FIRST JOURNEYS - 80 GINS AROUND THE WORLD - PIN 80 OF 80
WORLD GIN DAY GIN, UK
AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME,
PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE
E I G H T Y D A Y S !!
80 posts (maybe a few over!)
80 different gins (maybe a few over too!)
This is the social media post that concluded a massive challenge that I set myself back in 2021 to travel virtually around the world for 80 consecutive days, getting back to London in time for World Gin Day.
SEVEN CONTINENTS...... yes, I managed all 7 (you have to allow me Antarctica!) and I'm back in the UK for World Gin Day 2021!
I've loved all the hours of research and writing... not to mention all the drinking and photography! I've learned so much too, and a huge thank you to everyone who has kept me company and followed my tour around the world, liking and commenting on all my posts. Welcome too to all the new followers who have joined me along the way. I hope you've enjoyed the journey and discovered a few (or a lot) of international gin brands along the way.
I've always had a travel bug and adding gin into the mix has made this such an amazing virtual journey — especially when travel wasn't really an option. Hopefully one day I can make it a reality and actually follow gin around the world!
So, for my final gin on World Gin Day, it had to be That Boutique-y Gin Company's 7 Continents Gin, created in collaboration with World Gin Day organiser Emma Stokes, aka Gin Monkey.
The idea is brilliant: take a botanical from different parts of the world and bring them together in one gin. There is European juniper, Australian coriander seed, North American angelica root, Asian cinnamon, African liquorice root and South American lime zest. The final gin is then finished with a tiny amount of Antarctic sea salt — harvested from waters influenced by currents originating in the Southern Ocean. So yes, I'm counting Antarctica!
I love that this isn't just a gimmick for the bottle. The botanicals actually give you a little taste of the journey, with the familiar foundations of juniper and coriander joined by warming spice, liquorice and bright citrus. It's a fitting gin to bring the whole tour together: six continents in the botanicals, Antarctica in the salt and a bottle that has travelled the world without leaving the glass.
The cocktail needs no explanation — French 75!
I'm packing away the hot-air balloon for now, but you never know where my next virtual tour will take me. I'm sure there is still plenty of uncovered ground... Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and, of course, loads of the UK!
Hopefully I'll be able to do some of these in person one day and bring out the little red car again.
Cheers!
"80 days, 7 continents, many hours of research, countless cocktails and the tiresome task of drinking them too!"
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."
