Food and Drink

While specific origins are murky, the relationship between coffee and alcohol is no newfound obsession. The earliest noted combination can, perhaps, be traced back to around 800AD with coffee berries and beans allegedly discovered by an Ethiopian goat herder, which when found to be edible were used for a variety of coffee products, including wine made from fermented coffee berry pulp. Since then, an uncountable amount of cocktails featuring coffee have risen to prominence, including the classic ‘Irish Coffee’ and...

Brewed: Eastry, Kent Strength: 8.0% ABV Like much of the UK, Kent’s brewing scene is incredible at the moment. With a constant increase in craft breweries opening across “the garden of England”, one that’s particularly exciting is Time & Tide, operating from a farm near Deal. Set up at the end of 2013 with a mission to deliver “incredible flavours that excite your palate and make you smile”, taking inspiration from just about everywhere (with particular focus on the world...

Like gourmet burgers, fancy fried chicken, bao buns and ramen noodles - waffles are a food trend that’s seen a vast increase in popularity in recent years. Forget the frozen potato kind and the over-sweetened “Belgian” waffles sold on every corner of Oxford Street, these up-to-the-minute waffles are generally served with savoury toppings alongside some more classic, understated sweet toppings. Take Waffle Lion, for example, a new venture which will pop-up at The Common in Bethnal Green in September -...

You can always spot a good hotel by how many amenities it provides. Bars of chocolate that sit adjacent to espresso coffee machines, rolled towel/ waterbottle combinations that greet you in the gym and a plethora of bathroom items that lay invitingly across from the in-built bathroom TV can transform a hotel from simply providing a bed in a room to being a haven of ultimate tranquillity. The Arch, a boutique hotel in the heart of London, certainly qualifies in the...

Aldi is to stock the world's most expensive rump steak for less than a fiver this Bank Holiday weekend. With many London restaurants charging over £90 for cut of Wagyu beef, the budget supermarket is making a splash by cutting prices to less than a pint in most places! According to the supermarket, the premium beef comes from cattle that are bred and grass-fed on open New Zealand pastures. Tony Baines, Joint Managing Director of Corporate Buying at Aldi, said, “Wagyu...

Just a couple of years ago, the notion of opening a successful, trendy café off the main drag of Balham High Road would have perhaps seemed unthinkable to anybody without a SW12 postcode. Yet what with nearby Brixton unexpectedly becoming the place to eat, with Clapham not far behind, it was only a matter of time before the surrounding areas would begin to follow suit. Set up by three friends and launched earlier this year, Brother Marcus is stylised as...

Australia’s leading tea retailer – T2 – offer the country’s largest range of premium tea and tea wares sourced from across the globe, including their own Matcha blend – a Japanese green tea that has become incredibly popular in the UK, in recent years. As well as making a delicious cup of tea, T2’s special edition Matcha blend can also be used as flavouring for various foods, making the product absolutely ideal for recipe use. This week’s recipe is a...

There is something gloriously refined about drinking Venetian wine on a warm summer’s evening. Located in the best vineyard sites in foothill and hillsides near the Italian Austrian border, winemakers Masi has been at the forefront of Venetian wine for several decades, working to identify the historic "cru" vineyard sites for Amarone. They produce modern, attractive and well-balanced wines credited for “revolutionising the art of wine-making in the Venetian region”, defined as a “touchstone” of the area by Hugh Johnson....

Is White Rioja an underrated classic? That’s the question Quentin Sadler posted on his wine pages recently, and one I set out to explore on a warm mid-week evening drinking al fresco in central London. Bold red wines are as synonymous with the Rioja region as light clarets are to Beaujolais. But there is a notion that we risk seriously underestimating the region by narrowing our focus on just red. Brits have traditionally eschewed Spanish white wines because they have...