New Year Round Up: Your January Resolutions Sorted!

Forget strict diets and other unachievable targets, here’s our selection of easy to keep resolutions that will make your life taste better and do a little good along the way too.

Switch to a No-or-Lo Alcohol Tipple for Dry January

Embrace Dry January with New London Light, a bold collection of contemporary non-alcoholic spirits and aperitifs from the multi-award winning distillers at Salcombe Distilling Co. Thanks to innovative flavour combinations and a pioneering production process, New London Light (NLL) is setting the global standard in taste for the fast-growing alcohol-free spirits category, embarking on a new era of taste without alcohol.

Available in three expressions, New London Light ‘First Light’, New London Light ‘Aegean Sky’ and New London Light ‘Midnight Sun’, each can be enjoyed straight up, with tonic, or as part of a cocktail. With all natural ingredients and no artificial flavours or added sugar, consumers can rest assured they are drinking something pure.

New London Light ‘First Light’, ‘Aegean Sky’ and ‘Midnight Sun’ are all available from salcombegin.com, RRP £25.00 for a 70CL bottle, 0% ABV.

You could also try Sea Arch, a non-alcoholic distilled spirit, a refreshing alternative to alcohol and crafted using traditional distillation techniques. It is created with complex, natural botanicals such as sea kelp, samphire, cardamon and blood orange. But then the alcohol is gently removed to create a grown-up, alcohol-free spirit.

If beer is more your thing then switch to Rock Steady from Bays Brewery, a low-alcohol (1%) variety which is still full of character and flavour while being low in calories and extremely refreshing.

Choose a Vegan Beer for Veganuary

Celebrate Veganuary with a thirst-quenching can of Salcombe Brewery Co.’s Sun Drop (ABV 4.6%), Salcombe Brewery Co.’s vegan and gluten free pale ale. Using a blend of American hops, Sun Drop has an intensely fruity and citrusy aroma of melon, orange and pink grapefruit which really packs a punch and quenches the thirst.

Although gluten free and vegan friendly, this dry-hopped ale is bursting with all the flavour you would expect from a regular ale and is delicious served alongside a Thai sweet potato curry or barbequed marinated vegetables. (12 x 330ml cans £24.00 from www.salcombe brewery.com).

Also refreshingly vegan are the beers from Barnaby’s Brewhouse in Staverton, one of most sustainable breweries in Britain. Genuinely handcrafted, their organic lagers contain no colourings or additives ensuring a clean and flawless taste.

Or For a Speedy Vegan Lunch…

From their home in the heart of Devon, Tideford Organics have been making deliciously soups for over 25 years. In 1996 they became a plant only business, so in addition to being organic and gluten free, their soups are vegan-friendly too. Good for you…and the planet and delicious for an no-fuss lunch during Veganuary and beyond.

Clive’s Purely Plants is a Devon-based vegan bakery. For over 35 years they’ve been making ready-to-eat, plant-based bakes that use the planet’s resources with care. Everything they create is organic, 100% vegan and all packaging is plastic free. Most famous for delicious pies, they also make quiches, savoury tarts and nut roasts.

Try Something New for Tryanuary

Kombucha is a refreshing, gut-pleasing fermented tea that has been consumed for thousands of years and is rich in beneficial probiotics. Kombucha contains a living symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, or a SCOBY and there are a range of health perks that are much like yoghurt, cheese, kefir, kimchi and sauerkraut.

Kombucha can help keep you hydrated while the antioxidants work to shield pollutants from your body. Studies of kombucha also claim weight loss, liver protection, the prevention of diseases such as heart disease or cancers, mood enhancement, and cellular health support all to be benefits found when regularly consuming the nutrients found in this ‘living’ drink.

Make your own forever supply of organic, Soil Association-certified Boo Chi Kombucha with Boo Chi Kombucha’s Letterbox Organic Kombucha Making Kit (£35) from www.boochi.co.uk

Or try Bennetts Kombucha, a refreshing low sugar fermented tea drink, lightly fizzy and naturally delicious, brewed for your gut. It is raw and unpasteurised, teeming with billions of gut loving naturally occurring beneficial bacteria, organic acids, enzymes and yeasts.

You could also try PiQi, based in the Venn Valley in North Devon, award-winning fermented, non-dairy sparkling water kefir that contains billions of live cultures to help you feel great from the inside out.

Learn a New Skill in 2023

An internationally recognised Wine and Spirits Education Trust course is the perfect opportunity to learn more about the world of wine.

Level 1 provides you with all the expertise you need to impress your friends at the next dinner party, whilst Level 2 will equip you with oenological knowledge that your average sommelier will envy and Level 3 is suited to wine connoisseurs and those in the drinks and hospitality industries in a supervisory capacity.

South West Wine School offers courses throughout the year at Darts Farm, Topsham. Forthcoming dates include:

WSET Level 2 Award in Wines – Jan 27th, Feb 3rd and 10th (over 3 days)
WSET Level 1 Award in Wines – March 3rd (7 hours)
WSET Level 3 Award in Wines – March 13th, 14th, 20th, 21st, 28th and 29th (over 6 days)

For more information visit www.s outhwestwineschool.co.uk

Make a Sustainable Choice

This January, try switching your usual coffee for an award-winning organic specialty coffee that truly goes beyond the bean. With beans grown in the Gakenke District of Rwanda, Jabulani Coffee offers a juicy, black tea finish with sweet notes of cherry, hibiscus and vanilla and is recommended for both filter and espresso.

Roasted by Owens Coffee, this organic single origin coffee is produced by the Twongerekawa Coko Cooperative: a group of 204 members, of which 169 are female, who grow their coffee at unusually high levels (2,000m above sea level) so the beans are slowly ripened and full of flavour. Jabulani Coffee, 200g, £7.76 / 1kg, £27.00 or subscribe & save 10% (200g, £6.98 / 1kg, £24.30 from owenscoffee.com

Enjoy some very special offers from The Food Shop at The Cider Press Centre, Dartington

Veganuary dinner for two with a meal and a bottle of organic wine for £17.
Dry January promotion on alcohol-free organic wine.

For more information click here.