Stur-ing Up Festive Season Beverages

For so many people the festive period is an opportunity to spend time with friends and family, enjoying each other's company over food and drink. Whilst I love the tradition of this time, it can also be nice to shake things up a little bit and this year that's exactly what I was able to do when Stur drinks very kindly sent me some of their Winter collection of flavour enhancers to try. I'd already tried and enjoyed the orange and mango flavour enhancer before, so when I was set the challenge of seeing how I could 'Stur' things up with these new flavours I was excited to give them ago.

The flavour enhancers that I received were 'Boldly Blackcurrant Apple', 'Real Brewed Tea and Peach' and 'Clearly Cranberry Pomegranate' (how fun are the names!). As I mentioned already, these arrived at just the right time with being able to offer guests something different to drink at Christmas time.

I have to admit, and if you follow my Instagram feed you'll know, that I'm a massive fan of afternoon tea. So I especially couldn't wait to try the Real Brewed Tea and Peach flavour enhancer. Normally, the thing about tea is that whilst I love the taste, I tend to only drink it during the day and it's not really the thing to stand around holding at a party. So I had the idea of adding lemonade to add a little grown-up looking fizz to my drink. However, what I found when I added the flavour was not only did it taste good- like a not too sweet flavour peach schnapps, but you could make it look like a cocktail (or mocktail in this case)! Which I thought was excellent because I only drink on special occasions, so it was nice to feel included with a grown-up looking drink.

Real Brewed Tea Peach and Lemonade

Between Christmas and New Year it started to get quite cold outside, which gave me the inspiration to try one of the Stur flavour enhancers with hot water. Which was so easy to do (but do be careful with the hot water/ kettle) and so much quicker than making say tea or coffee (and dairy free), that you could recreate this drink at home or put it in a travel flask on the way to work. Plus using this type of flavour enhancer created much less mess than using a fruit tea bag as well. The taste of the Boldly Blackcurrant Apple was beautiful warm, but it was also the smell that was divine, tasting like a tempting treat without the calories or sugar!

Finally I saved the Stur Clearly Cranberry Pomegranate for New Year's eve because one of the other reasons that I tend not to drink much alcohol is that I'm not usually keen on the taste. I often find alcoholic drinks are either overly sweet tasting and full of sugar or quite bitter (to me anyway). But as we were raising our champagne glasses to toast the new year in, I had the brainwave of adding Clearly Cranberry Pomegranate to my champagne and it was a taste celebration!

If you've enjoyed reading my blog about trying out the Stur drinks flavours, keep an eye out on my Twitter account @MelStephenson01 as I'll be launching a competition to win a refreshingly fabulous 6-pack of Stur water enhancers complete in their own presentation box! (Competition open to UK residents only, entrants must be over 18, T's & C's apply).