These early bottles are reassuringly chunky with a dent at the base indicating their pre-war age, a design factor that continued into the 1920s as there was a shortage of glass. Well, exciting for me, but maybe not so much for the non-mudlark who doesn’t quite get the passion for finding lovely, muddy things on the Thames Foreshore when the tide is out. The product was advertised in many different ways, including as a dietetic and as a patent medicine. Finish: medium, tarry, and with always quite some mead, and perhaps burnt, or pan-fried gingerbread.

The colonne créole is the traditional still that they use for rhum agricole in Martinique and Guadeloupe. I don’t think it’s very smart to start such as session with such high voltages, but there, we said ‘randomly’. As well as expatriates looking for a taste of home in countries like France and Spain, Bovril is extremely popular in Malaysia, Singapore and China where generations of people have grown up with the iconic British drink.

The first part, chosen by Lawson when he rebranded in 1886 changing the name from "Johnston’s Fluid Beef", comes from Bovine - the Latin for Ox. Quick and easy to prepare – Just add your cube to 380 ml of boiling water and stir to enjoy that great beef flavour. Now we all know that ‘smart’ bacterial fermentation will soon be all the rage with many spirits, including Scotch, while that’s forbidden as of now, unless ‘it would just happen’. Also dill, wild carrots, soy sauce… With water: some saponification happening, and you need a lot of time to get rid of those notes, this time.

Nose: as much chalk and copper as possible, then fresh asparagus, leaves and branches, then this very peculiar kind of sulphur that’s also to be found in Mortlach (from the distillate, not from the casks), and then the same artichokes as in the 15. Bovril has survived into the twenty-first century and is today owned by Unilever who also sells a number of Bovril bouillon products under the Knorr brand. There’s also something slightly medicinal, iodine, aspirin tablets, bandages… With water: tarmac, whelks and clams, really! Mouth (neat): really rich, mostly on bitter oranges, Campari, bitters, cherry stems, and once again some artichokes. On Christmas Day in 1902, Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton supped on a warming cup of Bovril after a chilling four-hour march across the South Pole.You should also note that the picture images show only our serving suggestions of how to prepare your food - all table accessories and additional items and/or ingredients pictured with the product you are purchasing are not included. Mouth (neat): very good, big, rather sharp, and rather on marmalade and marzipan, plus touches of paraffin and tonic wine. Estery on the one side, rounder and lighter on the other side, with some fine vanilla-y wood keeping it tight and coherent. I’m so glad I could change my mind, it’s true that the first Favorites I could try, quite some years or decades ago, were heavily sauced-up, Plantation-style. I e-mailed the club and asked catering what the position regarding bovril but they have not even bothered to reply.

What’s really nice, and I suppose that’s the sake, is that very obvious, almost heady notes of rose petals start to rise to your nostrils after just 30 seconds.

Nose: I thought the 10 was much more interesting, here the spirit starts to get buried under oak spices and fig jam. Nose: this baby’s much rounder, rather less on brine-y cane juice, and more on pineapple liqueur, and perhaps mangos.

There's something rather repulsive about one of the flavourings that is often used in 'meaty' flavour mixes. Nose: clearly wilder, more deviant, with more plastic-like aromas, paraffin, sour fish oils, acacia gum, fermenting hay… It’s quite something. I remember we’d tried their ‘Very Strong Rum’ a few months ago – mind you, we had managed to survive its 84.There’s also quite a bit more mineral clout in this one too but it’s controlled and more precise than the SMWS - less scattergun (a prime candidate for the Axis of Minerality wouldn’t you say Serge?