Thistly Cross becomes latest Scottish Supplier to arrive on Scotmid shelves

An East Lothian-based cider producer is celebrating after winning a competition to have its Scottish Fruits Cider made available for customers at 179 Scotmid stores across Scotland from Wednesday, 27th April.

Founded in 2008, Thistly Cross is the second of five Scottish businesses to win the Scotmid Scottish Favourites competition. The competition was launched by the convenience retailer to champion local producers and further demonstrates its commitment to Scottish sourcing.

This promotional listing, which will run for three weeks, will help Thistly Cross to extend its reach and brand awareness. The move reflects the retailer’s ongoing ambition to helping small businesses thrive and grow. 

Peter Stuart, Founder of Thistly Cross, said: “The promotional listing with Scotmid means a lot to us and our business. This partnership will open the door to new audiences and provide us with the opportunity to sell our product to customers directly in store.

“Our small and passionate team strive to be at the forefront of the growing craft cider movement and we’re grateful for this platform to shout about the great taste of Scottish craft cider. We value Scotmid’s commitment to supporting independent retailers like us and are proud to be offering our authentic Scottish Fruits Cider to their customers.”

Scotmid and Scotland Food & Drink received more than 50 entries from local businesses, which were each judged by a panel of experts.

Kirsty Carnegy, Head of Local Sourcing at Scotmid, said: “We are always looking for new ways to diversify and grow our Scottish product portfolio and were absolutely thrilled with the high quality of entries that we have received for the Scottish Favourites competition.

“Scotland truly has some of the best food and drink in the world and the calibre of local producers is continuing to grow year on year. Made with hand-picked strawberries, elderflowers and blackcurrants, this cider is Scottish to the core. We can’t wait to hear how much our customers love this delicious, locally produced product – massive congratulations to Thistly Cross!”

Thistly Cross is located on the east coast of Scotland and handcrafts its ciders in small batches using real fruit, slow fermented and long matured.

Healthy Heart Tip: Mulled Wine & Cider – Counting the units

Studies have shown 61% of the UK’s population over-indulge in alcohol over the festive season, more than they usually do.

Drinking too much alcohol can increase your risk of heart disease. How much is too much? How do you know how many units of alcohol you are consuming?

We’re providing some guidance on understanding alcohol units and keeping track of how much you are drinking this Christmas. 

What are alcohol units and ABV?

Alcohol units represent the quantity of pure alcohol contained within an alcoholic drink (1 unit is 10ml of pure alcohol). The number of units of alcohol in your drink depends on the size and the strength of your drink. ABV means ‘alcohol by volume’ and this is a measure of the amount of alcohol as a percentage of the total volume of a drink.

Calculating your units

You can find the ABV on the labels of cans and bottles. To calculate the number of units in a drink, multiply the ABV by the volume (in ml) and divide by 1000.

    • ABV x volume (ml) ÷ 1000 = units
 1 BOTTLE OF WINE1 PINT BEER / LAGER / CIDER1 SINGLE SPIRIT

 750ml (ABV 13.5%) =

10 units

1 pint (568ml) (ABV 5.2%) =

3 units

25ml (ABV 40%) =

1 unit
 

The drinks you pour at home may be larger than the amount measured out in pubs. You could try using a measuring cup when pouring drinks at home so you can keep track of what you are drinking.

How much is too much?

For men and women, the maximum recommended alcohol units each week is 14, spread over 3 or more days. If you are pregnant, it is recommended that you do not drink alcohol at all.

Try recording how much you are drinking over a week using a diary or alcohol tracker.

Drinkaware provide assessment tools that you can use to track the amount you are drinking: https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/tools

Support for your drinking

If you are worried about how much you, or someone you know, are drinking you can get support by visiting: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/alcohol-support/

To help keep your heart healthy, why not try out some of our Healthy Heart recipes from our website: https://heartresearch.org.uk/heart-research-uk-recipes-2/

Or have a look through our Healthy Heart cookbook filled with recipes from top chefs, celebrities and food bloggers:

https://heartresearch.org.uk/heart-research-uk-cookbook/