Buderim Shortage, New Levi Roots Ginger Beer, Alien Invasive Species And A Ginger Pre-Mix

Australia’s Buderim Ginger is searching global ginger markets to fill a 1000 tonne shortfall in domestic production. The shortfall has been caused by the spread of the highly destructive disease pythium soft rot (see post 6th February 2011). Buderim is confident that it will be able to find enough ginger to meet its customer requirements. One possible source could be Fiji where Buderim has a processing operation already. Coincidentally, Fiji has applied recently to export its ginger to Australia.

Levi Roots, famous for his Reggae Reggae Sauce, is to launch Fiery Root Ginger Beer with Lime ‘n’ Honey. If this ginger beer can emulate the phenomenal success of the sauce, which is available in over 600 Sainsbury's supermarkets in the UK after securing a £50,000 investment on the BBC's Dragons' Den in 2007, then it could become one of the biggest selling ginger beers in the UK.

The current issue of New Scientist carries an article about research into the world's most invasive plant species. It found that more than half of these plants established themselves in new habitats after escaping from botanic gardens. One plant mentioned in particlar is Hedychium gardnerianum (or Kahili Ginger, Wild Ginger and Ginger Lily). Native to the Himalayan region of India, this plant was first noted as invasive in Jamaica before being observed in many other regions such as Hawaii where it was introduced as an ornamental plant in the 1940s. Reproducing easily by both seed and rhizome, this plant, which can create 6-foot high dense thickets, is proving difficult to eradicate.

A pre-mix of The Famous Grouse and ginger beer is being trialled in parts of Scotland. The trial will be held from the 1st March until the second week of April in selected bars and pubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is intended that the 6% abv drink, called The Ginger Grouse, will be served long over ice. I have spoken to a number of people who are disappointed not to live in Scotland but are keen for the trial to be successful. They also hope that the drink will be available for home consumption.

In my first post I mentioned that Bruce Cost had launched his latest drink, Fresh Ginger Ale. Well, now you can have a look around his factory courtesy of Liza de Guia at Food Curated.