Great British Beer Hunt, Adulterated Ginger & Ginger Joe

The finalists for the Sainsbury's Great British Beer Hunt 2011 competition have been announced. I mention this because one of the beers on the list is a ginger beer. Frederic’s Great British Ginger Beer from the Frederic Robinson Brewery in Stockport, Cheshire, was one of the winners in the North West England & The Midlands region. It will be listed with all of the other regional winners in Sainsbury's stores for three weeks in September. Based on sales figures and reviews, two beers from each region will go through to a grand final where the overall winner will be listed in 300 stores for at least six months. Many producers would die for the chance to be listed in just a dozen stores so this is a wonderful opportunity for the re-born British craft beer industry.

I don't know anything about Frederic’s Great British Ginger Beer apart from fact that it is produced by the same company which brews Ginger Tom, a springtime seasonal dark ale infused with bruised Chinese ginger root. The company must be hoping to make a name for itself in the world of ginger as it also produces the highly regarded Frederic Robinson Ginger Ale for Marks and Spencer.

The Taiwanese Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed that a consignment of ginger powder adulterated with the plasticiser DIBP was imported from Herbsoul Natural Products Limited, China in June 2008. The DOH has now introduced two measures to control the quality of imported plant products: the first is that all kinds of extracts from plants in powder and liquid form made in China will be required to gain Taiwanese FDA approval before importation, and the second is that all products from Herbsoul must have a test certificate from the Chinese authorities which meets FDA and customs approval.

Recently we tried Ginger Joe, a new alcoholic ginger beer from the makers of Stone’s Original Green Ginger Wine (see launch announcement). We found that it had a pleasant sweet aroma and a taste reminiscent of orange marmalade and ginger, with hints of caramel. Served chilled, it was a refreshing, fizzy drink with enough of a ginger bite to quench your thirst. However, we found that it was not quite as gingery as the label suggested and, for some of our tasters, the use of artificial sweeteners in addition to sugar made it a little too sweet. It has an ABV of 4% but the sweetness did mask the taste of the alcohol. Our overall verdict is that if you like a drink a bit on the sweet side, this is certainly worth a try.

Career Change, More Contamination, Migraine & Irrigation Project

Many people dream of changing their career but few actually do it. So it was pleasing to read of Reuben Canada, a Philadelphia-based patent attorney, who is making a name for himself in the world of ginger. He started in his kitchen by making a ginger-infused syrup to add to vodka. This evolved into a ginger beer type drink called Jin-Ja which contains ginger, cayenne pepper, green tea, lemon juice and mint. Apparently it can be drunk both neat and as a mixer. Canada's Jin-Ja business has proved so successful that he now employs 13 staff. I really admire people who set themselves a challenge and strive for it. As the maxim goes "You only live once".

Following the recent news (see 5th June 2011 post)that ginger product exports from Taiwan are being monitored for DEHP contamination, the Taiwanese themselves have now discovered ginger powder imported from China contaminated with DIBP. DIBP is a plasticiser and it was recently discovered in a consignment of more than 80,000 ginger powder nutrition capsules in Taichung City. What puzzles me is that these plasticisers are manufactured, some undergoing complex processing, at what must be a not inconsiderable expense. Surely it must be easier, safer and cheaper to sell ginger unadulterated.

Reuters reported the preliminary results of a study into the use of feverfew and ginger for migraine. Researchers at the Headache Care Centre in Springfield, Missouri gave a group of volunteers a feverfew and ginger preparation whilst a control group was given a placebo. Initial indications were that the feverfew and ginger preparation had a noticeable effect in reducing pain but as the survey sample size was too small the results cannot be considered conclusive. Fortunately I've never suffered from migraine but I know people who do and so I hope that this treatment turns out to be a success.

How do you increase your agricultural production in an Indian drought zone? How do you harvest ginger out of season following a poor monsoon? You simply install irrigation. But not just any old irrigation system. The India Tribune has reported that Gujarat and its neighbouring states are reaping the benefits of the Sardar Sarovar project, first conceived in the 1940s by Nehru, whereby a huge dam and reservoir feed an extensive network of canals and sub-canals. It's hard to believe that it has taken so long to build but I suppose that a project of this scale must be extremely expensive for any country or donor agency to undertake.