Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival

The 2012 Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival was held at the end of September at Snape Maltings in Suffolk.

There were workshops and talks taking place throughout the weekend including tutored cyder, beer, wine and spirits tastings from Aspall and Adnams, cup cake decorating, hands on pasta making classes, breadmaking classes, forays across the countryside and through the marshes with Food Safari, as well as non-stop children’s cookery classes, art activities and musical experiences.

The festival started in 2006 to celebrate and publicise the abundance of local produce and also to help people reconnect with the countryside and the food it provides.

Mark and I went down on the Saturday and spent the day taking part in a couple of workshops, tasting a lot of different food/drink and buying far too much! It was exactly the sort of event we love 🙂

10:15am - 11:15am

Cupcake Decorating, Sugarplum Cupcakes. £10

This workshop was held by Sugarplum Cupcakes in Woodbridge, and taught a small group of us how to ice and decorate two (pre-made) cupcakes.

We learnt two different piping techniques using buttercream icing. 1. The rose and 2. The swirl.

We then used fondant icing and cutters, and various decorations to create our own masterpieces!

Mark was the only guy in the workshop which was amusing, although I was really glad he came along and isn't one of those guys who would completely dismiss the idea! He made "manly" cupcakes with ducks and bears...

...while I decorated mine with glitter and flowers!

It was great fun and we got to take our cupcakes away to eat! Yum!

After making cupcakes we wandered around the different stalls and tasted lots of samples.

There was lots of fresh produce...

...chocolates...

...bread from the Pump Street Bakery in Orford...

...jam- this was blueberry with lots of other flavours. We bought some blueberry with lavender which was really fragrant.

...herbs...

...and vendors selling hot food to eat straight away!

We went to the "Glorias" street food van for lunch, which did lots of game inspired dishes such as pigeon, venison, partridge and wild duck. Mark went for the Thai-inspired rabbit kebab, and I had a pork and apple burger.

There was a small salad bar where you could help yourself to leaves, and condiments as well. They're a sideshoot of Froize, a freehouse restaurant in Woodbridge, that specialises in cooking tasty local food. Our burgers were ok, but nothing special and a little overpriced, but unfortunately that often happens at events like this. Even though all the fresh stuff to buy was really good value!

We also got coffees from Paddy & Scott's van, which were really nice! And sat listening to some of the live music in the sunshine.

3.30pm to 4.30pm

Aspall Tutored Cyder Tasting. £5

In the afternoon we attended a talk and cider tasting led by Henry Chevallier Guild from Aspall. This family business has been producing cider since 1728 and it was a really fascinating and interesting session.

Some Interesting Facts

CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) consider cider as a product containing at least 90% apple juice, with no added flavours or colours.
However, the UK law defines cider as containing only at least 35% apple or pear juice, which may be from concentrate.
The cheaper brands add a substantial amount of sugar to apple pulp or concentrate at the fermentation stage to produce a high alcohol content, and then water it down to the appropriate percentage.
When Aspall tried to sell their cider to Co-op initially they were laughed off with their price of 34p a litre. The Co-Op was getting their cider for 13p a litre, and trying to push it down to 10p!
The opinion and perception of cider has changed over recent years, from the terrible influences of White Lightning and other stupidly cheap products, to a more sophisticated product enjoyed by a wide range of people.

Henry took us right through the cider making process and we tasted pretty much all of their range of different products.

This is a quick summary:

a) Firstly we tasted a cheap store bought apple juice which has a very low concentration of actual apples! Then we tried the Aspall apple juice, which tasted much more like proper apples.

b) Then we tried a light cider called Lady Jennifer's, named in honour of Mrs Chevalier Guild. I really liked this one, and we actually bought some afterwards.

"Pale to mid straw in colour, Lady Jennifer's has a fresh, clean floral aroma with a pleasing apple tasting finish that is light with a slightly sweet palate."

c) We then backtracked slightly and tasted the initial product straight from fermentation- a light version, and a darker version, made with different apples. These were much stronger in flavour!

d) In order to create their perfect blend Aspall then combined these two, to create their base flavour which all their ciders are based on. Basically we tipped one glass into the other! It made it more palatable, although still very strong.

e) The next glass followed on from this, as it was their flagship cider, Premier Cru- nice.

"Of mid straw-gold colour with a clean, light aroma of dessert apples, Premier Cru is dry, round and creamy on the palate with a good acid balance, pleasant soft tannins and an elegant, long finish."

f) We then tried one of their newer additions, Imperial, which is a much richer cider with a caramel flavour and supposedly good with duck and chocolate!

"Dark and golden in colour, Imperial has a rich aroma and lingering sweet mellow finish."

g) Most of the fruity "ciders" which are on the market at the moment have a very artificial flavour which is often sickly sweet so you can't drink more than one glass. Aspall's Perronelle's Blush was a much more subtle flavour, created by creme de mure (blackberry liquer). This was another of my favourites!

"Perronelle's Blush has a subtle blackberry aroma with a hint of traditional cyder apple. Deceptively smooth with a silky but refreshing palate, it offers a perfect bend of sweetness and acidity with a lovely mouth feel and a lingering aftertaste of berries."

h) Finally we tried something different. Double fermenting is used to produce a highly refined cider similar to a sparkling wine- Cuvee Chevallier. Henry said the key was to think of it as a champagne rather than a cider, as it was rather a weird combination! Quite nice, but I'm not really a massive fan of champagne so not one of my favourites of the afternoon.

"A clear sparkling cyder, pale straw in colour with a fine mousse. Cuvée is dry but rounded with mouthfilling body and fruit. It has a complex appley palate with floral notes and a good lingering finish."

The two in the above picture were definitely the best glasses I tried, and I didn't mind helping to finish the bottles at the end of the session! 🙂

A great day enjoying local produce in a great setting!

Our purchases:

a) Apple Juice from High House Fruit Farm
b) Rye flour for making bread
c) Aspall's cider!
d) Blueberry jam from The Blueberry Co.
e) Orange curd with ginger
f) Stokes Real Tomato Ketchup- the only tomato sauce!
g) Pork, apple and apricot sausages from Lane Farm- they actually sell these in our farm shop, but rarely have this particular flavour which is our favourite!
h) A seeded loaf and a baguette from the Pump Street Bakery
i) A lot of Gressingham duck! They were doing a bundle for £25 which consisted of 6 breasts (4 plain and 2 with sauce) and 4 legs (flavoured), plus plum and hoi-sin sauce.
j) Our decorated cupcakes! 🙂
k) Rococo Chocolates with some interesting flavours including Early Grey tea...
l) Key Lime Pie and Mango fudge
m) Gourmet yoghurt from Little Melton, mango and passionfruit flavours, yum!
n) Real milk (unpasteurised, unprocessed, full fat) which Mark loves
o) Gingerbread and white chocolate blondie from Lawson's Delicatessen