Yummytastic Winter Warmer! (Bottlegreen Spiced Berry Cordial)

Member Name: thehonesttruth

Product:	Bottlegreen Spiced Berry Cordial
Date:	04/10/07 (89 review reads)
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Christmas is coming, and I'm really looking forward to it- lighting some candles, putting the fire on, going to church to see the choir I used to sing with perform in a carol concert, and afterwards mince pies and mulled wine at someone's house.

Okay, so it's not that close- it's a couple of months away yet, but I can already taste the mulled wine in my mouth- not least because I'm drinking something that's very similar - Bottlegreen Spiced Berry Cordial.

About the Bottlegreen Company
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Bottlegreen began when Kit Morris, a man passionate about wine and then working in the growing wine industry, met and married his wife, Shireen. As Kits wage wasn't good, Shireen suggested branching out on their own, and selling off Shireens inherited shares, and taking out a loan, with Shireens dad as guarantor, they planted 10 acres of vines, intending to make their own wine. Since wine making takes so long, they decided to bring in a little cash in the meantime by making their own elderflower cordial.

The cordial proved popular with friends and family, and realizing they were onto a good thing, Kit and Shireen decided to abandon the wine making idea, and instead concentrate on making cordials, which they sold at the local farmers market, and at local delis.

As with all good things, word of mouth soon enhanced the products reputation to such a degree that the cordials began to be sold in supermarkets.

Spiced Berry Cordial
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Unlike many cordials, this variety is intended to be diluted with hot water for a warming winter night drink. The bottle describes itself as a blend of the finest quality blackcurrants and aronia berries.

Although I've often enjoyed this drink, I've never known exactly what on earth an Aronia Berry is - I'd never heard of one before, but I've done a little research!

Aronia berries have a rich shiny purple colour, and are shaped very much like cherries .Native to North America; they have been cultivated in the UK in fairly recent years and there a lot of buzz about the level of anti-oxidants and flavanoids, 10 times higher than cranberries. Similar to cranberries, they have a dry flavour.

Disregarding that, my own thoughts on the taste, diluted as directed with hot water is the immediate explosion of blackcurrant flavour on my tongue, closely followed by cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and something that might be orange. There is a slight dryness in the taste, which may be due to the Aronia berries, but I really couldn't say. There's also a slightly cherry-ish undertone to the drink, despite there not being any cherries in it!

The colour of the drink when diluted is a deep red, almost purple, but the real winner is the smell! It's like Christmas is a glass - ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and the fruitiness of the berries invade my nostrils, and the smell is so strong that even when the glass is empty I can still smell it. It really is the perfect, non-alcoholic, mulled wine!

But wait! I'm pretty sure there's a few people reading this that prefer their Christmas drink to have a little bit of a boozy kick to it . You can 1 part cordial to 6 parts of warm red wine to make an alcoholic version also, which (although I only use really cheap supermarket wine) is also lovely, bringing warmth on the coldest of nights, and also somehow a cheery feeling.

Me being me, I don't just drink things according to instructions, so can also say it's delicious with chilled lemonade, passable with cold water, and quite disgusting with vodka in it!

Add to this the fact that there are no artificial sweeteners, colours, flavours, or GM ingredients AND that this product is 80% Juice and we are onto a winner!

All things have disadvantages though- the main one with this product is that many supermarkets stock it only during the Christmas season, which is a real shame (although tesco.co.uk seems to have it in stock regularly!)! Also, it can be quite expensive - it costs £2.69 for a 50cl bottle, which makes 4.5 litres. This is definitely posh squash - not for everyday guzzling.

That said, this taste's so great that the cost does not put me off buying this one little bit. I love it - all the flavours of Christmas in one glass!

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