Barista Box Little Taster review

Regular readers will know that we enjoy a cup or two (or three!) of real coffee every day. That’s why we were really up for trying the subscription service from the newly formed company, Barista Box.

The Brighton-based brand teamed up with their favourite local coffee shop, Blend & Brew, who supply their coffee. In addition, Barista Box also donate to local causes:

Barista Box has formed a charity partnership with two The Trussell Trust Foodbanks. Our pledge is to donate a 1-litre carton of long-life milk, or non-dairy equivalent, for every order that we fulfil. So for every monthly coffee subscription order, every coffee gift box and any other products we might sell in the future we shall donate long-life milk to one of these foodbanks

They have a number of different options on offer; tasting boxes, gift sets, regular subscriptions and one off purchases. Our ‘Little Taster’ box comprised 2 resealable pouches of coffee (1 x Libertine + 1 x Blend & Brew), blue plastic coffee scoop, glass espresso measure and battery-operated milk frother.

As we have a bean-to-cup coffee machine, we requested bags of beans in our bundle. However if you have a filter coffee machine, moka pot or cafetière (the latter which they can supply), you can choose from their 3 textures of ready-ground coffee.

Usually, I like a flat white with soya milk. However, as I was trying out a new coffee, I made a double espresso with the medium-roast Libertine beans so I could enjoy it in its pure form. The taste was very smooth and mellow – no bitterness at all – very enjoyable with a couple of chocolate digestives!

The espresso measure that was supplied is just the right height and width for fitting under the portafilter of our coffee machine.

The second pouch of beans, the Blend & Brew type, were also medium-roast. It has a little more earthy flavour with a touch of chocolate flavour. This time, I enjoyed my soya flat white with a late-afternoon croissant.

Many thanks to Alexandra from Barista Box for supplying us with our Little Taster coffee box.

**Use our special discount code H4H12 for 12% off any gift box, (valid until 4th September 2021)**

The basics of pairing wine with food to make you a better cook

Many people are confused and intimidated when it comes to wine. Unfortunately, wine experts have taken a lot of the fun out of enjoying wine and have created this atmosphere. The reality is that wine isn’t just for the upper crust to enjoy, anybody can and should be able to get wine they like and enjoy without the pretension surrounding it.

One of the best ways to get the most out of your wine is to pair it with the right foods. This isn’t as complicated as it may seem. And always remember that the best way to pair wine with food is to simply drink the wine that you enjoy the most whether it follows pairing rules or not.

In this post, we’ll go over some of the basics to remember when it comes to pairing wine with food. However, we repeat, you should feel free to break any of these rules.

Acid is important

The general idea is that you pair red with meat and white with fish or chicken but it does go beyond that. The real thing to consider is the acid of the wine and not so much the colour. You can enjoy a white with meat if you follow a certain guideline.

The basic gist of it is that the acid in the wine should be higher than the food. The classic steak and wine pairing, for instance, works best if you choose a wine that’s going to cut through the richness of a fatty sirloin. Instead of trying to find the biggest and boldest red to go with it, look for something whose acid is going to work well with the meat and whatever sauce you pair with it.

Contrasts work too

Wines can be fruity and sweet as well as being acidic. So, pair a sweet wine with something that’s salty, for instance. Think about what makes Thai food so interesting and you get the idea. Thai food very often uses salty, sour, and sweet in the same dish. You can achieve the same result by pairing your wines in a contrasting fashion with your food.

Let’s take a basic salad as an example. The greens may be a little sweet but the dressing is acidic and salty. Sweet wine like a Riesling is a good way to go so you aren’t overwhelmed with acidity.

Match like with like

There are times when you’ll want to match congruent factors. For instance, if you’re eating a creamy pasta dish with rich flavours you can go with a creamy wine to match. If you don’t like acidic wines, then this will still work well in your favour. For instance, a full-bodied and creamy Chardonnay will go well with a fettuccine Alfredo.

A lobster dish with a butter sauce can also handle the creaminess of a Chardonnay. It more depends on your tastes than with a hard and fast rule about using the acid in the wine to cut through the richness of a dish.

[disclosure*]

Review: Crozier Drinks

Crozier Drinks is a brand new company, launching only last week. They offer a home delivery service of pre-mixed, luxury cocktails using the best-quality fresh ingredients. You can make one off purchases or set up a regular subscription. It makes a lovely treat for yourself or an amazing gift for someone else.

All the packaging is recyclable – we’ve kept the box to send items sold on our web shop and the inner cardboard filler has gone on to our compost heap. The very nice aluminium bottle is totally re-usable for storing & carrying other liquids – or displaying a few cut flowers, perhaps.

We opted to try the Mango Lime & Cayenne Pepper Margarita. The beautifully labelled bottle contains gold tequila, mango juice, lime juice, sugar syrup and cayenne pepper – suitable for vegetarians and vegans. This mixture 14% ABV.

Some of the other mixes in their range include marmalade & ginger daiquiri, kiwi & lime mojito, bakewell sour and apple pie martini.

The margarita is very quaffable; the delicious fruitiness of the sweet mango is balanced with a tangy sourness of lime. The cayenne pepper adds a depth of flavour & spicy warmth. Truly delicious!!

Included in the package is an info sheet containing useful garnish ideas and serving suggestions for their whole range of cocktails.

Each Crozier Drinks bottle holds a 500ml amount of cocktail. The number of cocktails you get will depend on the size of your glass. Somewhere between two and four… or one whopping big one if you’re feeling particularly thirsty!!

Elderflower champagne

One of the things that I look forward to every summer is going foraging for wild fruit and flowers; blackberries, wild raspberries – it’s food for free! Right now – mid-June – we’re coming to the end of the elderflower season. I’m making something that I’ve only made once before… elderflower champagne.

Because we’ve been living in rural Wales for less than a year, we’ve not yet got to know all the best local foraging spots. We set out on a walk last week to go in search of elder shrubs. It took us about half an hour to come across the first one… but where there’s one, there are always more! It’s always best to not completely strip a shrub of its flowers, take a few sprigs from a number of them – leave some behind for the insects and to allow the flowers to develop into elderberries for the birds… and to use in elderberry recipes!

Once you have your flowers, all you need is a few lemons, white sugar and yeast. Wine and champagne yeast as easy to get hold of online or at some hardware stores. Wine yeast differs from the type that you use to make bread in that it can withstand higher levels of alcohol.

Some other recipes I looked at recommend adding yeast nutrient which nourishes the yeast and aids in the fermentation process.

The recipe makes 8 litres of champagne, so you’ll need a large pan or bucket that can hold that amount of liquid – I used my jam-making pan (that was just about big enough) but a spotlessly clean plastic bucket would be a good option too. You’ll also need enough sterilised bottles to store it all.

Although the recipe I used recommends using 2-litre plastic bottles (for safety reasons), I used glass bottles with swing-top corks. There’s a danger of bottles exploding if excess carbon dioxide builds up, so I carefully released the gas every day during the fermentation process.

Serve it ice-cold – this also helps to avoid the contents frothing over on opening the bottle. A lovely, floral alternative to sparkling wine or spritzer.

Click here or on the image below to save this elderflower champagne recipe to Pinterest

Elderflower champagne

Great British Chefs

Print recipe Pin recipe

Course Drinks

Cuisine British

Ingredients

15 sprigs fresh elderflowers
2 litres boiling water
6 litres water
1 kg sugar
3 lemons peel sliced off in strips
5 g white wine or champagne yeast

Instructions

Clean the elderflower heads, removing any dead flowers, cobwebs and insects
Dissolve the sugar in 2 litres of boiling water, then cover and set aside until cool
Once the sugar syrup has cooled to room temperature, pour it into a large, clean 10 litre container. Add the rest of the water, the lemon peel, the juice from 1 of the lemons, the elderflowers and the champagne yeast. Give the mixture a good stir, cover with a muslin cloth and leave to ferment at room temperature for 3-4 days. Give it a little stir every day – you'll notice it starting to fizz and bubble as the fermentation process begins
For this next stage, you'll need 4 - 2-litre plastic screw top bottles and a funnel. It's recommended to use plastic bottles as the fermentation process produces carbon dioxide, which is what makes your 'champagne' sparkling but can also make bottles explode. The plastic bottles (as opposed to glass ones) have a little give so can expand a little, plus the screw-top lid isn't as airtight as a cork
Pass the champagne through a muslin cloth, then decant into the bottles using a funnel. Tightly screw on the lids. The second stage of fermentation occurs in the sealed bottles and is what gives your champagne its fizz; carbon dioxide builds up and has nowhere to go, so it lies in wait for when the bottle is opened, causing that rush of bubbles. As mentioned, this can cause bottles to explode, so even though using plastic bottles minimises the risk, it's still safe to store them in a cool dry place like an outdoor shed or garage. Placing something over the bottles such as a cardboard box is a good idea to reduce the sticky mess if one does burst
Leave the bottles for another few days, checking each day and carefully opening each lid to let some of the gas escape if needed. After a couple of days, the second fermentation should have finished, but storing them in a cold room or the fridge will stop the fermentation completely

Keyword elderflower, elderflowers, forage

H is for Home Harbinger

Category: drink

Barista Box Little Taster review

The basics of pairing wine with food to make you a better cook

Acid is important

Contrasts work too

Match like with like

Review: Crozier Drinks

Elderflower champagne

Elderflower champagne

Ingredients

Instructions