I was introduced to Snowballs a few years ago by my mum who was a huge fan of them in the seventies and got very excited when they started to stock them widely in supermarkets again.They come in packs of 4 bottles of 113ml for approximately £3.99. But you can often get them on offer for deals such as 2 for £5, particularly at Christmas time.

Essentially these are cocktails in a bottle consisting of lemonade, advocaat and lime. Each bottle constitutes 0.4 UK units of alcohol at 3.5% alcohol volume. Advocaat is the primary ingredient, the thought of which might put some people off as it is an egg liqueur but I would encourage people not to let this put them off, because even neat it tastes quite nice!

Each bottle contains an amount about equivalent to a small tumbler full of drink. On pouring it you will notice it has a creamy lemon-coloured appearance with a slight foam on top, On smelling it has a sweet almost off-caramelly scent with a hint of citrus. It almost looks like it should be quite thick, however this is misleading. When you drink it it has the consistency of lemonade however.

The taste which may not be for everyone is an almost exact balance between the sweeteness of the advocaat and the citrus effect of the fruit extract. It has a slight, subtle and pleasant fizz t it and almost a slight creaminess in flavour. It is also surprisingly refreshing, that is to say that it goes down to your gullet far too quickly for my liking - to the point that to get a satisfying amount of drink you really need to pair our two bottles worth at once.

As an experiment last Christmas I decided to make my own Snowballs from scratch as a comparison. I bought Tescos Advocaat - retailing at about £5.70, a decent full-fat lemonade such as Schweppes and a good quality lime cordial such as Bottle Green. It works out as 2 shots glasses worth of advocaat to ¼ shot lime cordial and to top up with lemonade as you see fit which will make a long glass worth. To buy this costs about £9 but was much better value for money as a little of each goes a long way and perhaps the citrusy taste was a bit more dominant.

Conversely however, the bottled version is perhaps more drinkable as the advocaat does not sit lightly in your stomach when made from scratch.

In conclusion, I find this to be a really enjoyable retro drink - a little bit naughty and indulgent, different, a sweet treet, not too alcoholic and a really nice drink for the party season.