I can’t quite tell you precisely when it happened, perhaps it was when I became a Mum, or perhaps it was when I passed my milestone birthday, but somewhere along the line I’ve fallen out of love with alcohol. Actually, that’s not strictly true, what I mean is alcohol has fallen out of love with me!
These days, when I’ve had too much to drink the night before, the hangovers feel entirely disproportionate! My skin is craggy, my head is pounding and I feel generally appalling. It’s hard enough being a good mum to young children, but throw a banging headache into the mix & it’s practically impossible.
Therefore when Mumbler heard about CleanCo, a company that produces very low alcohol and non-alcoholic spirits, we were extremely keen to find out more. Isn’t it every parents dream? To enjoy a delicious drink but to ditch the hangover?
Read on to find out more.
These days, I do still like to go out and have a nice glass of wine with a meal (well- pre-pandemic I certainly did) however that isn’t where my issue with alcohol lies. For me it’s all about the spirits… Cocktails always seem like a great idea at the time, however they often have multiple different spirits in, sometimes with little or no mixer. You start with a cheeky one and before you know it, you’re ordering a round of shots for everyone…or is that just me!?
Don’t even get me started on gin! Again, I absolutely love it, but what if it was possible to have decent gin-free gin & tonic? What if I could find a “grown-up” drink for a mid-week tipple, that won’t leave me either regretting the calories or wondering what kind of artificial sweeteners have gone into it? I don’t know about you, but after two pregnancies where drinking alcohol was off limits, I am completely bored of all the usual cola’s, fruit juices & soft drinks.
Founded by Spencer Matthews, of “Made in Chelsea” fame, they began in 2019 initially with Clean G, the 1.2% ABV gin alternative, but then rapidly expanded the range to include Clean R (1.2% ABV rum alternative), flavoured Clean Gin Editions- we tried the Clean G Rhubarb edition (1.2% ABV) , Clean T (alcohol-free tequila alternative) and Clean V Spiced Apple (alcohol-free vodka alternative) They also now stock canned ready-to-drink cocktails.
Mumbler was lucky enough to have 4 different bottles to sample & review, so we invited 5 of our Mumbler Mums to HQ to have a mid-week clean cocktail party so that we can report back to you. It felt fantastic (if a little bit naughty!) to drink cocktails while the kids were at school, yet still be perfectly sober to get in the car & drive afterwards!
You can see the full videos of how we got on on our instagram stories here– we’ll be adding a new cocktail idea every week for the month of May, so be sure to pop back & see the rest!
Firstly the bottles themselves are beautiful and would look lovely in any drinks cabinet. They are sent in the post & are really well packaged in cardboard fully-recyclable packaging. (As an aside, our packaging is about to get transformed into a Titanic model for my daughters school project; bonus!)
The drinks all smell like you would expect- the Clean R rum alternative has got the distinctive caramel-sweet & spicy aroma that you’d expect from a rum (unsurprising because it’s distilled in the same way as traditional rum) Similarly, the Clean Gin is distilled an small copper pot gin stills and has got the herby-botanical scent that you’d expect from your favourite gin.
Flavour-wise, all five of our Mumbler testers were extremely pleasantly surprised! I think that because traditionally low & no alcohol alternatives have been made with cheaper ingredients or with less care & skill, the end product hasn’t been very good. To be honest, we probably weren’t expecting much, however you can tell the quality & expertise with Clean Co. These drinks taste fantastic and without exception, every cocktails that we made tasted delicious.
Whilst I could tell the difference between a Clean Gin & Tonic compared to a traditional Gin & Tonic, that absolutely doesn’t detract from the flavours and the overall experience. These Clean Co drinks are exceptionally good and I will definitely buy them again.
Chatting with the other Mumblers, I know that I’m not alone in wanting a really enjoyable adult drink, that isn’t going to give me a hangover. These Clean Co drinks completely fill that void.
You can find out more & buy your own bottles on the Clean Co website here. They currently have 15% off all products for a limited time only. Try a bottle for £16! (updated 18th May 2021)
Sponsored blog for Clean Co
Footnote:
We had so much fun filming & testing all the Clean & Co drinks for our clean Cocktail party, however 5 mums who have barely been out at all for the past year, never mind “out-out,” trying to be like Tom Cruise in the film “Cocktail,” didn’t quite work out as planned… You can watch our hilarious bloopers here.