Our Blog
How to make Lavender & Lemon Iced Tea
With the weather warming up, iced teas are a delicious way of refreshing yourself and so much better for you than sugary sweet drinks. Get kids into herbal teas early too - you won't regret it. This tea is calming as well as refreshing as lemon balm is a gentle sedative and also soothing to the stomach.
Nutritious Seaweed Soup
Quick and easy, this just takes 10 minutes and is packed full of vitamins and minerals.
A Herbal Haggis for Burn's Night
This Burn's Night I have set myself the challenge of cooking a wild Burn's Supper using lean venison meat and lots of wild foraged herbs and vegetables. However, this isn't practical for everyone - particularly if there is still snow on the ground or you're not yet a confident forager. So why don't you try a more conventional 'healthy haggis' full of tasty herbs for your Burn's Night?
Mulling over the Wine
Mulled wine is a traditional Christmas drink and the scents of the spices conjure up the scent of Christmas. In fact the combination of oranges and cloves instantly magics up Christmas for me at any time of the year.
However, Duncan Napier, our founder, was a teetotaller. He was brought up by adoptive parents who ran a pub and had fared badly at the hands of his alcoholic step-mother. In the Victorian times, even children drank small beer and he was addicted by his early teens. A kindly mentor took him under his wing and he gave up alcohol completely at the grand old age of 15 years old. As we make up our mulled wine recipe (below) we reflect on the benefits and hazards of alcohol and other mulled wine ingredients.
Vegan Irish Boxties with Wild Garlic Sauce
This is a vegan version of the traditional Irish dish "Boxties" that not only is really delicious but it is also very healthy and surprisingly filling. So if you are cutting down on meat, for example to lower your cholesterol, this is a very tasty alternative. Wild garlic is in flower during the Spring and easy to find by its pungent garlic smell, so this also includes a healthy walk to find some!
Napiers Bitter Bloody Mary
If you've got one hell of a hangover you need some serious help with our amazing Napiers Best Bitters. They contain milk thistle, to help you recover from your last night's celebrations.
Napiers Shamrock Sazerac
In Scotland we've always felt great kinship with our fellow Celts, the Irish. So to honour St Patrick's Day here's a special shamrock cocktail using Napiers Best Bitters to help prepare your body for an evening out on the town.