It's Never Too Late To Enjoy A Mince Pie!

Today here in the UK we've been hit with what the press are calling 'the big freeze' and most of the country is currently under a blanket of snow. For many other countries this much snow would not cause a problem, but with the mild conditions we experience 99% of the year, this sort of weather takes us a bit by surprise!

It does seem a bit of shame that we couldn't have had the snow a few weeks earlier and enjoyed it at Christmas, but it's nice to see the countryside looking so beautiful whatever month this wintery weather does come along.

If you're a big fan of Christmas but you didn't discover our website until it was too late to order for the big day, then you might be interested to have a look at our stock clearance category. It's full of many of our most popular festive products that are now at a hugely discounted price.

Many of the products in this category, although enjoyed at Christmas are just as nice to have throughout the rest of the year; such as Cadbury Occasions Biscuits, Quality Street tins and Giant Malteaser Tubes.

So if you missed having traditional British Christmas items at your house in 2012, then why not buy them now and not only get them at bargain prices, but also indulge yourself with a sneaky festive treat 11 months early!

Burns Night Celebrations

Every year on 25th January Scotland celebrate the life and works of their most famous poet - Robert Burns.

Burns is most famous for his poem 'Address to a Haggis' and the New Year anthem 'Auld Lang Syne', but wrote hundreds of other peoms and songs in his lifetime. 

The Burns Night celebration typically involves gathering friends and family for a traditional Scottish feast, consisting of haggis, neeps and tatties.

So if you live abroad and are planning on celebrating Burns Night, make sure you check out our new 'Scottish Corner', full of products such as; StahlyQuality Foods Scotch Haggis and everything else you'll need to celebrate in true Scottish fashion.

If you're struggling for pudding ideas to end your celebrations then you might be interested in trying resident chef Hannah's Tipsy Laird Trifle. This dessert is made using Battenberg cake and was first created for Queen Victoria's daughters wedding!

All the details for this pudding are within our recipe section of the website.

January Promotions at BCS

So the festive season is over for another year and we hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and New Year wherever you were in the world.

To help you all get over the 'back to work blues' we've decided to immediately launch a new January promotion and prize draw.

As of today (Tuesday 8th January 2013) we will be offering our customers 10% off shipping to all countries. This offer will be available for two weeks and so will end on Tuesday 22nd of January.

On top of this we have introduced a prize draw where you can win 40% off your next BCS order. All you need to do to enter is make sure all fields in your customer profile, within the 'My Account' tab, are completed in full (includes all non required fields). Once you have done this you will be entered automatically into every monthly draw.

If you don't currently have a BCS account all you need to do is register with us and complete your profile as described above.

We will be picking the winner on the last working day of each month, so enter before the 30th January to be in with a chance of being this month’s lucky customer! For more details simply check out the latest news section of the website.

We've got lots of other exciting promotions, rewards and incentives planned for 2013, so if you want to be the first to know about these keep checking our Facebook, Twitter and Google + accounts, or sign up to our bi-monthly newsletter.

Our resident chef Hannah is also back and this week is preparing a Scottish pudding for those of you celebrating Burns Night, so we'll be posting this on here and on the website over the next few days!

Merry Christmas From BCS!

So, it's only 5 days until Christmas and as of midday on Christmas Eve the BCS team are on holiday until Wednesday 2nd January 2013!

It's been an incredibly busy Christmas for us, and we're all looking forward to a well earned break so that we can come back refreshed and ready for (hopefully) an even busier year in 2013.

If you have had enough of Christmas and want to crack on with buying your British food for 2013, you can still do this while we are away, however your order will not be processed on the 2nd January 2013.

We have lots of exciting plans for the New Year and we'll also have plenty more recipes from our resident chef Hannah, so keep an eye out for those.

So wherever you are in the world we hope you have a fantastic Christmas and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

Merry Christmas

Most Popular British Christmas Food

With Christmas just around the corner the majority of us will now have our food ordered or bought ready for the big day.

At BCS we’ve had an incredibly busy Christmas period, which we think only solidifies the evidence that when living abroad the desire for a traditional British Christmas is stronger than ever.

There are a few key items that spring to mind when you think of a British Christmas, so we thought we’d list our top 10 most popular Christmas items;

1. Walkers Luxury Mincemeat Pies
2. Robertsons Traditional Mincemeat
3. Bisto Gravy Granules
4. Mr Kipling Mince Pies
5. Paxo Sage and Onion Stuffing
6. Nestle Quality Street Tin
7. Cadbury Magical Elves
8. Cadbury Roses Tin
9. Tom Smith Traditional Tree Gold and Red Crackers
10. Mattew Walker Classic Christmas Pudding

On our Facebook page we asked our fans to send us pictures of their homemade Christmas treats, and we received some great photos of homemade mince pies. This combined with our top ten list proves that mince pies in particular are still a solid Christmas favourite among us Brits!

If you think an important item is missing from this top ten, why not leave a comment and let us know?

 

Happy Christmas!

Sticky Toffee Pudding - The Perfect Christmas Dessert

With less than two weeks to go until Christmas, now is the time to start finalising your menu for the big day. So the latest recipe from our resident chef Hannah; Sticky Toffee Christmas Pudding, has come at the perfect time!

Although there are plenty of good shop-bought Christmas puddings to choose from, there really is nothing better than a proper home cooked dessert. Not only does it create a heavenly Christmas aroma throughout the house, but it also gives you the opportunity to tweak a recipe to suit you and your family's tastes.

If you're not a huge fan of the traditional Christmas pudding then you're sure to love this adapted version, as it combines two of the most popular British desserts; Sticky Toffee Pudding and Christmas pudding.

Combining these two desserts allows for a much lighter sponge, and will therefore make a more appealing dessert for children and those of us who find the traditional Christmas pudding a little too heavy.

Hannah has also detailed how to make a deliciously sweet toffee sauce and homemade Irish cream to go with it.

We now have 3 festive recipes on the website, all of which will help you on your way to creating an array of home cooked Christmas treats; so take a look at our recipe page for all the details.


Happy baking!

Stock Up On Your Favourite Tea For 2013

There are many things about Britian that I love; such as country pubs, Sunday newspapers and proper bacon, but one of my personal favourite things about Britian is our nationwide love of tea.

There really is nothing like a steaming cup of PG Tips to kick start my day, nor is there a more perfect beverage to enjoy while having a chat with a good friend. 

At British Corner Shop we know and understand this love of tea, and from personal experience have discovered that it really doesn't taste the same anywhere else in the world.

This is why we've made sure our tea collection is as substantial as possible, to ensure all our customers are able to have access to the tea that gets them through their day.

We currently have 14 different tea categories;

Typhoo
Tetley
Pukka
Twinings Green Tea
Twinings Infusions
Twinings Tea
New English Tea
Bewleys
Clipper
Yorkshire/Taylors
PG Tips
In Nature Tea
Darvilles of Windsor
Other

So, if you're a British expat don't feel you have to go without your morning mug of tea. You can order your favourite in individual boxes, or if you prefer you can use our bulk buy option and get your annual supply in one go!

If there is a particular tea that you want but can't see on our list, just let us know and we'll do our best to source it for you.