Pimms not packing a punch? Well get ready to be gin-spired by the newest additions to the Scottish gin range at Aldi.
You can never tell what you’re going to get with a Scottish summer, but Aldi is channelling all the sunshine this August with brand new additions to its Toradh gin range including two new Scottish Gin Liqueurs and four delicious pre-mixed Gin Fizz cocktails – making sure your summer drink has that extra ‘je ne sais quoi’, even if you didn’t quite make it to the Riviera.
At just £1.49 for 250ml (6% ABV), the Rhubarb Gin Fizz, Citrus Gin Fizz, Tropical Gin Martini and Fruit Gin Bramble are the perfect tipples to enjoy while taking in the rays. These handy cocktails in a can are made by long term supplier Eden Mill and with four to pick from you are guaranteed to find a favourite….or four.
Bursting with botanicals, the two brand-new Toradh Gin Liqueurs are priced at just £8.99 for 50cl and come in Rhubarb and Ginger or Raspberry. The perfect addition to any drinks cabinet, the liqueurs can be topped up with Aldi’s own Ridge Valley tonic, or topped with Aldi’s Costellore Prosecco (£5.99, 75cl) for the perfect summer evening cocktail.
These new additions to Aldi’s Scottish gin line-up join Aldi’s award-winning* Scottish Gin range including its premium Scottish Gin, Eidyn (£19.99, 70cl) and ToradhScottish Rhubarb & Ginger Gin and Premium Pink Gin (£14.99, 70cl) and the Botanical Project Scottish Gin available in Scottish Dry, Passionfruit & Coconut,Plum & Pink Grapefruit and Chilli & Ginger (all £15.99, 70cl), and McQueen Colour Changing Gin (£14.49, 70cl).
Aldi’s new summer flavours are on sale now at all 96 Aldi stores in Scotland and are sure to shake up any BBQ or garden-party this August. You can find your nearest Aldi store here.
Aldi currently works with over 90 Scottish suppliers, and after reaching their initial goal of stocking over 450 Scottish products by the end of 2020, the supermarket has now increased this target to stock over 500 locally sourced products in the next two years.
Scottish artisan ice cream maker, Equi’s, has created a bespoke Sicilian lemon and elderflower flavour for Gladstone’s Land to celebrate ice cream season.
Inspired by ingredients found in a 17th-century cookbook that was published around the time that Gladstone’s first opened, the irresistible sweet treat will transport you straight to a long hot summer’s day in Sorrento.
Following the launch of the historic National Trust for Scotland (NTS) venue last month, the exclusive flavour is now available from the new Gladstone’s Land ice cream parlour on the ground floor of the 500-year-old tenement house on the Royal Mile.
Blending Scots with Italian heritage like Equi’s roots, deliciously creamy lemon ripple – made with vanilla, egg yolks and Sicilian lemons are churned with delicious whole milk and double cream from local Scottish dairy farms and finished with a hint of elderflower. The result is a smooth summer-fresh flavour that is impossible to resist.
Equi’s, the current UK ice cream champions, are known for creating irresistible artisan ice cream using high-quality ingredients from local Scottish dairy farms, and secret family recipes that have been passed down through four generations.
This exciting new flavour marks the start of a new journey for the ice cream manufacturer as they look to move into new factory premises later in the year. Future plans include more experimentation and flavours for fans of the brand to enjoy.
David Equi, director at Equi’s Ice Cream, explains:“We toiled and tinkered making this new indulgent ice cream. Nothing beats Sorrento in the summer, and after finding an old 17-century cookbook, we have created a fresh explosion of Scots-Italian aroma and flavour, exclusively for Gladstone’s Land.
“Ice cream tastes best in the sunshine, and our partnership with Gladstone’s will let you enjoy an Equi’s ice cream looking out towards Edinburgh castle. It doesn’t get more perfect than that.”
Claire Grant, National Trust for Scotland’s Operations Manager for Gladstone’s Landsaid: “We’re delighted to have partnered up with Equi’s on making this truly unique ice cream. This special flavour reflects a recipe found in a 17-century cookbook, and it has been fantastic to see this flavour brought back to life.
“Our new ice cream parlour is located on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in Gladstone’s Land and is a perfect place for locals and tourists to stop and refuel this summer.”
The exclusive Equi’s flavour is now available daily between 9am and 6pm from Gladstone’s Land ice cream parlour, 477B Lawnmarket, Royal Mile.
– Back To School Pick Up Packs containing essential stationery items to be distributed to local schools and community groups –
– New scheme follows the success of food packs in store that has so far seen over £1 million of food donated to those in need in 2021 –
Morrisons is giving customers the opportunity to support children and their families who may struggle with the cost of going back to school by creating stationery Pick Up Packs in store which can be bought and donated in time for the new school year.
Pre-packed bags will be available to purchase each day and will contain popular items needed to get children ready for returning to school such as pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers and maths sets.
Customers can pick up a pack on their way into the store, pay for the items at the till and then place the bag in a dedicated donation station. Store Community Champions will then collect and distribute the packs to local schools and community groups.
The packs will cost up to £5 and will vary on price depending on the products inside each pack.
Back to School Pick Up Packs is the latest scheme introduced by Morrisons to help make it easier for its customers to help those in their local community and follows the success of Pick Up Packs for food which has seen over £1 million donated to local food banks this year.
Rebecca Singleton, Customer & Community Director at Morrisons, said:“Going back to school can be both a nervous and exciting time for families. We hope these packs go some way to helping local children and their families who may struggle with the costs of going back to school – and take one thing off the to do list.”
Morrisons has committed £15million across 2020 and 2021 to support stocking food banks in local communities as well as introducing initiatives such as ‘Ask for Sandy’ which helps to fight back against period poverty by offering customers in need a discreet package of sanitary protection products.
A scheme to provide children in eligible pre-school settings with milk and a portion of fruit or vegetables launched yesterday (1 August).The Scottish Milk and Healthy Snack Scheme replaces the UK Nursery Milk Scheme, making more healthy produce available for more children.
All pre-schoolers who spend two hours or more a day in eligible childcare settings registered with the scheme will be entitled to a serving of fresh milk.
Unlike the UK scheme, a piece of fruit or portion of vegetables will also be offered and children who cannot drink cow’s milk for medical, ethical or religious reasons will be offered a specified non-dairy alternative.
More than 3,000 childcare settings and over 116,000 children are already signed up to the new scheme and it is anticipated that more will register to benefit in year one. The Scottish Government is expected to provide around £9 million to £12 million funding to local authorities, depending on uptake, to administer the scheme in the first year.
Eligible settings who register will receive up-front payments via their local authority.
Children’s Minister Clare Haughey said: “We know that diet impacts on children’s health and their ability to learn. This scheme not only provides eligible pre-school children in Scotland with access to excellent sources of nutrition but we hope it will set up healthy eating habits for life.
“With this expanded and improved offer, the Scottish Government has gone further than the UK scheme. Working in partnership with COSLA and other key partners, we are investing in children’s outcomes, providing increased money up-front, and offering a wider range of healthy produce while supporting our vital Scottish food and drink sector.”
COSLA Children and Young People Spokesperson Councillor Stephen McCabe said: “The provision of milk and healthy snacks to children is an important part of ensuring that they can get the best from their learning and contributes to their overall health and wellbeing.
“The scheme will provide for children at a crucial stage in their development and we have worked in partnership to ensure that as many children as possible benefit.”
British households are wasting millions of pounds every year because they’ve bought fresh products which have gone bad by the time they get round to eating them.
According to one British food waste and recycling company, it doesn’t have to be that way if we avoid certain products, only buy them when needed, or just shop better.
Food waste collection company BusinessWaste.co.uk says that millennial favourite that is the avocado leads the way with its depressing habit of being too tough to eat one minute it before becomes a squishy mess the next.
“But if we change our shopping and eating habits, we can avoid this enormous waste,” says Business Waste spokesperson Mark Hall.
“And frankly, I can go without smashed avo on toast.”
Top ten of wasted food
We looked at expert research, as well as asking customers about their personal experiences, and have come up with this list of shame. These are the top ten products that British consumers are wasting the most, in listicle form:
Avocados – The trickster gods of fresh foods. The day science discovers the key to preserving avocados for more than 30 seconds, the better.
Berries – You’ve said it: “It’s nice and warm, let’s have strawberries and cream!” Then you forget about the strawberries or raspberries you’ve bought, and before you know it, they’re a brightly coloured smear at the bottom of the fridge.
Milk – Tricky devils, milk. You don’t know that two litre carton has gone off until you pour it into your tea and it comes out as lumps of yoghurt. Thanks for nothing, milk.
Meat – This one could actually kill you if you don’t pay attention. With a shelf life of only a few days, wasted beef, chicken and pork goes into the bin more frequently than you dare admit.
Bananas – The avocado’s apprentice. You buy them a bit green so that they can ripen up at home, then BANG – fit for nothing but tasty cake recipes.
Fresh fruit juice – We forget the fresh juice has a much shorter shelf life than the long-life stuff. The clue’s in the name, and so is the smell of wonky cider when you open the apple juice after it’s gone over.
Grated cheese – Why are you buying grated cheese? It goes off quicker than a block of cheddar, and you’re just making the grater in your utensil drawer sad.
Apples and pears – You buy them because it’s one of your five a day, knowing full well that they’ll actually form none of your five a day, and will end up looking like the back of your granny’s hands within a fortnight.
Carrots – Go to your fridge. Go now. There’s a carrot in the veg drawer you can bend into a full circle, isn’t there? The same goes for all vegetables, but this is a top ten, otherwise this list will reach down to the centre of the Earth. Top tip: Only buy the veg you’re going to eat
Mushrooms – The only consolation is that they’re small enough not to take up mushroom (much room!) in your bin when you throw them out.
There’s a serious side to this, says BusinessWaste.co.uk’s Mark Hall, and it’s that we’re addicted to “over-shopping” – the habit of buying everything we fancy in the so-called ‘big shop’ which many people are now stretching out to last a fortnight.
“Then we’re surprised that the chicken you’ve bought for next Sunday’s roast is smelling like the bottom of a bin,” says Hall, “And instead of just changing your dinner plans, you should be thinking why that bird’s gone off.”
Changing your shopping habits
British households waste around 4.5 million tons of food every year, or approximately 7% of the food we buy. That adds up to £700 per family, annually.
“If you don’t want that £700, I’d quite happily take it off your hands,” says Mark Hall, “but I expect you’d rather keep it through better meal planning and shopping management.”
While it may not be a suitable solution for everybody, the easiest way to prevent food wastage is to plan ahead, then shop often, shop local, and buy less as a result.
But the problem remains: We’ve got so used to anonymous internet shopping where the product is reduced to an idealised picture on a screen, we’ve lost touch with simple skills like portion sizing, and buying sufficient supplies for your family.
“If you’re not pushing that trolley around the supermarket, how do you know when you’ve bought too much?” says Hall. “Convenience is leading to massive waste, and we need to stop and take a look at our habits.”
Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by Dr Helen Flaherty, Head of Health Promotion at Heart Research UK
Peel-to-Stem
In the UK, it is estimated that we waste 6.6million tonnes of food each year, with 4.5million tonnes of that being edible food. “Peel-to-Stem” or “Root-to-Stem” is a growing food trend that focuses on using the parts of fruits and vegetables that we wouldn’t typically eat, such as the leaves, skins, seeds, and stalks.
Quite often, we may throw away and waste parts of fruits and vegetables such as the skins, but quite often, these parts can actually be the most nutritious.
For example, vegetables and potatoes consumed with their skins on can contain more fibre than without the skins, and a lot of nutrients found within fruits are contained in or just under the skin. Increasing your fibre intake can help to reduce your risk of heart disease.
Here are some quick and easy ways that you can use the edible trimmings from fruits and vegetables:
Make your own vegetable stock by simmering peelings from spring onions, carrots, and parsnips; and add celery leaves/tips to add flavour to soups, stews, and ramens
Make cauliflower crisps by baking slices of cauliflower at 200 degrees Celsius for 20-25minutes until they have crisped up.
Cut broccoli and cauliflower stems into batons and add to a stir fry to bulk out the vegetables; adding one of your five-a-day.
Don’t throw the seeds away from your pumpkins; remove any stringy bits from the seeds, wash, and bake at 180 degree Celsius for 10minutes for a tasty snack.
Make potato wedges with the skins on to add fibre to your homemade wedges, just give the potatoes a good wash first.
If you have any citrus fruit peelings left over from oranges, lemons, or limes; use these to make a favourable citrus marmalade; or add to water with ice cubes or crushed ice to make a refreshing glass of flavoured water.
Morrisons has some stand-out deals on beers and wine this bank holiday weekend.
Customers can save up to £12.50 on selected bottles of champagne, that’s more than a third of the retail price. Prosecco has also been slashed to less than a fiver per bottle and 12 packs of beer are less than a tenner.
Morrisons is also helping customers who want to stock up on wines with a third off selected bottles including 19 Crimes, Most Wanted, Jacob’s Creek and Campo Viejo.
This summer, Morrisons is letting kids eat free in its cafes all day, every day.
Throughout the summer holidays, with every adult meal over £4.50, customers can also get a kid’s meal absolutely free.
The deal is available at Morrisons cafes nationwide and will run throughout the summer holidays to help parents get more value for money during breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Salads, fish & chips, pies, burgers, and pizzas are all available for the adult meal with mac ‘n’ cheese, fish goujons, sandwich boxes and more available on the kids’ menu. Each kids’ meal also includes a piece of fruit and a drink.
Ali Lyons, Head of Cafes at Morrisons said: “We know that feeding the whole family during the summer holidays can quickly add up and so we’re pleased to be running our Kids Eat Free All Day deal.
“We recently introduced a brand-new menu and have invested heavily in coronavirus safety measures such as screens and our contactless ‘Order & Pay’ app.
“This means that whether you are popping into your local Morrison’s to do some grocery shopping or passing by one on a day-out you’ll have a safe and cost-effective option when thinking about ways to feed the children.”
Kids Eat Free All Day is currently live and will run until 5th September. The offer only applies when any one adult meal with a value of £4.50 or over is purchased.
For more information and to see the cafe menu, visit:
Aldi has launched its summer Scottish Beer Festival with a fun quiz, designed to help customers find the best Scottish craft beer to suit their personality.
Aldi’s summer Scottish Beer Festival launches on Thursday 29th July across all 96 stores in Scotland and will showcase 30 unique craft beers from 14 of the best local craft breweries, with prices starting at just £1.49.
From fruity IPAs to crisp Lagers and hoppy Pale Ales, there is something to suit every palate. For Aldi’s ‘Cool Character’ a simple Lager or Pilsner would be the go to brew, such as Bellfield’s Bhoemian Pilsner or Genius Brewing’s Gen!us Craft Lager.
For the ‘Hipster’, Aldi suggests Barney’s Beer’s Cranberry Margarita or Hidden Lane Brewery’s RS Raspberry Saison. Meanwhile, for the ‘Adventure Seeker’ there is nothing quite like a Scottish crafted IPA or Pale Ale to round off the day, and customers can choose from a range of brews including Stewart Brewing’s Island Getaway, Loch Lomond Brewery’s Too Orangey For Crows, or Six° North’s Slipstream IPA.
Finally, Aldi’s ‘Strong, Mysterious Soul’ can choose from a range of stouts and ginger beers, including Loch Lomond Brewery’s Mocha Doodle DHU and Glasgow Beer Works Jaggery Imperial Stout.
Graham Nicolson, Group Buying Director, Aldi Scotland said:“Our summer Scottish Beer Festival has launched at exactly the right time, giving Scots the chance to sip on cold, refreshing beer during a rare spell of good weather.
“To mark this, we wanted to do something a bit different, and have created a fun quiz which helps people explore the range and find the right craft beer for them.
“We are all naturally drawn to the products we are most familiar with, and while it might not be an exact science, our ‘Which Brew Are You’ quiz will allow customers to discover new tastes and flavour profiles. Every beer we have in stock is of an exceptionally high quality and is sourced locally from top breweries, so no matter your choice, you won’t be disappointed.
“We are committed to supporting the Scottish craft beer industry and are exceptionally proud of the relationships we have established with local breweries. As we look to the future, we will remain committed to our suppliers and will continue to grow our partnerships.”
Aldi’s summer Scottish Beer Festival launches in stores across Scotland tomorrow (Thursday 29th July).
– Morrisons has more rapid charging points for electric vehicles than any UK supermarket –
– Electric cars are charged six times more quickly than standard charging points used at other supermarkets –
– Morrisons will expand to a further 100 locations in the next twelve months –
– Its charging network has already saved 2,000 tonnes of carbon to date –
Morrisons is expanding the UK’s largest supermarket network of ‘next generation’ rapid electric charging points for electric vehicles, allowing customers to charge the majority of cars from flat to full battery in under 45 minutes.
Over the next twelve months Morrisons will add an additional 100 rapid chargers to its network. Having recently installed its 200th GeniePoint rapid charge point, Morrisons has also saved 2,000 tonnes of carbon along the way. The network now provides full coverage in both England and Wales, spanning from Redruth in the tip of Cornwall to Amble in the North East of England. A roll out in Scotland will begin this month.
Morrisons ‘next generation’ rapid chargers can charge an electric car up to six times quicker than standard charging points used by other supermarkets.
They will enable customers to charge their car up even during a short shopping trip or a quick visit to a Morrisons Cafe. A typical 30-40 minute charge will give drivers up to 100 miles of travel range. Over the course of the summer, Morrisons is expecting to serve over half a million kilowatt hours of green energy, as more families travel during their summer holidays in the UK.
Morrisons partnership with EQUANS means that customers will never be more than 50 miles from a rapid charger. The GeniePoint charging points have been located around the perimeter of Morrisons car parks to ensure they are available to those who need them and not obstructed by other customers.
Andrew Ball, Fuel & Services Manager of Morrisons, said: “We know customers don’t want to spend hours waiting for their cars to charge, which is why we’ve made the decision to install the next generation of rapid chargers.
“It’s important that we continue to offer our customers the convenience of charging their EVs as they shop or eat with us. This summer, whether they’re hitting the coast or visiting the beautiful countryside, customers can take comfort in knowing they are always close to one of our charging points.”
All of the electricity used for charging will come from zero-carbon energy sources like wind and solar.
Recent figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders show that there are more than 450,000 EVs on UK roads, of which approximately 50% are battery operated vehicles*.
Demand for reliable, rapid electric vehicle charging facilities is growing and drivers want to see chargers situated at convenient locations where their vehicles can be charged whilst they carry on with their day-to-day activities.
Morrisons customers can register to use the GeniePoint chargers via the web app www.geniepoint.co.uk, which is free to join. There is no monthly fee and drivers only pay for the electricity they use which costs 35-39p per kW hour. Customers can also pay for a charge via the GeniePoint App, available from the App Store or Google Play, or by RFID card.
