The 116-year-old Fitzpatrick's is Britain's last temperance bar and the drinks are made on the premises, served hot or cold and dispensed from ceramic kegs. Visitors can indulge in dandelion and burdock, blood tonic and black beer among others.
A proper crowd-pleaser is the ginger beer, which has the world's greatest kick-ass hit of ginger at the back of the throat.
Meanwhile, the bar's sarsaparilla is a real winner, and not just because of its complex earthy flavour but because in a national competition in April 2005, it came out as the UK's top dog in a blind tasting.
Talk about a stiff drink too - according to the staff, sarsaparilla has the properties of Viagra. Expect a spam email any minute encouraging you to `prolong the experience and make her happy with sarsaparilla'.
Pint
Most drinks are 50p a half pint, é1 a pint. Bottles of cordial, or neat drinks to take away, cost between é2.50 and é2.99.
The drinks are the main event, but the bar also stocks row upon row of glass jars packed with valerian, wormwood, raspberry leaf and so on.
Each has its own use - valerian, for example, relaxes the nerves, is good for headaches and aids sleep. You can also get homeopathic remedies in more modern packaging, including the romantically titled `Aloe Vera colon cleanse' - the perfect gift for that special someone, perhaps. As a final flourish, Fitzpatrick's carries a wide range of old-fashioned boiled sweets in big jars.
If you want it unusual, genuine and charming then this place is, to use a relevant analogy, the very distillation of those qualities. Plus it's the only bar you'll ever be able to legally drive away from after three pints.
Style: beyond style into legend
Signature: the herbal cordials
Rare find: the whole business.
Fitzpatrick's Herbal Health, Bank Street, Rawtenstall, Lancashire. Tel 01706 211152
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