Franglais27 Tales

Imagine having access to artisan products without having to leave your home. During the lockdown period for the coronavirus crisis, it has certainly been difficult to access the local products that would usually be sourced from the weekend farmers’ markets and artisan shops.

This level of access to products is a subject that is very close to the heart of the Food and Drink Festival which has been organised by Richard Reeves of Slice & Dice following a conversation with the founder of the Nauteas tea company. The Food and Drink Festival aims to reflect that summer festival experience and maintain interest in UK artisan products during these times. As such, this festival is occurring entirely online and fills that gap following the cancellation of various outdoor festivals.

The Food and Drink Festival is certainly an ideal opportunity as the individual products can be delivered direct to your door within the UK and the website full of products can be perused therefore recreating that food market experience at home.

A great range of products including fine foods, UK wine and even fruit crisps are available through the Food and Drink Festival’s website. The website’s layout is quite easy to follow with the products divided into categories such as Food and Drink Kits, Cakes, Snacks, Vegan and Vegetarian and others. A filter can be applied to view the products solely from a specific category or you could do as I did and browse all of the products from the home page, which was a lot of fun! You can truly replicate the sensation of browsing the food market stalls by browsing through the different brands.

A description of each product and brand is available on the Food and Drink Festival’s website and you are invited to discover more. From there you can access the brand’s website directly and there are usually discounts available from the Food and Drink Festival website and so don’t forget to note the applicable discount code! By purchasing directly through the producers’ website, we can all support the applicable small UK food and drink producers.

There are so many interesting and unique products available on the website and I certainly enjoyed discovering more details about them. New producers are also regularly appearing on the website and so each visit reveals something different. If you are a brand, you too can become involved by submitting your product details through the website and listing is free.

There is truly something for everyone within the range of products on display at the Food and Drink Festival’s website which is a fascinating concept during these times. I was like that proverbial child in a sweet shop and certainly wanted to try so many of the different products whilst viewing their images and so I have mentioned a few that I noted below, from my long list, as a snapshot.

You can find a producer supplying virgin olive oil from Cyprus on the Food and Drink Festival website. OliveOlive also have halloumi cheese available which would be perfect for those summer BBQs. This is 100% extra virgin olive oil and therefore ideal for those salads!

Sipling certainly caught my eye as it offers non-alcoholic cocktails. A taste set can be purchased to sample the variety of flavours, if you are unable to choose just one. There are 6 flavours which are modelled on cocktails such as mojito, spiced rum and coke. I am certainly keen to discover how they taste as a summer drink alternative.

As we are all cooking from home more now, whilst still within the lockdown period, Bay’s Kitchen offers a combination of cook in sauces to enhance your dishes. There are sauces such as Tikka Masala and Sweet and Sour and are gluten free and vegan. Another dimension to these sauces is their suitability for those that may also be suffering from digestion issues.

Liobites are a fruit-based snack which have been freeze dried with no added sugar and are vegan and gluten free. These will certainly be handy if you are like me and grab some dried fruit quickly to eat after an exercise workout. The flavours include banana, apple, strawberry and dried orange. These fruit pieces can even be added to your breakfast cereal to enhance the flavour. If you can’t choose a flavour then there is also a taste box available.

Amongst the brands, there is even a ravioli specialist, RaviOllie which offers a delivery service and is sustainable. RaviOllie has a new vegan range available to purchase and there are even creative flavours such as Squid Ink Stained King Prawn and Crayfish.

For wine lovers, Hawkins Bros should be able to cater to your needs with their range of wines. You can find reds, whites, rosés and sparkling wines as well as vegan wines. Hawkins Bros are currently also running live virtual tastings on Instagram every Friday at 7pm.

If a cup of tea is your preferred tipple at the moment, the Nauteas range may be of interest. Based in London, Nauteas offers a range of teas and herbal infusions which can be enjoyed hot or cold. Flavours include a rose infusion, pina colada tea, as well as loose leaf tea. Should it be too difficult to choose, there is always the tea taste collection of 5 flavours to try.

Cocktail infused cakes sound like a fun combination and Happy Hour Cakes offers that twist on the usual cake range. Based in London, Happy Hour Cakes delivers within the UK and some of its range sounds truly scrumptious such as the pink G&T cakes. There are also alcohol-free versions of the cakes available as well as vegan brownies and so there is something for everyone as a night in treat!

Push Chocolate offers 4 flavours of vegan protein chocolate buttons which are orange, original, honeycomb and mint. These may be an ideal accompaniment following exercise and the chocolate buttons contain a 50% reduction in sugar compared to other chocolates. Push Chocolate does not utilise palm oil within its products and these are also packaged in plastic free recyclable packets. Within the chocolate button range are dairy free and gluten free options.

I have just highlighted a few of the products but there are so many more products to explore within the Food and Drink Festival. Vegan cheese, smoothie making kits, prosecco like flavoured beer are also amongst some of the products as well as children’s ranges! They all sound rather fascinating to me and may be ideal purchases for special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries!

Let me know in the comments below which brands and products in the Food and Drink Festival sound tempting to you and whether you have tried any before.