Perfect prelude
As a prelude to food, chilled Tio Pepe cleanses the palate, making it an excellent partner for a wide range of cured meats, mature cheeses, olives, dips and nuts. It can also be served as an accompaniment to first courses such as smoked salmon and seafood dishes, pat‚s and consomm‚s and strongly flavoured or spiced foods.
Tio Pepe is a Fino, aged for five years, with a subtle citrus aroma, nutty, savoury palate and slate-dry taste.
First Drinks offers the following advice for generating sales of Tio Pepe:
Buy, store and serve exactly as you would any other quality dry white wine - from the chiller cabinet and in a ice bucket.
Use the half bottle to promote trial amongst groups of customers as a pre-dinner drink or with appropriate first courses and particularly cold soups, shellfish and seafood dishes.
By the glass, serve in exactly the same glass and measure as any other quality dry white wine.
Recommend it as an aperitif and promote alongside first course menu options.
First Drinks
A taste of Jamaica
Waters & Robson offers an extensive range of flavoured alcoholic beverages, FABS. Montego Bay, a combination of white rum, coconut and pineapple. Montego Bay is a convenient and cost effective alternative to a cocktail, and can be enjoyed simply straight from the bottle, or served in a tall glass with crushed ice and slices of fresh pineapple.
Vostok offers a choice of fruity flavours blended with Vostok vodka, available in five flavours - Pink Grapefruit, Watermelon, Lemon Ice, Tropical Orange and Iron Brew,
Burma Blue is a pre-mixed vodka drink that combines the fruity taste of strawberries and raspberries.
Waters & Robson
Salute the sherry
Cheviot UK Wine Agencies has been appointed by The Garvey Group to represent its sherries and brandies in the UK.
Sherry brands include San Patricio Fino and La Lidia Manzanilla in 75cl bottles, while the brandies include Solera Esplendido and Solera Gran Reserva Sacrista, in 70cl bottles. Solera Gran Reserva Renacimiento and Solera Gran Reserva Rango are available ex-cellars.
Cheviot UK Wine Agencies
Thirst quencher
Sunchaser is the latest seasonal ale from Everards, the Leicester brewery.
With an ABV of 4 per cent, the beer is produced using lager malt, which gives the product its pale colour and Hallertau lager hops. Prior to conditioning, Saaz premium dry hops are added which enhance the product with overtones of a delicate spice and peppery nature.
Everards
A taste of the sunshine state
Darlington Wines is importing Old Station Reserve wine produced at Arroyo Secco Vineyards in McFarland, California.
Winemaker Bill Nakata worked closely with Julian Brind, British Master of Wine, to create wines for the UK market.
They chose a Chardonnay for the Select White and a Zinfandel for the Select Red.
The range will be extended with five single varietal wines including a Chardonnay, a Zinfandel, a Shiraz, a Merlot and a Cabernet.
Darlington Wines
So water downed
Research has shown that Caledonian Clear is particularly popular with 25- to 35-year-old women.
Available in five fruit flavours - Arctic Strawberry, Summer Peach, Orchard Apple, Spring Raspberry and Wild Blackberry - Caledonian Clear is packaged in single-serve 330ml glass bottles. A bottle typically retails for between £1.20 and £1.80.
Beverage Brands
Added value to Welsh water
Priory Falls in a new range of sparkling and still mineral water from Brakes.
It is bottled at source in the valleys of Churchstoke in Wales. The still water is in a blue coloured bottle, while the sparkling variety is in a green bottle.
Available in 1 litre and 330ml glass bottles, as well as plastic bottles in 2 litre, 330ml and 500ml.
Brakes
South African organic
Vintage Roots has introduced new wines from 31 Degrees South Organic Cellar, South Africa's largest group of organic farms.
These include the Stellar Organic Shiraz, which won a Silver Medal at the BioFach Organic Fair in Germany. Others include an Organic Colombar, an Organic Wooded White, an Organic Merlot and an Organic Pinotage.
Vintage Roots
Challenge ahead
The challenge for the catering industry is to offer the 30 million people in the UK workforce new and more interesting products to compete with tea and coffee. Understanding consumer needs, consumption occasions and range planning are now critical to success.
These were just some the findings from the Britvic Soft Drinks Category Report 2003.
In the leisure and catering sector, cola continues to dominate although water volume, including the water cooler market, is a close second. The premium packaged and bottled soft drinks are growing at an impressive rate.
The largest sub channel is restaurants at 447 million litres, where quick service restaurants dominate with large draught carbonate volumes. Business and industry follows with volumes driven through water coolers.
In pubs, Britvic's fruit drink J2O was the fastest-growing soft drink last year, recording a value rise of 108 per cent and a volume rise of 96 per cent which drove it into the top 12 for the first time.
Britvic Soft Drinks
British lager rout
Heineken in the UK will become 5 per cent Heineken, permanently replacing the 3.4 per cent Heineken Cold Filtered. This has been in response to the changing tastes of British consumers.
New UK packs include a 500ml embossed can, a sleek 330ml long neck bottle, a novel 330ml keg-shaped can and an elegant 207ml long neck bottle. The launch of 5 per cent Heineken is being supported by a £24 million investment in the brand.
Heineken
Soft drinks brands update
Ice Blast, the frozen carbonated soft drink, is offering kids the chance to attend the coolest event of the summer on 4 October when The Rulaz of Cool Ice Blast Kingdom comes to Magna in Sheffield. The promotion is via a game card available with every purchase until September.
Brit Award winners Blue will be the latest face of Pepsi Music.
Fruit Shoot from Robinsons is running the "Get Active" promotion - an on-pack instant win offering drinkers the change to win a place at the Fruit Shoot Sports Camp next spring.
Blackcurrant and Apple No Added Sugar Fruit Shoot is now one of the soft drinks options at the 1,250 McDonalds Restaurants across the country.
Fruit Fling is the newest flavour for Tango. It's a blend of orange, passion fruit and pineapple and coincides with new packaging across the range.
Robinsons continues its long standing relationship with British tennis and the Wimbledon Championships with a £1.5 million investment this year as the official still soft drink. This includes an on-pack promotion and sponsorship of Tim Henman and other British tennis talents including Elena Baltacha, the British Women's number one and Alex Bogdanvic (ranked 10 in the UK).
Britvic Soft Drinks