All posts tagged: Food and drink

Best Waitrose wines 2026, chosen by a drinks expert

Best Waitrose wines 2026, chosen by a drinks expert

Published by Sam Flores

What are the best Waitrose wines? If you’re looking for affordable, quality wines this summer, you can’t go wrong with Waitrose’s range. Unbeaten for variety and for shining a light on lesser-known grape varieties and regions, Waitrose has all you need in a summer wine, whether you’re after an expressive white, a celebratory sparkler, or a chilled red. My advice would be to grab a bottle of Waitrose’s Loved & Found Vermentinu Rosé Brut NV. You won’t find much better value in a sparkling wine, particularly a rosé, possibly because this beautiful, fun expression hails from the lesser-known wine region of Corsica. Serve this fruity little number to family and friends at a summer BBQ and watch their faces light up – but you need to hurry, because stocks are limited. Why trust me? Becky Paskin is an award-winning drinks writer and presenter, with 20 years of experience tasting, judging and speaking about all things booze. The only journalist in the world with a distilling qualification, she’s a regular lead judge for spirit competitions. You …

Seedless Blackberries and Cherries That Grow on Bushes Vie to Be the Future of Food

Seedless Blackberries and Cherries That Grow on Bushes Vie to Be the Future of Food

Published by Miika Tikkanen

“Historically, there’s been so much pushback against genetic engineering in agriculture,” says Julius Beau Lucks, the codirector of Northwestern University’s Center for Synthetic Biology. The stakes are high, though. “I don’t know if we’ll see it again with editing, but if we do, it will be really hard to solve the world’s food problems.” Over the next few decades, the world’s farmers will need to produce much more food to feed a growing population while using much less land and doing much less damage to nature to avoid cascading environmental crises. The world is on track to deforest another dozen California’s worth of land for agriculture by 2050, and technological fixes like vertical farms, artificial-intelligence-driven tractors, and less resource-intensive meat substitutes forged from plants or animal cells have struggled in the marketplace. But the scientists who founded Pairwise believe their product has a chance to break through because Crispr can help farmers grow healthier and more abundant food in a warming world, with significantly less deforestation, agri-chemicals, or greenhouse gas emissions. The company is already …

How Many Electrolytes Should You Be Taking, and Can You Have Too Many?

How Many Electrolytes Should You Be Taking, and Can You Have Too Many?

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Electrolyte powders, dissolvable tablets, and trendy ready-to-drink waters have graduated from the pockets of athletes to one of wellness’s buzziest categories. And it’s a crowded market, worth an estimated $39 billion globally in 2025 and forecast to double within the next decade. Much of the growth has been fueled by wellness trends and influencer-fronted hype cycles, like Prime Hydration, created by YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI, which the company claimed pushed past $1 billion in sales in a single year. In other internet corners, dozens of celebrity and podcaster-adjacent brands are all promising a means of optimizing your way to hydration. These products are marketed as daily essentials for everyone—from office workers to gym regulars—promising to combat brain fog, improve skin, banish fatigue, and aid recovery. Here’s everything you need to know about the electrolyte obsession, and when these products are actually worth buying. What Are Electrolytes? Electrolytes are essential minerals, among them sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and chloride, that carry an electrical charge once dissolved in fluid. That charge is what lets the body …

Peppers and potatoes in padella

Peppers and potatoes in padella

Published by Sam Flores

I cook frugal meals a lot, mostly because it means I don’t have to shop every day. There’s always beans and pulses, pasta and rice, eggs, cheese and vegetables in the kitchen, plus a good stock of spices and pots of herbs. For this recipe, change the herbs you add depending on the time of year. Basil is great in the summer. (Padella is italian for ‘pan’.)    Source link

Upside-down apricot, cornmeal and lime cake

Upside-down apricot, cornmeal and lime cake

Published by Sam Flores

Apricot upside-down cake is one of my favourite summer desserts. This version is sweetened further by the cornmeal and has a tangy, moist crumb because of the buttermilk. If you can’t find buttermilk, use plain kefir. Requires 10 minutes cooling time Source link

Cumin-roast aubergines with dates and chickpeas

Cumin-roast aubergines with dates and chickpeas

Published by Sam Flores

For the dressing, put 50ml tahini, 50ml extra-virgin olive oil, 1 grated garlic clove, 4 tbsp Greek yogurt and the juice of ½ lemon into a blender with 50ml water and blitz. It should be the consistency of thick Jersey cream, and pourable. Add more water if it is too thick. Source link

Slow-cooked courgettes with mint, chilli and almonds

Slow-cooked courgettes with mint, chilli and almonds

Published by Sam Flores

In this recipe, the courgettes are cooked long and slow, in plenty of olive oil, with a sprinkling of dried chilli and lots of finely sliced garlic. The resulting luxurious combination is delicious on its own, served with a scattering of mint and some toasted almonds as a stand-alone dish, or as a silky bed on which to pile pork chops or roast chicken.  After eating them like this, you’ll never think ill of a courgette again. I love mint here, but any soft herb is good (dill, tarragon, basil or parsley). Source link

Salad Chains Are Seeing Foot Traffic Drop Over Cyclosporiasis Fears

Salad Chains Are Seeing Foot Traffic Drop Over Cyclosporiasis Fears

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Fear of explosive diarrhea seems to be scaring customers away from the purveyors of salad in business districts and strip malls across the US. On Sunday, July 11, as news of a massive cyclospora outbreak—possibly linked to contaminated lettuce—made headlines, traffic at Chop’t fell by 7.1 percent, compared to the chain’s average Sunday traffic in 2026, according to Place.ai data. The same day, foot traffic at Panera Bread was down 7.4 percent and Sweetgreen was down 3.1 percent, compared to those chains’ Sunday averages. While Placer.ai tells WIRED that it only has “a few days of data to work with,” the company says that the decline of visitors to places with “lettuce-heavy menus” began around July 10. Industry averages suggest that customers were more likely to ditch salad-heavy chains, with foot traffic across quick-service chains like McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy’s up 0.8 percent compared to their average Sunday traffic. Traffic for all fast-casual chains—the menus of which tend to include more fresh produce than fast-food rivals—was down 2.4 percent. None of these salad chains have …

Avocado, romaine and potato salad with buttermilk dressing

Avocado, romaine and potato salad with buttermilk dressing

Published by Sam Flores

You might find it odd that the potatoes are dressed twice, but it ensures that they are well-seasoned as they suck up the oil dressing while they’re still warm. This salad is great with lots of main courses – poached salmon, roast chicken and baked ham. If you can’t find buttermilk, use a mixture of sour cream and milk. Source link