If you follow me on any of my social medias, you might have noticed an awful lot of posts about #DerbyBloggersBrunch on Saturday early afternoon.
Well, if you didn’t see any of these posts then you’ve come to the right place to hear all about the ins and outs of what took place!
I went along to last year’s Blogger’s Brunch which was organised by Monet Brooks, which you can find at Munching with Monet, at The Cosy Club in Derby which was so much fun and a great intro to the blogging world!
I got invited to the brunch as I was just starting to blog so it was the perfect chance to meet loads of other locals bloggers and see what events were all about.
This year’s brunch was again organised by the lovely Monet at the cutest independent cafe, Oliver’s, on Friar Gate, Derby.
I met up with some blogger besties before hand as they hadn’t a clue where the venue was – luckily they had me, a personal Satnav on hand to direct them.
We arrived shortly after 11 o’clock, a tad early but it gave us a chance to snap up all the photos we wanted and took a seat in the centre of the seating area, at our own blogger table!
Once everyone had arrived in from the AWFUL weather outside, the lovely Lisa explained how the day was planned out. We even had our own little itinerary which was so well organised and thought out by the team at Oliver’s.
I couldn’t wait to get stuck in and to see what we were going to get up to!
The first on the agenda was a chat from Jonathan, who is a co-creator of The Rested Cocktail Company.
He spoke about how they create and rest their concoctions which are inspired by the 1920’s in the form of short, punchy cocktails.
They bottle up the pre-made cocktail mix, rest for 30 days and then sell them to the public. Their three flavours include the Gin Martini, the Harvard and my personal favourite, the Old Fashioned.
Jonathan shook up a cocktail each for the eight of us excluding the slightly hungover Jess and Monet who does not to drink.
I opted for an Old Fashioned which was made of three types of rum and balanced with both orange and aromatic cocktail bitters. I had this topped with soda as I couldn’t drink straight rum before 12 in the afternoon…
The alcohol certainly hits you when you take a sip of this creation but it’s really delicious and reminds me of cough medicine with the zesty undertones – not complaining!
Then it was time to kick the brunch off with a mini sample of the PBJ milkshake smoothie. Although this sounded like absolute heaven, I wasn’t too keen.
I love the peanut butter and jam/jelly combo so I really thought I’d love this, however all I could taste was banana.
If you know me, you might just know how much I despise bananas.
I completely understand why banana was included as it adds the thick consistency but it just wasn’t for me, the banana was too overpowering. The others bloggers enjoyed this though so I’m sure it was just me being picky.
The next brunch choice was Smoked Salmon with Sour Cream, Chives, Roasties and a nice fried egg.
If this dish was everything minus the Salmon, I would have inhaled it within seconds but I’m just not keen on raw fish, or fish at all really.
The roasties were crispy, the egg perfectly runny and the chive and sour cream provided the perfect dunking sauce along with the runny egg yolk.
I would have maybe considered pairing this dish with bacon or sausage pattie but that’s just me!
The next serving was my absolute favourite of the day!
Coconut Pancakes with Rum soaked Pineapples with Vanilla Ice Cream – TROPICAL PARADISE.
If you could describe me in a dessert or brekkie dish, this would be me. I love coconut, I love pineapple and duh, I love rum so these were a match made in heaven. It was like a Pina Colada as a dessert.
The pancake was soft, sweet and had the odd coconut crunch. The alcohol infused pineapples were warm, silky sweet with an invited kick. The ice cream added the cool, complementing glue that held the whole dish together.
After destroying this sweet thing, it was time for a bit of a break to let our stomachs rest before the next two courses.
We chatted, took a million photos and enjoyed gazing around at the beautiful decor – perfect for us bloggers!
After around a 15/20 minute break, the next course was brought us and I think this one caused the most controversy.
Black Pudding, Roasties with Apple Sauce.
I quite like Black Pudding, it reminds me seasoned sausage meat or stuffing and I can enjoy it in small quantities but the other bloggers didn’t agree quite so much.
I think I was the only one at the table to have tried it before, others tried it and other’s didn’t which was totally fair, it has an acquired taste.
The roasties were, again, deliciously crispy and soft in the middle and the sauce was tart and melted in the mouth.
Although a great combo, I’m not sure the majority could eat this again!
The last brunch special was a favourite amongst the table… Brioche French Toast with Maple Roasted Apples and Mascarpone.
Being a huge fan of sweet brunch options, this was a winner for me. I loved the sweet cinnamon toast dipped in the thick cream cheese and the apples had that deep smoky maple flavour.
I think pretty much everyone loved this as it was gone in a few minutes on everyone’s plates!
Feeling stuffed by this point, we were offered a hot drink to which I chose to try a speciality tea, the Coconut Chai.
Although this brew didn’t taste too much like the coconut I had anticipated, it was refreshing and lovely with a few added sugars.
The Oliver’s team also brought out some wooden boards covered in mini profiteroles, chocolate eclairs and cream slices.
Although I was about to pop out of my jeans, I managed to try one of the profiteroles which were just yummy with a chocolate nutty centre, like a Ferrero Rocher!
By this point, I felt like I needed an afternoon nap to try and sleep off the food coma I was about to fall into.
We were asked by the team to rank the samples we had taste tested as a way to make up their mind what to add to their new menu.
I would personally choose the sweet options, purely because I could eat them on a never-ending cycle without getting bored.
Overall I had a wonderful day with seven lovely ladies and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting and eating, two of my favourite hobbies!
Left to right: Ellie from Unique Love Style, Sarah from Entirely Sarah, Me, Jess from An Ounce of Grace, Kelly from The Best Version of Kelly, Monet from Munching With Monet, Emmie from Carpe Diem Emmie and Gem from The Gem Agenda.
Here’s a few snaps from throughout the day:
Thank you so much to Monet for organising and putting us lot together, Oliver’s for being the most amazing hosts and the team behind the fantastic service and the lovely bloggers I spent my rainy Saturday with!
Comic Books & Yellow Ducks 