3 Reasons to try a beer subscription

Clubs and associations are the easiest way to bring people with shared interests together. Many of these now operate online. Beer clubs are one such enterprise. People pay an individual subscription and receive a selection of craft beers each month.

Using Amazing Clubs beer club, we want to highlight the positive benefits of membership in this post. Here are three good reasons why you should consider joining a beer subscription service!

Taste quality beers from home and overseas

Amazing Clubs beer club specialises in premium quality, hard to find beers. They offer the best beers brewed both locally, nationally and internationally – as selected by in house experts.

Most beer drinkers want to sample different beers. A chance to experience the various brewing methods and taste the subtle flavours incorporated. There’s so much variety and complexity on offer in the craft beer world. You now have the option of bringing these amazing beers straight to your door.

New and exciting craft brewers are springing up all the time; these may be a long way from home. Therefore, under normal circumstances, you might never even hear of them let alone taste their products. A beer club subscription will give you access to them.

Many of the gourmet selections offered through beer clubs are unavailable to the general public.

Convenience & money saving

When you compare a beer club membership to heading out into bars and specialist stores there’s often money to be saved. In fact, Amazing Clubs beer club guarantees that you won’t find the products offered at a lower price elsewhere.

Busy bars aren’t for everyone either. More and more people are opting to have a drink whilst relaxing at home (and sometimes even the most gregarious of us just fancy a quiet night in). With beer clubs, you have the convenience of that option.

You pay a monthly subscription fee; and with this, the hassle of searching out interesting beer choices has been removed. They’ll arrive, securely packaged, right to your doorstep.

Beer clubs offer a wide array of services

Before joining any club, take time to know it and the quality of service that they deliver.

Most beer clubs ensure that their in-house experts taste and rate the beers before sending them your way. This is certainly the case with Amazing Clubs beer club.

Each month, you’ll receive an ever-changing selection of beers. From these you’ll be able to identify favourite brewers and brews. Amazing Clubs beer club guarantees that you won’t receive the same item twice.

Expert tasting notes will help you identify the aspects of beer flavour and type that you gravitate towards for future purchases. There may be online forums where you can chat with other beer lovers.

In addition, they offer gift services – a beer club subscription could be the perfect solution for that special present you’re searching for.

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How to better enjoy wine at home

Enjoying a delicious bottle of wine at home is one of life’s true pleasures. When you order a bottle in a restaurant, sometimes the mark-up on the cost price is scandalous. It’s fair to say that much of a restaurant’s profits comes from the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages rather than the food; this may come as a surprise to many people. This isn’t the case when buying privately for home consumption though.

Here are a few quick suggestions about enjoying wine in the comfort of your own home.

Personal wine fridge

Having your own dedicated wine fridge (or wine cooler to use the American vernacular) brings a level of decadence and sophistication to your love of wine. No longer is it a problem to find a place to store more than just a few bottles without taking up half the fridge in the process or needing a separate cold storage area under the stairs, for instance. Using a private cellar to store wine is essential if you have vintage bottles of Château Lafite Rothschild that collectors fawn over. Alternatively, you can invest in your own wine cooler.

The wine fridges from wineandbarrels.co.uk come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are popular amongst many wine lovers. The tall and slender design is the most popular though, so it’s best to find a good position at home that has access to mains power and will fit a new fridge. The fridges from WineandBarrels offer one or two zones that have two separate temperatures for wines with different ambient tolerances. Dehumidifiers in some fridges protect the wine from any damaging humidity too. The back-lighting looks attractive on many models and reading the wine labels is easier with lighting.

Unrushed and nothing important left to do

It’s best to have an unhurried environment when cracking open a savoured bottle that you’ve been waiting to enjoy. A good wine is not something you should be sipping on when you know you have to get something completed right after because your mind will be consumed with other things. Enjoyment of each sip of matured wine is best done while unburdened. It can also help to unwind after a long day.

It’s also sensible to avoid getting behind a wheel after drinking. Wine contains a substantial percentage of alcohol – far more than the average beer – which sometimes catches unsuspecting wine lovers unaware.

Matching wine perfectly with every meal

When entertaining guests or just alone with your thoughts, consider matching your bottle of wine perfectly for each meal. If you’re not sure how to choose the right wine for each meal, then this article from the Wine Spectator is going to be extremely helpful to you.

What’s key is finding a balance between how acidic or sweet the chosen wine is and how it enhances the prepared meal. Complementary flavours will add interest to the taste of the meal.

Enjoying wine at home is much better value than ordering expensive bottles at a pricey restaurant. When you choose well and take the time to sample good vintages, it’ll provide much more pleasure with every glass.

Trinidad ponche de crème

Ponche de crème, sometimes called punch a crema, is an eggnog type drink – like the black cake I posted about recently – enjoyed in Trinidad & Tobago only at Christmas.

It consists primarily of eggs, milk, rum and ground nutmeg. Although the eggs aren’t cooked, don’t worry about food poisoning, the rum content will put paid to any bugs. I would, however, recommend removing the chalazae (the white coily bits that hold the yolk in place) from the eggs. An easy way to do this is to use a jagged edge of broken egg shell.

The proportions of ingredients used is personal preference – some prefer it sweeter, some milkier, others packing more of a punch. The generally accepted quantities are 8 eggs to 3 tins of evaporated milk to 1½ tins of condensed milk and 250ml/9 fl oz of rum. I’ve used dark rum, but it’s often made with super-strong puncheon rum.

Once made, the ponche de crème should be kept in the fridge (in sterilised bottles). If you can, leave it for a few days before drinking – tipping the bottle up & down a few times during that time – so that the flavour can develop.

Serve over ice in a high ball glass – preferably whilst listening to some parang on your music system. It can keep for months in the fridge – but I promise you, it won’t last that long! If you fancy trying ponche de crème this Christmas, save the recipe to Pinterest.

Here’s calypsonian, Lord Kitchener, singing a very famous song celebrating the festive libation.

Bottle of ponche de crème or punch a crema | H is for Home

Trinidad ponche de crème

Print recipe Pin recipe

Prep Time 15

Course Drinks

Cuisine Caribbean

Servings 16

Ingredients

6 eggs chalazae removed (the white stringy bits)
zest of 1 lime peeled thickly
600 g/21oz/1.5 cans condensed milk
820 g /29oz/3 tins evaporated milk
500 ml/17.5 fl oz rum
1 tsp Angostura Bitters
1 tsp ground/grated nutmeg

Instructions

In a large measuring jug (2.5 litre) or mixing bowl with a spout, whisk the eggs with the lime peel (using the peel cuts through the 'eggy' taste) until pale and aerated
Whilst still whisking, pour in the condensed milk
Continuing to whisk, pour in the evaporated milk
Stir in the rum and the bitters
Sprinkle ground/grated nutmeg and stir through
Remove the lime peel and decant the mixture into sterilised bottles and keep refrigerated (it will keep for months)

Serve over ice

Keyword alcohol, Christmas, ponche a crème, ponche de crème, punch a crema

A welcome coffee delivery

We love trying new kinds of food, new types of wine – and now we’ve been given the opportunity to try some new varieties of coffee.

This was made possible thanks to the people over at The Roast Club – a speciality coffee delivery company.

They offer a flexible subscription service whereby you sign up on their website and they send you a month’s supply of beans through the post – in a box that easily fits through an average-sized letter box so you won’t miss delivery. Each month, you’re sent a selection of four premium beans.

They only sell beans, so you’ll need your own grinder. Once roasted coffee beans have been ground, they begin to oxidise and deteriorate – The Roast Club advises (and so do we) that you should try to grind your beans mere minutes before you’re going to use them.

Each 100g bag of their single-origin beans come with explanatory notes about the region, grower, roaster, process and taste – just like you’d get with a case of wine… they and we take our coffee very seriously!

Since our box arrived, we’ve downed tools for an espresso tasting session each afternoon. This consists of cutting open one of the pouches, doing a quick stick-of-the-nose-in-the-bag and inhaling deeply (everyone does this, right?), spooning out a couple of scoops, grinding, pouring, tamping, brewing, tasting, enjoying.

Our selection of four coffees were all medium roasts and very mellow. The Roast Club opt for these mellow varieties over rich roasts as they feel the subtleties of the beans can shine through more easily. As for those subtle flavours – caramel, chocolate, jasmine, lemon… even pineapple and strawberry can all come through as you sip. My favourite of this month’s offering is #30, Kochere from Fortitude Coffee.

If you like the sound of discovering and learning about new coffees each month, The Roast Club makes it easy. Place a one-off order or a recurring 1/3/6/12-month subscription that you can pause or cancel at any time (with free P&P for UK customers).

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H is for Home Harbinger

Category: drink

3 Reasons to try a beer subscription

Taste quality beers from home and overseas

Convenience & money saving

Beer clubs offer a wide array of services

How to better enjoy wine at home

Personal wine fridge

Unrushed and nothing important left to do

Matching wine perfectly with every meal

Trinidad ponche de crème

Trinidad ponche de crème

Ingredients

Instructions

A welcome coffee delivery