“Bensoir! It's me, Benjamin. I like to eat and drink. And cook. And write.

You may have read stuff I've written elsewhere, but here on my own blog as Ben Viveur I'm liberated from the editorial shackles of others, so pretty much anything goes.

BV is about enjoying real food and drink in the real world. I showcase recipes that taste awesome, but which can be created by mere mortals without the need for tons of specialist equipment and a doctorate in food science. And as a critic I tend to review relaxed establishments that you might visit on a whim without having to sell your first-born, rather than hugely expensive restaurants and style bars in the middle of nowhere with a velvet rope barrier, a stringent dress code and a six-month waiting list!

”There's plenty of robust opinion, commentary on the world of food and drink, and lots of swearing, so look away now if you're easily offended. Otherwise, tuck your bib in, fill your glass and turbo-charge your tastebuds. We're going for a ride... Ben Appetit!

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Jubilee-free lines

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the double Bank Holiday and some sort of  'Jubilee' celebration, apparently one of such Platinumness that the likes of it will ne'er be seen again in our lifetimest.

Anyway, it is perhaps more notable because I have yet to drink a single Jubilee-themed ale this time. Not a single one. And, believe me, if I'd found some available I'd have purchased and consumed them.

Was it really ten of the Queen's Whole Years ago that I blogged about the Diamond Jubilee and imparted fairly disparaging reviews of the beers brewed to mark the occasion? 

Why, yes. Yes, it was. I've been around longer than a decade. Who'd have thought it?

 

70 years; 0 beers 

As discussed ten years - or one Jubilee - ago, I'm no royalist, but I do wonder: Why are there so few Jubilee beers around this time? Or, if there are, why are they not surfacing on bar counters near me?

Not this one
Last time out there seemed to ales brewed especially to mark the occasion absolutely fucking everywhere.  Westerham 'Jubilation Ale' was narrowly my favourite but there were plenty of others. Even the Greene King offering wasn't altogether terrible.

And it wasn't just 2012. In 2002 I enjoyed - or at least drank - Smile's "Golden Jubilee Ale", Tom Wood's 'Goldings Jubilee', and Titanic 'Rule Britannia', amongst others.

Did breweries not realise there was a Jubilee happening again? Is the beer industry now so 'woke' that brewing something in honour of a reigning monarch is beyond the pale?

Am I mostly drinking in the kind of pubs that feel slightly embarrassed about this sort of thing?

Do they think it's not worth it because it's only 30 years until her Majesty celebrates the big Centenary Jubilee?

Answers on a bunting-bedecked postcard, please.

(Having now written this, I fully expect to go out tomorrow and be confronted by a full and healthy range of Jubilee-themed beers, obviously...

Posted by at 7:44 PM
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1 comment:

  1. Benjamin NunnJune 14, 2022 at 10:28 PM

    And, of course, I did find a few Jubilee beers the very next day! None were worth writing about, mind.

    ReplyDelete

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