Photo © Graeme Yuill (cc-by-sa/2.)

And it’s all steeped in art. If you know your Greek mythology, you recall the Nine named Muses who represented the arts. The Tenth Muse had no name and “represents all that is unseen, not captured, defined or understood.” You’ll cleverly find the brand strap line under the waxed bottle top: ‘Plura Latent, Quam Patent’ (more is hidden than revealed). Nice touch.

It’s all rather beautiful, the bottle is stunning sculptural piece that plays with the light, the white wax and textured paper label all exude that feeling that this is not your average bottle of voddy. I doff my hat to the design and marketing teams involved, the brand story is exquisite. You can read more on their website.

But to the taste Fran! X MUSE is the first barley blended vodka, inspired by the Whiskey traditions of Scotland. Two heritage varieties of barley are used; Plumage Archer and Maris Otter, prized for flavour, distilled separately and combined to produced this luxurious, rich, smooth vodka. It’s one of the very few vodkas I would drink neat, and is surprisingly characterful/complex.

Taste profile: Citrus, apple, cereal and pepper.

I've reviewed a number of recipe boxes over the years with varying success, but on the whole, it's been a positive experience. The ones I've enjoyed the most though are those that bring a cultural edge, transporting me to a far flung edges of the World with unusual ingredients and lesser known recipes.

Aside from the nicely designed presentation (obvs), what made a particularly good first impression with The Kari Club, a new Brighton-based Indian recipe box subscription service, was the cooking sheet taught me a number of things on page one even before I turned on the hob:

• "Curry" is Anglicised from the Tamil work "Kari" meaning sauce. Noted for the next pub quiz.
• I've never washed basmati rice but you need to do it quite excessively, and it really makes a difference. Doh!
• It's best to scrape the skin of the ginger with a spoon rather than peeling/chopping it off it as the sweetest part is just under the skin.
• Blending cashews is a really easy way to thicken a curry sauce and add silkiness.

Another was that this particular recipe was based on one of Founder, Minesh Angihotri mother's. I think we can watch celebrity chefs on the TV until the cows come home, but you will learn the real gold from mums (my ex-mother-in-law and her Walkers crisps topped tuna bake aside, of course). There are also some well produced videos on their website, pretty much a cook-along, to help.



Recipes are written (when he's not pinching from his mum) by Minesh, who is behind the well regarded Brighton restaurant, Indian Summer. On the menu in this box was Mamaji's Chicken, Sweet Potato & Carro Thoran, rice and chapati.

I really enjoyed making this - I felt I learnt a lot and was slightly more challenging than some other recipe boxes. Not that that's a negative, it's just some don't really feel like cooking, just assembling and are very pedestrian. This showed good use of spicing throughout stages and the bread element was a new thing learned - I won't be impressing any Indian mammas with the shape anytime soon but bye bye supermarket chapati.

It took around an hour too cook with reading through all the ingredients and watching the videos (optional but really helps). I did cook the elements simultaneously but I cook a lot and imagine you'd get a bit flustered if you didn't. But there's no reason not to take it at a more leisurely pace and enjoy the process.

Only negative was the oil quantities you could possibly get wrong - you could tip the "remaining oil" in the thoran but you'd need some for the chapati and rice later on.

The design is really nice; simple, clear and the tips in red throughout the recipe sheets handy. Ingredients were excellent in terms of quality. Meat from Handcross butchers, tomatoes that smelt good and spices far more vibrant than your dusty supermarket versions. The kit came with a full recipe so you are free to recreate it yourself, which I will be certainly doing.

And the best bit. Darn, darn it was delicious. Certainly restaurant grade delicious. Cook it for a crowd and they'll be talking about it for weeks delicious. It was such a rich, luscious and fragrant thing to eat; all the elements worked perfectly. The curry itself was silky and you got a real sense of all the spices. I adored the textural crunch from the thoran and the fact it lightened a heavy meal.


Prices are not too bad for what this is; you can buy a one off for £20 for 1, £25 for 2 and £40 for 4 people and would make an easy dinner party option to impress for the latter - it's restaurant grade food and for £10 a head that's remarkable. You can also go for a monthly subscription.

Portion-wise this two portion box would feed two handsomely or three sensibly, so is very generous. Expect some left overs or next day if you can resist.

Let's face it, it's not a sustainable way to shop everyday, financially or environmentally (even though the packaging was almost entirely recyclable) yet the format of recipe boxes tend to prove popular for a number of reasons. Less food waste in many respects, but number one is that they tend to take you out of your cooking comfort zone, yet guide you through it, and it's pretty exciting unpacking a kit for a meal. Well for me anyway.

Delivery is nationwide. For more information visit thekariclub.com

I was sent a sample box for review. Word and thoughts, as always, my own.

But one other thing a hamper must do is impress. Lifting up that wicker lid you need to gasp. No gasp? That ain't no hamper. This one from Harvey Nichols, so big it came in two parts, certainly did the trick. It was so beautifully presented and the internal products were all stylishly packaged. I really appreciate it when a brand see beyond the gold and red of Christmas tradition - this is no less festive, exuding all of the celebration with none of the clichés.



I also adore the black wicker hamper itself too - somehow more luxurious than your standard straw one and beautifully lined in canvas with subtle branding. That will find its way onto my wardrobe for storage, as it would be criminal to dispose of.



The Crowd Pleaser, pictured here and priced at £300, is certainly that, getting the party started with a decent selection of festive cheer, including two bottles of Champagne Brut NV and a bottle each of Malbec, Treixadura, Late Bottled Vintage Port and Gin - they even included four individual bottles of Tonic Water With A Hint Of Cucumber And Lime.

And the rest is perfect for dipping into across the festive break; to healthily supplement gatherings or placed beside the sofa within reaching distance for that gout inducing Christmas film marathon.

I've written about Petit Ballon before, a wine subscription service that does things a little bit more beautifully. One of their USPs, along with some very well selected wine of course, is the nicely designed and considered Gazette.

Often with these food and drink services, the informative pieces are poorly executed or purely functional. Any subscription service is a lifestyle luxury so each element should contribute to the overall product experience. Le Petit Ballon's look, as with their ethos, is unstuffy, youthful and approachable - refreshing in the sector - but content is still very much key. Along with the Gazette, which is filled with wine features, recipes, interviews and music pairing (of course!), are some clear and realistic tasting note cards with plenty of useful information such as keeping potential, serving temperatures and food pairing.

Wines are also categorised into sensible and approachable labels, or cheat sheets as they call them. These make complete sense ie. Relaxed Reds are easy to enjoy and light whereas With-it Whites are complex and edgy. No-one needs an education in wine to understand that.

Each month the box is themed and I received the "Around The World" collection.


First up the red - Las Ninas Mapuche 2015

"Imagine summer at its most idyllic: warm weather with a light breeze; languid moments where everyday concerns make way for a flight of fancy; and long evenings that you never want to end."

And then you remember that you live in the UK. It's cold, politics are going down the drain and it's probably raining. But hey ho, it reminds us to appreciate the little luxuries we still have in life, right?

And one of these luxuries is indeed a box of Pierre Marcolini chocolates. My first encounter with this brand was years ago on a trip to Brussels. One of our friends living there was giving us a culinary (and ok, slightly absinthy) tour of the city and brought us to the Marcolini store there. This was my first taste of chocolate of this calibre. The shop looked like a jewellers; encased in large glass boxes was the spot-lit luxurious black packaging, and the row upon row of perfect jewel like chocolates, almost impossible to choose from. I ended up spending about 50 Euros on a box which seems ludicrous, but with more restraint than I ever thought I had, brought them home where I savoured them one by one over the course of a couple of weeks. Even though this was a good decade ago, I can still remember the taste of some of them. Money well spent.



And here I have a box of the 2017 Summer collection; Les Reves de Pierre. Once you slip off the raspberry card wrap, the familiar matt black packaging with a white foiled logo is revealed. The silky ribbon tab helps you lift the lid to reveal a beautiful selection of small cubes, in whites, blush pinks and lipstick reds. I'm a sucker for all this, and get a thrill out of the whole product experience and the brand story these details help tell. You may mindlessly rip the packaging off a regular chocolate bar and chomp away (what did the Milky Bar Kid know, eh), but these are for savouring not scoffing.

The collection is a series of smooth ganache and cereal pralines, with a base of either quinoa, sesame, spelt or barley and seasonal fruits. In the box you'll find:

• Crunchy chocolate quinoa praline and raspberry ganache, coated in dark chocolate
• Crunchy three cereal praline (sesame, quinoa and spelt), passion fruit and lime zest caramel, coated in milk chocolate
• Crunchy sesame praline, yuzu caramel, coated in white chocolate
• Crunchy spelt praline, vanilla and star anise ganache, coated in white chocolate
• Crunchy white almond praline, lemon and bergamot ganache, coated in white chocolate
• Crunch pearl barley praline, lemon and pink peppercorn caramel, coated in dark chocolate

These may be small but they really pack a punch. Unquestionable raspberry pings right through and its sweetness contrasted with fine dark chocolate and the most delicate quinoa praline, giving a light crunch. The textural contrast is lovely. Mouth-feel is a dreadful term, but this is what these chocolates are particularly successful for. Crunchy sesame praline, with a slight savoury sits underneath a really zingy yuzu caramel, the citrus is vibrant. Across the whole box flavours are bold, unusual and intense but always balanced and exciting.

I love them all as I expected to. At £19 for a box of 18 or £35 for 36 pieces, they are at the top end but for a treat to yourself or a gift, I couldn't think of anything more indulgent.





If you are passing one of their stores you can also experience their Esquimau choc ice bars where you can make-you-own bar, choosing from a collection of toppings and chocolate dips or a tub of their ice cream. Flavours include Matcha Tea Frisson; a matcha tea ice cream with yuzu coulis and candied orange or Rose Pistachio Frisson; rose ice cream, raspberry coulis with Garrigues honey and toasted pistachios. Heaven.

The collection is available from 11th May 2017 in-store and eu.marcolini.com

I received samples for review. Words and thoughts, as always, are my own. 

I don't have a great relationship with green tea or matcha. I knew it was good for me in some way (It's green, it must be right?) but goodness me, I just couldn't get down with the taste of it at all. Turns out that not all matcha is the same and I was just pouring boiling water on it like a good old cup of builders, scorching the stuff so it was bitter and chalky as I didn't realise how to prepare it properly.

Thankfully Brighton-based company, OMGtea (Organic Matcha Green Tea to you), have given me a bit of an education. What caught my interest was that the company comes from a really interesting background, it isn't just a tea company at all really. Founder Katherine Swift began research into green teas when her mother was diagnosed with cancer due to the beneficial health properties. As well as sourcing and selling premium, traceable matcha tea, OMGtea will also be supporting scientific and medical research into preventing degenerative disease and extending health and life span. They do this by donating a percentage of profits from sales to the Healthy Life Foundation.


Matcha being high in antioxidants, calming and detoxifying is resonably common knowledge but I had no idea it burns calories and is anti-ageing. And Lord knows I could do with better memory too. If the claims stack up, then I'm prescribing myself a cup of this daily, sod the face cream. I mean, matcha has 137 times more antioxidants and 10 times the nutritional benefit of regularly brewed green tea. If you are interested in the science then Google away my friend.

Do you choose organic foods? It's a nice idea isn't it?

I really do worry about what goes into food production, more so now I have the responsibility of two small children to feed. Consumer demands for cheaper food and well, demand for food in general, must mean corners get cut or additional processes are applied to our food chain. You read some pretty freaky stuff in the press. So I was really interested to be part of #organicunboxed campaign to learn a bit more about organic foods and try some new products out too.


The Organic Trade Board sent me a mystery box of produce to create recipes with - think middleclass Can't Cook Won't Cook. I assumed it would be more meat, fish and dairy based as I delved in, some ingredients and brands I found I already use, but they sent me ORGANIC GIN! I was already sold :)

Having tried a few of the national veg box schemes, it never occurred to me to seek out a company around the Brighton area. And Fin and Farm are just that; a small company who have grown from supplying commercial kitchens to domestic over the last 8 years. It makes sense to source as local as possible, especially with all the farms and food producers just on or past the Sussex Downs.

As well as fruits and vegetables, they also supply Sussex meats (and charcuterie made with it), local eggs, cheese and milk, soft drinks, raw Sussex honey, oils and treats.

But the core boxes (available as fruit, juicing, salad or vegetable) are a good place to start. I received the Medium veg box (£12 - feeds 2-3) which had a good variety included. Sometimes the veg boxes try too hard and you end up wasting a bit with obscure items. You need some basic staples every week (carrots, potatoes, onions, salad and the like) as well as some highlights. The box was perfect for that, and actually, I didn't waste a single thing.

Included was:

• Bunched carrots
• A couple of leeks
• 3 small red peppers
• Parsnips
• A pack of mixed stir fry leaves
• Spring greens
• Bunch of beetroot
• Two small round head lettuce

I was sent these products to review, words and opinion, as always, are my own.

Recipe delivery boxes are ever popular but joining them are the wine and beer subscription boxes. Petit Ballon works by sending you two bottles each month from either the Apprentice selection (£24.90 per month) or for those that already know their way around a glass, the Master Box (£39.90).



When you sign up you can tell them your taste preferences so your box can be tailored somewhat and you can choose red wine only if you wish.

This is a great way to learn about wine as well as being pretty much a fail safe to avoid a duff bottle choice. The wines you are sent have been carefully selected by Jean-Michel Deluc, former sommelier at the Ritz who clearly understands what is good and the brands to watch. I'll admit, faced with a wall of wine in the supermarket, I'll grab what's on offer or take a punt based on a label design (I can see Monsieur Deluc's eyes rolling now). Although I'm slowly getting to grips with varieties I like and distinguishing flavours, I still have a hell of an education in front of me, But hey, it's a subject I don't mind practising AT ALL.


First out of the box was the red as that's my natural preference and what a great start it was. The Château de Jau 2013 AOP Côtes du Roussillon Villages was a sturdy red, powerful without overpowering and rich and decadent with a slight spice. I enjoyed this one very much. I generally only drink with a meal but I poured myself a glass the next day just to enjoy (and to ensure noone else got it before me!).

Second out was the Domaine Lecomte Quincy 2014, a beautifully coloured white. I'm slowly coming around to more white wine and trying decent bottles certainly helps! I think I've been victim to really harsh, astringent white wines in the past but the fresh, quite grapefruity (it's a word) tones of this one were very nice indeed.



I'm also a big fan of the slightly quirky branding and design here. The modern, unexpected style contrasts with the traditional burgundy and gold you would expect from the wine sector and will appeal to a younger, newer clientele. They have also stripped down the "wine chat" without being patronising, making it easier to find wines you like with sensible tasting categories and providing engaging content like online videos and quizzes. In your box you will also find a copy of La Gazette, a beautifully put together mini zine with food and wine pairing, recipes and winemakers' stories. This was a big plus for me and really added value to the service.

I like the encouragement to engage with their social channels too, it's good for the brand as well as the consumer, pretty essential stuff these days too.

So all in all I thought this was a great service and it felt like a good quality product. I've tried a few of the wine subscription companies now and this seemed to me one of the best in terms of value for presentation, product, engagement and information.

We see a lot of subscription services these days; beauty, kids craft sets, jewellery...but good quality wine delivered direct to your door? I'll raise my glass to that.

http://www.lepetitballon.com/uk

I was sent this product to review. Words and thoughts, as always, are my own.

Brighton is one of the top 10 UK cities to visit with a buoyant holiday rental market to match. Even when I go away I shun hotels (never liked them) in favour of my own apartment. What isn't great though is having to fend for yourself for breakfast, or even worse, having to leave your cosy nest for a cafe. Urgh.

So even though Brunch Box Brighton is not a new idea, it's still a great idea, delivering a selection of local produce to your door. So far they have a classic english, american and french box. There's also a timely healthy box too with Insagram favourites avocado, eggs and granola.


I was sent an English box which was a treat as I can count the number of cooked breakfasts I've had on one hand. The pork sausages and thickly cut bacon were from our lovely Brighton Sausage Company and the bread my favourite chewy brown from Real Patisserie. Also included were beans, a large mushroom, 2 local eggs, butter, sauce sachets, orange juice and coffee from Small Batch. The box was plenty for 2 people and at £12, decent value for money.


There were a few missing things though. Oil for cooking (if you are not at home I don't think you'll commonly get it included at a holiday let) and there was no milk or sugar for the drinks. That made no sense to me as butter was included.


We also got a kids bag for junior foodie with a nice little crayon and puzzle sheet. He was really made up with it and dove in pretty sharpish for his chocolate chip brioche followed by a huge slice of Chewy Brown with Nutella. Luckily the chocolate was offset with a pot of blueberries! Also included was an orange juice carton and Rice Krispies. I would have liked a slightly healthier angle and maybe a locally made/hand made cereal brand and better juice but this is probably aimed at holidaymakers on treat time and all of it costs a mere £4. Plus kids are fickle and can imagine some of them picking over the fact they don't recognise the packaging.

I couldn't complain about any of the food (other than I had to cook it!) and the quality of it all was super. The ingredients were nicely presented and the packaging was generally recyclable.

You can also add extras to your delivery (I LOVE the hangover section which is absolute filth!!)

I think this is a great idea for Brighton and can see it being a hit with the self catering and Airbnb sector as well as just a treat and look forward to seeing the company evolve with some more unusual and exciting box options.

http://brunchboxbrighton.com/

I was sent a box for review. Words and opinion, as always, my own.