These Bickford and Sons Sparkling Botanicals tasting notes were created while recording The Adelaide Show Podcast episode 162 with the cast of Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Live.
We usually drink an SA wine but the cast is on a no-alcohol contract during the season, so local beverage maker, Bickfords, came to the rescue with the Bickford and Sons Sparkling Botanicals range.
This range, in olde world packaging (beautiful bottles), also boasts some rather over-the-top, of-the-era promotional blurb, We quote:
Bespoke bona fide botanical bliss will delight the senses with these beautifully crafted collisions of quintessential Australian ingredients. Quirky combinations inspired by the exceptional and created with passion usher in the dawning of a new golden age of flavour. Top notch sir, absolutely top notch.
Bickford and Sons Sparkling Botanicals tasting notes
The first thing that struck our tasting panel was how foreign all these flavours were.
Apart from the Sparkling Lemon with a hint of Lemon Myrtle, which Steve likened to barley sugar, nobody had any “go to” flavour comparisons to make.
So, hats off to Bickfords for delivering new flavours and also for crafting soft drinks that come across as quite dry rather than as sugar bombs.
As we tasted deeper into the range, with the Sparkling Apple with Davidson Plum and Sparkling Pear with Wild Lime, Steve noted how at the base of all the drinks there was a scent or note of nanna’s kitchen of the 1950s/1960s, which Nigel likened to the aroma of pies cooling. It was a sense of being “home”.
Finally, the winner of the night and the one we all heartily recommend for exposing your tastebuds to the Sparkling Botanicals range, is the Sparkling Grape with a hint of Hibiscus. Eden did wonder whether Hibiscus was poisonous but we are living proof it is not 🙂 **NOTE: Hibiscus is generally bad news for dogs, but safe for humans**
You can hear our live, wacky and meandering creation of these tasting notes in the player below, starting about three minutes in.
[buzzsprout episode=’426594′ player=’true’]