An emporium of alcoholic delights is among the wooden stalls available for perusing along Broadmead in the run-up to Christmas. Weber & Tring’s is a new business founded by Richard Tring, head bartender at the Milk Thistle, and his wife Sarah, unusual for this market in that it does not sell candles, silver pine cones or German sausages.

What Weber & Tring does sell is hot toddies at £3 each and slightly more expensive bottles of some fine liqueur. When I visited, bottles of Duff Beer from The Simpsons were also doing a roaring trade.

But it is the spirits that are the real draw here, with tastings of different tipples happening each day. I sampled Zacapa 23 rum from Guatemala earlier this week, the first time since this quite extraordinary evening at the Milk Thistle earlier in the year.

Today it is Chartreuse, a liqueur made by Carthusian Monks in France since the 1740s composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbal extracts. Tomorrow it is Ketel 1 vodka, and over the weekend Chivas 12 blended scotch whisky and Appleton VX rum, with plenty more to follow until December 23.

Website: www.facebook.com/WeberandTrings
Twitter: @weberandtrings