In Aldi today and picked up a bottle of their Baileys type drink Ballycastle.
At £3.99 a bottle it's not bad at all. In fact if somebody gave me this and I did not see the bottle I would think I was drinking Baileys.
Anybody else tried it?

It's nice but the Irish [Whiskey] Cream Liqueur all a much of a muchness imo. ALDI does seem to be 50p/£1 cheaper than the big supermarkets though.

I've never tried it from anywhere else. Usually pay 3 times the price for proper Baileys.

ADSA and Tesco but have them for around £4.50.
Not sure about LIDL. I'd expect it to be around the same price.

It is nice. Asda do a good one too, Irish Knights which is a bit more at £4.54 - used to be £2.99 when we first bought it a few years ago.

I did look at that when I was last in Asda but it said it was cream and blended wines with no mention of whiskey.

I just made 2L of the stuff on Sunday and have half a bottle of whiskey left. It's really simple if you fancy having a go Aly.

[quote=Smokeychan1;62962646]I just made 2L of the stuff on Sunday and have half a bottle of whiskey left. It's really simple if you fancy having a go Aly.[/

How long does it keep for?

I made an egg-less version and used long-life cream. The recipe says it will be good for two months in the fridge, which is why I used that particular version - the egg based irish creams are only good for a couple of weeks according to the advice given in their recipes, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's over-cautious.

I think I could manage to drink it in that timeframe
Any tested recipe suggestions?

The ALDI own brand Bavarian wheatbeer is excellent as well, and about half the price of branded bottles.

I buy it from Aldi, Baileys is grossly overpriced

This recipe is the one I used as a basis for my homemade 'Baileys'.

Some notes/tips:[LIST][*]Light and Heavy cream are our equivalent of single and double I believe. Unlike the blogger, I stuck to single cream, otherwise you'd have to spoon the stuff out of a jar instead of pour from a bottle. [*]1 US cup is about 240ml. I threw a whole pot of cream in (the ones I had were about 280ish ml),but only used a 'cup' of whiskey not the 1 and 2/3rd of a cup of whiskey stated in the recipe. Mine was strong enough, I can't imagine what the almost 2 cup version tastes like [*]Sweetened condensed milk is simply condensed milk (in the US, unsweetened condensed is what we know as evaporated and could be used as an alternative if you want a less sweet version. I would probably go with evaporated next time, especially in my 2nd version of the recipe: see below).[*]Any whiskey would do ofcourse. I chose the cheapest bottle I could get from Asda...and it was Scottish so I should call it whisky not whiskey [*]I replaced the 2 tbsp of chocolate syrup with 2 dessert spoons of Bourneville cocoa I had in the cupboard. It blended in fine and the liquer had a real chocolatey flavour. You could also melt some chocolate in the cream or milk instead, but chill in the fridge before blending. [*]I had almond extract so did add this to my first lot of liquer. I also had some orange extract, so I replaced some of the whisky with orange liquer and added the orange extract instead of almond in the second version for a lovely chocolate orange flavour. [*]The teaspoon of coffee (and vanilla extract) didn't make much impact in either version, so not sure if leaving them out would make any difference. If you prefer a coffee flavour, I would definitely recommend more coffee and possibly less chocolate.[*]Before blending the liquids, pop them in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. This will avoid the chances of curdling when introducing the alcohol to the cream.[/LIST]
The great thing about recipes like this is, you can't really go wrong if your measurements aren't exact or you're missing an ingredient - infact you should definitely play around with them to suit your own taste. I'm not a huge 'Baileys' fan myself - I was making this to give as gifts - but I've enjoyed a couple of glasses and have made some ice-cream from the excess.

Mmm. That sounds better than Baileys. Will give it a go.

I bought a bottle as i refuse to pay £14 for Baileys!

Hope it taste nice.

Please don't blame me if you don't like it.

yes! and although im not a huge fan of 'creamy' drinks, i do like it, and as i find bailey's really expensive i'd just as soon have a bottle of this in the cupboard, ive got to get some this week, in fact

thanks for that!! worth trying

some of the home brews ive heard of can be pretty strong my grandparents and my parents used to go to a neighbour at christmas years ago and their home brew apparently would blow your socks off!! and i remember making our own advocaat one christmas..blimey!! i know my brother was very sick and had to go to bed as he'd seriously underestimated the strength of the stuff


any vodka recipes??

back to aldi's bally castle though, i really like it and its perfect for people who like baileys but dont want to splash out £15-20 for the real baileys

It is the nicest of the fake Baileys I have tried and the most similar. The only difference is it's a bit thinner.

I made this Cranberry and Orange Vodka as a gift for a vodka-loving sister. I can't stand the stuff so didn't taste it, but the colour is amazing (although as I was bottling it all I could smell was orange). I reckon you could probably try any fruit. I saw a nice pear/vodka infusion that may have even tempted me to drink the stuff, but the pears soften very quickly appearently so you have to replace them every 2 or 3 days. I wanted something I could shove in the cupboard under the stairs and forget about for a couple of weeks, so the above recipe worked for me and is certainly christmassy.

I tried the cheap tesco version a few years ago, the Asda version and the Iceland one and they're all just the same, I dont bother buying baileys as in my house it goes far too quick so when you get get 3 bottles for the price of 1 its silly to but the original.

Lorraine Pascale made a homemeade one on her Christmas tv special. Looked lovely and I would love to try it but I really can't be bothered when you can buy it as cheaply as in Aldi.

i've topped up my stash of ballycastle!!

ps thanks for the vodka recipe!! sounds lovely!!

The Lidl Amaretto is very good at £9.99 for 70cl. (Most places only sell it in 50cl bottles.) It's full strength too, whereas the Aldi one, although a bit cheaper, is only half-strength.

Aldi Ballycastle had its recipe changed. It is now a thinner and is made with fortified wine. Horrible taste.