live music and also some magicians walking around. I didn’t realise how big the room was at Open, this building used to be a bank! 

There was a couple of food stalls but I wish there was a couple more about as the choice was fairly limited. We decided to have something to eat from ‘The Feed’. We chose a brie and onion sandwich which we then had toasted. It was really nice and just filled a hole during the few hours we spent at the festival. They also sold rocky road which looked delicious!

We then sampled two more gins. The first one was the Ely Dark Chocolate gin and the brand was launched in 2012 on Ely Market . This gin was smooth with a subtle taste of cocoa and advised it was best served with orange juice. James really enjoyed this but I wasn’t too keen on it, it was a little bit too sweet for me. I decided to try a Sloe Motion Damson Gin which had a strong plum flavour with a hint of cherry and almonds. I served this with tonic water and a sprig of thyme. I much preferred my drink however it did get a bit strong towards the bottom, I don’t think I could have drank many of these! It was really fun looking through the gin booklet and choosing which drinks we wanted to try. At £5 a drink including your ice, tonic and garnish I thought this was quite reasonable, you did get a large glass after all!

There were a number of masterclasses going on throughout the day and we managed to get a seat in the Adnams Gin one. Bonnie who is the manager of the Adnams store on Unthank Road in Norwich led the session which I found very interesting. We learned about the history of Adnams gin and a little about how it is made. The gin is made with East Anglian Barley which is unique to Adnams gin. We were able to smell the beer wash that it was made from and also got a sample of some Copperhouse gin which was nice to try!

The Gin Festival was sponsored by Fever-Tree tonic. Fever Tree was founded in 2005 and is free from artificial sweeteners, preservatives and flavourings.

Overall we both had a really nice time at the Gin Festival and I would definitely go again if they were to have another event. It was a really sociable fun event and would be a great place to catch up with friends and sample the various gins! Have you ever been to a gin festival?

Find a local Gin Festival near you and have an amazing time.

*I received free entry to the Gin Festival in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not influenced in any way.