I love a good Time Out offer, so when tickets for The Epicurean drinks and food festival at Old Truman Brewery were being sold at half price for the weekend my parents were visiting I snapped them right up! I wasn’t sure what to expect or what the proportion of food vs drink brands would be, but at half price I figured it was worth a shot.

As we walked in we were each given a fine quality Riedel tasting glass and a smart hessian tote for any purchases. I love that the bag’s bottle separator is removable, making it a very versatile bag!

A highlight for me was meeting the folks from Tengu Sake and sampling their delicious range of Japanese sake. The difference between each of their samples was immense from earthy, mushroom notes, through rich, fruity right the way to their light and refreshing sparkling sake perfect for summer!

Although the event did focus primarily on drinks, and particularly wines, there were some food vendors dotted about. We found Global Eat ltd, a wholesale distributor who were serving a range of Portuguese custard tarts. The filling was so smooth and silky and the pastry so light and crisp that we couldn’t resist buying a few to take home. I particularly loved the original, chocolate and berry flavours…oh come on it was difficult to narrow it down even to 3 out of the 5 on offer!! Unfortunately, after falling in love with them, I didn’t manage to get a straight answer from the chap I spoke to about where they distribute the tarts so that wasn’t too helpful. At least we had a few to take home!

We also sampled some British beef jerky from Billy Franks who had some awesome flavours like “Teriyaki” and “Cheeseburger”. They were actually really impressive – you could really taste the cheese and pickles! Another stall, Woza Biltong, had some venison biltong samples that were sliced to order and so thin that they practically melted on your tongue. We also tasted some of Luss Smokehouse‘s smoked trout which was just beautiful.

It’s definitely great if you are interested in wines or gins as there were plenty of brands there to sample. There wasn’t nearly as much by way of beer, food or other spirits (whiskey/brandy) though. I think it was great fun as a one-off afternoon out and we definitely learned a lot, had a great time, and came away with a few ideas for Christmas.