Lambrini - The Party Drink

 Many people think that Lambrini is a wine, when in fact, it's perry; made from pears, often called pear cider.  Lambrini has been marketed as a party drink and it's original slogan was "Lambrini Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"  which has led to a certain amount of snobbery with regard to the drink.

In the somewhat macho UK drinking culture, Lambrini isn't regarded as a 'real' drink, because of it's low alcohol content. It said to be drunk only by 'chavs' and 'essex girls' - the association implying that Lambrini is only drunk by uneducated people who can't afford 'real wine.'

Leaving aside Lambrini's downmarket public image, the drink actually has a light, refreshing flavour.  For those who are old enough to remember it, Lambrini tastes not unlike Babycham, that famous perry with the prancing Bambi on the bottle, so loved by ladies in the 60's. 

The most ubiquitous comment about Lambrini is that it tastes nothing like wine, which it doesn't, because it's perry.  If one tackles the drink expecting it to taste like wine, one will always be disappointed, because it tastes like pear cider. 

 Many are disparaging about Lambrini's lack of alcohol content, but is that necessarily a bad thing?  The Uk has a burgeoning rate of alcoholic liver disease and the costs to the tax-payer of policing and clearing up after drunks at the weekend now that licensing laws allow boozing all the time is huge.

So, what is wrong with Lambrini's alcohol content of around 7%?  That means there is less than one unit of alcohol in a standard 125ml glass, as opposed to  2.2 units for red or white wine.  Why is a drink only valid if it's strong enough to perish your liver in one sitting?

A litre bottle of Lambrini costs less than £2.00, which must make it one of the cheapest drinks on the market. Surely in these times of economic strife that can't be a bad thing.

There is a wide variety of flavoured Lambrini, such as peach, but you are likely to see only the original and the newer Lambrini light on the supermarket shelves. Light Lambrini has an alcohol content of just 5.5% - that's 0.7units of alohol per 125ml glass and only 40 calories.

 So there you have it, Lambrini is a light, refreshing, sparkling perry drink with as few as 40 calories per glass.  It's price is easy on the pocket and you'd have to drink it in vast quantities to destroy your liver.

What's not to like?