If this article is to be believed a man has created a whisky made from urine. The whisky is made using the high sugar urine produced by diabetes patients. The urine is filtered using the same processes which are used to purify water. This removes the sugars which are used in the fermentation process. The whisky is not available commercially but if do you want to try some tasting opportunities are available at the Materials design event in London in September.

£25 might seems a lot for a pot of tea but this is not just any tea. Its Mariage Freres Sacred White tea. The tea is grown in Sri Lanka on a secret estate and is special because it is only picked by women with golden scissors. The tea is supposed to contain more antioxidants than any other black or green tea. If you want to try it you can get it in Manchester at Kitchen at The Circle restaurant. If you don’t want to spend quite much on your tea they do have a full menu of other teas starting at £2.25.

This is interesting its a drinks container that you can eat when you have finished your drink. Made of seaweed extract agar the Jelloware containers come in flavours like lemon basil, ginger mint and rosemary beet. When you have finished your drink you can either eat them or alternatively they can be thrown onto the garden as the sugar galactose they are made of can be used to nourish plants. It should save a lot of washing up after a party.

This is interesting its a new beer from BrewDog that comes in bottles made out of dead animals. The beer itself is called The End of History and is a rather strong 55% proof. What makes it unusual, however, is not only that it claims to be the worlds strongest and most expensive at £500 a bottle but also the bottle that it comes in. The bottles are made using seven types of animals including stoats, four squirrels and a hare which are said to be roadkill. The marketing stunt has been condemned as a perverse idea by some but is supposed to introduce people to a new approach new beer.

Divers have found what is thought to be the world’s oldest champagne. It is thought to pre-date the French Revolution and has been found on the Baltic seabed. 30 bottles of the Clicquot which was produced between 1782 and 1788 were found in a shipwreck on the Baltic seabed. It is thought the champagne could fetch around £45,000 a bottle at auction.

According to this article beer is in fact one the healthiest alcoholic drinks available and the benefits of drinking it are not properly understood. The report which might be a little biased has been commissioned by The Beer Academy and aims to help people enjoy beer sensibly. Apparently beer contains vitamins which can help you maintain a balanced diet, fibre which keeps you regular and antioxidants and minerals which can lower the risk of osteoporosis.

If this article is to to believed half a million people are hungover at work each day. The figures from the charity Drinkaware are a result of a poll on 1,000 people and mean that one in ten Britons go to work every day with a hangover. People who were polled also admitted to struggling to keep on top of their workload and making mistakes after a night out drinking. The article cautions that these figures are likely to soar during the World Cup and could have a direct impact on workplace productivity across the country.

A British brewer has made what is thought to be the world’s most bitter beer. Peter Fowler who runs the Pitstop Brewery in Stove made the beer called The Hop after a friend challenged him to break the record. It registered 323 International Bittering Units (IBUs) beating the previous record of 200 which was held by the American beer Devil Dance Triple IPA. Mr Fowler is now waiting for the beer to be officially named the bitterest beer on the planet.

If you have a bit of cash to spare you might be interested in this £10,000 whisky. The whisky is the world’s oldest malt and has gone on sale at £10,000 a bottle. The Mortlach 70 year old Speyside whisky was filled into it cask on the 15th of October 1938. 70 years later the decision was taken to empty the cask and bottle the contents. Only 54 full size bottles costing £10,000 each and 162 smaller bottles at £2,500 each are available . The whisky has been sampled in a tasting and has been described as a malt “without comparison”.

This article is interesting it suggests that microbreweries are becoming increasingly popular and in some cases more so than the big brands. The article highlights Ascot Ales which are brewed by Chris Gill and his wife. They currently produce around 12 barrels of ale a week when working at full capacity and supply 70 local pubs. Unlike larger breweries they do not add rice and maize to keep costs down, preferring to stick to premium ingredients. Neither do they pasteurise the beer. This obviously means that it doesn’t last quite as long but taking out this process means that none of the flavour is destroyed. it seems these microbreweries which have small output levels and minimal staff are enjoying rapid growth in a time when people are looking something more tasty and perhaps more local. In contrast many of the larger multi-national breweries are seeing their sales fall. It certainly seems to work for Ascot Ales, they are currently seeking a larger premises so that they can increase production.

A farm in Sussex has started offering unpasteurised milk in an effort to save their farm. Longley’s Farm near Hailsham has been selling organic pasteurised milk for some time but recently has started losing money on the product. The farmer says that pasteurised milk now costs around 34p a litre to produce but they are only paid 26p for it so make a loss on each litre. Unpasteurised on the other hand is cheaper to produce although it must carry a warning that it might contain bacteria and can only be sold directly by the farmer. It is thought that the unpasteurised milk, however, has the advantage of containing more nutrients because it has not gone through the heat treating process. The farmer is currently planning to deliver the milk once a week but it will be interesting to see how much demand there is for the product.

A pub in Sheffield has won the Campaign for Real Ale’s national pub of the year for a second year running. The Kelham Island Tavern has been praised for the quality of its beer and attention to detail. The pub was brought in a derelict state by the current landlord in 2001 and since then has suffered flood damage which forced it to close. It appears the pub has bounced back and since it won the award for the first time in 2008 it has been attracting visitors from all over the country, so if you are in Sheffield it might be worth a visit.

A beer called Sink the Bismarck has claimed the title of world’s strongest beer. Previously the title was held by a German beer called Tactical Nuclear Penguin made by Brewdog of Fraserburgh with a 32% alcohol content. Sink the Bismarck, however is an impressive 41%. It costs £40 for a 330ml bottle and is being sold exclusively online. The beer is designed to be drunk in spirit sized measures rather than in a pint glass.

According to this article it could soon be compulsory for drinks manufacturers to include health warnings on alcohol. Some drinks already carry health warnings under a voluntary code between the drinks industry and the government. However, only 15% of alcoholic drinks currently carry these warnings. The code was agreed in 2007 and it was thought that by the end of 2008 most drinks would display the warnings. Under the code drinks should include the number of units the drink contains, drinking guidelines of no more than three or four units a day for men and two or three for women, and the website address for the Drinkaware Trust. The government has launched a consultation of how to move forward with the issue but one idea is to introduce mandatory labelling.

In an effort to cut the amount of glass attacks in England and Wales the government has been looking into designs for safer pint glasses. Two new prototypes have recently been unveiled which it is hoped will help to reduce injuries. The first of the glasses called the Glass Plus has a clear plastic coating which is put inside the glass. The coating prevents the glass from breaking into shards when it is smashed and existing pint glasses can be treated with it. The second design called the Twin Wall is made from two thin walled glasses inside each other which are bonded together. Once again this stops the glass from shattering into small pieces. Both glasses are currently only prototypes and so are still being tested for safety. In a demonstration Glass Plus broke on the first attempt, but didn't shatter whilst it took four attempts to get a Twin Wall glass to break and when it did there were no shards of glass either. It is likely to be some time before either glass appears in a pub near you but it is estimated you might start seeing them in around a years time.

According to this article drinking beer could help prevent weak bones. A study claims that certain types of beer are a rich source of dietary silicon and can actually help prevent osteoporosis. Not all beers, however, have the effect. Those that contain malted barley and hops have a higher silicon content that beers made from wheat so these are the ones to choose if the article is correct. However, the study suggests consuming them in moderation. Beer. Is there anything it can’t do?

According to this article you could soon be paying a bit more for your pint. Many of the country’s biggest brewers are likely to increase their prices in a move that will mean an increase of around 10p on popular beers. Guinness are putting up the recommend retail price to £3.03 per pint from February 1st. InBev who make Stella Artois, Becks and Budweiser are increasing the wholesale price of all its drinks by 4p a pint from the same date. Heineken UK have also announced a price rise and Carlsberg and Moulson Coors are yet to make an announcement.

If this article is correct we could soon expect to pay a little more for a carton of orange juice. According to the article cold weather and disease have hit the citrus groves in Florida which produce much of the world’s orange juice. This has already led to the price of concentrated juice doubling in the past year. As yet this has not affected the prices we pay in the supermarket because stores usually fix their prices a long time in advance, however, we should expect prices to rise by between 10 and 30 per cent when contracts are renegotiated.

If this article is to be believed then you might be getting less beer for your money when you pop out for a pint. A study carried out by trading standards officers found that nine out of ten pints are sold short. In a test of 88 pints brought at bars and restaurants in Birmingham the average drink was three quarters of a fluid ounce short of the full glass, that’s about 12% short. Under the Weights and Measures Act of 1985 a pint of beer should be exactly a pint although froth can account for up to 5% of the pint as its considered an integral part of the beer.

According to this article red wine could actually be good for your teeth. Scientists have claimed that it contains chemicals which could help combat tooth decay by stopping bacteria from sticking to the teeth. The findings which are due to be published in the journal Food Chemistry suggest that a glass of red wine a day can help teeth healthy and reduce the need for fillings. Studies have also shown that red wine can improve brain power, boost your immune system and fight diabetes and obesity. Wine. Is there anything it can’t do?

The Scottish brewery BrewDog has launched what it has described as the world’s strongest beer. Called Tactical Nuclear Penguin it has a 32% alcohol content. The beer will be sold for £30 each and is on sale for a limited period only. It is designed to be drunk in spirit sized measures much as you would enjoy a fine whisky.

A campaign has been launched by The British Beer and Pub Association and the Society of Independent Brewers to cut beer tax in an attempt to save the British pub. Currently around 50 pubs a week are closing as trading conditions become increasingly difficult. The campaign called “I’m backing the pub” calls on the government to cut the tax on beer reversing the increase which was imposed last January and scrapping plans to increase it in the next budget. With 80% of people in a recent survey saying the pub is an important part of their community it seems to me its time to do something to save those pubs that still remain.

According to this article drinking a bottle of wine or six beers every day can cut the risk of heart disease in men by half. Researchers have found that the protective effects of a daily drink are not just limited to those who drink a moderate amount but also extend to those who consume higher levels of alcohol. Research was carried out on 15,000 men and 26,000 women aged from 29 to 69 years. They were studied over a period of 10 years. The results showed those who drank a little such as a glass of wine or a bottle of beer a day had a 35% lower risk of a heart attack than those who didn’t drink. Moderate drinkers, those who consumed two or three alcohol drinks a day had a 54% lower risk. Those classed as heavy drinkers, however, had a 50% lower risk of a heart attack making them half as likely to suffer an attack as the teetotallers.

According to this article a bottle of champagne from Sainsbury’s that costs just £16 has performed better than some brands which cost twice as much. The champagne beat Moet and Chandon and 11 other champagnes to come second in a blind tasting. A total of 14 champagnes were tested, nine from major supermarket chains and three from big champagne houses. The Sainsbury’s Blanc de Noirs champagne was only beaten by Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label which received 90 points whilst the Sainsbury’s champagne received 89. At half the price though you can’t help thinking you might be better off going to Sainsbury's. The cheapest champagne tested was Aldi’s Veuve Monsiny which costs £9.99. It managed 10th place with a score of 84 points.

According to this article a whisky company is preparing an expedition to try and locate two crates of 100 years whisky. The whisky was shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton during his 1909 expedition. It is now thought to be frozen inside in the icecap. The company that now owns McKinlay and Co who made the whisky are hoping that they will be able to conduct tests on the bottles with a view to re-launching the Scotch. One thing is for sure it will certainly be nicely chilled.

According to this article an indoor market in Luton is currently looking to recruit an ale taster. They are looking for someone with a “genuine love of food and drink” and although the role is on a volunteer basis so is unpaid it does have some rather obvious advantages.

According to this article Aldi and Lidl are both selling a bottle of champagne for just £9.99. Aldi’s Vue Monsigny and Lidl’s Comte de Brismand both sell for just under £10. They get mixed reviews from critics with some experts suggesting the taste is not that great but others calling it elegant and fruity. Unfortunately I don’t have an Aldi or a Lidl near me otherwise I would buy some and post a review. Have you tried either of these bottles of champagne and if so what were they like?

According to this article two companies with rather different products are currently developing wines specifically for Asian food. Taylor and Shroff wines and Atul Kochhar have both developed wines that are matched to the food. Kochhar has worked with classic sauvignon blanc and merlot and developed them to complement complex curries. Taylor and Shroff on the other hand have created cherry, apricot and ginger wines that are designed to be drunk over ice. The Taylor and Shroff wines are currently available at around a dozen restaurants and Kochhar sells his wines at his restaurant in London and Southampton so they are not yet widely available. I will be interested to try both, I wonder how long it will be before they come to a restaurant near me.

I have suffered from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) for a number of years now and have learnt to control the condition with a combination of diet and exercise. Until recently I had got to the point when I was only suffering the problem every few months and usually when I had eaten something that I knew would trigger the symptoms. I was surprised then, when after my move back to Sevenoaks I found I was suffering from the condition every day.

At first I didn’t occur me what was wrong I assumed that the symptoms were a stomach bug, but after a month and half of symptoms I realised that the IBS was back with a vengeance. I went back to square one keeping a food diary, cutting out any known triggers completely and making sure I exercised every day but the symptoms still continued. That’s when I realised that the only thing that had changed was the fact that before our house move I was drinking water only from the filter tap. The new house had no filtration system installed and since we had moved house I had been drinking water straight from the tap. It seemed a long shot but I stopped drinking the tap water and started buying bottled mineral water. After a few days my stomach which had felt like a beach ball for nearly two months finally went back to normal and all the other symptoms stopped soon after.

Since then I have continued to drink only mineral water and will later be installing a new filtration system. I am now back to the occasional IBS flare up when I eat something I know will upset me but I like, such as cheese or red meat. I can only assume that there is something in the tap water that not only triggers my IBS symptoms but makes them much worse than usual. I have read reports that suggest fluoride in drinking water can trigger IBS but up to now have been sceptical and as I have no idea whether the tap water in Sevenoaks contains fluoride I am unsure whether this is the cause. What is clear, however, is that I can’t drink the water.

If this article is to be believed, then white wines could actually be worse for your teeth than red. Scientists have found that white wines such as Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio wear away tooth enamel more quickly than reds like Merlot and claret. Researchers have found that prolonged contact with white wine can erode the protective layer of enamel making teeth more sensitive to cold, hot and sweet food.

A team looked at the effects of eight red and white wines on the enamel of teeth removed from people between the age of 40 and 65. The teeth were soaked in the wine for up to 24 hours and then analysed to see how much damage had occurred. The teeth that had been soaked in the white wine had more damage than those soaked in the red. White wine has also been found to cause staining to teeth because the acids cause spots and groove in the enamel leaving them vulnerable to stains from tea and coffee. The good news, however, is that calcium rich food can offset some of the damage to teeth helping to prevent dental erosion. Next time I have a glass of wine, I will make sure I have a nice piece of cheese with it.

According to this article sales of quality beers are on the rise and it is claimed that beer could be the new wine. It appears that sales of quality bottled beer are up as is keg and cask beer. One brewery Hepworth and Co has seen an 18% rise in sales on last year. If the article is to believed beer especially the quality varieties is also becoming more popular with women. If this is the case and beer is experiencing something of a revival I wonder why so many pubs are closing down. Personally I like beer but prefer to sample real ales rather than drinking lager which is many peoples first impression of beer and perhaps what puts them off trying others.

According to this article cask ale is enjoying something of a revival. It appears consumers are moving away from big corporate brands towards local fare. I always remember ale as being drunk by a few old regulars in the pub and often there were complaints that the beer was off. It appears that pub companies are now becoming more aware of how ale should be stored and served and it is now starting to attract younger drinkers. Personally I find larger a little boring whereas ale is a little more like sampling wine, each is different. All hail the ale. You can check out the CAMRA site here if you want to find out more about the campaign for real ale.

I am frequently annoyed by people who can’t get through a train journey or a shopping trip without calling all their friends on their phone. I don’t mean the people that pick up a call when they are out, after all that’s the point of having a mobile phone, what annoys me is those people who can’t simply sit in silence and feel the need to call everyone in their phonebook. It seems I am not alone in finding this annoying, pub landlord Harry Walker has decided to ban the use of mobile phone in his pub. Instead customers who wish to use them will need to take their call outside. He has come to the decision because he says that it is anti-social and his customers prefer not to be disturbed with the constant ringing and people talking loudly on their phones when others are trying to enjoy a meal or a quiet drink. I can see his point.

If this article can be believed the government is looking for an alternative to the pint glass because the traditional one is too dangerous. According to the article the Home Office has called in a team of designers who will look at creating a safer alternative to the pint glass. The move comes because there are around 87,000 violent incidents involving glass every year which cost an estimated £100 million in NHS and police costs. It will be interesting to see what they come up with but personally I quite like my pint in its proper glass.

According to this article beer can have some health benefits when it is consumed in moderation. The article suggests that moderate amounts of beer can help strengthen women's bones. A study carried out on 1,700 women found that bone density was better in regular beer drinkers then in non drinkers. It is thought that plant hormones in the beer could the reason behind the effect. It appears beer is good for you, drink too much, however, and it can also have the opposite effect.

Personally I’m not quite sure why you would want to visit Starbucks but that’s my opinion. Some people obviously do like the brand but other people like this man might be bordering on the obsessive. He has made it his mission to visit every Starbucks around the world. He has managed an impressive 9,100 and is now in England to visit the 400 outlets over here. After the UK he will move onto a tour of Europe, visiting Spain, Portugal, Germany and Romania. At every outlet he orders a regular cup of coffee and takes a picture and puts it on his website. So far he has spent around $100,000 on his project over a course of 12 years. He estimates that he still has 3,000 outlets worldwide still to visit.

It could be bad news for tea drinkers if this article is to believed. It suggests that the price of a a cup of tea could rise by as much as 15%. The price rise comes as a combination of rising demand, crop failures and the weak pound. It could mean that leading brands such as PG Tips will increase their prices as much as 50p on a pack of 160 tea bags. Unilever which makes PG Tips has said that it can no longer absorb the extra cost of making tea bags due to increases in commodity costs and that it will need to pass the rises onto consumers.

According to this article Sales of beer in the UK have fallen at their fastest rate since the recession of the early 1990s. The British Beer and Pub Association have said that off trade beer sales fell by 11 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 contributing to a total decline of 8.2 per cent in total beer sales. On trade beer sales (those in bars and restaurants) also fell by 6.3 per cent that’s around 753,000 fewer pints every day over the first three months of 2009. The message here is clear, your local pub needs you to drink more beer.

According to this article wine sales have plummeted as people begin to feel the effect of the recession. The article says that the amount of win brought in pubs and clubs has shrunk by 1%, that's the equivalent of around 12 million bottles. The figures from The Grocer also show that supermarkets, convenience stores and garage forecourts are also selling less wine, whilst off licenses have recorded a drop of 6% in sales value. Personally I haven't been buying less wine to drink at home but I do tend to drink less if I go out to a pub or restaurant as prices are usually overinflated.

This is interesting its a new scheme which has been introduced at a pub to allow customers to serve themselves. It has been introduced at The Wheatsheaf Inn in Willingdon East Sussex. Drinkers are able to serve themselves and leave the money in an honesty box. The landlord of the pub has said that he trusts his customers to pay for all of the beer that they drink. I have often thought that it would be a good idea to have self service available in the pub rather than queuing for drinks at the bar but I’m not sure everyone would be honest enough to pay.

This article suggests that people who drink too much coffee are more likely to experience hallucinations. In a study people who drank more than seven cups of coffee were three times more likely to hallucinate than those who had just one cup. Among the experiences reported were seeing things that were not there, hearing voices and seeing dead people. Whilst there does appear to be link academics have dismissed the study because it is likely that stress can also cause the symptoms and stressed people may also drink more caffeine. If you have recently started seeing dead people, then you might want to take a look at your caffeine intake.

This is interesting its a project that will use "beer goggles" in schools in an effort to try and show children the adverse effects of drinking. The goggles will impair the wearers vision and show children what it is like to be intoxicated. I wonder whether the project will work as it is supposed to.

This article suggests that smokers who regularly drink red wine could reduce their risk of developing lung cancer. Research suggests that smokers who drink at least a glass of red wine daily are 60 per cent less likely to develop lung cancer. Men who were heavy smokers, saw a greater reduction in risk with a 4 per cent lower likelihood of developing lung cancer seen for each glass of red wine consumed per month. White wine does not have the same benefits.

This is quite interesting. Its an article about a smuggling operation that involved a mile long vodka pipeline. Enterprising criminals were using it to pump vodka out of Russia into Estonia to avoid paying tax. Eleven suspects have been charged after an investigation which took four years. The pipeline was eventually discovered when customs officers in Estonia seized 1,159 litres of vodka which they claim came through it. It is estimated that the man pumped a total of 6,200 litres of vodka through the pipeline in total and avoided paying £46,000 in excise duty.

This article suggests that the effects of alcohol do make people appear more attractive. Researchers found that as little as a pint and a half of beer is enough to make everyone seem more desirable. Men are worst affected with the effect lasting as long as 24 hours after a heavy drinking session. The results were based on a study done at Bristol University where male and female volunteers were randomly allocated a drink of vodka and lime or a similar tasting soft drink. There were then asked to rate the attractiveness of 20 male and 20 female faces on a seven point scale. Those who had been drinking alcohol scored the faces 10% higher than those who had not. The following day both sexes were tested again, this time the men who had been drinking the previous day scored the picture more highly than the non drinkers. The researchers concluded: 'Alcohol consumption increases ratings of attractiveness of facial stimuli.'

According to this article this new health drink called skinny water can suppress hunger and fight fat. It costs 99p a bottle and its manufacturers say it is scientifically proven. Nutritionists, however, say that its claims are not supported by clinical trials. The pomegranate flavoured water contains L-Carnitine and chromium which supposedly reduce sugar cravings and improve the body's ability to burn fat. Personally I'm rather skeptical, I still think the only way to lose weight is simply to eat less and exercise.

Unagi Nobori is a rather strange drink made from eels. It has been launched in Japan with the translation of the name meaning "surging eel". The drink is a yellow liquid which contains eel extract and vitamins that are found in the fish. It has been launched to coincide with the start of Japan's annual eel eating season which starts on the 5th of August. Its main ingredients include extracts from the head and bones of eels, and five vitamins – A, B1, B2, D and E.  Apparently it tastes similar to broiled eels, an acquired taste perhaps?

According to this article drinking two cups of tea a day can halve your risk of dementia. It is thought that chemicals in the tea called flavonoids help protect the brain although researchers do not yet know why tea protects against damage. Other studies have shown that tea can also help prevent the development of cancerous tumours and prevent against heart disease and stroke as well as strengthening teeth. All very good news, I drink lots of tea.

This article suggests that tea could be good for you. According to the article drinking at least four cups of tea a day can be good for your health and can help prevent heart attacks. It can also help to improve alertness and mood levels and can strengthen bones. It certainly makes me less irritable in the morning.

A government alcohol abuse expert has been banned from driving after being caught drink driving not once but twice. He was fined £1,500 for the two offences he committed in August and December 2006. It makes me wonder what hope there is for the rest of the population if the very experts put in place to make a difference break the laws themselves.