This beer is brewed for Sainsburys by the excellent Oxfordshire brewery Wychwood. Sadly it is not bottle-conditioned, but is a completely drinkable brew, nonetheless.

Goldwing English Blonde Beer, 5.5%
A lovely nose of lemon fruit and a good hoppy character. It smells quite rich, presumably because of the high-ish alcohol for a blonde beer. There is good weight to the palate, and the lemon fruit tastes very ripe, but it is pleasingly bitter and has a refreshing acidity that makes it extremely quaffable. A pint or two of this would slip down a treat.

Real Perry (pear cider) can be quite delicious. This stuff, on the other hand, is actively repellent. I spit on the Jersey Cider Company for producing such evil filth.

St. Helier Pear Cider, 5%
Pale green colour. The nose is like essence of pear drops, incredibly confected and artificial. I can only imagine the temperature control system they used during fermentation to get it smelling this vile. Honestly, it smells utterly disgusting. The palate is similarly horrible, with flavours that remind me of vomit after consuming too many sweets and sugary fizzy drinks. If I attempt to raise the tone of this note above vomit, I'd say the closest drink I've had that tastes like this is apple-flavour Tango, and that really was the devil's own jizz*. I could not finish the bottle of that I purchased, and frankly I'd rather have all my teeth extracted without anaesthetic than drink another mouthful of this disgusting slur on the great name of alcoholic drinks.

*Yes, I realise moving from vomit to jizz isn't really raising the tone.

The New York Times has a good article about cocktails in London; apparently London is the best place in the world for cocktails at the moment. I thought New York was pretty damned good myself. However, I am vaguely disgusted that Dukes is considered as the second best place in London for martinis. Nonsense, it is the best!

Many thanks to Peter Palmer for bringing this to my attention.

I saw this for the first time in my local Sainsburys. I've never tried it before so thought I'd give it a whirl. Harviestoun are based in Alva, Scotland. It is not a real ale, alas.

Harviestoun Bitter and Twisted Blond Beer, 4.2%
An attractive golden colour. It has a fresh, yeasty nose with plenty of aromatic hop character. The hoppiness is quite fruity. The palate is not terribly gassy, which is nice. It also has a fruitiness to the hop character, slightly lemony. It is not amazingly bitter, but what bitterness it has combines well with its acidity and low gas level to make a very refreshing drink. This is really quite nice for a non-bottle-conditioned beer.

These fruit liqueurs are great for turning awful wine into a nice drink. If you have cheap white wine or fizz they can be rescued by adding a dash of a liqueur like this to become Kir and Kir Royale (respectively). They also add fruit and charm to crap red wine. Hmm... if anyone ever gives me a bottle of cheap Claret I know what to do. This blackberry-derived liqueur is made at the Chartreuse distillery and is a very good example.

Liqueur de Mûre Sauvage, Pères Chartreux. 21%/vol
A rich, fruity nose: concentrated essence of blackberries. This smells quite charming, although the alcohol is a bit hot on the nose. The palate is also very fruity, very ripe blackberry flavours are there and they are really tasty. This isn't a very complex drink, but a dash of this in some Pinot Blanc would be quite delicious.