The Caterer Blog

"The last thing that Starbucks wants is watered down coffee" says Leslie Wayne in an article for the New York Times. And if like me you can't get through the day without a gallon of coffee flavoured milk, your head will be rocking back and forth like a nodding dog.

Still, we gotta face the facts. From the mouth of Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz via a recent internal memo comes the admission that the company "no longer has the soul of the past" due to a drive for efficiency that has led to a "watering down of the Starbucks experience." Blimey, you said it Howard.

Maybe if he'd been writing to us consumers he'd have kicked off "to all of you silly, sad caffeine addicts who line up like lemmings for your overpriced lattes every morning: there are some things you should know..." - words that were actually used in a rant by an anonymous Starbucks barista on why he and his compadres are most definitely not our friends.

Hot on the heels of the story of the Greene King delivery driver who was found to have downed 20 pints during his 12-hour shift, comes the tale of the Brazilian beer-taster who this week won £25,000 after turning into an alcoholic.

In court in Rio Grande do Sul, the taster said Ambev (brewer of the popular Brahma beer) did not provide the health measures needed to prevent alcoholism (er, not giving him 16-25 glasses a day might have helped).

In a fairly shaky defence, Ambev - part of global brewing giant InBev - alleged the employee was an alcoholic before becoming a taster, but the judge said that an alcoholic should not have been given the job.

We await with interest the first case of a food critic suing his employer for becoming obese...

Isn’t it annoying when you really fancy a glass of Pimm’s but you’re out of mint, cucumber or oranges because, let’s face it, you can’t have a Pimm’s - of which the biggest seller worldwide is apparently JD Wetherspoon - without them. Not that I’d want you to think I sit around all weekend drinking Pimm’s but it is a predicament I often find myself in during the summer months. So you can imagine my excitement this weekend when I discovered a new product which means I never have to miss Pimm’s o’clock again.
It’s a slice of orange, cucumber and mint frozen in an ice wedge made from natural mineral water. How clever is that? The company, which calls itself Frecco, also does ice wedges filled with portions of lemon, lime or orange for your gin, vodka, rum etc, all fast frozen at -40°C and with a shelf life of 12 months. I bought the retail product stocked in Waitrose but it’s also aimed at restaurants as a labour-saving item and packed in bags of 200 loose cubes.

See more innovative products in Buy It! Check out some Pimm's recipes.

Being a Yorkshireman exiled in Surrey can be tough and nothing more so than when it comes to paying for a hard earned pint of beer.

There are many cultural differences between Yorkshire and Surrey. Down South it is common not to talk to strangers on public transport rather than engage them in pleasant conversation; there is a distinct absence of old people wearing flat caps and nobody points to the sky and shouts "oh look, a plane!" whenever one flies past.

But most of all there are the differences in the price of beer. It may be a common stereotype to look nostalgically on the North as a haven of cheap goods while the South is ready to fleece a punter at any given turn but it is a relief to report that the stereotype is absolutely true.

Last night the great and the good of the pub and brewing trade descended on Parliament to quaff free booze and celebrate the work of the all-party Parliamentary beer group.

An impassioned speech was given by Michael Turner, chairman of Fuller’s and the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), reiterating calls for the Chancellor to freeze beer duty in his forthcoming Budget while warning that Britain’s pubs were under serious and sustained pressure.

Labour MP John Grogan, head of the all-party Parliamentary beer group, joined him by offering an olive branch to Tesco’s boss Sir Terence (Terry) Leahy after he described him as being the “godfather of British binge drinking” earlier this month for his cut price approach to selling booze.

He offered his best wishes for the festive season to all who had joined him and said he would even express these wishes to Sir Terry – despite the resounding jeers and boos from the on-trade at the mention of his name.

Well, if the beer group is to make true on its promise last night to see supermarkets stop selling alcohol below cost, every little helps.

Oh Darling. We told you to take it easy on the booze and look what you have gone and done this time. You’ve made a fool of yourself and in front of so many people too.

In his first Budget Chancellor Alistair Darling raised duties on alcohol significantly. Duty on beer will rise by 3% while taxes on wine will rise by 14 pence per bottle and spirits rise by 55 pence per bottle. Alcohol taxes will stay at 2% above inflation for the next four years.

It wasn't much of a surprise. The rise was widely expected since the weekend but not on such a significant scale. Darling has fallen for the perception that Britain has a very serious problem with alcohol and the only way we can solve it is by giving more money to the Treasury.

Today's news leaves hospitality in a predicament. Pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels are the safest and most heavily regulated places in which to consume alcohol. The industry has worked awfully hard to sort out its own house when it comes to under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour fuelled by alcohol, and while it is by no means perfect, it is certainly a safer place to be around drunk people - as opposed to a street corner with teenagers drinking alcopops bought in a supermarket.

The sad thing is this rise could change absolutely nothing but the price of a pint, the one thing the pub industry cannot afford at this moment in time.

The police are calling for a complete ban on discounted drinks, happy hours and alcohol advertising, after figures revealed that the number of women arrested for being drunk and disorderly has “risen dramatically” in the last five years.

It seems to me that, along with many other civil liberties, the powers that be are now trying to deprive a girl of her one legal social pleasure left-Happy Hour. That glorious 60- sometimes even 120- minute slot where a girl can grab two dirty martinis for a not-so-dirty price. Heaven.

As much as I believe in responsible alcohol consumption, depriving those of us who have a modicum of self-discipline and restraint of the glorious hour that is indeed happy, is just plain wrong. Since when did the police get to decide how much you are allowed to drink? And will the ban only apply to ladies, then?

I’m sorry but I’m not going gently into this alcohol-free night- you’ll have to prize that Mojito from my cold. Inebriated. Hand.

Binge Drinking>>

Raising the spectre of the dreaded beer-tie (where the volume of specific beers sold directly impacts on the landlords rent) the average price of a pint of lager in a leased pub in April was £2.63, a price that has risen by 12p since September.

However the average price per pint of lager in your averaged managed pub at the same time was just under £2.50, and this price has risen by 10p in the past seven months.

Finally, giving M&B its plug (this is its research after all), its average pint of lager costs just £2.23 in April and has risen by just 5p during the same period.

The cheapest place to buy booze is, of course, the supermarket where the average price per pint is approximately 70p having risen by just 8p.

With micro-economics like these no wonder the traditional British pub is under threat. How can the individual boozer compete with the managed giants across the country, let alone the supermarkets?

No wonder a group of MP's have asked the Competition Commission to address the dominance of Britain's largest pub companies and make rents sustainable. Now, if only we all had faith that these proposals might result in something more tangible for struggling landlords.

Does a drink in a JD Wetherspoon pub lead to greatness?

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin would contest it does, and has in the latest Wetherspoon News, the keenly-priced pub company's staff and customer newsletter.

In his chairman's message Martin points out that Boris Johnson, now London Mayor, popped in for a pint at the Wetherspoon owned Furze Wren in Bexleyheath just before his election success.

Coincidence? Martin doesn't think so.

While Martin's well publicised views on binge drinking being more a cultural failing than something to batter the pub trade with ring true, his assertion that Johnson should have taken a spot writing for Wetherspoon News rather than the Daily Telegraph to "reach a wider and, in my opinion, more discerning audience" is probably open to debate.

JD Wetherspoon introduces gluten-free menu>>
JD Wetherspoon profits go flat>>
Everyone want to laugh at chancellor's expense (Kitchen Rat)>>

London Mayor stops Ramsay chefs' Beijing Olympic trip>>

With the Wimbledon Championships in full swing London's Pearl restaurant and bar has created a strawberries and cream cocktail.

The strawberries and cream cocktail is served in a Collins class filled with strawberry ice cubes that have been made by steaming fresh strawberries for two hours before straining them through muslin cloth and collecting the juice.

This part of the process takes 12 hours, which is considerably longer than most of the UK contenders will last in the Championships this year.

The juice is then combined with a strawberry liqueur and frozen in ice-cube trays. A separate jug of creamy cocktail mix is served on the side, allowing guests to pour the cocktail over the strawberry ice-cubes.

As the ice melts the strawberry flavour infuses and intensifies the drink, which should be enough to make even Andy Murray smile (for a while).

Game, Set and Strawberries>>

A tall slim man and his friends huddle over a line of containers and take it in turns to noisily slurp a dark rich liquid before spitting it out and moving on to the next.

This might sound like a rowdy wine tasting session but it is actually the daily routine of the Twinings' tea tasters.

The slurping sound is so loud and sudden that it sounds positively indecent and not something you'd associate with such a refined British beverage. But with over 200 varieties of tea sold across 100 countries you can understand the experts' need to ensure consistency of quality and taste.

According to one of the tasters, it takes around five years to fully develop a tea tasting palette and as we discovered, that slurping technique is something of an art. Our feeble attempts left a lot to be desired.

With so many teas to try under the black, green and white categories it is amazing to think that they all originate from the same one plant, Camellia Sinensis. Much like wine, it is factors such as climate, altitude and humidity that account for their differences.

The bergamot oil and black tea blended Earl Grey is Twinings' biggest seller closely followed by English Breakfast although the company offers all matter of teas to suit every mood or state of mind including the Infusions.

Customers looking a bit stressed out? You could suggest Camomile and Spearment. Or if they're looking a bit sleepy serve them Lemon and Ginger.

I thought I'd give the Lapsang Souchong black variety a go. The tea leaves are flavoured by laying them over bamboo trays and smoking them with pinewood.

Sounds great but my tea-tasting palette must be pretty pathetic as I was soon reaching for the traditional English.

According to Twinings, making the perfect cuppa involves four simple steps.

1. Make sure the kettle is regularly de-scaled and use fresh water every time.
2. Use one teaspoon of tea per cup plus one teaspoon for the teapot.
3. Brew tea for three to four minutes or one to two minutes for white/green tea
4. Add milk first and then tea before serving

p.s. I always thought the rule was tea before milk but unlike Twinings I don't have 300 years of experience in tea-making so I think I'll let it rest.