Sainsbury's Irish Cream

Price:
£12.50 - 1L
£6.75 - 35cl

It wouldn't be Christmas without an Irish Cream Liqueur in the house. This style of drink is a fantastic winter warmer with the smoothness of cream blended with the heat of Irish whiskey. The obvious market leader is Bailey's but there are several other brands around as well as supermarket own products which are attempting to compete with these. This particular bottle comes under Sainsbury's "Taste the Difference" range, so in theory should offer the very best quality, comparable with the market leader. 

In practice though this is a vastly inferior product to Bailey's. There is a harshness to this drink which doesn't exist in a glass of Bailey's. Sipping this over ice is unfortunately not that pleasant and I was extremely disappointed with it. I was surprised that it has the same alcohol content as Bailey's at 17%, as there seems when sipping to be a much stronger alcohol sensation in this Sainsbury's offering. It also unfortunately left an unpleasant after taste. I was so eager to get rid of this, I threw it away before it was empty and also before I'd properly photographed it, so I've had to settle for a picture of a bottle on the shelf!

When considering the price of this product, I don't see value either. At £12.50 for 1 litre, this product is priced much cheaper than Bailey's usually retails for, but heavy discounting of Bailey's is extremely common in the run up to Christmas with £12 per bottle regularly offered at various supermarkets, and even occasionally it goes down to £10 per bottle. With the products then so similarly priced, I can't recommend the Sainsbury's Irish Cream at all. Even if the bottle is being bought for use in a dessert recipe, I'd highly recommend keeping a keen eye on Bailey's prices and buying the real thing. It's worth stocking up on Bailey's when it drops to £12 or £10, so long as you keep and eye on the expiry date, as Irish Cream doesn't last indefinitely. Usually a new bottle will be good for 12-18 months, which is plenty of time to make it worth buying a few bottles when it's cheap!