Pear Juice With Attitude (Lambrini)

Member Name: wiggglypufff

Product:	Lambrini
Date:	21/02/05 (3860 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and cheerful, Widely available, Very drinkable

Disadvantages: Easy to drink too much

Lambrini isn't a bad drop of wine... but then again it's not actually a wine at all. Made from pears, it's what is known as Perry, and is basically the equivalent of cider, only made with pears rather than apples. Perry has to be made from special Perry pears, just as West Country cider is made from cider apples, and Perry pear trees are quite rare and found mainly in just three counties (Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire).

Anyway, putting useless trivia aside, Lambrini is a sparkling alcoholic drink made by a UK company called Halewood. At 7.5% abv (alcohol by volume) it's not the strongest contender on the market, but you'll find with it's fruity taste and fizziness it goes down well and you may find yourself a little worse for wear as the bottle quickly empties.

A 75cl bottle can cost as little as £1.50 (depending on the retailer and offer) and a litre bottle will set you back around the £2.00 mark. What else can you get that's drinkable for that price?

It's a pale colour, a light golden yellow, and although sparkling it's not excessively gassy. Might be better if it was, that way it wouldn't go down quite so easily. It should be served chilled, and will keep for days in the fridge without losing the sparkle, (as long as you screw the bottle top back on properly!)

The taste is, well, erm, fruity I s’pose is the best description. I wouldn't say that it shouts out pear at you, hence why many people don't know that Perry indicates a pear-based drink. It's simply fruity. It is quite sweet though, so if you're used to a dry drink you may find it a slight shock to the palette at first, but I wouldn't say it's sweet to the point of being sickly so.

If mixes well with fresh juice, tonic and soda water if you want a longer drink, but not so advisable with lemonade as it then borders excessively sweet.

The 7.5% alcohol content is well disguised, and there's no nasty after taste that assaults your mouth and makes you wish you'd opted for the expensive stuff after all. Overall it's very pleasant. You could even be forgiven for thinking you were sipping/guzzling a soft fizzy drink. Until your head starts spinning, that is...

Widely available in supermarkets and off-licenses, it's well worth giving a try. Wine connoisseurs are likely to be more than a little disappointed, but for us 'everyday folk' it's a cheap and cheerful drop of sparkling stuff.

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