My Rum Diary: Part 1

Last September we went on a trip. We spent two weeks sat by the beach in Varadero, Cuba. It really was the perfect holiday, we spent our time relaxing by the pool and the beach, touring the historic city of Havana and most importantly drinking rum.
I wanted to share our experiences of Cuban Rum in two parts. This blog will explore what we drank whilst in Cuba, whereas in Part 2 I will be sharing and reviewing the rum that we brought back to the UK…and showing where you can order it from.

After 9 hours sat on the plane I looked out of the window to see a beautiful Caribbean Island, it looked just like the photographs with vast green land mass, turquoise sea and clear sand beaches. We pulled up at our Hotel, the Blau Varadero. The hotel was huge and you could see it from such a distance whilst on the coach. The first thing that excited me about this country was the cars, I looked in the car park of the hotel and it was full of 50’s American cars. Now I know that the cars are an iconic image of Cuba, however I did not expect that every single car would keep within that image. They were all different bright colours and worlds away from any car park in the UK.
The Blau Varadero housed 4 bars: the pool bar (where the staff gave you a funny look if you did not have rum in your drink….even at 11am), the beach bar (perfect for a cold beer whilst looking out at the ocean), the piano bar (where we had our last drink of the night listening to the bar staff sing opera) and finally the main hotel bar. I really hope that the above image does this bar justice as it was unbelievable, there is no where in the UK that I could compare this to…if it was in Leeds City Center then the drinks would be very expensive.

On having our first cocktails we decided that we would try everything on the menu. I am only going to talk about our favourites otherwise this blog would go on forever.

First of all is the Blau Varadero (you guessed it, named after the hotel). This cocktail was perfect for any time of day, however we preferred drinking this during the afternoon whilst sat on the beach. The base of this drink was the hotels Pina Colada mix, available all day from Slush Puppy machines. To the Pina Colada mix they added rum and a very large measure of banana liquor. It was both sweet and refreshing. 8/10

Our trip to the Blau was full of mixing drinks, we would begin the day by drinking Cristal (the local lager in Cuba). We then moved onto pool & beach cocktails which were all rum based, before moving onto wine in the evening and ending the night with more cocktails. The most popular cocktail in Cuba is the Cuba Libre, which is rum and coke for us brits…this is served with a very large measure of rum with a squeeze of lime juice…I wont go into much detail as we have all had this drink in the UK.

The second Cuban cocktail that I wanted to share with you is the Canchanchara…I must have ordered this twice a day once I discovered it, it was amazing and if you ever see this on a cocktail menu in the UK then tweet me where I can get one. I am still amazed how I managed to order this drink as to this day I can not pronounce this. This drink was made up of three ingredients: lime juice, a double measure of white rum and a spoon of honey. The bar staff shook this all up and then poured it into a whisky glass filled with ice. It really had a kick to it, which you can imagine considering it was pretty much just rum! If you are like me and have a sweet tooth then this is for you. Whilst in Cuba I drank a Canchanchara late in the evenings whilst Liz drank Margaritas. In Cuba they used their generic white rum, but if you ever want to make this cocktail for yourself then I would recommend Havana Club Anejo 3 Anos. 10/10 !!!

The excursions that we did in Varadero were amazing, this included a dolphin show and a Catamaran trip to a private island for sea, sun, BBQ & rum!
The best day trip that we took was called ‘Havana Club & Cigars’…this trip is essentially what it says on the tin. We spent the day exploring, drinking rum and smoking cuban cigars. We took a coach into the beautiful city of Havana, we started at the Havana Club Museum where we learnt about the history of rum making on the Island and the history of the brand itself…which was perfect for me as Havana Club is my favourite rum brand. In the museum we started with a rum and fresh orange juice (which is a great change if you don’t fancy coke!). We learnt about the history and all the different rum on offer from Havana Club, including a sneaky shot of their 7 year dark rum!

Following the museum we had a walking tour of the historic town which ended with drinking Daiquiri’s at the famous El Floridita bar…who claim to have invented the cocktail.

Whilst on our walking tour we stopped off at the Hotel Ambos Mundos. Located in the center of the old town this hotel was made famous as the hotel favourited by American author Ernest Hemmingway, before he took up residency in Havana. I really can not explain how hot it was whilst walking through Havana, by the time we reached the Ambos Mundos we were ready for a drink.
This leads me to the final drink that I wanted to talk about… The Mojito.
Lets face it, the Mojito is THE most famous rum based cocktail in the world. We did drink these in the hotel, but they did not match the quality of the drink in the Ambos Mundos. To make a Mojito you take a high ball glass, add sugar lime juice and mint sprigs. You muddle this before adding sparkling water and a large measure of white rum. This drink is refreshing mainly due to the mint and is very drinkable, even with a large measure the alcohol is not too over powering. In the UK a decent Mojito would cost at least £6 (in Leeds anyway). However in the center of Havana we spent 6 Cuban Pesos on two of these drinks…which is about £2 a drink. 8/10

If you go are planning a trip to the Caribbean then you should give Cuba a try, you will not regret it…next on my list is Jamaica, to compare their rum to that of the Cubans.

In a couple of days I will be posting a blog about our visit to Varadero’s house of rum and reviewing the tipples that we brought back with us.

Une bouteille de Cotes Du Rhone

I have only been writing these blogs for a couple of weeks now and for some reason I have ventured away from the Beer Blog that I was originally intending to write. Don't get me wrong I do enjoy drinking and trying out various different tipples, but I had only intended on writing about wine & spirts every now and again.....however I have recently stumbled on something amazing and thought I would share it with you.

As I have previously stated I am far from being a connoseuir, I am happy to try any tipple and purely judge them on whether I enjoy to drink them or not (9 times out of 10 I am happy for a second glass).

Every now and again in our house we do enjoy a glass (or two) of wine. We tend to open a bottle during inpromptu drinking evenings in certain family members dining rooms! If I were to have the choice I would always choose a red wine, for me white wine is better served cold on a warm day...and lets face it on those days I will stick to a beer. When choosing a red wine I enjoy drinking rich, spicy and full bodied red wine...if this sounds like you, then you need to try the tipple below.

At Christmas the in-laws gave us a mixed case of wine, we have made sure to savour these bottles as the in-laws have a very good taste in wine and we know these bottles are worth only drinking when in the mood for a quality glass. On opening the bottle of Saint-Esprit Cotes Du Rhone I was careful not to pour huge measures into our glass, as I already knew that I would want to make this bottle last. Whilst pouring it had a very deep colour to it and really stuck to the glass. The fruity flavours are what hit you first, followed by the spices which leave a really warm aftertaste in the back of your throat. Now I really surprised myself whilst drinking this because I had (without knowing it) paired this wine perfectly with our tea. The heat from the spices really go well with a lamb curry and would match any meal with a few chillis thrown in. 8/10

Cotes Du Rhone is definately a favoured red wine in our household. We first became hooked on it about two years ago whilst on a family holiday in France.
We spent alot of time in L'Epinoux drinking Kronenbourg on an afternoon due to the heat, but because of our location we naturally went towards the red wine as the day went on. The highlight of the whole trip for me was to relax outside of our Gite with the BBQ going and the whole family sat around the table enjoying a glass.

The trick if you are ever buying wine in a french supermarket is to look at the emptiest shelf and see what the locals are buying. Here we found this lovely bottle, one that even though we brought half a dozen bottles back with us to the UK I still to this day can not find it on any online wine shops. In the UK you would probably pay at least £7 for the quality of this bottle...however to the French, we managed to purchase these for €1.50 a bottle (looking back the empty shelf may have been down to our family).

If you ever see this in the UK let me know!!!!

The Saint-Esprit is approx £10 a bottle and can be found at the link below
https://www.majestic.co.uk/Cotes-du-Rhone-Saint-Esprit-zid06541

Kopparberg Frozen Fruit Cider

If you have not already guessed from my previous blogs, I am a big fan of beer.
However as the Mrs is not keen and only really drinks cider I have grown fond of having the odd pint of cider every now and again.
When I worked in the local pub as a teenager we had a couple of punters who were really into their cider, because of this I developed a taste for proper Somerset Cider...mainly Scrupmy, which lets face it you can only have one or two before enough is enough.

Like I said, the other half is a bit fan of cider (I almost put 'big cider drinker' but I might have gotten into trouble!). Whenever browsing for a tipple to go with our tea she tends to pick up a fruit cider, mainly the big brands like Strongbow, Kobbarberg & Rekorderlig.
With the weather being as nice as it was I decided to buy her a treat, this resulted in purchasing something completely new from Kobbarberg.....Frozen Fruit Cider. Now unless you are really into fruit cider this may seem like a bit of a gimmik, but with the availability of buying cans of G&T and rum and coke in the supermarket this seems like a natural progression for the big brands to introduce something new as we approach pimms season.


I purchased both of the Frozen Ciders so that we could have a good compare of the products. We picked them up in Morrisons for a rather extortionate £2.99 a bag !! (I thought they were an introductary price of £2....I was wrong). The idea behind the ciders is that you throw them in the freezer for 8 hours and just cut off the top. If you buy these for the summer put them in the freezer on a morning, we left ours overnight and had to let them defrost for a hour or so in the fridge.

So lets start with the Strawberry & Lime.

 I do enjoy a mixed fruit Kopparberg normally when Liz buys them in, however with the Strawberry & Lime I just found it way too sweet. It was even sweeter than a Slush Puppy! At 4% you could really taste the alcohol, as it was mainly ice going up the straw every now and again you just get hit with the alcohol. For me it was just too sweet, now I know that fruit ciders and the 'new' alcopops and are designed to be just like pop, but this was just too much. 3/10

The next Frozen Cider is the Elderflower & Lime.

Similar to the first cider, this was 4%. The similarities end there!
More so than the Strawberry, the Elderflower had a real kick to it. It had a sweetness that you would expect with cider but was not overly sweet. For me, I think I enjoyed this as it reminded me of a iced slush drink that we had beside the pool in Cuba last year. The lime flavour came out quite strongly. On speaking to Liz about this one I all of a sudden had an brainwave...what would make this drink even better? A shot of Gin.
Now Im guessing that Kopparberg intended for these just to be drank as they were on a sunny summers day, but put this in a tall glass with a shot of Gin and a wedge of lime and you would have a really cracking cocktail. On reading this back I am unsure whether my 'brainwave' was a good thing of not for this drink, as it makes it seem like it is a mixer. Anyway, this Frozen Cider is definately worth a try. 7/10

On writing this blog I asked myself (and the cider expert) would we buy these again? Now that would defiantely be price dependant, I think that at £2.99 Kopparberg will really price themselves out of sales, as there are many iced cocktails available on the shelves for a much better price. If they were better priced we would certainly purchase the Elderflower one again...that or pour the bottled version in a freezer bag and make our own.

Tipsy Pig - Keelham Farm Shop

Today's blog is as much about beer as it is the place that we purchased it from !

Now I don't know about you but for me there is nothing worse than walking around one of the big supermarkets on a busy day, so I jumped at the opportunity today to go to our favourite shop...Keelham Farm. 

We first discovered Keelham at a family party, where my Uncle was raving about where he buys his cheese & beer. Apparently this shop was that good that he insisted on picking us up the following weekend for a trip, we had planned to go to the Leeds Food Festival but wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Whilst driving there I expected a small building selling veg from which ever farm it was based on. All I could think was 'lets have a quick look, then go to Leeds Food Festival'... I was wrong. I think we spent more there that on the stalls at the festival later on in the day.

The farm shop is a family run business (naturally, attached to a farm itself). The only way to describe it would be a mix between a Waitrose and the food court at the Great Yorkshire Show. In the past we have purchased meat for a family meal, homemade pizzas, curry kits...you name it. 

Attached to the shop is the garden centre as well as an area for customers to say hello to all the animals on site...mainly for the kids but the other half loves it.

Today we decided on buying Keelham's home made curry for tea (the mint dip is a must try). We also carried on our Keelham tradition of buying a couple of pork pies for the trip home...today was Pork & Pickle and Pork & Chilli...yum !

Now I know that it sounds like I'm rambling on about a 'shop', but if you are in the Otley, Guiseley or Bradford area then you have to have a visit....you will never go to Morrisons again!

https://keelhamfarmshop.co.uk

Ok, so back to the point of Tonights Tipple.

The first time we visited Keelham they were running a competition, to name their own Ale (at this point I'm struggling to remember the ridiculously bad names that we came up with at the time).

The Wine Cellar section at Keelham is great, in keeping with the rest of the store it is full beer from all over Yorkshire, with the main stock being built up of local beers (eg. Ilkley & Saltaire Brewery).

But for me it is a no-brainer, when at Keelham I immediately place a bottle of Tipsy Pig in my basket.  The farm shop teamed up with local Naylors brewery for what is essentially the shops 'own brand' ale. Described on the bottle as 'a real session beer' Tipsy Pig is a really refreshing pale ale. On pouring the beer it has a clear golden appearance and a really refreshing aroma, although I did miss the roasted barley flavour that is mentioned on the bottle. The flavours are not over the top, or even overly strong, however for the price (£1.89) it really is a cracking pint. I will be honest it wouldn't be the type of beer I would have in the pub on an evening, on drinking you would put it at about 3.5%, not the 4.8% that it is.

However, for an afternoon in the sun, whether it be for summer BBQ's...or even bank holidays sorting out the garden, this really is a winner. 

Tipsy Pig has been purchased for Xmas presents & Fathers Day gifts as it really is a treat for an afternoon pint.

If your ever in the area, it would be a crime not to visit and buy a bottle...and don't forget a pork pie to go with it.