Friends of Glass and Sustainable Living
I absolutely love a good Afternoon Tea and am always on the look out for a unqiue experiences.
So when, the Friends of Glass extended an invite for their Beer and Food matching themed Afternoon aboard a London Bus (Yes!) I was very excited.
Before we get into the experience itself, I wanted to share a little background of the wonderful folks at Friends of Glass
Lets start with:
Q) Who are the Friends of Glass?
A) They are a European-wide movement that unites those who believe glass packaging is best for health, taste and the environment.
Q) Why support Friends of Glass?
A) To support a sustianable and healthier future for everyone and promote taste.
Q) Why promote glass packaging?
A) Glass is the only packaging material available that is 100% inert and 100% recyclable. Unlike other packaging that leach chemicals that are hazardous to your health and change the way your food tastes; glass preserves and protects your food without adding anything. Not only that, glass is made from all natural materials and is infinitely recyclable without a loss in quality or purity.
Please head over the official Friends of Glass website to read through all the amazing work they have done so far and how you can support them by making small changes in your everyday life. Smart choices for a more sustainable future for us all!
Afternoon Tea aboard a London Double Decker Bus!
And now, without further ado why not hop aboard the special Brigit’s Bakery classic Routemaster London Bus with me? Guaranting you a virtual experience, of an afternoon tea that will challenge your perceptions and expand your tastes!
The theme for this afternoon was Beer and Food Matching and to take on this journey Friends of Glass had roped in Jane Peyton, the UK’s first beer sommelier of the year (2014) (in the photograph below Jane is talking us through one of the beer’s she has picked to match our afternoon tea treats)
Amongst the many facts that were shared with us during the course of the event, I was most astounded by these: While many women think beer is more of a man’s drink – it was actually invented by a woman. In fact women were the first brewers of beer and for hundreds of years beer has been brewed by women.
Wait, hang on, it get’s better! Did you know that the part of the hop used to brew beer is the female part? Hops are known to be rich in phytoestrogens. Wow! No wonder then that now beer is increasingly being reclaimed by women! And another wonderful nugget of information,the major deities of beer are female – Ninkasi and Dea Latis, being two of them.
Wow, that geuninely blew my mind! What do you think?
One of the other striking facts that will always stay with me is that unlike wine, due to its wide range of flavours and tastes, beer can complement almost any type of food. And this was something I experienced first hand by sampling various beers that we sipped while devouring our delicious Afternoon Tea.
We were served a selection of tasty sandwiches, yummy sweet treats including mini cupcakes and fruit tarts and ofcourse scones!
We started off our beer tasting with an India Pale Ale. I personally love bitter flavours and am partial to bitter beers and cocktails too. Even with savoury dishes, anyone remotely familiar with the Indian bittergourd ( and in Marathi – my mother-tongue or native language it is called a Karla) knows how versatile it is and is widely known for its healing properties.
Similarly here, the India pale ale which has juicy bitterness akin to a grapefruit and citrus notes, help to stimulate the digestive system. This explains why an aperitif is often bitter.
Wheat Beer, as shared by Jane is one of the most versatile beers and pairs well with many foods. We tried it with our cucumber sandwiches, mini veg quiches and chicken and tomato in a bun. The creamy mouthfeel of wheat beer coupled with the gentle citrusy tang, notes of clove and lovely aromas of banana , all come together quiet nicely when paired with these foods.
Porter Pair beer pairs well with puddings as it has notes of coffee, chocolate and dried aromatic fruits. These flavour lend itself well with pairings like Strawberry cupcakes, Lemon Meringues tarts and chocolate macaroons. Whereas Sour ale is the perfect companion for plain scones with clotted cream and jam as the acidity of the ale cuts through the rich cream and leaves the palate with a refreshing mouthfeel. This very same principle means a Sour Ale is a good combination with the popular Ham and Cheese finger sandwiches, with the caramelised flavours marrying well with the savoury notes and the acidity cutting through the fatty ham and cheese.
Sour Ales also pair well with fruit tarts as their acidity lends these ales a sweet and tangy fruity character that matches the fruit in the tarts, without over powering the delicate flavours.
I love my savoury food more than sweet and am huge on seafood so in an Afternoon Tea Menu am always the one who will pick a smoked salmon and cream cheese blini off the platter first. These little seafood delights find the perfect accompanimnet in Oak aged beer, which with its marmalade aromas and intensly oaky vanilla notes remonds some of the taste of whisky on their palate. Which also makes it a perfect match for the mini vanilla choux with puff pastry. The oak and vanilla flavours lending themselves beautifully to this dainty pudding.
I think all of us who shared this experience will agree that we walked away aramed with knowledge about
- How the aromas and flavours of craft beers lend themselves to sweet and savoury tastes
- Why beer not wine should be a regular feature on our dinner table
- Some insight into how we can now impress our friends and dinner guests by knowing how to match the perfect beer for every course!
This was my very first experience of any meal let alone an Afternoon Tea, aboard a moving vehicle. There was so much to experience, the afternoon tea itself, the various taste sensations afforded by the many carefully selected beers by Jane Peyton and how they felt on my palate, the wonderful sights and sounds of London city as the bus weaved through the lanes of London and ofcourse chatting with my fellow bloggers and the team from Friends of Glass. How lovely that we could actually wash it all down with some chilled and refreshing Beer 🙂
I will always treasure this amazing group photo clicked by one of the fabulous PR agency team members at the Friends of Glass event. This picture reminds me of the many amazing opportunities I have had over the years working as freelance Marketing professional and as a food, travel and lifestyle writer and blogger. It also serves as a great reminder of the many fabulous relationships that I have managed to develop thanks to such experiences, of the many professional connections and so many more cherished and treasured friendships that I have found and mainatined over the past decade and more.
I am forever grateful to how blogging opened so many doors for me when I was new to London and the U.K. Every single experince and every single person I have met since at events and virtually, am grateful for.
And just in case you are wondering, I am the one with the wide smile in the extreme left in the photograph below 🙂
Curious to explore more options for Afternoon Tea in London? Why not browse through my blog and read about my experiences in various places:
- Boyds Brasserie, Charing Cross
- The Wallace Collection – Afternoon Tea amidst Art, Westminster
- Honey Afternoon Tea at St. Ermin’s, Westminster
- Moroccan Afternoon Tea at Leila, Ealing
- Chocolate Afternoon Tea at The Landmark Hotel, Marylebone
* With thanks to Freinds of Glass for the invite. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No monetary compensation was offered. Unless watermarked by me all images used here are provided for the PR Agency and / or the hosts. Reproducing any text in part or whole and any photographs, without my prior written permission is not permitted. I have used excerpts from the Friends of Glass website for this blog post.
Leave a Reply