Would you miss alcohol if you gave up drinking? When I was pregnant, I tried quite a few non-alcoholic cocktails but there was only one that I felt really worked. Most were overly sweet and just didn’t have that refreshing taste that I look for in a drink. And a lemonade or an orange juice lacks the glamour of a wine glass or a cocktail glass - especially when they get served up in a pint glass!

I was kindly invited to an evening with Pizza Express and Seedlip Drinks, whose Garden 108 non-alcoholic spirit is one of the new additions on the Pizza Express autumn menu. Seedlip are the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirits and the Garden 108 is a herbal and floral blend of hand-picked peas. I have to admit that I was intrigued as to whether a non-alcoholic spirit could ever taste as good as the real thing, and more than a little bit sceptical!

 

 

We were introduced to the guys from Seedlip Drinks, who introduced us to Seedlip and gave us a little cocktail masterclass. I love the story behind Seedlip. It was created by Ben Branson, who comes from a family of farmers and fascinated by nature. And it really shows - the Garden 108 smells like a herb garden in a glass and the Spice 94 has a distinctly Christmassy feel, with tones of clove. I have to admit that I expected to enjoy the Spice version based on the smell, but I loved the refreshing taste of the Seedlip Garden 108 served with Fevertree tonic - it was like a twist on a gin and tonic and really different to anything I’ve tried before. I think a non-alcoholic cocktail is far more difficult to balance the different flavours, and the gardener in me loved how fresh and herbal this tasted.

It would be the perfect drink, not only if you’re pregnant, but if you’re the designated driver, teetotal, or if you just don’t fancy drinking!

 

 

Then it was onto making our own pizza! We were each given an apron and hat, and our own pre-made dough to make our pizza base. Turns out, it’s harder than it looks! We were shown how to stretch the dough into a lovely round circle, and how to toss it in the air. I started off really well and my base was a perfect circle, but somewhere along the line it all went wrong, and it was so bad it had to be taken away for one of the chefs to redo it for me!

 

 

When it comes to toppings, that’s much more my thing, and we had a whole array of them to choose from. I went for artichokes, black olives, onions, lots of cheese and a drizzle of olive oil to finish it off! We all handed over our pizzas to the chefs to cook them and sat down to get to know each other. It was a lovely group of bloggers and we easily got chatting about our families, our blogs, and our careers.

 

 

It felt like the evening flew by, and before I knew it it was time to be heading home!

 

Thank you so much to the team at Pizza Express Gloucester Road and Seedlip Drinks for a lovely evening.

 

Disclosure: I was invited to this event by Pizza Express and compensated for this post, however all words and opinions are my own.