Review Posts

Redemption Brewery Tour-At-Home

It's fair to say that the majority of my beer drinking is done at home – in keeping, I imagine, with the majority of beer drinkers. Although the true aficionados will tell you that beer is at its best fresh from the cask (or keg, depending on which side of the CAMRA fence ...

Pact Espresso Blend

It's fair to say that I've found many of Pact's coffees a little underpowered for my taste. The flavours have been pleasant enough, but I like a little more punch to my morning (or evening) mug. If any of their coffees are going to hit the spot, then surely the Espresso Blend will. A ...

Pact Finca San Antonio

The great aspect of Pact's coffee subscription is the option to have a different coffee arrive every delivery. Although their range only has five coffees at any one time, there's enough turn-over that there always seems to be something new to try. Finca San Antonio is a Guatemalan coffee and as before, there's a wealth ...

Harbour Double IPA No. 6

When we headed down to St Austell for their Celtic Beer Festival last year, it was an all too rare opportunity to catch up with Eddie, from Harbour Brewing. Like every brewer I've been lucky enough to meet, he's a thoroughly nice chap, and I took the opportunity to give him a couple of ...

Waitrose Speyside 10 Year Old Single Malt

Supermarket own brands are nothing new in the world of whisky, but I have to say they rarely look as smart at Waitrose's new range of own-label whisky. Produced in partnership with Ian Macleod, these three bottlings cover three Scotch whisky regions – Speyside, Islay and Highland – and are all priced around the ...

Harviestoun Broken Dial

After being so deeply impressed by The Ridge, I'm eager to see what the second new beer from the folks at Harviestoun is like. The big question is, can lightning strike twice? Happily, the answer is an emphatic "yes". Broken Dial is a "super-hoppy" 4.5% ABV ale with an odd name. It's a deep amber ...

Harviestoun The Ridge

Harviestoun produce some of my favourite dark beers. Old Engine Oil is a truly excellent porter to start with, and once it's transformed into Ola Dubh by time spent in whisky casks it's approaching perfection. If I'm honest, the launch of two new beers from the brewery leaves me nervous. Where Harviestoun really shine ...

Harrods 25 Year Old Caol Ila

Despite living in London for nearly all my life, I have to confess that I've never been inside Harrods. My image of what they sell, therefore, is largely based on period drama TV shows where it's somewhere you send your manservant to pick up caviar for supper. This is probably no longer true. One thing ...

Springbank 18 Year Old

Springbank are the oldest independent family owned distillery in Scotland – unusual in an age when most of the familiar names are owned by a handful of global corporations. They are also (claim to be) unique in being the only distillery in Scotland to do everything on-site, from their own floor maltings right through ...

Laphroaig 10 Year Old Original Cask Strength

These days, everybody seems to have a loyalty scheme of one sort or another. My wallet has more loyalty cards in it than credit cards, and the schemes are mostly of the "spend a lot of money, get a tiny fraction of it back" kind. Laphroaig, with their Friends of Laphroaig program, do things ...