REAL: The Kombucha Champagne
As we slide into our eighth week of lockdown in the UK, one question keeps cropping up in my video calls, on my Instagram feed and in the articles I’m reading: How much are you drinking? I REALLY enjoy wine, in case you didn’t know. I like to have it with dinner, sometimes with lunch; I like drinking it when I’m FaceTiming my girlfriends and I’m finding the fastest way to get through a bottle is participating in a Zoom quiz (especially when the first round is ten questions on Harry Potter and everyone else is a Potter super fan).
Yet, it hasn’t taken a global pandemic to make us think about our drinking habits (it has made us talk about them more, though) - the demand for low or no alcohol drinks has been on the rise for some time now and many of us have been questioning ourselves: How much am I drinking?
I don’t think I am actually drinking more during lockdown than I did before lockdown, if I’m honest. I’m based in London and my pre-lockdown life consisted of meeting friends for a drink, tasting wine at work, having a drink after work, having dinner out with my boyfriend, hosting wine tastings, networking lunches, press events... there was wine everywhere, all time time. Luckily, I love wine! But I also love getting up early, going for a morning jog, being productive and feeling motivated, so I have tried to install a couple of alcohol-free days in my week for a while now (with or without success, depending on the week!).
I know that I’m not on my own here. Most people I know are consciously trying to drink a little less, or at least be more aware of how much they are drinking. Some people like to go alcohol-free for a month here and there, to kind of ‘reset’. Some people have given it up altogether! So, what happens on those alcohol-free days or months (or lives) when you want to have something with dinner (that isn’t fruity, sugary or watery) or when you want to join in the celebratory toast at a party?
Well, the alcohol-free options really are getting better and better. There are zero alcohol beers and wine, and there are also completely new drinks that have been created precisely for this market, from scratch. They aren’t taking the alcohol out, they aren’t emulating something that should have alcohol - they are something of their own.
This week, I tried two of these drinks, which are completely different from each other and both fit the following brief: They are for adults; they are designed to pair with food; they feel special.
The first of these drinks was the REAL Champagne 750ml bottle. REAL make kombucha brewed from hand-picked, loose-leaf fine teas which have been carefully selected from small gardens around the world. They have worked with winemakers, Champagne producers, beer brewers and microbiologists to perfect the art fermentation and produce a high-end, all-natural product that, due to its complexity of flavour, pairs with a wide variety of different foods.
REAL kombucha has been available in beer-shaped bottles for some time, but on 13th May 2020, they launch their first 750ml celebration bottle, complete with a cork and cage, just like a fine sparkling wine.
Champagne flute in hand, I popped my REAL 750ml (sound of a cork popping = pure joy) and the bubbles raced out of the neck of the bottle before I could pour it gracefully (cue a slurpy save - you know what I mean). So far, so good - the same giddy excitement I get from opening all bottles of bubbly. The lively sparkle sprinkled my face as I brought it to my nose to smell the aromas of white flowers, peaches and rhubarb. It had a fabulous zippy acidity on the palate and was pleasantly fruity, with a dry, savoury edge and a lasting length that felt refreshing, rather than synthetic and sugary.
It definitely felt special. I polished off the bottle later with dinner and it worked. The acidity held up against the food I was eating and I liked that, although it was fruity, it certainly wasn’t sweet. It felt healthy, grown-up and sophisticated, all rolled into one and poured into a sexy long-stemmed Champagne flute (this is the kind of serve I’d recommend).
Is the REAL 750ml bottle #ChampagneReinvented, as its hashtag announces? It certainly will be for a lot of people who don’t want to drink Champagne. It will be for me on my alcohol-free days. Will it replace Champagne for me? Of course not - I love Champagne! But there is absolutely room in my life for both and I welcome it. Will it get me through a Zoom quiz with a ten-question Harry Potter round? That, I’m not so sure...
Look out for my next blog on my second zero-alcohol find. Discover more about the REAL 750ml bottle here and follow REAL at @realkombucha.