A cherry-picked press trip to Herefordshire

It’s not every day you get the chance to spend time with Heston Blumenthal’s team, a group of amazing distillers and the expert spirits team at Waitrose, so when the opportunity to take a journalist to visit the Chase Vodka Distillery came up, it wasn’t one we wanted to miss! On a cold crisp day at the end of November, we travelled with a journalist from the Daily Telegraph to rural Herefordshire to give them a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the new Heston from Waitrose Cherry Bakewell Vodka. We were taken round the farm and distillery by head distiller Jamie Baggott, who showed us how the humble potato is transformed through a variety of processes (one including basically making the potatoes into mash!) into the delicious Cherry Bakewell vodka. Inspired by the great British classic dessert, the vodka is made with local cherries and amaretto extract and really does taste rather nostalgic, not to mention very moreish! Throughout the day, we were accompanied by the fascinating Otto Romer, from Heston’s team at the Fat Duck, who told us all about how the relationship between Waitrose, Heston and Chase work and how Heston’s ideas become an actual product on shelf.

After our tour, we then went back to The Verzon Hotel, a gorgeous boutique hotel also owned by the Chase family. The hotel’s expert head chef created a selection of delicious Heston canapés for us to eat alongside cocktails made from the Cherry Bakewell Vodka. Expertly mixed by David Ashton-Hyde from The Crown at Bray, we were lucky enough to sample Cherry Espresso Martinis and Cherry Sours, alongside a Mulled Cider Fruit Cup and a Herbal Tea, made from Heston’s other drinks from Waitrose – his Earl Grey Gin and Mulled Cider – which are also made at Chase.

So now, when we have a go at some of the cocktail recipes this New Year’s Eve, we’ll be taking a moment to think about all the hard work, creativity and expertise that went into the making of the vodka and if that’s not a cause for celebration, I don’t know what is – cheers to that!  

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#Unlockaw14 – Christmas Blogger Evening at Superdrug

As Christmas creeps ever closer, finding that perfect gift is on everyone’s to do list. Last Tuesday we invited a few of our favourite beauty bloggers to Superdrug’s Marble Arch store for an exclusive shopping eveningoffering a taster of what Superdrug has to offer this year.

In keeping with all things Christmassy, guests were greeted by the ZPR team wearing their best festive headgear for the occasion.

With help from beauty specialists they had the opportunity to discover Superdrug’s exclusive brands, gifts sets and stocking fillers.

The bloggers were set a challenge: use the pre-loaded £20 gift card provided and tick off as many gifts from their shopping lists as possible. With personalised pink Christmas stockings in which to collect their gifts, our guests embraced the challenge with gusto, finding presents for teens to grandparents and everything in between.

Having hit their target of £20 our guests were asked to share their haul on their social channels, with the blogger who managed to tick off most on their shopping list winning the designer fragrance kit of their choice.

After hitting the high street, we gave our guests a bag of Superdug’s finest bath time goodies to take home and chill out with.

The event was a great success, and we’re looking forward to replicating the event with bloggers in other cities around the UK in the run up to Christmas.

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It's Christmas!

England are out of the World Cup and Glasto is over so what's to look forward to now? Christmas! July marks the start of Xmas press show mania at ZPR starting next week with kitchenware supremos Lakeland - what will be this year's banana guard or strawberry huller? Well all will be revealed on Thursday as we celebrate Lakeland's passion for product at a stunning venue called the Violin Factory near Waterloo.

Elsewhere on the high street girls are getting giddy for Cheryl Cole's limited edition pink Elnett hairspray can at a Superdrug near you and in the back gardens of Britain families are making the most of the heatwave with paddling pools and trampolines jumping out of B&Q's doors.

At the World's best department store lego jewellery is the latest craze and what else will we be playing with this Autumn Winter? Well you'll just have to wait until all is revealed at the Selfridges PLAY themed press show on 22 July.

And talking of play - will we be celebrating Murray Mania today?

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