Make mine a VINEGAR & TONIC
No longer just for your chips, it’s now the chic new soft drink. HARRY WALLOP takes a swig...
Move aside gin, pour away that Pisco sour — the latest trendy tipple is . . . vinegar. Yes, really.
Aficionados claim that just one tablespoon of celebrity favourite apple cider vinegar (diluted with water and sometimes sweetened) is rich in natural minerals, vitamins and enzymes and can help regulate blood sugar levels, boost the immune system, aid weight loss and improve the general health of the gut.
Sales of the stuff are soaring — and supermarkets and health food shops have got in on the act and started to market vinegar as a drink. More than that, they have started to sell pre-mixed vinegar concoctions, often fizzy and sweetened, as grown-up soft drinks. Some claim to ‘ boost vitality’, others to be ‘naturally detoxifying’. But what do they taste like? Lip-smacking or wince-worthy? We put them to the test . . .
Viva la Vinegar by Soupologie
FLAVOUR: Strawberry and basil PRICE: £1.90 for 250ml
AVAILABLE FROM: Sainsbury’s SoLd in the chiller cabinet and packaged in little smoothie bottles, viva la vinegar looks healthy and is just 32 calories a serving.
A slight improvement on the brand’s kiwi and kale variant (which smells like a compost heap and doesn’t taste much better), this does taste of strawberry but I can’t discern any basil.
Soupologie, who make the brand, claim its unfiltered apple cider vinegar contains the Mother. This is the cloudy bit that occurs naturally during the making of unpasteurised vinegar (usually floating to the top) and is believed to contain the greatest amount of natural protein, enzymes and friendly bacteria.
Unfortunately, the hit of vinegar burns the back of your throat. Not pleasant. 2/5
The Picklery Drinking Vinegar
FLAVOUR: Chasselas grape PRICE: £13 for 500ml (undiluted) AVAILABLE FROM: The Little duck Picklery The Picklery specialises in making vinegars, preserves and pickled products from seasonal fruits and vegetables. Beetroot is one of its most popular vinegars — when it’s in season. This chasselas grape and apple vinegar with sugar, black cardamon and cinnamon is fascinating. Picklery recommends mixing it with soda. The result is like a non- alcoholic gin sour, with lovely, peppery layers of flavour. A proper, grown-up, complex and delicious drink. 5/5
Bragg apple cider vinegar drink
FLAVOUR: Pomegranate and goji berry PRICE: £2.99 for 473ml AVAILABLE FROM: holland & Barrett FroM California, this brand boasts on the bottle of being both kosher and organic, and — just to cover all bases — it has a little Christian message: ‘here’s to health, peace & love, 3 John 2’.
The brand was founded by the late Paul Bragg, a pioneer of the early American health movement, who advocated fasting, deep breathing and exercise. But he clearly lacked any taste buds.
Yet it’s favoured by Liz hurley. ‘It’s a really good thing — I use it a lot,’ she has said. Note the word ‘use’, not ‘drink’ or, heaven forfend, ‘enjoy’. It uses stevia sweetener so comes in at just 30 cals a large bottle, but tastes of artificial sweetener, Sarsons vinegar and cough medicine. horrid. 1/5
Lo Bros apple cider vinegar tonic
FLAVOUR: Ginger and turmeric PRICE: £2 for 330ml AVAILABLE FROM: Sainsbury’s Lo BroS boasts of this being ‘ full of gut lovin’ ingredients’, though if you look at the ingredients list carefully, it contains a mere 3 per cent apple cider vinegar. As a result, this is very mild and extremely refreshing.
It tastes like a watered down Canada dry ginger ale, not a vinegary, fermented drink. I have no idea if it would do any good for my gut, but I could glug this one down happily. 4/5
Comvita manuka honey apple cider
FLAVOUR: Golden kiwi fruit PRICE: £2.99 for 250ml AVAILABLE FROM: holland & Barrett CoMvITA is one of the biggest apple cider brands but it is expensive. Per millilitre, it costs as much as a decent bottle of wine thanks to the New Zealand manuka honey. It’s a good drink — the honey balances out the acidity of the vinegar and the lack of bubbles makes it more like a wine than a tonic. So is it as good as a Chablis? No, but I wouldn’t object to drinking a bottle of this a day. 3/5
Nonsuch Shrubs drinking vinegar
FLAVOUR: Peach & basil PRICE: £3.50 for 250ml AVAILABLE FROM: Borough Wines ThIS Suffolk-based brand uses the traditional name for drinking vinegar, ‘shrubs’, and is packaged in a nice bottle. however, ‘Beyond alcohol, beyond soft drinks, quite literally beyond compare’ is a bold claim.
The liquid is golden, and there is a hint of exoticism on the nose. But it tastes more of mastic and pine than peach. Not pour-downthe-sink foul, but a long way from being delicious. It works out more expensive than a good bottle of wine, too. And at 105 calories, with 7g of sugar per 100ml, I wouldn’t waste my calories on this. 2/5
Raw vibrant living ACV infusion
FLAVOUR: Turmeric and ginger PRICE: £4.19 for 500ml AVAILABLE FROM: ocado reqUIreS diluting — it is 70 per cent apple cider vinegar, with the rest made up of water, ginger, turmeric and chilli. Mixed with tonic water, it is not bad. You can really taste the spicy ginger and dry turmeric. It turns the tonic water into something different — though, to be perfectly honest, I might prefer the tonic on its own. 3/5
Coconut Merchant organic coconut
FLAVOUR: Coconut PRICE: £3.99 for 250ml
AVAILABLE FROM: ocado MAde from the coconut sap, ‘ diluted with water it makes a naturally detoxifying drink’, the bottle says. Created in Sri Lanka, this is eye-wateringly astringent on the nose and would be more effective than smelling salts in stopping you fainting. You may need a lie down after a sip — it is unforgivingly acidic — and you can’t taste any coconut, which is a shame. one for the masochists. 2/5