When Sir Edmund Hillary became the first person the summit Everest in 1953, he turned to Sherpa Tenzig Norgay and said 'crikey, I could murder a beer'.
While that may not strictly be true, this beer does boast a relation to Hillary in the form of the mint cake used to create it. Romney's Mint Cake, also known as Kendal Mint Cake, is a sugar-filled confection that's popular with mountaineers and adventurers for fueling their journey.
It's been around for more than 100 years and has helped fuel all kind of adventurers on their travels, through thick and thin helping them to stay strong.
Sir Edmund Hillary was no different, taking a whole bunch of it with him to help him achieve his mountainous goal of summiting the highest peak in the world.
While beer may not have been on his list of priorities to take with him up Everest, Raven Hill Brewery have made it a priority ingredient in this beautiful mint cake stout.
The brewery lives to combine a love of adventure with a love of beer, so it's only right that there's a beer in their range that pays homage to possibly the greatest adventure of all.
If you could liquidise an After Eight mint (other wafer-thin mints are available), then it would likely smell like this. Subtly minty from the peppermint and the chocolatey sweetness from the cocoa nibs really working well.
It pours quite thin, but it's not a monster beer coming in at just 6% strength, leaving a nice light brown head which doesn't hang around. The flavour is minty, but not overpowering which can sometimes be the case with beers that use mint.
It's very well balanced, the mint staying almost in the top notes and then lending a freshness to combine brilliantly with the chocolate sweetness and slightly bitter roastiness. The aftertaste is delicately sweet, not massively flavourful but perfectly balanced to allow the finesse of the mint to shine through.
Being the spirit brewery of adventurers, it's not surprising that landscapes take centre stage with Raven Hill's cans. Normally they're more of a cartoon-style, using mountainous backdrops and scenes of adventure and colour to create an eye-catching can.
This is different though. This is an actual mountainous scene. Given that Pocket Tin is brewed in collaboration with Romney's, I'm guessing that this is a view from one of the Lake District mounds behind Kendal.
Wherever it is, it's stunning. The clouds in the valley, the sun on the hillside, the sunrise/sunset setting. It all works brilliantly - just like the beer itself.
This is a local bottle shop find for us, so check out your local to see if they have it in store or are able to order it in.
If you want to order it online then you can get your hands on this adventure-fuelled stout for just £3.83 from Raven Hill's site.
