Ancient cultures such as the Greeks, Babylonians, and Egyptians used ale in baths to soften skin and heal irritations or wounds on the body. This tradition has begun to catch on in Europe as Beer Spas have opened in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic.

Beer can be relaxing to bathe in and helps to soften skin. Used as a shampoo, it can make your hair look stronger and gives it a natural shine. We’ve mentioned before trying out the Cynthia Sylvia Stout Shampoo from Lush. It is made with stout beer, which contains protein to give your hair weight, smoothness and gloss.

If you can’t afford a weekend away to Europe to visit one of the beer baths, then try a Lush Lemon Days & Ginger Beer ballistic bath bomb. Or create your very own bath spa at home by pouring your favourite brew into the bath instead of bubbles. This way you get the sweet scent of your favourite ale and softer skin.

Image from zuzutop.com

The Classic Shandy is made with 200ml of old fashioned lemonade, 300ml of Belgian style wheat beer and lots of tasty fruit.

Possibly the easiest of all the shandies to make, all you need to do is fill a pint glass with ice and slices of lemon, orange and lime, and then pour in the remaining ingredients – it really couldn’t be any simpler!

Other things that were big in the 80s and we would like to see make a revival this year:

• Fashion: who wouldn’t want to be taken back to the days of power suits, leg warmers, poodle perms and neon sweat bands?

• Films: cheesy but unmissable! The Breakfast Club and Ghostbusters are 80s classics – and who could forget Dirty Dancing?

• Food: in case you plan on going all-out by having a retro 80s party, recreating the right menu is a must. Think salt ‘n’ shake crisps, flying saucers, cheese and pineapple on sticks and white mice!

The Cherry Shandy will have you romanticising about the dreamy days of the 80’s and the crush that you had on your favourite heart throb, be it Adam Ant, Patrick Swayze, or Spandau Ballet. Cherry Shandy is the perfect refreshment for remembering great retro loves of the era.

Everyone loved the fab five that formed the English pop-rock band Duran Duran in the 80’s, who became one of the most successful bands with massive hits such as Rio, Is There Something I Should Know, and The Reflex. The band had an undeniable style which led to them being referred to as the prettiest boys of pop. Here at BitterSweet Partnership we suggest that enjoying a Cherry Shandy whilst listening to the sounds of Duran Duran is a perfect combination on a summer afternoon.

The ingredients that you will need for a Cherry Shandy are:

3x muddled cherries

15ml lemon juice

15ml sugar syrup

100ml lemonade

200ml Kasteel Cru

Simple yet delicious: just muddle cherries with sugar and lemon juice. Then shake and strain over the Kasteel Cru and lemonade (on ice). To finish off garnish with fresh cherries – perfection!

Last weekend, Carli from BitterSweet Partnership visited The Nutstock Festival in Northamptonshire to investigate how female-friendly beer festivals can be.  Here’s what Carli had to say:

‘Over the last few weeks there has been glorious sunshine across the UK which puts everyone in a great mood and encourages everyone to get outdoors.  The weekends are the best time to take advantage of the weather: the weekend of 3^rd-4^th July saw the annual Nutstock festival hosted in the beautiful gardens of The Walnut Tree Inn in Northamptonshire. The Nutstock festival was a celebration of food, music and beer – broadening its appeal beyond just the ale on offer.

The Nutstock organisers provided the full package of all-round entertainment with fantastic music and food – as well as great beer. Our recent BitterSweet Partnership survey showed that nearly half of women look for great food, atmosphere and entertainment in the places they choose to drink in – on this basis the Nutstock festival would deserve full marks when it comes to catering for women’s tastes.

It was great to be able to enjoy the music from bands including Superfly, Jama and The Chevrons, as well as try out the selection of over 20 different local brews.  After sampling some of the ales that were on offer my personal favourites (for their names as much as their taste) were That Old Chestnut which is a lightly hopped easy drinking beer with a rich chestnut colour and subtle roasted notes, and Hop A Doodle Doo, a copper coloured ale with a full bodied feel and a delicious fruity taste. The information on offer at Nutstock was really helpful and informative.

The food selection was also great, from local dishes, to the hog roast and classic Sunday lunch.  Saturday saw a more exotic menu with homemade chicken and vegetable curries all served with steaming hot rice. The vast array of food and ale at the Nutstock festival created a good day for discovering great food and beer pairings.

It was great to see lots of women at Nutstock were happy to sample the food and wash it down with a beer that complemented their meal. Nutstock was the perfect way to spend the weekend in the sun with great entertainment and enjoyment with family and friends – roll on next year’s!’

Image from The Walnut Tree Inn

If you can’t make it down to Kanaloa, why not get all your friends together for a Club Tropicana inspired evening at home? You can dress up in clashing neon beachwear and sing the night away to massive hits like Everything She Wants, Wham Rap! and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go?   Shandy Sour is the perfect drink for a Wham! party, as it will quench your thirst so you don’t miss a beat!

To make a Shandy Sour, the ingredients that you will need are as follows:

1 whole lime cut into 8ths (cubed)

25ml sugar syrup

140ml light premium lager

100ml lemonade

The method for making Shandy Sour is straightforward: simply muddle lime and sugar syrup in the bottom of a 14oz catalina glass, fill with crushed ice and pour in remaining ingredients. Garnish with scored lime wedge.

It provides a fantastic flavour for so many dishes, but don’t just take our word for it. Try a few of the scrumptious best beer dishes that we have found from our favourite British celebrity chefs.
• Who said beer is fattening? Gizzi from Channel 4’s ‘Cook Yourself Thin’ includes beer in her Vietnamese chicken dish
• For something that is a little bit more naughty but also very nice try Jamie Oliver’s curried cauliflower fritters
• Delia has provided a recipe for something sweet this summer with her rhubarb and ginger beer jellies
• Make your summer BBQ’s a little bit tastier with Anthony Worrall Thompson’s onion ale relish. This really is the perfect partner for your sausages and burgers
Image by Delia Online

As part of our work to bring back the ultimate 80’s summer drink – shandy – we’ve teamed up with London’s award winning celeb haunt Kanaloa to create four exclusive shandies. All four mix fruity flavours with a selection of different shandy cocktails to deliver the perfect drink choice for the summer.

If you visit Kanaloa from the 2^nd to 27^th August, you’ll be able to try these delicious drinks in the club’s award-winning retro ‘Club Tropicana’ inspired surroundings. But for those who cannot wait to get into the 80’s groove and make your own shandy, we’ll be posting each of the four new recipes here over the next few weeks.

The first in the series is the Shandy Blush, a fruity take on this classic drink. It brings to mind blushing beauty Kylie Minogue, whose first single ‘Locomotion’ spent seven weeks at number one on the singles chart in 1987 and became the highest selling single of the decade.

The ingredients you’ll need are as follows:

15ml Fresh Raspberry Juice

15ml Sugar Syrup

165ml Kasteel Cru Rose

100ml Ginger Ale

To make, simply churn all ingredients with crushed ice in a 14oz catalina glass (tall glass) and garnish with two raspberries and an apple fan.

So what are you waiting for? Dust down the ghetto blaster, dig out that Stock Aitken Waterman mix cassette and get together with your girlfriends to create your favourite shandy at home.

Previous BitterSweet Partnership surveys have highlighted that women are more likely to enjoy a beer during the summer festival season, with nearly a third of women opting to drink it. Even female celebs can’t resist a beer when getting into the spirit of the festival.  Kate Moss, Lily Allen and Cameron Diaz are all regular campers at music festivals: whether it’s good old Glastonbury or the sunnier and exotic Benicassim, all three have been spotted in the past quenching their thirst with a refreshingly cold beer.

Regular festival goers will also know that burgers, chips and junk food are the mainstay food diet for the weekend. So, it makes perfect sense that you should choose a beer to drink, with a bottle of beer having just 142 calories, which is 43 calories less than a large glass of wine, something that calorie-conscious celebrities seem to already know!

If you needed an excuse to revisit shandy, there are many great reasons why it should become your favourite drink: it’s thirst-quenching and can be as versatile as you like it – either a fuss free 50-50 lager and lemonade combination, or you can create a more exotic shandy. Watch this space for some exclusive and delicious shandy recipes…

If you heart shandy, come and join us on our new Facebook page so that you’ll be the first to know about all the latest news, and recipes – and so that you can reminisce with us about the most iconic decade of the past century! What was your favourite thing about the 80s?

At BitterSweet Partnership, we’ve been visiting pubs all over the UK in order to look at how female-friendly they are and review them for The Good Pub Guide (it’s a hard life, I know!). The question we’ve been asking recently is: Are pub quizzes a good way to spend a quiet weeknight, or are we better off staying at home? We visited two North London pubs to find out.

If you’ve ever had a secret hankering to be a contestant on a cheesy quiz show, The Landseer has the pub quiz for you. While you’re not put up on a stage, the quiz features extroverted host ‘Harry Ainsworth’, who is besuited and spectacled. He even has his own theme tune. It’s this which makes the quiz far more fun than your norm – and the questions are fun too, focusing mainly on entertainment. The pub itself is a nice one too, with interesting bar snacks and a good range of beers on tap.

If you like your pub quizzes more traditional, you’ll like The Island Queen’s quiz on a Tuesday. This quiz is longer, with a picture round, and was a more rigorous test of general knowledge, asking questions as diverse as “How tall is an Association football goal post” to “How did Superted get his powers?”. This quiz also has an opportunity to win a free drink on the spot by being the first to answer a question. The quiz master is no-nonsense, which is great for helping the quiz run smoothly but makes the evening less relaxing than other pub quizzes. This one’s for you if you’re very knowledgeable and like to test yourself – it’s also worth visiting the Island Queen if you’re into real ale, as it’s a CAMRA pub.

Are you a regular at your local pub quiz? Are there any that you think we should go to?

The Landseer, 37 Landseer Road, Holloway, London N19 4JU

The Island Queen, 87 Noel Road, London N1 8HD