MY LIFE IN DRINKS: Carol Kirkwood on her teen tipple, tea with the Queen and her most memorable drink ever The weather forecaster and author, 62, tells Scarlett Dargan about her teen tipple, tea with the Queen and the champagne to serve at her funeral By Scarlett Dargan For You Magazine Published: 12:00, 13 July 2024 | Updated: 12:00, 13 July 2024 e-mail View comments My favourite drink as a child was cola. Not the proper stuff, but a knock-off version made from my dad Malcolm’s soda machine. It would probably taste revolting to me now, but as a child of eight or nine growing up in the Scottish Highlands, it was the height of luxury.
We weren’t allowed it most of the time – it was a treat for Sundays with our roast dinner. The first alcohol I tasted was sherry. When I was a little bit older, say 12 or 13, my parents would sometimes let me have a thimble of sweet sherry.
I remember the first time I went to the pub with my friends and one of the boys asked what I wanted to drink. They were all drinking cool young-people drinks, but the only alcohol I’d ever tasted was sherry. I asked him for a sweet one, and he refused to order it.
He got me a lager and lime instead and it was disgusting. I was the laughing stock for quite a while after that. I always start off my morning with a cup of tea.
My husband Steve [Randall, who Kirkwood married last year] makes it for me when I get up for work at 2.45am. I call mine ‘baby tea’ because I have it so weak with loads of milk.
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