Summer Holidays: What to drink?

Cruzcampo

Spain

If you are heading to the North of the country I would definitely recommend going to a Sideria, even if you don’t like cider. In one of these you can order a Champagne-style bottle of cider for a few Euros. The waiter then comes over and uncorks the bottle. They hold your glass in one hand and the bottle in the other. The cider is poured from the bottle to your glass with about half a metre between the two. This aerates your drink, adding to the flavour and the carbonation.

After a few ciders, you might be tempted to tell the waiter you can pour it yourself. When I tried copying the pouring style I missed the glass entirely – so DIY cider pouring does not come recommended…

In the south of the country you’ll find lager and wine the prevalent drinks. San Miguel is drunk widely in Spain – but if you fancy an alternative I thoroughly recommend Cruzcampo. This is both tasty and refreshing. An absolutely perfect drink for a baking day spent on the Costa del Sol drinking beer and eating tapas.

Turkey

Turkey’s unofficial ‘national drink’ is raki. Avoid. There is a reason the drink hasn’t taken off outside of Turkey – I found it tasted of salt, and made me feel ill after drinking. Raki is normally mixed with water, where it turns an unappetising milky white colour.

I had to get myself an Efes as soon as possible to take away the taste. Efes is the only brand of beer that I saw in Turkey. The most prevalent Efes, Efes Pilsen, is a good pilsner, light and surprisingly flavoursome. Certainly a good thirst quencher. There is also an Efes Dark. I found this to be a little heavy in the heat, and the flavours were not a scratch on the dark lagers produced elsewhere in the world.

Australia

Contrary top expectations, Australians don’t drink much Foster’s and 4X! That’s because there are other breweries there producing some great beer. So if you are lucky enough to be heading down under this summer, I recommend drinking Coopers beer. They have plenty of varieties to satisfy – from their Sparkling Ale to their Best Extra Stout. The Sparkling Ale is a really robust and fruity drink, whilst the stout is very dry bitter.

Belgium

If you are crossing over to Belgium you are in for a real treat if you like your strong lagers. There are far too many to list - I only wish that my student loan stretched far enough so that I could try them all! After trying many, however, my favourites have remained Duvel and Chimay Blue. But these can be found in England – so if you are making the trip to Belgium my advice would be to have a Kwak, because it comes in a very cool glass, and then just try as many different ones as you can. You may have the odd one that isn’t as fantastic as the others, but this will be worth it for the brilliant gems you are sure to discover.

Eastern Europe

You can get some amazing beers here - dirt cheap - but everywhere has its own specialty so you’re not likely to get much choice when you get there. Just ask for beer, relax, and from my experience not much can really go wrong.

If, however, you’ve decided to stay in England and spend the rest of your loan on festival tickets, I’m afraid you may just be stuck with warm pints of Carling. You could take a road trip to the massive beer shop, Beers of Europe, in Norfolk, where they sell over 1,700 varieties of beer, so pick up a few interesting ones. Then if it’s sunny in England you can sit in your garden and pretend you are wherever your beer came from.

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