When I was little and everything fun from Ribena to white bread was banned in our house, and I had carrots instead of crisps in my packed lunch (I should have been the face of Childline): I lived off Appletiser.
I have no idea if this was because my mum decided it was better for me than actual juice but that is all I drank for years until my parents decided that actually, juice is actually cheaper than buying 15 litres of Appletiser a week. I was bereft. And I can tell you now that topping up apple juice with fizzy water is not the same. Whatever your mum says.
Basically, I love and miss Appletiser, so when they very kindly invited me to a cocktail masterclass at Home House last Wednesday you could have scraped me off the ceiling, where I was anyway, thanks to my rebellious addiction to sugary, caffeinated drinks. Take that, packed lunch cucumber and humus!
The evening was the launch of a limited edition bottle, designed by Eliza Doolittle, their brand ambassador. I was hoping she would offer me a Ferrero Roche, but no luck. She does however have the most amazing skin. Like, glowing. I don’t even think she was wearing any make up. And she’s got a fantastic figure. I should hate her but she was utterly lovely. And her bottle is ace.
I’ll admit I was pretty sceptical about sticking Appletiser in cocktails – I mean, what do you really mix apple with in drinks? Bison grass vodka. Maybe rum. Appletini? – but they were divine. It must cut through all the sugar and booze or something. It makes everything taste very grown up.
When I arrived I was all over the hot toddies. They were, I think, raspberry liqueur, brandy, fresh lemon and Appletiser, served warm. I cannot even begin to tell you how good – and lethal – they were. At this point, before I got what we call in the trade ‘a little bit pissed’, I should have headed over to meet Giles Looker from The Soul Shakers and learnt how to make a proper cocktail, but instead I made a beeline for the bar.
Unfortunately I decided it would be bad manners to steal the menu, so I can’t really remember what anything really was but in a way that just proves how good the drinks were.
First up I had something with egg white in it, which I usually avoid, but this was great. It tasted like a strawberry milkshake with a bit of fizz. Next up was a Big Apple Berry or a Big Berry Apple or something that had berries in it. Nom nom nom. But by far the best was Eliza’s signature cocktail for the evening, the Eliza Blush.
Amazingly I sort of remember what was in this simply because she and Giles showed us all how to make it. A big measure of vodka, some sugar syrup, and pears and strawberries puréed, all shaken together and then topped up with Appletiser and served over ice. I may have missed something out but I’m pretty sure you can’t go wrong with that.
It was an terrific evening and I am going to bulk buy a load of Appletizer to use this Christmas when I try and badly recreate it in the shoddy comfort of my own home. You should too. And, as I discovered on Saturday, it’s bloody magic for hangovers too.
Around the room were shots from Eliza’s Appletiser campaign, done by Rankin (I know, right?!) and I was going to take a photo of one of them and badly PhotoShop my face on it but now it just feels a bit rude. I am worried this is a sign I’m maturing.The post Appletizer cocktails?! Don’t mind if I do… appeared first on Trending Central.