Happy lockdown, guys, gals and everyone else! I’m reviewing the #beachathomebox today featuring a booze juice called Aloha 65 and a nail varnish from London Grace; I have to pop this paragraph in here as part of my agreement with Hype Experiences, the experience manager providing me with the products:

“Thank you @hype_experiences_london for arranging this media delivery. If you are a content creator, I recommend joining their community to review products! More info here https://hypeexperiences.com/about-for-reviewers“

Full disclosure: this is my first experience with Hype and I paid £2 to receive and review the products! First onto the bottle of Aloha 65 which initially drew me to the listing to review…the branding is super pretty and, as a gal who enjoys a bit of retro shizzle and simple design, I was pretty much sold on this product visually straight away. I really like the look of the bottle and the website; bright, colourful and tropical! Seems like my sort of beverage! The flavours mentioned on the label are pineapple, ginger, chilli and lemon which sounds already like something I’d mix up into a drink. Lovely stuff, promising.

So, what is this? Well, the brand say in many places that they are not gin and not rum….what spirit is it? Not vodka either! It’s a “spirit drink” infused with the fresh bits and bobs I already mentioned (scotch-bonnet chillies specifically) plus some carefully selected herbs and spices. It’s all natural and vegan stamped which is good news for you tropical drink loving vegans out there, and the animals in general. It sits at 27% so isn’t the strongest of spirits but that’s okay with me, I don’t want to end up on the floor too early!

This spirit drink was “born in a U.S surf bar” for the post surf/sea crowd and the team felt it simply needed sharing, so Aloha 65 was born – the spirit… and also a hot sauce which I haven’t yet tried. I’m unsure if there are links to Hawaii for this drink or for any of the founders of this company, but  Aloha is used as a common Hawaiian greeting and is also the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion and mercy.  On top of this, it has a deeper cultural and spiritual significance to native Hawaiians where the term is used to define a force that holds together existence. So it’s pretty important!

I’ll admit I don’t drink at home very much and my ‘accessories’ for making cocktails are minimal…..usually I’d grab a bottle of this to take to a weekender to share with my tiki loving lads, or to a pal’s house/top up my hip flask with before a night out. We had ginger ale at home so I mixed the Aloha 65 with that, added some ice (not ‘plenty’ as instructed because I gots a small ice tray) and a slice of lime which makes up most of their Classic Alohan. Ideally I’d have mint in there too, but I didn’t have any to hand… a riveting story from FMPH right there!

Taste wise it’s quite fruity. I didn’t get much spice in there but you do have to shake the bottle before you serve due to the fresh ingredients so maybe the spice didn’t mix in that much. I’m quite glad I didn’t get a mouth of scotch bonnet though to be honest! The ginger ale mix is a solid suggestion (one I use regularly when I drink rum) and overall the cocktail was pretty sweet and summery. I tried Aloha 65 straight with just ice too and it definitely tastes stronger than 27%! The spice really comes through and it’s a very unique taste, very warming so would work well in both a summer cocktail or as a winter warmer. I’d probably prefer to drink something a wee bit more subtle tasting to start off a night but once I was a few bevs in I reckon I’d tuck into this.

Along with this bottle of booze I was sent a cute pink nail polish from London Grace who are a nail, coffee and cocktail bar! Three pretty good things in one place, I must say. The colour is Chloe, a lush coral pink –  cute and matches really well with the Aloha 65 branding – nice and bright. I’m horrendous at applying my own nail varnish and I do have short natural nails at the moment (ergh, Coronavirus, please go away!) so I apologise for the painting quality in the video! I probably need to drop into the London Grace Shoreditch nail bar to get my claws re-attached when we’re all allowed out to play again…with PPE and social distancing of course!

Thanks to both Aloha 65 and London Grace, plus of course Hype Experiences. This was an insightful try! If you want to get your hands on either of these the easiest way is to give it a Google or you can grab a bottle of spirit and/or polish on Amazon easily:

Click here for some Aloha 65 and click here for the London Grace Chloe colour nail polish.

aloha65.com
londongrace.co.uk

Instagram: @alohasixtyfive @ldn_grace

Organised by Hype Experiences  @hype_experiences_london