Gin Blog by GinSquares

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 2022-2023

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 18:49:12 GMT

RECAP ON 2022/3 TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

THEME: CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

SAIGON BAIGUR GIN - Vietnam

Fri, 05 May 2023 15:24:25 GMT

HONG KONG GIN DISTILLERIES - NIP, TWO MOONS

Fri, 05 May 2023 15:23:29 GMT

THE ETHICAL SPIRITS COMPANY - JAPAN - LAST EPISODE GIN

Fri, 05 May 2023 14:51:54 GMT

2021 Twelve Squares of GinMas

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 23:08:10 GMT

A Gin-Lover's Twist on the Song - Twelve Days of Christmas

TWELVE DAYS OF GINMAS

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 00:46:15 GMT

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS.....OR RATHER ..... GINMAS!

For the past few years I've set myself a 12 Days of Christmas challenge with a gin-twist!

The theme is loosely based on the song "Twelve Days of Christmas" and it's a gin-terpretation (yes, a made up word!) of the song! I have posted brands and cocktails which relate to each of the 12 gifts and last year chose to use gins that had numbers in their branding.

Whilst this is a personal challenge, it's open to everyone, so if you want to join in for a few or all of the days, then please do feel free - just tag me and I'll reshare!

Look forward to the challenge and seeing the twists on the theme that everyone else brings to the table!

Allison

I post on my regular instagram account and also @twelfsquaresofginmas

PUERTO DE INDIAS - PRESS TRIP TO SEVILLE & CARMONA

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 21:09:17 GMT

Strawberry Sunshine from Seville!
PRESS TRIP

Full Disclosure: All expenses paid press trip to Seville with Puerto de Indias and Hatch PR - October 2022

Puerto de Indias is the leading Premium gin brand in Spain's strawberry gin segment,

and a pioneer in creating the first gin from natural strawberries.

In 2001, brothers Jose Antonio and Francisco Rodriguez Fernandez acquired the distillery and began distilling aniseed,

fruit and herbal liqueurs. It was only in 2013 that purely by accident, they created a flavoured gin,

which changed the traditional G&T serve forever.

VISIT SEVILLE & CARMONA, SPAIN

If you are visiting Seville and Carmona, you can book a Distillery Tour via the Puerto De Indias website. This should take about an hour and a half and will include a tour of the distillery, some tastings and the opportunity to get involved in making a bit of gin too! We were lucky enough to also be entertained by a Flamenco performance in the beautiful grounds, whilst we sipped on our G&Ts.

We were whisked away from the distillery to check-in to our hotels and head out for dinner at the very trendy Maquiavelo Restaurant. This was an absolute treat and more than just dinner, with cocktails and entertainment thrown in as well.

The following day we had a leisurely breakfast and then a quick tour by horse carriage, of the main sights around Seville before heading back to the airport after lunch.

The guided tour was more than enough to whet my appetite and want to return again and spend more time exploring. I can highly recommend allocating a few hours to explore the beautiful Plaza de España which was built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. It is a landmark example of Regionalism Architecture, mixing elements of the Baroque Revival, Renaissance Revival and Moorish Revival styles of Spanish architecture. Spend time, take photos and absorb the atmosphere!

Today the buildings of the Plaza de España are used as offices for government agencies. It has also been used as a filming location for Lawrence of Arabia and for Star Wars Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Even pop stars have used Seville and the Plaza as a location, with Simply Red using it for the filming of their video for Something Got Me Started !

If you are on Instagram , I've a story highlight saved of the trip, with more photos and also a reel.

COCKTAIL INSPIRATION

(See more cocktails and recipes on my Instagram grid)

Photo credit: Puerto de Indias PR Department

A fantastic opportunity and wonderful trip - thank you to the team at Puerto de Indias and also Hatch PR.

How to decorate your glass for St Patrick's Day

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 17:50:37 GMT

Impress your friends and pretty up your cocktail glasses with this 5 minute trick!

It's a bit early for clover but I did manage to find a few leaves poking out the ground and they were perfect to use for a post for St Patrick's Day. Other foliage or flowers work and even citrus peel, so if you aren't trying to theme your cocktails, then you can just pretty them up with something else. Sometimes condensation is enough to hold light objects onto the glass, but it wasn't working this time, so I had a trick up my sleeve!

Did you know?

They turn the Chicago River green each St Patrick's Day

My Top 10 Budget-Friendly Gin Brands

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 21:37:42 GMT

Ten Affordable Gins That You Should Try

Compiling a list of my top 10 gins is almost impossible, as what I feel like drinking will change daily depending on my mood.

I enjoy gins that are different, but they may not be for everyone, so if you are looking to get into drinking gin or want to try something new, then this is a list of classic gins, which are excellent value for money and won't disappoint. All of these brands have a good range, including some flavoured gins, so there should be something for everyone in this list!

Are there other brands on my shelf which are worthy of inclusion in a top 10 list? Yes of course and I may be a little biased as I've visited most of these distilleries and they all have something different to offer and make excellent spirits. However, they are all good starting points for those new to drinking gin and wanting to learn a little bit more about the history and how gin is made.

Click on the links or photos to be taken to the brand websites or my reviews on Instagram .

1. Beefeater Gin

2. Bombay Sapphire Gin

3. East London Liquor Company Gin

4. Portobello Road Gin

5. Jim & Tonic Mercato Gin

6. City of London Distillery - Christopher Wren Gin

7. Warners Gin

8. Gin Mare

9. Masons Yorkshire Dry Gin

10. Haymans London Dry Gin

My Top 10 Gin Stories

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 16:32:53 GMT

Show me a bottle and I will tell you a story!

Given this week is National Storytelling Week, I thought I would expand on my Top 10 favourite Gin Stories and share them again with you all in more detail.

They are not in any particular order and although they are all good gins, it's impossible to make a list of my 10 favourite gins, as I have too many! If you want to read more of my gin stories, they are part of my Virtual Gin Tours which are either on my Instagram account or filed here on my website too for easy reading.

Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed researching and writing them all.

Allison

As seen in The Daily Mail

1. 44°N Gin

Just 15km outside of Cannes, at an elevation of around 350m, you will find a verdant landscape, where Comte de Grasse have chosen to have their home.

Grasse – fat, indulgent, plump, succulent. The translation is a bit unkind, but perhaps fitting, as this region has an abundance of everything which makes it the perfume capital of France. The microclimate and fertile soil in Grasse have encouraged flower farming and the area produces over two-thirds of France’s natural aromas for the perfume and food industry. The Old Town is certainly worth exploring, with its quirky shops and cobbled streets, however it’s the old perfumery just outside the old town, with buildings dating back to the 17th century, that has become the new home of 44N Gin.

The buildings and tower are being lovingly restored to their former glory and refitted with modern technology, all designed with sustainability in mind but also with a homage to the heritage of Grasse and it’s extraordinary people, who have generations of knowledge in the perfume industry.

Combining traditional and innovative distilling methods, as well as cutting edge perfume extraction technology, which is not only sustainable and efficient, they have created a gin which has a provenance like no other. The best flavours are extracted from the expensive botanicals and the resulting gin is presented in an elegant Klein Blue bottle.

This is an incredible gin, which is woody, floral, jammy, herbaceous and spicy. It begs to be drunk as a dry martini to appreciate all the flavours and the Provencal heritage of this high-end gin.

To reflect the surrounding landscape of Grasse, I have served this up as a Grasse Sour (pictured above) – a Basil Smash with the addition of St Germain and a foamer.

One last little titbit – the area of Grasse is 44.44 square kilometres and the location of Comte de Grasse is 44N latitude! Co-incidence? Who knows!

Also Read The Gin Guide's Interview with the founder of 44N Gin - Bhagath Reddy

2. Melifera - The Spirit of Dreams and Legends

3. Bareksten

4. Larios Mediterranean Gin

5. Dolce Vita

6. EeNoo Scottish Gin

7. The Source Gin, Cardrona

8. Klimt Wien Gin

9. Canaima Gin

The National Park of the same name is an immense area - about the same size as Belgium - and mostly remote and inaccessible. The falls were obviously known to local people, but Auyan means devil and tepui means house in the language of the Pemon, hence the tepui from which the falls cascade, and area around it, were known as The House of the Devil and it was avoided. Visitors to the famous Angel Falls still have to make the trip by air and river.

There are many stories about who was the first European to have viewed the falls - but it is named after Jimmie Angel, who flew over them in 1933 while searching for deposits of gold ore. He returned there in 1937 and tried to land atop a tepui but the ground was marshy and the plane was damaged, so he and his party had to make their way back to civilisation by foot - a journey which took 11 days. In his honour, the falls were named after him and his ashes were also spread over them.

Jimmie's plane was lifted off the tepui in 1970, restored and is now on display at the airport at Cuidad Bolivar. The plane was however declared a national monument in 1964 and the federal government wants it moved back to the Aviation Museum in Maracay but the State of Bolivar apparently refuses to relinquish it!

10. QVT Gin

Quatre-Vingt-Trois (area code 83 - Provence)

GIN FROM AROUND THE WORLD

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 15:58:54 GMT

MY GIN COLLECTION FROM AROUND THE WORLD

It's no secret that I've a rather large collection of gin, but not for a minute do I believe it's the largest collection that exists and I've been adding to it for several years. Only recently have I moved the collection from 4 or 5 different cupboards and drawers into one place, mainly so that I can see what I have and easily get to it. My initial thought was, perhaps it will stop me buying more gin when I see how much I have, but I very much doubt that will be the case!

After recently sharing a photo of the collection on the ITV This Morning Facebook page and having had it shared on their programme, I was approached by a journalist who thought it was newsworthy stuff. I've been sharing stories about brands and their locations through my virtual tours for several years, but thought it was perhaps time to share a bit about myself and how I got into blogging. Unfortunately journalists love to twist things slightly to make them more newsworthy, so the article published in The Sun this weekend was pimped up a little and not totally accurate, but hopefully any further articles published will be corrected and include some of my favourite gin stories as well.

Edit: New Article in The Daily Mail on 31st January 2022. I'll take being obsessed on the chin, but the headlines are so sensationalist! I guess that's what sells stories!

Edit: More babblings of a ginthusiast! This was totally unscripted and unprepared and my enthusiasm clearly shows! My collection on Youtube .

Here is my story that I shared with them!

I have been collecting gin for many years after falling in love with the traditional G&T which I first recall drinking inflight on trips back and forth from my birthplace of Cape Town, South Africa.

After dropping in at a local gin distillery on a day out several years ago, I became more interested in how gin was made and began to plan visits and outings to local gin distilleries, even making my own gin at several of them. Since then, my collection has grown exponentially and includes gin from all around the world.

The most sensible way of keeping track of what gin brands I had tried, was to set up an Instagram account and post photos of them all. Over the past few years my knowledge around gin has improved and I have learned the styles that I enjoy and become more interested in the stories behind the brands and locations of the distilleries. As the gin blog grew and changed over the years, I do now find myself occasionally approached by brands who gift me bottles to photograph and review and I was also on judging panels for the World Gin Awards 2022. As a staunch supporter of the gin industry, the vast majority of my collection is bought and paid for my myself. I never set out to be a blogger or influencer and am still not comfortable with that title and consider myself more a ginthusiast, so I see it as my responsibility to support the industry as much as I can. Yes, it's cost me thousands of pounds over the years but I see it more than a collection, as I also travel vicariously through it.

My other jobs include being a self-employed silversmith and I have been making bespoke jewellery since 2007. Following the gin boom a few years ago, gin has become quite topical and an interesting hobby for many people. After visiting my first distillery, you could say I have manipulated my social life around gin and love meeting with ginpals as well as distillers and learning about how they got into gin. I have realised that each bottle has a really interesting story behind it. Sometimes that story is about the distillers themselves but often my research uncovers legends or myths or I learn a bit of history about their location.

The majority of the gin I buy cannot be sourced in supermarkets, but there are some amazing gins from the UK and around world that you can easily get hold of either directly from the distillers or online at specialist spirits retailers. I used to import a lot of gin from Europe but post-Brexit, the costs are too high, so I am no longer able to source new and interesting brands as yet unavailable in the UK. It's very frustrating for me and most of my gin-loving friends in both the UK and Europe and Brexit has resulted in loss of revenue for many small distilleries on both sides of the Channel, who could previously export small quantities but now struggle to get their heads around all the paperwork and duties.

I have gin from around the UK and most countries in Europe but my collection also includes gin from every continent - well apart from Antarctica, which is a protected territory, so you can't use any botanicals that may grow in the region to make gin!

Most of my collection has been sampled, but I do have some rarer bottles which I'm loath to open until I have the time to sit down and enjoy them for what they are. There is a misconception that gin bloggers drink a lot! You'll usually find me on the sofa with a brew.

During the pandemic, I wasn't able to go and visit distilleries or travel abroad, so I started travelling vicariously through my gin collection and planning virtual tours around Europe, Scotland and even did 80 (gin) days around the world, which I posted daily on my Instagram feed and am currently trying to transfer onto my website. I promised myself I would add each post daily, but almost a year later, I still haven't done this and am already starting to think about which region (of my collection) I should next explore properly! Europe and Scotland vitual gin tours are live on my website, so even if you aren't on social media, the stories are there for everyone to enjoy.

I found a lot of hidden stories behind gin or their location and I love writing and researching so the blog enables me to share my findings. It's become a passion and my followers love my stories and find them interesting and egg me on to do more! Tasting gin is very subjective and there are enough gin reviews available. I like to think that I offer a different perspective on gin. Show me a bottle and I'll tell you a story and some of those stories are definitely worth sharing. I spend days sometimes researching a particular brand until I find something interesting to write about it - there is a lot of outside of the box thinking!

My collection is continually growing and I dread to think how much I've spent on gin over the years. A number of the international gins I have are exclusively available through gin subscription companies, so it's taken a lot of time to build up the collection and I'm constantly looking for new and interesting bottles to add.

As the world opens up again after the pandemic, I am hoping that I can turn the virtual gin tours into real ones and visit more distilleries in person - UK and abroad - and maybe one day I'll get to publish a book on all the stories I've gathered along the way!

MY FAVOURITE 10 GIN STORIES:

Full disclosure - I have included in this list some bottles that were gifted to me over the years.

1. Melifera , France (this gin was gifted to me)

This gin not only tells the story of Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, Queen of France and Queen of England, but is also about nostalgia and capturing childhood memories. An amazing gin from the Island of Oleron off the west coast of France - organic, handcrafted and also helping to protect the European Black Bee.

Excerpt from my blog on Melifera :
Off the shores of the Côte d'Argent a fortress island sits proud of the Atlantic Ocean. An island of legends, with beautiful white sand beaches, herbaceous marshes and untamed pine forests where nature reigns.

Scattered around the sun-kissed island are small villages, with old world charm, but for a bit of tranquillity, head to the sandy dunes, where bright immortelle and grasses scent the air. Here you can sit and reflect, whilst watching the gentle waves rhythmically wash the shore and taste the salty, sweet air on your lips.

Once populated with wild beasts and game and the playground of royalty, this island gave birth to an heiress whose wealth, power and beauty made her one of the most eligible brides in Europe during the Middle Ages. Like the immortelle flower, the history and legends around her do not fade.

Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, Queen of France and Queen of England.

The spirit of Eleanor lives on and Christophe and his wife Cécile were kind enough to send me their beautiful, handcrafted and organic gin, which is not only a tribute to Eleanor (Alienor), but also to the island of Oléron and of course, the immortelle flower.

For them, creating a gin was all about nostalgia - capturing childhood memories of days spent on sandy beaches and returning home with sun-kissed faces, damp hair and salty skin. It's about appreciating nature at its finest whilst watching the sun set over the sea as you curl your toes in the warm sand and fill your lungs with the sweet scent of the air surrounding you.

2. Bareksten , Norway

The dark and dramatic design of this bottle hints at more than just the harsh Nordic forests where Stig Bareksten forages for botanicals. It also tells the story of the Huldra - beautiful wardens of the forest, who live beneath the roots of old oaks and lure men into the forest with their singing.

From my blog on Bareksten Gin :
It is on the west coast of Norway, in the dense forests where the sunlight struggles to penetrate to the ground and where legends and folklore have their origins, that Stig Bareksten forages for the botanicals for his spirits in hidden locations that only he knows. Having distilled all sorts of botanicals from a young age, he has a mental catalog of every scent, taste and mouthfeel you can imagine and by having this knowledge, he has managed to create a complex and beautiful gin. The botanical list goes on and on and includes your regular suspects of course, but also many local organic ingredients including fennel, rosehips, rose flowers, elderflowers, lingonberries, citrus, spices, lavender and many more.

The black bottle with shadows of twisted branches is dark and dramatic, yet inside the liquid is fragrant, delicate and clean. It is intended to represent the essence of Norway - a sweet and seductive liquid birthed from the harsh Nordic forests where the Huldra spirits live beneath the roots of old oaks.

The Huldra are one of several wardens of the forest and are beautiful women with flowing blonde hair, who lure men into the forest with their singing. They are sometimes naked but often dressed in long white robes and blue petticoats, which hide their cow's tail and hollow bark back. The Huldra is a protector of the cattle on the mountainsides and offers rewards to those who satisfy her sexually and death to those who don't. It is told that should a Huldra convince a human male to marry her, as long as her tail remains hidden during the courtship, it will fall off on their wedding day, but that he will also never be seen again.

The branding and folklore are intertwined and whilst both dark and playful, capture audiences worldwide. I've decided to play on this and create a cocktail with the light and white frothy liquid representing the Huldra's hair and robes, but with just a little bit of her blue petticoat showing.

3. QVT , France (this gin was gifted to me)

I'm a sucker for a bit of romance and the story of QVT started in Africa, where the distillers met many years ago and after having travelled around Africa for several years, they decided to settle in Provence and create a gin inspired by their surroundings.

From my blog on QVT :

I'm never sure if I love the story or the gin more - there's no right or wrong answer but knowing how and why a gin was created makes it so much more interesting to me! Add a little romance to the backstory and I'm hooked!

QVT is one of those gins that I've seen in many posts and they also featured with CGC several months ago - a month I had skipped. With so many new gins about, brands are competing for space on our gin shelves and unfortunately their gin or special edition just didn't make it onto mine until recently, when @casuals_jigger offered to send me a taste of Provence!

Like many artists and visitors to Provence, distillers Anna and Justin also fell in love with the region and decided to settle there after many years of travelling around the world. They had met in Africa and fell in love over sundowner G&Ts (well, I would like to think they did!).

British-born Justin was designing safari lodges there since the early 1990s. He later contracted for the UN and US State Department and it was under the African skies that he met Swedish health economist, Anna, who was helping to develop health systems across the continent. They travelled together around Africa for several years but decided to rethink their lifestyle and settle in a safer and more stable environment after having children and spent some time in Switzerland. This wasn't to be their forever home and after spending time in Provence, they realised that this was where they wanted to bring up their family and moved there in 2013.

One thing was missing though - gin! And so QVT was born in 2019 after several years of research and taking inspiration from all that Provence has to offer.

4. Larios, Spain

This is one of my favourite gin stories and never would I have imagined my research would uncover the skeletons in the Larios closet! In 2010 a Spanish trumpeter claimed to be the rightful heir to the Larios gin fortune saying he was the illegitimate son of the Fourth Marques de Larios. Accusations, exhumations and DNA testing - boring gin....I think not!

From my blog on Larios :

Whilst certainly not the best gin I've ever tried, this gin has its origins in Malaga and it dates back to 1866, when a French entrepreneur and Spanish associate got together and founded a distillery – Jimenex & Lamothe. In 1916 the Third Marques de Larios bought the distillery and the brand Larios was born.

The Larios family are undoubtedly a wealthy family, with roots in Malaga from the early 1800s. The family split into two with one half heading to Gibraltar, where they were very influential and successful (if not a little shady!) merchants, whilst the Malaga branch was at the forefront of urban development of the city. When the well known shopping street, Calle Larios, was being constructed in 1880, the local government needed to raise 1million pesetas and did so by selling shares, which were mostly bought up by the Larios family, who took over the responsibility for the project - the street is named after the Second Marques. Having historically invested and traded in all sectors of the economy, their main focus is now real estate.

Most families have a skeleton in their closet and it appears so does the Larios family! In 2010 a Spanish trumpeter claimed he was the rightful heir of the Larios gin fortune, as he was the result of an affair between his mother, a cook for the Larios family and the Fourth Marques de Larios (who had no children). The Marques was exhumed and the DNA results didn’t support this, but it didn’t end there. Accusations have been flung about, which include suggestions that the family moved the body to prevent DNA testing, as well as suspicions now being raised as to how the Marques died. Two books have even been published - The Poisoned Inheritance of the Marquis de Larios & Assassination, Freemasonry and Francoism ( The poisoned inheritance of the Larios. Part II ).

Suddenly Larios becomes more interesting!

5. 44N, France (this gin was gifted to me)

A beautiful blue bottle which not only celebrates Yves Klein, an artist born in Nice in 1929 who developed his own unique pigment - International Klein Blue - but also captures the essence of the South of France.

A different perspective on 44N Gin :

I've delved a lot into the backstories, interesting facts and obscure tidbits about brands and their raison d'etre - the reason why they exist or came about and I'm going all French and arty on you all for this one!

As a jewellery designer and creative, this is the sort of stuff that interests me and I've always been drawn to the colour blue, as was Yves Klein. Klein was born in Nice in 1928 and was one of the most controversial and prominent artists in the 1950s but he was best known for developing his own unique pigment - International Klein Blue IKB. He developed this colour with the help of a chemist, in a bid to find a blue that would not fade like others did. The blue is his legacy to the world - his way of helping us all unlock the infinite and the sublime through a single, pure colour. For him, blue suggested infinity and erased the division between earth and sky and he wanted it to unlock our imagination and be inspired by it.

His most controversial exhibition was called The Void. It was an entirely empty gallery painted white but people queued in their hundreds to see it. He created excitement and mystery by only allowing 10 people in at a time and he served them a gin-based cocktail, which turned their urine his iconic Klein Blue!

Not only does Klein Blue capture the essence of the South of France, with its endless skies and shimmering blue sea but it's evocative of holidays on the Côte d'Azur, where everything is bathed in sunshine and kissed by the fragrant breeze from the botanicals which grow wildly around the coast and mountains.

44°N Gin, created in Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, unapologetically proud of their modern distilling methods and firmly connected to their environment, present their luxury gin in a Klein Blue Glass bottle. The sun and its rays are represented by the perfume-inspired cork and top whilst the colour and texture of the bottle mimics the sea and seabed.

6. Dolce Vita, Italy

A story of a friendship between teenagers who met under the Clock Tower in the Piazza Umberto in Capri, and where the flavours and scents of southern Italy made a lasting impression upon young Emo. This gin is all about love and pride in all things Italian.

A Beautiful Story and Bottle that tells you more about Dolce Vita Gin :

In the 1950s during the reign of La Dolce Vita, a cocktail called The Cardinale became fashionable - made with Riesling wine, Campari, gin and garnished with lemon peel, cloves and cinnamon. Over the years, the wine has been replaced with a dry vermouth – 50ml gin, 40ml dry vermouth, 20ml Campari, lemon peel garnish. My choice of gin was appropriate of course, Dolce Vita, made by Targa Ilva, in Padua near Venice.

The Targa Ilva website tells a story of 14 yr old Emo, who with his family in 1932, travelled to Sicily for their summer holiday. En route they stopped in Naples, where Emo met a young girl from Capri and they struck up a friendship, agreeing to meet up again in Capri the next day, in the Piazza Umberto under the clock tower. They met again for the next 3 days and then the family travelled onwards to Sicily. The time spent there certainly impressed upon young Emo and he was captivated by the flavours and scents of southern Italy and the Mediterranean. This passion and love for Italy stayed with him throughout his life and was shared with his own children.

This is where the story on the Targa Ilva website gets a bit fuzzy and contradicts that on the Bagnoli website, as they claim Emo’s son Dino created Dolce Vita Gin as a homage to his father and dates don’t stack up*. I guess some things may be lost in translation and what should not be spoiled by delving too deep, is the reason behind the creation of the gin and indeed other lines which the Bagnoli/Targa family have created over the years – A love and pride in all things Italian and the summer spent absorbing all the aromas and flavours of southern Italy and in particular Capri.

It’s a beautiful tribute - the sea blue bottle; the clock face from the tower in the Piazza Umberto; and the delicately perfumed liquid within.

La Dolce Vita …. the sweet life.

*Emo’s son Dino married Ilva Zita Targa (the daughter of a wine entrepreneur) and in 1954 they established Bagnoli Distilleries. They had two sons, Camillo & Giovanni Bagnoli who manage both the Bagnoli Group & Targa Ilva. Dino passed away in 1970. Ilva is still listed as President for BG.

7. Klimt Wien Gin, Austria

This edition of Wien Gin is dedicated to Gustav Klimt and represents the splendour of Vienna and also Klimt's Golden Phase. The label includes a portion of one of his beautiful paintings which was destroyed in 1945 - The Girlfriends. If you know a little about Klimt and his style, you will know he was quite radical and also said to be a bit of a lothario and the Kessel Brothers have included botanicals in this gin which are said to be aphrodisiacs.

More about Klimt Edition of Wien Gin :

Today’s stop is in the Austrian capital of Vienna and if you can manage to prise yourself out of one of the opulent coffee houses to wonder the streets, museums or perhaps visit a Schloss, you are guaranteed to come across works by the Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt.

In his early career Klimt was a successful architectural painter but he developed a style that was a bit too radical for the time and thus gave up on public commissions to spent most of his days working from home, swanning about in nothing but a kaftan and sandals. He was apparently a bit of a lothario and is said to have slept with all of his subjects, never married, but fathered at least 14 children.

One could say that his art imitated his life, as he was infatuated with the female form and his works were quite sensual and erotic. One of his paintings was titled The Girlfriends, but is also known as The Lesbians. Unfortunately this painting no longer exists, as it and several other works which came under public protest, were set on fire by the receding Nazi forces in 1945.

The Viennese Kesselbrüder have a love for everything that their capital city has to offer, as well as for gin. Both editions of their gin are boxed and labeled with beautiful Art Nouveau designs and their Wien Gin is dedicated to Gustav Klimt.

Klimt Vienna Gin is carefully crafted with herbs and flowers and has a golden hue representing the splendour of Vienna and also Klimt’s Golden Phase. The purpose of writing a bit about Klimt’s style will explain why the brothers have included certain botanicals and the physical effects they are said to have.

They have included lavender to awaken romantic feelings; Bishop’s Hat to strengthen libido and enhance fertility; and Lady’s Mantle and Amber as aphrodisiacs. Juniper and lavender present first, followed by sweet citrus, a little spice and a clean lingering finish. It’s smooth and delicate and a fitting tribute to one of the most important artists of the 20th century.

The artwork on the label does of course include a portion of one of the beautiful paintings that were destroyed – The Girlfriends.

8. Eenoo, Lost Loch Spirits, Scotland

Eenoolooapik was an adventurous teenage Inuit who befriended a ship's crew when they were whaling in Baffin Island in Canada. This gin tells the story of Eenoo and how he travelled to Scotland and pays homage to his hunter gatherer heritage, through use of locally foraged botanicals.

Lost Loch Spirits Distillery is located on the shore of Loch Auchlossan, a loch that was drained to use as agricultural land back in 1859. The founders, Peter Dignan and Richard Pierce aimed to create spirits with character and a link to local folklore or historical figures from the Royal Deeside area.

EeNoo is from old Scots and means the present time, in a short time or at once, and so the focus on their label is time – but it doesn’t stop there. Whilst researching the word eeNoo, they uncovered the story of Eenoolooapik, an adventurous teenage Inuit who befriended a ship’s crew when they were whaling in Baffin Island in Canada.

In 1839 EeNoo, as he became known, travelled to Aberdeen aboard the Neptune and spent a year in Scotland, learning to read and write, whilst also sharing his knowledge of botanicals and Inuit customs. He returned to Baffin Island, on the Bon Accord, laden with gifts from friends he had made in Scotland. With his vast knowledge of the local coastline on his return, he led them to the rediscovery of the Cumberland Sound.

Inuits were hunter gatherers, with a diet predominantly of fish, meat and blubber, supplemented with a selection of locally foraged berries. The botanical list for EeNoo gin plays homage to this, including brambles, raspberries and rosehip, sourced local to the distillery, but also including local honey and Scottish heather. The label and branding is in the style of Inuit art, with an Inuit Owl headdress and sandhill cranes, which migrate to breed on Baffin Island either side of the hourglass, holding branches of berries in their beaks.

9. Canaima, Venezuela

Amazonia is a mysterious land which contains many legends, one being the Canaima - an evil spirit - so rather an apt name for a gin. The Canaima National Park is where the world's highest waterfall is located - Angel Falls. Did you know that a lot of the inspiration and research for the movie Up was gathered in Venezuela and Carl's house eventually comes to rest on a tepui overlooking Paradise Falls?

The other side of the story around Canaima Gin :

I'm sure you all remember the movie Up, but did you know that a lot of the inspiration and research was gathered in Venezuela. This includes the tepuis and the world's highest waterfall, Angel Falls, in the Canaima National Park. This is where Carl's house eventually comes to rest and fulfills his and his wife's lifelong dream to move their house to a cliff overlooking Paradise Falls.

Amazonia is a mysterious land which contains many legends, one of them being the Canaima. The Pemon Indians believe that this is an evil spirit, but it can take on any form, from a poisonous snake to a shapeshifting were-jaguar or mythical beast. Many pre-Colombian tribes don't believe in a natural death and so to explain death they have created this creature who pursues them throughout their lives and eventually kills them. Any mishap throughout their lives, be it a cut, bruise, stomach ache or worse, is blamed on the Canaima. Strange to name a gin after this "Spirit of Evil", but we know gin historically has quite a reputation, so I guess it's pretty fitting!

10. The Source, Cardrona, New Zealand

The story around the location of this distillery is best told by Martin Curtis, a singer-songwriter who still lives in the valley and who is known to the distillers, recorded a song Gin & Raspberry, which will take you right back to the gold rush of the 1860s. Check out his recording on YouTube and get your dancing shoes on!

In the 1800s, Cardrona was the centre of the region's gold mining industry. Today it's a popular winter sport destination, but in the summer the visitors favour hiking and mountain biking. A popular spot with a bit of apre-ski in winter is the historic Cardrona Hotel, but we need to step back to the history of the town and the 1860s gold rush, for the inspiration for today's cocktail and the name given to one of the richest mines in the Cardrona Valley. It was the owner's custom to shout "gin & raspberry" whenever a bucket of pay-dirt yielded an ounce of gold and thus the mine was so-called. This story is best told by Martin Curtis, a singer-songwriter, who I believe still lives in the valley. There is a recording of his song (Gin & Raspberry) on YouTube - do listen to it, as it's a lovely tune and gives a bit of background about the location.

One of New Zealand's fastest growing super premium distilleries is also situated in Cardrona Valley and is founded by a husband and wife duo, Desiree and Ash Whitaker. I understand they know Martin too, so there is a link to my story! Desiree has had a lifelong romance with whisky and after many years of study, research and planning, they founded the distillery in 2015 to make Single Malt Whisky, Gin, Single Malt Vodka and limited edition liqueurs. Not only have they sourced the very best equipment from all over the world, but they also use as many locally sourced ingredients as they can, as this gives their drinks a very unique flavour profile.

The Source Gin includes locally foraged rosehip, juniper, coriander seed, angelica root, lemon and orange zest and is vapour distilled into their single malt spirit. They don't chill-filter, so you get that lovely louche when you add ice and tonic.

KERNOW - LAND OF SAINTS

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 12:25:11 GMT

KERNOW - THE LAND OF SAINTS

Cornwall's folklore is rich with Druids and pagan beliefs but in contrast to this ancient folklore, it has also been frequently called 'the Land of the Saints' due to the plethora of towns and villages named after Celtic Saints. During the 5th and 6th centuries Celtic missionaries arrived in Cornwall from Wales and Ireland and began converting small local groups of people to Christianity and established churches on or near sites that were already in use for religion. Although many were never officially designated saints, their names live on in over 200 old Cornish churches, as do the stories of how they arrived into the county. Some were reported to have arrived floating on millstones or stone alters and there are also reports of many embarking on stone throwing contests with local Cornish giants - which of course they won!

Kernow is the Cornish language word for Cornwall. The language itself is known as either Kernewek or Kernowek but unlike Welsh, it is no longer used as a daily form of communication. The county also has a long and exciting history with spirits, with gin and rum laden ships frequenting local harbours and smugglers using the rocky bays to land their wares. Fast forward to the present and there are numerous distilleries producing high quality spirits, especially gin, using many of the coastal and rural botanicals available around the county. Any gin lover doing a tour of Cornwall would be spoilt for choice!

One of the more recent additions to the list of Cornish gins is Land of Saints Organic Gin. If you assumed due to the colours and design of the bottle and label, that this was a coastal gin you would be very wrong! The beautiful turquoise tones and map of Cornwall on the label pinpointing many towns named after Saints, lull you into assuming this is going to be all about salinity and seaside botanicals but actually this gin is celebrating all things florals. The botanical lineup of thirteen organic botanicals, including coriander seeds, cardamom pods, pink peppercorns, ginger root, dried rose buds, hyssop, orange peel, camomile, violet leaves, blueberries, nutmeg and orris root is beautifully balanced and such a surprise. It's distilled with pure Cornish water, organic grain and of course the star botanical - juniper - and it has been approved by The Biodynamic Association due to the use of high level and approved organic ingredients.

Cornwall is the home of 69 Saints, so calling the gin “Land of Saints” was the perfect choice for Mike and Sue, who partnered with Sir David Attenborough's charity, Fauna & Flora International and donate a minimum of 50p per bottle sold to support their global work. The Cornish Spirits Drink Company is based in Truro and being passionate about the environment, the couple wanted to create an organic gin, that was ethically produced.

Land of Saints Cornish Gin was launched in 2019 and is Soil Association Approved. They even use recycled paper and glass where appropriate and work with charities across the UK and as a Social Enterprise. The gin is produced by Black & Gold Organic Distillery, which is the only Biodynamic approved organic distillery in Cornwall. Environmental responsibility is at the heart of their business and embedded in everything they do. They have also partnered with BBC Masterchef Mat Follas to develop new environmentally and sustainable products.

I wanted to serve up something that celebrated the botanicals and so my first serve was a Saintly Gimlet!

SAINTLY GIMLET

50ml Lands of Saints Organic Gin

25ml St Germain Elderflower Liqueur

35ml Freshly squeezed lime juice

10ml Simple syrup

10-15ml Lanique Rose Liqueur

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled glass.

BIRCH GIN

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 18:34:26 GMT

HANDCRAFTED WITH LOVE

BIRCH GIN..... 10 years in the making

Having lived in countries all round the world, it's no surprise that Justin Birch has used influences from some of these to create a premium gin, which is hand-crafted in small batches. Read on to learn more about his journey and how he came about launching his own gin brand - Birch Gin.

In 2010 Justin was living in Singapore and whilst on holiday to the UK he discovered the gin boom. As a bit of background to the boom, in 2008, an American called Sam Galsworth managed to get the Gin Act of 1751 repealed, after having lobbied members of Parliament and taken the fight to court. Prior to this, Sam had spotted that there were only mass produced gin brands and this left an exciting space for craft and artisan gins, but it was only when he started researching that he realised the reason why there was this gap in the market. The Act banned any still that had the capacity of less than 1800 litres, which meant that only large-scale, commercial companies were able to legally distill gin. Whereas Sam had witnessed a burgeoning craft beer movement in the US, he saw a blank space in the UK for craft gin and he and his business partners set about changing this antiquated law. In 2009 the first distillery was opened in London since 1820 - Sipsmith - and since then we have seen hundreds of new distilleries and brands fill that blank space and our senses with some amazing products. Distillers are now able to make gin in small batches - some even micro batches - and this has revolutionised the gin industry.

The craft gin explosion was a huge inspiration to Justin, particularly after having had a choice of drinking only two mass produced gins whilst living in Singapore. When he returned home after his holiday to the UK, he started cold compounding; experimenting with juniper and other botanicals by macerating them in bottles of vodka. He became obsessed with researching recipes and making his own gin, experimenting with every botanical and herb he could get his hands on, as well as learning about all the different methods of distilling gin. In 2014, Justin and his family moved back to the UK but his journey with juniper did not end then.

Having lived and worked in Australia, Turkey, Dubai, Sweden, Malaysia and Singapore, Justin did not stop until he had perfected his recipe and created a gin which fused the best of flavours from Asia and Europe, thereby creating a botanical journey with every sip. At the heart of his gin is of course a very special ingredient, chosen for its rich caramel and spicy flavour, which helps marry all the flavours together and avoid the bitterness associated with some gins. A botanical which also shares his name - birch!

Birch syrup is made by tapping birch trees in March for the birch sap. The birch sap is then reduced to make the birch syrup (100 litres of sap makes 1 litre of birch syrup). It’s incredibly labour intensive and little wonder a litre can cost up to £150. Justin sources his birch sap from a company who tap birch trees in the Pennines and Highlands, but when this is in short supply, he imports birch syrup from Alaska. Other botanicals which are included in Birch Gin include Juniper, Coriander, Rosemary, Orris Root, Lemongrass, Orange, Lime, Grapefruit, Cardamom, Ginger and Cinnamon, alongside a secret ingredient only known to Justin and the distiller.

Setting up a distillery and investing in copper is a huge investment and many start-up businesses contract distill until their brand is established. Given there is so much competition and a very saturated market at present, it is a sensible way of launching a new product. With a career of many years as a boutique head-hunter for high profile companies in the technology industry and now owning his own company which specialises in recruitment for some of the world's largest companies, Justin knew the qualities he was looking for in a distiller. After conversations with many, he eventually formed a collaboration with talented Master Distiller, Andrew Parsons of artisan micro-distillery Bucknell Distillery, in Oxfordshire. Andrew now crafts Birch Gin for him according to his recipe, in batches of around 200 bottles. Those who know their gin will recognise the distiller, who has his own award-winning brand of gin - Skywave.

When it came to branding, Justin ran a design contest, offering a global community of creative designers the opportunity to submit label designs based on a brief. An extremely talented Brazilian, Renata Costa, was the ultimate winner with her simple yet elegant label design. The colours and scene on the back label, which can be viewed through the gin, are calming and relaxing and the overlapping strip on the front is like washi tape hugging the bottle. It's such a clever design, with much forethought into the future of the brand, leaving space at the back to include a batch number and production date, as well as for awards stickers.

After a decade in the making, Birch Gin was finally launched in August 2020. It's bottled at 42% and they also have a navy strength available at 57% ABV. Proudly British, Birch Gin has already won several awards with the medals adorning the bottle.

Early in 2021 Justin opened his own small distillery at The Hub in the picturesque village of Bodiam, East Sussex, where he is currently working on producing vodka and rum. Although mostly famous for its castle, Bodiam was also in a main hop-growing area in the last century and famous for growing hops for Guinness. The world famous castle forms the perfect backdrop for the distillery, which is used as a creative lab and is where Justin works on new gin recipes, two of which he is hoping to launch later this year. If you are lucky enough to live locally, you will no doubt have come across him at local farmers markets and have had the opportunity to sample some of these new products. This valuable feedback assists in refining recipes which will go into production later this year. Justin has an open door policy at his distillery and is more than happy to welcome visitors if you are passing through on a day he is working and would like to sample any products. Ever ambitious, he is also hoping to take on bigger premises in East Sussex in 2022, where there will be space to install a full working distillery and bottling plant which will produce local vodka and rum.

I am told that there is a special edition in the pipeline and which will hopefully launch in time for Christmas, but given he took a decade to get Birch Gin just right, Justin assures me that he is not one to cut corners and rush new products to market! I guess we will all have to be a little more patient and be assured that the wait will be worth it!

Congratulations to Justin (and of course Andrew) on a wonderful gin and fantastic achievements to date. I look forward to following your journey with spirits and seeing what else you tantalise us with!

HOW TO ENJOY BIRCH GIN:

For my first serve I've gone with a Dry Martini, so that I can enjoy the complex flavours of the gin. It's beautifully smooth and warming with a little spice coming through midway but with a fresh yet sweet finish. It's a gin that I can heartily recommend, as it has a bottle that is not only stunning to look at, but contents that are also a delight to drink. If you enjoy a gin and tonic, the recommended serve is with a premium tonic, slice of orange and sprig of rosemary.

BIRCH MARTINI

50ml Birch Gin

15ml Dry Vermouth

Dash of Orange Bitters

Garnish with Orange Zest

Thank you @hype_experiences_london for arranging this media delivery from Birch Gin and to Justin @birchgin for providing me with extra titbits for this article.

Dr Squid Gin

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 13:46:05 GMT

A gin that is anything but ordinary. Everything from the beautifully engraved copper flask to the botanicals is different and unique and this makes Dr Squid Gin stand out in a very crowded market.

Dr Squid by Pocketful of Stones Distillery

(Gin was received as a PR Product but my views and opinions are honest and not affected by this)

Pocketful of Stones Distillery is based in Long Rock, Penzance and they have created a range of spirits, but this is definitely one which pulls them out of any obscurity. The team of 4 (Shaun Bebington, Balazs Schieber, Paul Motley and Mike Cunliffe) met and worked in bars in Central London, where they honed their skills and learned everything there is to know about spirits. They made the move to Cornwall a few years ago, where they now use all this experience to create unique and high quality spirits, including their flagship Caspyn Dry Gin.

In Spring 2018, after many hours toiling over a recipe which they assumed may not even be feasible, they launched Dr Squid Gin, which is made using real squid ink, used both in the distillation process, but also added afterwards to create the unique black colour of the gin. Add tonic to it though and it turns a vivid pink. We are told that only a small quantity of squid ink is necessary and so although there is a coastal element to the gin, it's beautifully balanced with vanilla, sea buckthorn, citrus and juniper.

As you would expect, a unique gin requires distinctive packaging. Not only is the flask beautifully engraved, but it also has high quality gold foiled labels, which compliment the copper tin.

Given Shaun hails from South Africa, it's no surprise that he used one of the many talented agencies there to help design the branding for this gin. Roots SA were commissioned to come up with something unique that would showcase the landmarks and diverse fauna and flora iconic to Cornwall, but also intertwine it with local folklore and history. They created a character - Dr Squid - who is depicted on the printed label with a golden sunset behind him. The custom copper flasks are handcrafted in India and the labels printed in the UK. The flask design has a feel of antique apothecary and is the kind of product you would expect to have seen sold by travelling medicine salesmen - in fact Dr Squid is depicted exactly as one would be dressed! What struck me most when I received the product, was that the tin is so much sturdier than I thought it would be. Even the lid is heavy and solid and best of all, it also comes with a speed pourer to ensure there are no spillages.

But back to the design.... I've pondered for ages over it and every time I look at it I see something new! The central figure is a mermaid and throughout Cornish folklore there are references to mermaids, so this is no surprise. Two wellknown mermaids are the Mermaid of Padstow, who enjoyed sitting on a rock at Hawker's Cove. There are several versions of her story, but it's said she was shot by a local man she rebuffed or shot as she was mistaken for a seal. Always though the tales end explaining that due to her fate, she summoned up a storm which caused shipwrecks and caused the Doom Bar sandbank to appear.

I prefer to think though that she is the Mermaid of Zennor, especially since the pirates ship anchor chain features so prominently in the design. This story tells of a mermaid who fell in love with a local man, Mathey Trewells and after he followed her home one day, neither were ever seen again. It was only when a ship tried to drop anchor off Pendour Cove that a mermaid appeared and asked if the anchor could be moved as it was blocking the door to her home and she could not get to her children, that led to the belief that the children referred to were that of the mermaid and Mathey Trewells.

Cornwall also has links with King Arthur and Dozmary Pool on Bodmin Moor is believed to be the lake in which Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the Lady of the Lake and a sword can be seen to the right of the mermaid. There is also reference to seafaring pirates and smugglers who thrived around Cornwall with a pirate's treasure chest, skulls and a ship. St Michael's Mount also features prominently and is another nod to the distillery's location.

One side of the tin is dedicated to the sea, with whales, turtles, dolphins, a shark, penguin and of course, a lone surfer - included not only due to the popularity of the sport in Cornwall, but also as one of the founders, Shaun, hails from Durban South Africa and the sport also being the reason he transitioned from London to Cornwall.

Birds feature on all sides - a raven, choughs and an owl, to name a few. These are beautifully intertwined with flora and fauna, such as a box, badger and hedgehog. Can you spot them all? Lastly, it also includes Mên-an-Tol, which consists of three upright granite stones - the round stone with the middle holed out is easily recognisable on the tin. It's unsure if this stone is a natural phenomenon or whether it was carved this way. Legends and folklore are attached to this stone said to have miraculous powers, from curing rickets in children passed naked through the hole, to helping women get pregnant if they pass through it at full moon backwards seven times.

All said, this gin is no myth! It's legend! I've indulged in a few with tonic and ginger ale and it's such an easy and enjoyable sip, but for the purposes of these photos, I've made a gimlet, replacing the lime with lemon juice instead, resulting in a less sharp sip. I could not resist pairing with a seafood pasta, which complimented the gin and cocktail as well.

Dr Squid Gimlet

50ml Gin

25ml Fresh Lemon Juice

15ml Simple Syrup (adjust if you prefer sweeter)

Shake or stir with ice and serve with a lemon peel rose

Squid Ink Pasta

This easy recipe combines garlic, lemon, chilli flakes, oil and prawns with squid ink spaghetti and is served on a bed of thinly sliced fennel. Garnish with fennel fronds, lemon zest and a few extra chilly flakes.

South East Asia Series - Thailand - Distilleries

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Sun, 30 May 2021 16:34:40 GMT

South East Asia Series - Thailand - Gin Distilleries

Thailand has a long history of small scale homemade white spirits, especially in the rural areas where the sweet alcoholic brew sato has been made for decades, but it was only on 2003 that the Thailand Liquor Act allowed small producers and households the right to legally produce fermented or distilled alcohol. This is commonly known as a village distillery license. However, this only applies to clear spirits and they are not permitted to specify the type of spirit. So they cannot label it vodka, gin or rum and may only state it's a white spirit, so even dark rum is still illegal. This has obviously led to a little creativity with regards labelling for some brands.

Ashley Sutton, a bar and nightclub owner established the Iron Balls Distillery in 2015 - the first distillery to have a licence granted in Thailand in 31 years. They had a bit of a nightmare getting to market though, trying to convince authorities what they were doing was safe and even their bottle and percentage of alcohol were initially rejected locally. They are not yet shipping directly to the UK (you can buy via Europe), but they tell me it won't be long!

Chalong Bay Distillery and Bar in Phuket produce Chalong Bay Cane Spirit (a rum) and in March 2021 released a gin onto the market called Saneha (meaning passion) distilled using a sugarcane base. The bottle is Art Deco inspired and they market it as Thai Jungle Essence!

You'll also find brands like Grandma Jinn's , Kristall , Niikki Cristal G, Spirit of Kata Rocks (from the Kata Rocks resort in Phuket and using Peruvian juniper) - none of which state gin anywhere on the labels, but are marketed as gin, due to the addition of juniper in the botanical lineup. So fear not if you are in Thailand and want to try a local gin and can't see one on a bar shelf - they definitely do produce gin, just can't label it as such!

South East Asia Series - Vietnam Gin Distilleries

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Sun, 30 May 2021 16:11:45 GMT

South East Asia Series - Vietnam Gin Distilleries

As mentioned in my blog about the Hong Kong gin scene, there has been an increase in gin production and consumption in Asia and I thought I would do a little Vietnamese gin roundup. Rice has been distilled for centuries and much like the Philippines, drinking is very much part of their culture, with gin festivals being held since around 2018 and getting bigger each year. Reading up a little about the gin bars in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh it appears the creativity and vibrancy of the country extends into these, with most bars having a variety of house (gin) infusions available to try - so it's not the labels that would attract any gin aficionados, but the unique and creative blends of Asian fruits and spices that you will come across.

There are a few local brands which produce some interesting sounding gin. Saigon Baigur, founded in 2020, claim they are the first handcrafted gin coming out of Ho Chi Minh City and use buddhas hand, lotus flower and black cardamom to create their unique gin. You may have spotted their beautiful bottle which has been inspired by the scales of a dragon, which also features in their branding.

Sông Cái are based in Hanoi and they highlight botanicals from northern Vietnam and work with 70 families from ethnic minority tribes in the highland forests to source their ingredients.

Royal Sedang is another gin which is inspired by botanicals from Vietnam, but is distilled in Bordeaux, France and pays homage to Charles Marie de Mayrena, the last French King and Chief of the Kingdom of Sedang in 1888. Their claim is that they are the first gin using 100% Asian botanicals and feature litchi, jasmine and lemongrass alongside the more common gin botanicals - no mention if this includes juniper though!

If you have followed the plight of some breweries during lockdown you will be aware how they have had to be a bit creative around upcycling beer into gin, but Brewstillery claim to be the first to have upcycled craft beer mash from their Furbrew Distillery, into their Mashed Up Gin and launched in 2019.

Lady Trieu brought to market 2 gins (around 2019) by Adam Westbook, formerly of Portobello Road Gin fame and also featuring south and central Vietnamese botanicals.

Paper Lantern launched in 2016 by Siman Ames (originally from Turkey), and was initially distilled in Chang Mai in Thailand, using a base of rice alcohol and local botanicals and spices commonly used in Northern Thailand, like sichuan peppercorns, galangal and ginger. Siman and her husband have lived and worked all over the world, but it was when they moved to Singapore in 2012 that they were inspired to create an Asian gin. They raised money through a crowdfunding campaign in Australia and chose to have their gin distilled in Thailand as this was where their distiller lived and they purchased from local farmers, thereby giving back to the communities as well. The first 2 batches were distilled in Thailand but they have since moved to distill in Vietnam where ingredients are more readily available.

The rice based spirit is also made at the distillery and botanicals are macerated before being slowly distilled and finished with a kiss of logan berry honey sourced from villages in Northern Vietnam. The bottle label takes inspiration from traditional Chinese paper cuttings and is focused on their key botanical, the Sichuan Pepper with its red/pink berries. It has a very distinct and unique aroma and flavour with the rice base coming through fairly strong. It's earthy and warm with slight sweetness as well. It may not be for everyone as it is quite different to your normal London Dry, but it's really smooth and I think well balanced and has won Best Vietnamese Contemporary Gin in the 2019 World Gin Awards and Double Silver at the 2018 World Gin Masters.

South East Asia Series - Hong Kong Gin Distilleries

Sun, 30 May 2021 14:07:30 GMT

South East Asia Series
Hong Kong Gin Distilleries

THE FRAGRANT HARBOUR

A city with the most skyscrapers in the world and yet so many green spaces, Hong Kong is made up of 260 islands and is home to more than 7m people.

A year ago, Handover Gin, who claimed they were Hong Kong's first gin distillery was raided by customs. It was discovered that the gin was actually produced in New Zealand and that they did not have a distillery licence. The company had been importing gin in unlabelled bottles and labelling them locally as distilled in Hong Kong. The crime of importing unlabelled products and giving false claims resulted in founder Steve Newton and his girlfriend both being arrested. When the customs officers raided the distillery in Tsuen Wan, they discovered dusty stills and equipment that were a marketing gimmick and made to look as though they were distilling on site - although some say it may have been used in the initial period before Newton resorted to passing off gin distilled cheaply in NZ. Customs confiscated all stock and equipment on site, as well as recalled bottles from distributors and I've read they were even trying to recall all bottles sold online.

I don't know how it compares to elsewhere in the world, but a distillery licence in Hong Kong is around HK$22,700 and involves a mountain of red tape. NIP report they had to deal with around 7 different authorities from customs to hygiene departments. Also, finding a suitable premises in one of the most expensive real-estate markets in the world, posed a big problem too. It's therefore no surprise that there are many brands who rather drawn inspiration locally and distill abroad. There are only 2 licensed gin distilleries in Hong Kong (NIP and Two Moons) but there are a few other local brands who distill their gin overseas, drawing their inspiration from the city and also using locally sourced botanicals. These include Perfume Trees (Netherlands), Gwei Lo (Thames Distillers), Fok Hing (Wharf Distillery Northampton), Bauhinia (Thames Distillers) and Fragrant Harbour (Herno, Sweden).

Perfume Trees has been created by brothers Kit and Joseph Cheung, to represent and capture the heart and soul of Hong Kong. They have worked with local farmers and suppliers to understand the terroir and aromas that make up the city they love and live in and used them to create this beautifully aromatic gin. Their heritage botanicals pay tribute to small local producers and family businesses based in Hong Kong. These time-honoured vendors have generations of knowledge and produce botanicals which are aromatic and consistent, which makes Perfume Trees such a unique gin. The white champaca or Perfume Tree as it's locally known, used to line the streets of the city. The flowers were sold by elderly street vendors and this gin pays homage to these elderly ladies and the generations which came before it.

Hong Kong also owes its name to another botanical included, sandalwood, as it translates quite literally to ‘Fragrance Harbour’. The city has a history of being a port which traded in spices and fragrances from all round the world. Sandalwood from India is included as a botanical and the local business which provides this has been trading for over a century. Likewise other signature ingredients like aged tangerine peel and Long Jing tea are also sourced from established and traditional local businesses.

There are brief videos on the Perfume Tree website which tell you a little more about the botanicals and stories behind them, so immerse yourselves and have a virtual tour of the traditional businesses which supply them. They featured as gin of the month last year with Craft Gin Club and this beautiful bottle can be purchased exclusively through them in the UK.

Africa Series - Procera Blue Dot - The Martini Gin from Kenya

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Sun, 30 May 2021 12:53:28 GMT

From the Kijabe Forest to your table....

Juniper! This is at the heart of every gin, but Procera Gin is quite special as it uses fresh juniper, harvested from tall trees that grow in the Kijabe forest, 50 miles from the first craft distillery in Kenya. The procera juniper grows at a high altitude - some trees at around 3500m - and it gives the juniper a distinct and unique flavour profile. It's green, nutty and earthy due to being bathed in sunlight year round. These berries are plump, ripe and green after the seasonal rain and full of bright citrussy notes.

Procera juniper blends beautifully with other African botanicals in a Kenyan sugarcane base - Madagascan Pink peppercorns, Swahili limes and Pixie Oranges from Kenya, Somalian acacia honey, Moroccan coriander and orris root, Mace and Cardamom from Zanzibar and Selim Pepper from Nigeria. It's the brainchild of Australian Guy Brennan, but it's the master distiller that has managed to bring this all together to make an exceptional and truly African gin, which is winning world awards and gaining recognition and accolades from bar professionals.

Roger Jorgensen is known as the father of distilling and dare I say it, gin, in South Africa. He's the font of knowledge, a farmer, and crazy scientist, having taught himself the art of distilling and having led the fight in South Africa to allow small distillers to gain their rights back and enable them to produce artisan spirits. His Savignac potstill brandy, aged in oak for 12 years, is renowned and one of the first spirits he produced at Jorgensen's Distillery after the "potstill revolution". He is the leading guru on panels in spirits award and assists with bringing other local brands to market. Roger as spoken highly of the South African gin industry - calling the Cape the new Gin Capital of the World back in 2019.

Africa has romanced many and Guy is no exception - having fallen in love with the continent several years ago when working in the Congo and Uganda. He settled in Nairobi where he met his wife and it was over sundowners that he and a group of friends had the idea to make gin. I've covered several gins over the past week and it's just a handful of the UK/European gins which are either inspired by Africa and/or which use African botanicals. Yet none use African juniper! So Guy smuggled some Procera juniper in his baggage and took a visit to Cape Town, South Africa to see what Roger could do with it. The rest is history. Roger sold his farm and moved to Kenya, experimenting with the recipe until it was 100% and even collecting the juniper with the rest of the team. They do add a third Macedonian juniper in order to get the flavour profile "just right", but all other botanicals are African. Blue Dot makes that elusive perfect dry martini that Roger spent all his life yearning for.

Red dot was recently launched with a heavier botanical profile and is perfect in a Negroni but the current batch is already sold out! Green (New) dot - a solely African juniper gin, using fresh and dried procera berries, foliage and juniper wood won't be out till later this year. And let's not forget the botanical salt - perfect for pimping up your G&T!

I was disappointed to hear they have put on hold any plans for an African 55 Gin that I'd read about - containing 1 botanical from each African country, but I'm sure they won't disappoint with what's in the pipeline. It's a growing brand and definitely one to watch, especially with London-based spirits specialist Ivan Dixon now co-owner of the brand.

Maisha marefu! (Swahili for Cheers)

See their website for more information: Procera

South America Series - La Republica Gin, La Paz, Bolivia

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 06:44:13 GMT

LA REPUBLICA GIN - LA PAZ, BOLIVIA

GIDDY HEIGHTS

Review of: LA REPUBLICA GIN - LA PAZ, BOLIVIA

Part of my #virtualworldgintour on Instagram

(Day 26)

I am loving this tour of my collection and sharing stories with you all every day. Having to cover so much ground and research so many different gins means I don't have time to connect with every brand - even though I would love to, it's just impossible, so I plod along doing my desk research! However, I am extremely grateful to Anahi and Daniel at La República, who last week offered me an amazing zoom tour of their distillery in La Paz with follow up zoom chat to ensure I had all my facts right! I feel so privileged to have had a look around to learn more about how they do things there, and I'm now more in awe of this brand than I was before!

There are few gin distilleries who can claim to be the highest in the world! La Paz is the world's highest capital city, sitting at a giddy 3600m above sea level, so I think it's safe to say, they probably win, but how does this affect distillation?

Altitude affects the boiling points of water and alcohol and so distillation is at a much lower temperature than at sea level. The thin air allows a much gentler distillation, using less heat, making it easier to separate (make cuts) aromatics from bad congeners, which is exactly what we want in a gin - just the hearts! We see this a lot with distillers who use vacuum distillation - when pressure lowers, the boiling point lowers. The result is more intense flavours, as the slower distillation process enhances the flavours drawn out of the botanicals and the essential oils are less stressed by the lower heat. It's also important to use a good base spirit and La República are very particular about their sugar cane base. This is twice distilled and rectified by 1825Vodka, who they collaborate with locally, to ensure the lowest quantities of methanol remain in their base spirit but even so, they still make generous cuts to ensure only the best part of the distillate is kept. They reuse the heads as cleaning products and treat the remaining tails before disposing of them. Every process is carefully considered and they control every aspect of their product - from sourcing right through to bottling and labelling, which they do themselves onsite at their distillery.

The two minds behind the first gin made using Amazonian botanicals, are Bolivian born Daniel Lonsdale and Catalonian Joan Carbó. Before they met, Daniel was working in the family business but he was unceremoniously fired by his father, Tommy Lonsdale, given their differing opinions on how to run a business and so he returned to university to complete his degree. Joan, a keen distiller and student of oenology had followed his girlfriend (a close friend of Daniel's) back to La Paz and had fallen in love with Bolivia and all the amazing botanicals. He shared with Daniel a dream to use these plants and fruits to distill unique spirits at altitude and create a tribute to this beautiful country.

It was the perfect collaboration and project for the friends to embark upon. Daniel's family has a long history in the drinks industry and started making sodas in 1889. This evolved to include spirits, which were distributed throughout South America, but Destileria Boliviana was sold to a bigger producer in 1989. His grandfather, Jorge Lonsdale, produced some of Bolivia's first gin and whisky, but from imported botanicals and his great great grandmother, was instrumental in bringing Coca Cola to Bolivia in 1942. Daniel was keen to follow in his late grandfather's footsteps, but to produce an Andean gin that would make Bolivia proud. With Joan's distilling experience and energy, as well as all their joint savings, they set about producing their first product - a spicy brandy called Supay. This impressed a friend so much, he invested in their business, Master Blends, offering them the funds to purchase their first still from Europe.

After a rocky start, with their beloved still catching fire on their first distillation, two years later in 2014, they managed to launch their first expression, Andina. This expression as the name implies, captures the essence of the Andes and uses botanicals which are local and easily sourced. Juniper is balanced alongside the other botanicals used, but it has Bolivia at its heart, ensuring it is distinctly different from European gin.

Inspired by the smell of the jungle and trying to replicate its atmosphere, a second expression, Amazónica was created. The botanicals for this are carefully selected from a very complex chain of suppliers, but also in the most environmentally-friendly way possible. They use 8 Amazonian botanicals and aim to support the local farmers and indigenous tribes by doing so. Included are cacao and acai, as well as bark from three different trees found only deep in the rainforest - each of which feature in local mythology and are collected and delivered to the distillery twice a year by local tribes. They had a delivery last week and I was able to see the different bark being laid out to dry - coming from the heart of the jungle, it was understandably soaking wet! The botanicals for both expressions are macerated for 24 hours and then distilled, resulting in award-winning spirits which are full of fruity and earthy surprises.

They have two 450 litre copper stills, which use an open flame and each one is used to distill a different expression. Andina is distilled in Llama and Amazónica in Jaguar. The macerated mix of fresh and dried botanicals takes about 8 hours to distill. All botanicals apart from juniper are sourced in Bolivia and as some of the fruits are seasonal, they also have to freeze some of the pulps, so that they can distill year round.

Together with Diego Nicolini, a prominent pisco producer and vineyard owner from Peru who came onboard around 2017, the business has the perfect trifecta and they have created an amazing range of spirits to date. This collaboration also benefited them a third jacketed still, which they use to double-distill a third gin expression - Master's Reserve. They also produce Yerbasanta vermouth and Cocolero de Altura, which although contains juniper, is not marketed as gin and is made for Irish brand, Intrepid Spirits. They are soon to release the first Premium Bolivian Tonic Water, as well as a Soda Water, named after Daniel's great great grandmother - Doña Maria - and produced for them by Prost. They have lots of exciting things in the pipeline, which includes a range of bitters and botanical packs, which will offer us the opportunity to understand more about the flavours and aromas of the botanicals included in their gin.

Their head office and distillery is in a residential area of La Paz. It's a colourful building, with beautiful graffiti murals adorning not only on the outside wall but also in the courtyard and building. These reflect the origins of their brand and pay homage to the Llama, Jaguar and the beautiful surrounding Cordillera Real, from which they source glacial water used in the making of their beautifully fragrant gins.

Their gin bottle is simple, yet beautiful. The pattern is not just geometric; it is a symbol of South America - the Andean Cross or Chacana. It is a compass, a calendar and the 4 main points represent the main stars in the Southern Cross. The crest is crowned with 3 stars - representing not just the 3 levels of existence but also the 3 owners. The Condor replaced the Llama in their rebranding and represents the Andes, while the Jaguar represents the Amazon - their gin expressions Andina and Amazónica. The mountains are the Cordillera Real, which I mentioned above. It's so well thought through - simple, yet says so much. Look closer to the lettering of La República - there's a mountain in there too. This is the stuff I love about brands - the things you don't always see at first, but when you learn about them or figure them out, they tell a story that is more powerful than words.

I was told I had to serve up the most popular cocktail they make with Amazónica - the GinJam. Gin, Syrup, Lemon Juice and hibiscus infusion and topped with soda. I did substitute a little with the syrup from my jar of hibiscus flowers, but it was delicious. What struck me most was that the gin was not lost in this cocktail like so many others are. If you haven't tried it yet, do try get your hands on a bottle - it's utterly delicious!

La República sells out fast here in the UK and although they are looking to expand availability in the UK and Europe, it is currently only available through @craftginclub in the UK!

Saludos y muchas gracias a Daniel y Anahi!

#larepublicagin #amazonica #amazonicagin #craftginclub #craftgin #artesanal #ginebra #bolivia #boliviangin #lapaz #gin #chacana #masterblends #ginjam #ginsour #hibiscus #cocktails #gincocktails #amazonica

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“GinJam”

- 45 ml. Gin La República Amazónica

- 45 ml. Infusion of Jamaica Flowers (Hibiscus)

- 30 ml. Simple Syrup (adjust to suit your taste)

- 15 ml. Lemon Juice

Shake with ice and top with soda water

Garnish with a lemon peel and fresh hibiscus flowers.

“Chura”

- 45 ml. of Gin La República Amazónica

- 45 ml. lemongrass syrup

- 45 ml. of pineapple juice

- 1 dash of lemon juice

Shake with ice.

Garnish with a pineapple slice and mint.

Round the World in 80 Gins!

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 12:54:58 GMT

Round the World in 80 Gins (and Days!)

FOR THE LOVE OF GIN.....AND TRAVEL!

As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to travel the world to experience the cultures, cuisines and challenges that come from visiting and exploring a foreign country. It was the reason I left South Africa to backback around Europe in the 80s and why I never returned there and now call the UK my home. There was, and still is, always another country to visit or place I want to see or return to, so I kept postponing and eventually had to accept that I would never permanently return to Cape Town, as the opportunities for travel were better and easier from the UK.

Why do I mention all this? Well, it will hopefully explain why I love to do my virtual gin tours and why I have a rather large international gin collection! I travel vicariously through my gin collection and for the past year, that's pretty much all the travel most of us have been able to do! I learn about the locality, cultures, folklore and so much more about each bottle I own, by doing the research and writing a little story about each gin or stop along the virtual route. If you have followed me for a while, you will know I did a European and Scottish Virtual Gin Tour last year, as well as a whizz-stop dash around the world for World Gin Day last June.

This year, I want to take my time and taking some inspiration from Phileas Fogg, I am going to attempt a Round The World in 80 Gins/Days! 80 days definitely....we will have to see if I can do 80 gins too..... that means 80 daily posts! I must be crazy, but I'm chomping at the bit and cannot wait to start the research and learn loads along the way about my collection and what makes each bottle so unique. I've no idea what I will uncover or find in my searches, but hopefully it will be interesting and there will be good stories to tell.

I think it is apt to end the tour on World Gin Day 2021, which means I need to set off on my travels on 25th March. Yippee!! I will not be forgetting some much loved UK brands along my route - so expect a few honorary posts to fill the gaps or where brands take inspiration from other countries or use botanicals from faraway places.

I'm super excited as you can tell, as this combines my love of travel and gin and it's probably going to take me to places I may never get to visit in my lifetime. Hope you all join me and enjoy the stories..... and most of all, the gins!

Africa Series - Pangolin Gin

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 16:16:45 GMT

AFRICAN SUNDOWNERS

There is no better way to round off a perfect day exploring the African bushveld, than with a sundowner. The sundowner is Africa’s happy hour, when you chill with a glass of something cold in hand and watch the sun paint the sky shades of red, orange and pink as it dips below the horizon. This is the transition into evening, when you wind down after a busy day, relax and take in the view.

The sundowner started back in colonial times, when a gin and tonic was consumed out of necessity, the quinine helping protect against malaria. Today it’s an excuse to meet up with friends and enjoy their company and more often eat, drink and be merry in a gorgeous setting.

But why do I mention sundowners – well, it’s because this is how and why Pangolin Gin was created. Chris, the founder, is a lover of wildlife and travel and on a recent holiday to South Africa where he went on several game drives, he learned about the plight of the pangolin. He openly admits that he had never heard of a pangolin before and he was shocked to learn that they are one of the most trafficked animals in the world.

How is this possible? Most trafficked and never heard of does not make sense when in a single sentence. I too only learned about the plight of the pangolin a few years ago when I saw a programme about Maria Diekmann, a conservationist, who lives in Namibia and who not only rescues pangolins, but also several other endangered species, through her charity REST Namibia. Pangolins are mostly nocturnal, so even though I’m from South Africa and have been on several game drives and some at night, I’d never heard of them either so I found the programme really informative and interesting and have never really forgotten it.

The programme focussed on Honey Bun, a mischievous pangolin that she rescued and I was shocked to learn how they are hunted and killed, not only for bushmeat in Africa, but mainly for their scales, which are used in Chinese medicine. There is nothing magical about their scales – they are made up of keratin, just like your hair and nails, but that has not stopped illegal trade and the statistics are shocking.

You can learn more about Maria’s work on her website, but you can also watch some cute videos about Honey Bun on YouTube.

https://www.restnamibia.org/about/

https://www.naturalworldsafaris.com/natural-world-heroes/maria-diekmann

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWoYpjLmKmk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTq3ur4nTgE

The belief that pangolin scales have magical and curative properties drives the large-scale trafficking and there is also demand for their meat which sells for up to $350 per kilo. Having read some articles, I’m assured that this meat is pungent and unpleasant, but it’s seen as a delicacy and luxury in some African countries. It’s also claimed that the scales, either ground, buried or burned, will neutralise witchcraft and evil spirits, improve cattle health, keep lions away, cure simple ailments such as nosebleeds or that a sighting of a pangolin will cause a drought, so they are hunted by tribes in certain areas of Africa. But worst of all is the fact that the scales and meat are consumed in Asian countries and specifically used in Chinese medicine - thought to provide cures for anything from cancer to period pains.

Chris felt that he could not ignore this and so by combining his love for wildlife and spirits, he decided to create Pangolin Gin, which he is hoping will raise awareness and funds to help save the pangolin from extinction.

Pangolin Gin has recently partnered with the Born Free Foundation, a leading wildlife charity, and has committed to donate 10% of their profits to the Sangha Pangolin Project and also help promote the Adopt a Pangolin scheme. You can learn more about this at the following links:

https://www.bornfree.org.uk/pangolin-conservation

https://www.bornfree.org.uk/adopt-a-pangolin

If you have never heard of a pangolin before, you are not alone, so what are they?

Although they have the appearance of a prehistoric reptile, perhaps a cross between an anteater and an armadillo, they are actually mammals and the only scaled mammal in the world. They are found in a variety of habitats, including tropical and savannah grassland. Their scales are kept sharp due to all the burrowing they do and are what protect them from predators, as they roll themselves into a tight ball and defend themselves using their tails. Their diet is predominantly ants, termites and larvae and they use their long, sticky tongues to pick up their food. They play an important role in the ecosystem, consuming more than 70 million insects annually. This specialist diet is what makes them so difficult to rear in captivity and in most cases, they don’t survive long when fed foreign food, so it makes rescuing them extremely difficult.

There are eight pangolin species across Africa and Asia and they are all protected under national and international laws, but are all still illegally traded. China increased protection for the native Chinese Pangolin this year and the government no longer allows the use of pangolin scales in traditional medicine. This is a big win given that an estimated 195,000 pangolins were trafficked in 2019 for their scales alone, however there are always loopholes and I’ve read about claims that they are using up “stockpiles of scales” and that pangolin scales are still listed as ingredients in some medicines. There are even claims that they are the cause of the coronovirus, which is ridiculous, as we know this was more about human behaviour, but I’m not even going to elaborate here, as it’s a controversial subject and there are enough articles out there about it. It’s a mammoth of a task to educate and raise awareness, so that we can stop the hunting of the pangolin and prevent the extinction of this species. As a ginlover, we can do our bit, by consuming Pangolin Gin and supporting the initiatives that they are involved in.

Pangolin Gin has been contacted distilled at the Paper Mill Distillery at Staffordshire Brewery and several unique African botanicals have been selected to form the core of this gin. These include rooibos and honeybush, as well as baobab which together with orange peel and grapefruit form the basis of a solid London dry gin but also capture the essence of the African sundowner. It’s a good solid gin, with good intentions at its heart. You can purchase this on their website, Amazon or Master of Malt. Chris assures me that there is more to come from Pangolin Gin, with some special and limited editions in the pipeline. If you are going to do one good thing today, check out the link above to the Born Free Foundation and sponsor a pangolin – I will certainly be doing so too.

As this is such a bitter-sweet story, I’ve opted for a negroni-riff as my sundowner serve.

PANGO’S SUNDOWNER

50ml Pangolin Gin

50ml Barbadillo Fino, infused with honeybush tea

50ml Amaro Montenegro

50ml Mangajo Red Grape & Rooibos Tea

Garnished with bright yellow orbs of Cape Gooseberry to represent the setting sun

You can learn more about Pangolin Gin on their website and learn more about their ambassador, Pango.

https://pangolingin.co.uk/pangos-story

Gin gifted

THAT BOUTIQUE-Y GIN SERIES Ep.3 Green Citrus Gin (Gin Eva Distillery) 46%

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 22:35:48 GMT

THAT BOUTIQUE-Y GIN SERIES Ep.3
Green Citrus Gin (Gin Eva Distillery) 46%

We are heading to Mallorca for today's episode and I've gone full-on citrus with a gimlet, using the usual ingredients, but muddled in some lemon thyme and a slice of mandarin. Gimlet's are supposedly made using Rose's Lime Cordial. I prefer to use lime juice and simple syrup, but for those who have some to hand, give it a go as you don't get any simpler than gin and cordial!

Although this is a Green Citrus gin, it's not actually made using lime, but rather with green oranges, mandarin leaves and the usual suspects and given the love of a simple gin tonica in Spain, it's exactly what it's made for - just add tonic, garnish with a slice of lime and a bay leaf and you have a perfect serve which, with a little imagination, will transport you to a hot and balmy Mallorca as you imagine yourself sipping this in the shade of an orange grove.

As the name suggests, Gin Eva is named after one of the founders of the brand - Eva. Eva and Stefan both have degrees in wine making and back in 2010 distilled a gin for a winery they were working for and decided to set up their own distillery. They focus on local ingredients, including fresh citrus, but they love experimenting with all sorts of botanicals and have steadily increased their portfolio with a range of spirits and liqueurs.

Their collaboration with That Boutique-Y Gin Company, Green Citrus, uses local green oranges, which gives this gin a bitter sweetness. If you love a citrus gin and are looking for something a little more complex, then this is certainly one for you, as it's the perfect sweet and bitter balance, with a good whack of juniper and just enough spice to finish.

Of course the label is again lots of fun, with Stefan depicted as a green giant, resplendent in an outfit and crown made of citrus leaves, walking between the lemon and orange trees. Is it dawn or dusk? Well, it's said you should wait for citrus to dry from the morning dew before you pick it, so I'm guessing this is sunset - the perfect time for g&t sundowners!

Barrel Aged Gins (Part 3)

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 22:01:59 GMT

BARREL AGED GIN
No. 3 - Makar Oak and Mulberry Aged Gin - 43%

Glasgow, Scotland

It seems a common question, but how do you serve up aged gin? Are there rules or do you just treat it like whisky or bourbon, maybe even rum? Do you want to fuss with a cocktail or do you just want something simple?

Given I was kindly sent some Lixir mixers to try, I thought it would be a good opportunity to see how a barrel-aged gin holds up with ginger ale, and my bottles of Makar have been patiently waiting their turn to be featured in my barrel aged series!

Really simple, just pour and enjoy - garnish with a dehydrated orange wheel and voila! I did feel rather grown up drinking it and it did go down rather quickly, so I guess we can say that was a success. Good mixer, good gin - what more does one need?

In terms of any other serves, I do think that a cocktail should be driven by the characteristics of the gin and I'm sure we all scan our collection and choose the gin which best fits a recipe. The length it's aged will also affect the suitability in certain cocktails, but it appears that everything from an Aviation to a Bees Knees to an Old Fashioned to even a Martinez is possible. I've tried a few barrel aged gins with tonic and I wasn't won over, but that was before I understood what they were about, so I will be revisiting them and seeing if it is actually a perfect serve for me. It seems though that it's open season for cocktails using them, so I will definitely consider an aged gin as well now.

Makar suggest neat or a negroni for their oak aged gin and ginger ale or a dry martini for their mulberry aged. Of course I'm a rebel and chose the oak aged to have with the ginger ale and so it's pretty clear that there is no wrong or right - it's what works for you.

Both of these aged gins are exceptional. The oak aged is soft, sweet and a little peppery to finish. My immediate thought when tasting it was that this is a good gin for newcomers to the aged gin category. The Mulberry Wood is quite lemony on the nose and a bit heavier on the juniper and citrus lovers are probably going to love this one as the lemon carries through and finishes with pepper.

Barrel Aged Gins (Part 2)

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 18:14:54 GMT

BARREL AGED GIN No. 2

Koskue (now rebranded as Kyrö Dark Gin)

Kyrö Distillery - Finland - 42.6%

BARREL AGED GIN

No. 2 - Koskue (now rebranded as Kyrö Dark Gin) - Kyrö Distillery - Finland - 42.6%

I've written about Kyrö Distillery recently in my post about their Boutique-y Gin collaboration, Bog Gin, so I won't go into much detail again about their distillery, but for those who are unaware, they use rye as their spirits base and their dark gin has been rested in white oak casks for 3-12 months and has an orange peel and black pepper distillate added to the final blend. It has 17 botanicals including birch leaves, meadowsweet, cranberry and orange peel.

For my serve I've gone a little unconventional perhaps and also low alco, but the orange immediately made me think negroni. I played about with the botanical profile as well and the result was delicious. The gin itself is sweet, spicy and really smooth with the piney juniper holding throughout.

25ml Koskue Aged Gin

25m Lillet Blanc Vermouth

25ml Everleaf Aperitif - vanilla, saffron, gential, orange blossom and voodoo lilly

A few dashes of Bitter Truth Peach Bitters

50ml Cranberry Juice

US law states that only new casks are allowed for aging whisky, whereas here in Scotland for example, they can use old barrels. But there is no law dictating what distillers must use for aging gin. Generally oak is used, but there are some distillers using purpose made juniper wood casks too. Ex-bourbon casks are the most widely used for aging gin, but cognac, whisky, port and sherry casks are also used and these will impart further qualities and layers of flavour.

Aging gin is certainly a skill and takes into consideration more factors than you initially realise. The ABV of the gin helps extract the tannins from the wood and botanical proportions may need to be adjusted as they can be lost through the aging process. The size of the barrel also affects how fast it will mature due to the surface area in contact with the spirit. The type of wood or its origin, and the amount of barrel charring can also change flavour and strength, as does climate or location of where the barrels are stored. And sometimes barrels aren't even used, as some distillers favour adding wood chips to their storage tanks, so should you be inclined to experiment, you could add a piece of charred oak to a bottle of gin and see what result you get. For further complexity and also consistency, a batch of spirit may be aged in a mix of old and new barrels or even a mixture of barrel types and then blended.

Gin also has low congeners. They are the compounds which alter the flavour and aroma of a spirit and having lower levels means that it will limit how much the flavour of the gin will change. Distillers will generally rest their gin in barrels for at least 3 weeks, but there are aged gins rested for 10 or 15 years, even longer. It's all a balance of how much you want the wood to change the flavour of the gin and at which point the key (juniper) flavours start to diminish too much for it to be recognised as gin. Most importantly, for gin lovers, we want it to retain its "ginniness" and as we can see above, there are many factors which will contribute to the end result.

Finding the perfect serve for an aged gin is also a dilemma, as does one treat it as gin or whisky? I don't think a G&T works as I personally see these as leaning more towards whisky or cognac serves, so next time I'll touch a bit more on ideal serves for aged gin.

That Boutique-Y Gin Company - Ep. 2

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 15:07:07 GMT

Ep.1 Salt Marsh Gin (Greensand Ridge Distillery) 46%

THAT BOUTIQUE-Y GIN SERIES

Ep.2 Bog Gin (Kyrö Distillery) 46%

At least a third of Finland's landmass is marshland and a great habitat for a number of berries and plants, so the guys at Kyrö have created this gin, taking inspiration from them. They include Finnish juniper, bog blueberry, lingonberry and reindeer lichen and so whilst you expect a heavy musty gin due to the name, it's actually quite a contradiction and is lively and fruity with a beautiful silky mouthfeel and a dry and almost menthol finish.

As I mentioned in Ep.1 of this mini series, there is humour in the label and whilst it TBGC gins can seem a bit gimmicky, we can't overlook that some of these are very likely to be exceptional gins, made by exceptional distilleries. This label features the 5 founders perched on a cross between a digger and a still - I guess there's some humour in that and the desire to make a distiller's life a little easy!

Kyrö Distillery was conceived when a group of friends were sipping American rye whisky in a sauna and pondered as to why nobody in Finland was making rye whisky. They found a cheese factory which was suitable for their distillery and very shortly began producing their own whisky. The only issue is, it's an expensive process and you have to sit around for at least 3 years waiting for the fruits of your labour, so they moved on to distilling gin. This was pretty much an overnight sensation for them and their flagship Napue Rye Gin won Best Gin for G&T in the IWSC in 2015 and they had to increase production from 23k to 100k bottles in the first year and they have continued to grow ever since and now export worldwide. This however posed it's own problem, as Napue appeared to be difficult to pronounce. Ask for it in a bar in some countries and you would be handed a napkin, so, they decided to rebrand to Kyrö. As a side joke, they did also produce some limited edition packets of napkins (or tissue packs as we know them) at the time of their rebranding.

To me though, Kyrö is way more difficult to pronounce than Napue, which is pretty much na-poo, but Kyrö ...it's not pronounced like the Egyptian city, so you try get your lips around it using this pronunciation guide - I get something like Coo-rerr! Any Finnish speakers out there?

Y: close to the "u" in the British pronunciation of "you" with tight lips

Ö (with umlaut): pronounced like the "u" in "fur" with tight lips

But back to the easy to pronounce Bog Gin - it's delicious in a G&T, but I've gone with a recommended bramble which is just as good.

That Boutique-Y Gin Company - Ep. 1

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 14:44:17 GMT

Ep.1 Salt Marsh Gin (Greensand Ridge Distillery) 46%

THAT BOUTIQUE-Y GIN SERIES

Ep.1 Salt Marsh Gin (Greensand Ridge Distillery) 46%

I seem to have acquired several bottles of That Boutique-y Gin and thought it would be good to do a little series on them and the collaborations that they do with established distilleries. I've always been a little confused about the brand due to their quirky illustrated labels and flavoured variants which seem gimmicky on the face of it, but I'm learning every day and there's a double whammy with some editions, as it also helps me support and talk about some of my favourite distilleries. Hopefully this little series will help clear up some of the preconceptions some of you may also have had about the brand.

That Boutique-y Gin Company (TBGC) is the world’s first independent gin bottler and they strive to push the boundaries of flavours simply because they can. If you have spotted their Dead King and Hot Sauce Gin, you'll know what I mean! There is a gin for everyone and TBGC are certainly looking to appeal to all corners of the market and collaborate with some of the biggest international distilleries.

Salt Marsh Gin is Greensand Ridge's second collaboration with TBGC and takes inspiration from the salt marshes found in Kent's Weald and naturally features botanicals you would expect to find there. Once again the whimsical label tells a little story with the image of Greensand Ridge founder, Will Edge and TBGC's David T. Smith, who are punting through the salt mashes on a misty moonlit night accompanied by lots of little frogs - smuggling or foraging, who knows!

The botanicals include sea fennel, sea purslane, samphire, sea buckthorn, elderberry, gorse, hawthorn and blackberry leaves. To taste it's not salty, but rather a little fruity, spicy and savoury with quite a dry finish.

I've avoided the temptation to go with a martini and looked rather at a cocktail that may compliment the botanicals. A margatini may work too and they recommend a salty dog, but I've gone with my own concoction based roughly on a Paloma and despite it being heavy on the sour citrus flavours, it's brought a lot of the saltiness to the front, resulting in a beautiful umami cocktail. I'm glad I made double quantities!

THAT GREENSAND PALOMA

50ml Gin

50ml Grapefruit Juice

20ml Lime Juice

15ml Sugar Syrup

15ml Yuzu Liqueur

Soda Water to top up

Barrel Aged Gins (Part 1)

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 14:34:32 GMT

BARREL AGED GINS

No. 1 in a series of posts about Barrel Aged Gins

Although not specifically about this particular gin, it's one in my collection and featured as a serve in this post.

Bluecoat Barrel Finished Gin - 47% - Philadelphia USA

I've been experimenting with some barrel aged gins recently and indeed realised I have a few in my collection I just couldn't get my head around. So I have decided to focus a few posts on them - mainly to help me learn and also for anyone else who wants to join the discussion. I do love my research, so brace yourselves!

The big question I have is, does aging or resting gin in an oak barrel change the identity of gin? Is it the bridge between gin and whisky and possibly what draws whisky drinkers over to enjoying gin? There is certainly a benefit in aging gin if you are wanting to win over whisky drinkers, as whisky has to rest for at least 3 years and there's no legislation around how long a barrelled gin must sit, so for distilleries who are making whisky and needing to wait a long time for a return on their profits, aging gin in barrels seems sensible.

There is an historic connection between gin and oak barrels which goes back to when barrels were the only form of storage or transporting gin and it mellowed and changed the flavour profile of the spirit. So it's not new, but it seems to me to have had a bit of a revival this century, with a lot of distilleries experimenting with aging their gin, but also falling foul to labelling legislation in some countries, as by definition, gin is an unaged spirit. Hence there is a little creativity from distillers who attempt to fly below the radar and why we are seeing words like barrel finished, rested or aged on labels, depending on the origin of the gin.

But here is where I sit...... It's different and although I definitely can still taste the piney juniper in some of them, they taste or smell of whisky or cognac to me and they really do benefit from being sipped on ice, rather than doused in tonic. I agree it's gin, but the flavour profile has definitely changed, so dare I suggest it's maybe "Jim"? Is pink gin gin or is flavoured gin gin if juniper is not the predominant botanical? That's a whole new debate which we won't go into here!

For my serve of Bluecoat Barrel Finished, all I've done is add a few dashes of orange bitters and serve on ice with a wheel of dehydrated satsuma. It's softened the resinous notes which are quite prominent in the gin and resulted in a rounder sip and brought even more of the deep caramel toffee to the front. It's absolutely stunning to nose and has a really complex taste. It's smooth and definitely gin - the juniper gives it away! There's a little peppery spice leaving a warm and slightly sweet finish. It's really a gorgeous sip, so if you do come across it on your travels, do give it a try.

UK Series - House of Ruhr

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 18:22:39 GMT

HOUSE OF RUHR

House of Ruhr have created three different gins inspired by family history and the mining industry. Bryn kindly gifted me all three to try and my reviews are on Instagram, but copied here with more detail and photos.

Bergmann – The Miner

Packed with botanicals like goji berries physalis and bitter yerba mate leaves, this is the gin that the creators Bryn and Richie call their Super Gin. Using these botanicals which are rich in antioxidants and Vitamin A, and also caffeine from the yerba mate leaves, it’s easy to understand why! I’m sure had miners of past drunk gin, this would be the one they would have chosen as a pickmeup after a hard day toiling at the coalface.

House of Ruhr works in collaboration with Distillerie Eicker & Callen in Germany. It was a dream of the current owner and longstanding friend of Bryn, to see their spirits served in the UK and after a visit to a family gathering, on the return flight Richie and Bryn decided to realise this, and House of Ruhr was born. They decided to focus on gin and an agreement was struck up with the distillery to produce 2500 bottles each of three different gins.

The branding pays tribute to mining heritage and the connection between the distillery in the Ruhr Valley and the NW of England where Bryn and Richie are based. You will recognise the branding uses colours of the German flag; Black, Red and Yellow.

More to come on the background of House of Ruhr and a bit more now about Bergmann. As expected the nose is fruity and delicate. It has a lovely sweet fruitness to taste with a spicy finish. I found it to be incredibly smooth and creamy and a beautiful gin to sip. I tried it with my normal light tonic, but found it brought out some bitterness which I don’t normally notice in other gins, so as it’s really about the pairing and finding the right tonic for a gin, I served it up again with an aromatic tonic and garnished with some goji berries and dehydrated orange wheels and this made my perfect serve!

Vogel – What’s in a name?

Until the mid 1980s canaries were used in coal mining to monitor or detect the presence of methane or carbon monoxide, especially after explosions or fires. Carried into the mines in small cages, they would be vital in ensuring the safety of the miners as they worked. Given their size and vulnerability to toxic gasses, if present, they would show signs of distress, thereby alerting the miners to any danger and be the signal to evacuate. Thankfully this practice ended with the invention of electronic detectors, but they will always be associated with mining and the role they played in ensuring the safety of many miners. Vogel (the German word for Bird) pays tribute to these little unsung heros of mining.

Vogel is a beautifully smooth gin, infused with Lemon and Allspice. You initially get a burst of citrus, with juniper in the background. I found it to be less spicy than the other gins in the range, but it still finishes with a gentle flutter of savoury spice and lemon. There are 12 botanicals hidden in this triple distilled London Dry, with of course a focus on lemon and lemon balm. I’ve yet to try this as a G&T and I chose to serve this up first as a Bees Knees – a nod to yet another little hero – but also a beautiful simple serve which brings forward the citrus notes.

I’m sure there are many variations, but for my Bees Knees, I used 15ml honey, 25ml lemon juice and 50ml Vogel and garnished with a lemon zest rose. Make sure your glass is frosty, dry shake all ingredients until blended and then wet shake until really cold, pour and enjoy.

Vogel is also distilled by Eicker & Callen, which was established in the Ruhr Valley in 1747.

The original owners were a master distiller and a merchant who worked together to develop many recipes and flavours inspired surrounding area, some of which are still being used, and it has now been handed down to Peter Meinken and his sister who run the distillery together. Peter and Bryn met when they worked for the respective German and UK police forces and together with Bryn’s business partner and son-in-law, Richie, have collaborated to bring us a brand that is steeped in mining heritage and connects the Ruhr Valley and NW of England. Whilst the colours of the branding scream Germany, the UK House of Ruhr also has a family connection with the mining industry in the UK and I will try and explain that with my next review of Renton.

Renton

Although distilled in Germany in the Ruhr Valley, these are marketed in the UK by retired police officer, Bryn and his son in law and business partner Richard. They work closely with the distillery to make hybrids of old recipes and drinks and handcraft them using artisinal skills passed down since the distillery was formed. They are triple distilled and each of the heavy, hipflasked shaped bottles are handfilled, labelled, signed and numbered.

Renton is named after Bryn’s maternal great grandfather, but the portrait on the bottle is of his paternal great grandfather, Thomas Jones, who was a miner. I’m sure it’s obvious why it wasn’t named Tom Jones, but as with all 3 Ruhr gins, the branding is very much focussed on family heritage and their connection with the mining industry.

Renton is my personal favourite of the 3 gins and is notably stronger than the other two at 44.7% On the nose it’s quite floral with a little lavender and rose coming through and to taste it’s slightly sweet, citrussy, a little spicy and as with the complete range, has a beautiful creamy mouth feel. Botanicals include cubeb pepper, mace, coriander, rosewater, all-spice and lavender and of course, it’s juniper forward too!

I’ve made a classic negroni with this, using Vermut and Sacred Rosehip Cup and added a nice big wedge of orange to it.

You can currently get 10% discount off the range on their website using code ROODOG (June 2020)

New paragraph

TOP BEVERAGES PART 3

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 19:41:30 GMT

TOP BEVERAGES GIN PART 3

TOP BEVERAGES – THE FUTURE

PART 3

https://top-beverages.com/

Today I wish to focus on the last of the 3 collections, their Classic Collection and the aptly named Classic Gin. This is probably the gin which will appeal to most gin drinkers, as it contains your standard gin botanicals, some gorgeous citrus (lemon, lime and Valencian Oranges) and to add a little sweetness, elderflower. This is delicious with a plain tonic, but I’ve gone a bit “extra” again and made another super easy cocktail, leaning again towards something a bit healthy. I’ve cheated again and used a supermarket juice instead of juicing or smashing up some fruit and herbs, but why do the work when someone else has done it for you!

SUPER JUICE

25ml Classic Gin

15ml St Germain

50ml Moju Juice – the green one!

Shake it all up with some ice and strain into your glass over a sphere of ice. Add a squeeze of fresh lime and garnish with whatever you fancy!

So what plans do Top Beverages have for next year? Well it’s safe to say, they will not be resting on their laurels, despite having an amazing range of gin, rum and vodka already, and they are in the process of developing a few more products which will follow current trends in the beverage market. They are launching a range of CBD cocktails using their original spirits under a sub-brand in 1Q 2020. These RTDs will be a G&T, a rum and cola and a vodka, lime and soda. They are also planning a line of mocktails. These will have between 10-15 mg of CBD and will be around 100 calories with no added sugars, essences or artificial additives, as with their original spirits.

They also plan a Cloudy Tipple Tour of the UK, with big plans for events in London and Glasgow and will also pop up in Ibiza next year! They also have chocolate, although they plan to keep their business purely spirits based and will not be selling this from their website. So for all you chocolate lovers, if you would like some, then you can place an order via Top CBDChocolate on Instagram via a DM.

Top Beverages hopes to build from grassroots and create a firm base of followers who will help support and grow their brand. With the growing trend for health foods and supplements that have health benefits, their stance of quality over quantity is sure to stand them in good stead and I am now a firm member of their fan club. As society becomes more accepting and educated about CBD and its associated benefits, and governments start to legalise the use of medicinal cannabis, this is something I believe will continue to grow and buyers will become more discerning about what products they use and want more disclosure around ingredients used in so called health foods and supplements. Nick has an open door policy, so if you have any questions around their products, do get in touch with him.

At present, all Top Beverage products are produced and distilled in Scotland, although the founders live in Barcelona, so delivery to the UK is not an issue. With code TOP50FAN you get 50% off website prices and free delivery. Don’t delay – this offer is only around for a few more days.

My review of Top Beverages is totally unbiased and unpaid but I was gifted 3 sample products. I have purchased full size bottles since trying them as I genuinely love the gin and the CBD is just an added bonus.

TOP BEVERAGES PART 2

183:792272903 (Allison Strydom) — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 19:38:39 GMT

TOP BEVERAGES GIN PART 2

TOP BEVERAGES – NO GIMMICKS

PART 2

https://top-beverages.com/

Going on from my previous post, I wanted to focus on the ethos of the founders of Top Beverages and in my next post, I will focus on where they wish to take their brand.

As I mentioned before, Top Beverages do not wish to be defined by CBD, but rather strive to create the best product they can, using only the finest quality ingredients. They have taken time to ensure all the ingredients used are tested and that they are following best practices for their industry. They are thus not the fastest to market with a range of spirits containing CBD, but they are confident in their product and believe it is the best.

Top Beverages have chosen the name for more than one reason. It indicates their ambitions and objectives and if you reverse the letters, it also pays respect to one of their core ingredients! Both founders are champions of the health benefits of CBD and as one of the co-founders, Nick, shared with me, they love a drink too. Whilst we all know drinking should be in moderation and too much is bad for our health, when we do drink, shouldn’t we be drinking the best we can afford or the best that is out there? It’s this philosophy that has led to them creating a range of high quality spirits, with the additional benefit of them containing CBD. If you are going to drink, drink something that is good for you.

So with this in mind, I want to focus on gin from their Signature Collection – SUPER GIN.

Super Gin contains your usual gin botanicals distilled alongside three superfoods - goji berries, acai berries and blueberries from Scotland. This alongside 50mg of full spectrum CBD oil makes for an amazing gin. There is nothing artificial in flavour about this gin. It’s fruity, silky in the mouth due to the high oil content and has a little bite to finish. For my second cocktail, keeping with a berry theme, I have gone with a bramble riff, as who doesn’t love a bramble!

SUPER BRAMBLE

25ml Super Gin

5 bar spoons of juice from a jar of Opies Luxardo Cherries (Kirsch)

3 bar spoons of homemade forest fruits reduction

Shake with ice and pour into your glass and top with a good quality light tonic

Garnished with some black cherries and a sprinkle of rose petals.

I have purposefully left all the “bits” in my reduction and not strained this drink – all the goodness of berries are in the skins, so keep a spoon handy when you have finished your drink and ensure you don’t waste them!

CBD SPIRITS - Top Beverages UK

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 19:36:10 GMT

TOP BEVERAGES – THE FULL SPECTRUM part 1

TOP BEVERAGES – THE FULL SPECTRUM

PART 1

https://top-beverages.com/

I’ve now had a chance to taste and play around with the samples of Top Gin that Nick kindly sent me to try and over the next few days I am going to share some more background information about Top Beverages and what makes their gin really special.

As you all know, I won’t endorse something I don’t personally like and I happen to love these for many reasons. If you would like to try these too, they have an amazing discount offer on for a few days, so head over to their website and use TOP50FAN and treat yourself to an early Christmas present – I have!

I’m sure you have all heard about CBD and all the amazing health benefits it has and have noticed that there are many new products, not just gin, who are trading on the hype around Hemp or CBD, but who don’t disclose too much information about what actually goes into their products – how much, what type of CBD, has it been tested etc. CBD and hempseed oil are in the same cannabis family, and they are often marketed as the same thing and consumers are being misled, so it does pay to do your research and ensure that you are not overpaying for a product which does not contain what you think it does. Hempseed oil contains little to no CBD, whilst CBD comes from the entire plant, including leaves and stems, and it is this CBD that Top Beverages use.

Top Beverages have set out to create a gin (and indeed other spirits too) which not only contains the best ingredients they can find, but is also well researched, tested and contains no sugar or any artificial flavourings. Their ingredients have been sourced during their travels around the world and in addition to the normal botanicals you find in gin, they have also played about with some unusual flavours and added premium CBD infusions to them. They use full spectrum CBD oil, which means that this contains all the cannabinoids that are found in the cannabis plant in nature, so you are getting the maximum benefit from it.

But, this is a gin that is not defined by the addition of CBD – this is a gin that even without it would be a quality product and one which stands out from the crowd. Each 50cl bottle contains 50mg of full spectrum CBD and as the infusions work best with a higher alcohol content, all their gin is blended to Navy Strength.

The first gin from their 3 collections is one I was unsure I would like, but has actually turned out to be my favourite! BLOODY MARY GIN from their Spice Collection.

This has tomato, celery, red chilli, orange, cinnamon, coriander and black pepper in it and these marry beautifully with the gin botanicals. I have created a little cocktail, leaning towards health benefits and the botanicals in the gin.

SNAP TO IT COCKTAIL

25ml Bloody Mary Gin

15ml Vermouth

Shaken with loads of ice and topped up with Nik & Kix Blood Orange and Turmeric pick me up!

I believe cocktails should be easy for everyone to make and I don’t have a large collections of bottles to play about with – my gin collection takes up enough space! So hopefully this one will inspire you to think a bit outside the box and look for unusual ingredients you can use, while you’re out doing the grocery shopping!

UK Series - Cambridge Distillery

Sat, 22 Jun 2019 23:00:00 GMT

Cambridge Distillery at Taste London - June 2019

Yesterday's visit to the @cambridgegin stand at Taste London (thank you Cambridge for the tickets ��) gave me a great insight into the range of gin that they have brought to market, as well as their different approach to making gin. They use locally available botanicals, which is not necessarily unique, as most distilleries adopt this approach, but what they do differently, is that they distill each element individually and then blend them to create the perfect gin. They have won awards for being the most innovative business in the world and when you look at their unusual ideas, you can see why.

Cambridge Dry Gin includes lemon verbena, rosemary, basil and Rose petals.

Japanese Gin focuses entirely on Japanese botanicals with shiso leaf, sansho pepper, yuzu peel and white roasted sesame seed.

Truffle gin of course speaks for itself, using the famously expensive white truffle .

Cambridge Seasonal Gin is produced in limited volumes and they make 2 versions each year, spring/summer and autumn /winter.

Brace yourselves.. Anty gin... Yes... Insect gin with the essence of 62 red wood ants in each bottle. This is a joint venture with Nordic Food Lab and certainly not one you are going to find on your supermarket shelves! The ants bring a citrus-style flavour to the gin.... I'll take their word for it as I'm not sure I could afford the price tag!

Last but not least is of course Watenshi, which has an even more eye watering price tag but must surely be the most extraordinary gin ever produced. Each bottle is hand blown in Cambridgeshire, the stoppers turned in Switzerland and the silver feathers which adorn each bottle handcrafted in London. The bottles are hand decorated with Japanese characters by a master calligrapher. This gin is distilled at half the pressure found at the summit of Mount Everest and at temperatures lower than at the South Pole, yielding less than a tablespoon a day. Only a few dozen bottles were ever produced and at around £2000 each, if I owned one it would be locked away in a safe!

Furthermore they tailor gin for corporate and private clients, so you can have your very own gin distilled, blended and bottled by them.

Impressed? I am!

This is not sponsored at all and just part of my own research and love of all things Juniper!

UK Series - The Surrey Copper Distillery

Sun, 16 Jun 2019 13:38:24 GMT

The Surrey Copper Distillery - Visit June 2019

My gin journey is all about learning more about the spirit, backstories, as well as unique botanicals and I feel totally privileged to have had the opportunity to be shown around The Surrey Copper Distillery by the owner and distiller, Chris Smart.

Chris and his wife Katherine have credentials longer than my arm and their passion for creating something exceptional is clear when you step into their distillery. The equipment is mind blowing as well as beautiful and Chris was kind enough to explain every step of the process and why they chose certain methods over others. The Carterhead copper still which was specially built in Italy for them is stunningly beautiful. In their spirit lab they also have smaller copper stills for R&D, special edition batches and vermouth, called Tweedle Dum, Tweedle Dee, Alice and Clara. They have an impressive backstory intertwined with history, literature and the local countryside, which I urge you to read more about on their website. .

On to the gin, Copperfield London Dry Volume One... Recreated from an old recipe found by Katherine and with their distilling notes on the back of the label. It's a sipping gin, smooth and complex .. Perfect over ice to open up the botanicals or in a martini with their amazing Chimes Vermouth or go classic with a g&t with plain tonic. I didn't want to mess with garnishes so stuck with a bit of lemon rind, but their website does list several serving suggestions if you wanted to experiment. Copperfield has jumped into my top 10, maybe even top 5 favourites... It's classic, junipery, complex and smooth. What more could a ginthusiast want? ❤️ They have a second gin, Volume 2, just launched but not yet on their website which you can see in the photos, but more about that another time! .

Chris, thank you again for allowing us to monopolise your afternoon, for taking the time to show us around and for the multiple tastings and amazing martini! I'm sure we will catch up again at local events.

This is not sponsored at all and just part of my own research and love of all things Juniper!

Ceder's Alt-Gin

Sat, 15 Jun 2019 14:00:31 GMT

An Evening of Mindfulness with Ceder's Alt-Gin - June 2019

I make no secret of the fact that my roots are South African and I love everything about my home country, not least the amazing botanicals that are totally unique to the Cape. When I saw @ceders_altgin in my local supermarket there was no doubt it was coming home with me, regardless of the fact it was non-alcoholic. It's the perfect pour when I've a busy evening finishing work and I need to remain clear-headed.

Last week I was fortunate to win an invite to an evening with Ceder's, to meet the maker and hear first-hand about their product and backstory.

It was an honour to meet Craig (also saffa!) and his team in London and learn more about the brand and how it was born. Craig is privileged to own a piece of land in the Cederberg mountains in the Cape, an area where my family and I spent numerous summer holidays. He uses botanicals foraged from this land, individually distilled and blended with Swedish water from his wife, Maria's homeland, to create a unique drink which has hit the market with a storm. There are 3 versions available which all make beautiful cocktails or alt-g&t's. They are beautifully floral on the nose and open up when blended with tonics or juices. As a gin lover and someone who has tried over a hundred different gins neat, this was a totally unique experience for me and really made me think what I was tasting and experiencing. Ceder's is not only a lifestyle choice, it's emotive and about indulgence. This is about still feeling like you are spoiling yourself with an adult drink, but without the alcohol.

This is not sponsored at all and just part of my own research and love of all things Juniper!

UK Series - Puddingstone Distillery

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 13:11:52 GMT

Spirit of the Outdoors - Campfire Gin - Distilled in The Chiltern Hills
Visit to Puddingstone Distillery - April 2019

When I saw @campfiregin featured on The One Show last year in a feature on gins using invasive plants as botanicals it immediately went on my list, particularly as all the guests voted it their favourite. Unfortunately this gin using himalayan balsam is a special edition and their next batch will only be available in the summer, so it still evades me!

Kate and Ben Marston distill, bottle and label their range of award winning gins on site and are open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays. During my visit to Puddingstone Distillery in the Chiltern Hills today, I was fortunate to be able to try their London Dry, Cask Aged and Navy Strength gins.

Campfire gin uses 10 botanicals, including Rooibos tea, which I love and comes from my home country South Africa. Anyone who has peered inside my gin cupboard will know that I have a few gins made using African botanicals and so a bottle of Campfire London Dry came home with me. Their Cask Aged gin rests in ex-bourbon casks for 22 days and is beautifully golden and creamy and their Navy Strength at 57% packs a strong Juniper punch.

They recommend Fever tree Mixers and have a few recipes on their website for those who want to try something different. Do check them out and if you have the opportunity to try Campfire, don't pass it up!

This is not sponsored at all and just part of my own research and love of all things Juniper!

Gin Blog by GinSquares

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 2022-2023

RECAP ON 2022/3 TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS THEME: CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

SAIGON BAIGUR GIN - Vietnam

HONG KONG GIN DISTILLERIES - NIP, TWO MOONS

THE ETHICAL SPIRITS COMPANY - JAPAN - LAST EPISODE GIN

2021 Twelve Squares of GinMas

A Gin-Lover's Twist on the Song - Twelve Days of Christmas

TWELVE DAYS OF GINMAS

TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS.....OR RATHER ..... GINMAS!

PUERTO DE INDIAS - PRESS TRIP TO SEVILLE & CARMONA

Strawberry Sunshine from Seville! PRESS TRIP

COCKTAIL INSPIRATION

(See more cocktails and recipes on my Instagram grid)

How to decorate your glass for St Patrick's Day

Impress your friends and pretty up your cocktail glasses with this 5 minute trick!

They turn the Chicago River green each St Patrick's Day

My Top 10 Budget-Friendly Gin Brands

Ten Affordable Gins That You Should Try

1. Beefeater Gin

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2. Bombay Sapphire Gin

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3. East London Liquor Company Gin

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4. Portobello Road Gin

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5. Jim & Tonic Mercato Gin

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6. City of London Distillery - Christopher Wren Gin

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7. Warners Gin

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8. Gin Mare

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9. Masons Yorkshire Dry Gin

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10. Haymans London Dry Gin

My Top 10 Gin Stories

Show me a bottle and I will tell you a story!

1. 44°N Gin

2. Melifera - The Spirit of Dreams and Legends

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﻿ 3. Bareksten

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4. Larios Mediterranean Gin

5. Dolce Vita

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6. EeNoo Scottish Gin

7. The Source Gin, Cardrona

﻿ 8. Klimt Wien Gin

9. Canaima Gin

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10. QVT Gin

GIN FROM AROUND THE WORLD

MY GIN COLLECTION FROM AROUND THE WORLD

KERNOW - LAND OF SAINTS

KERNOW - THE LAND OF SAINTS

BIRCH GIN

Having lived in countries all round the world, it's no surprise that Justin Birch has used influences from some of these to create a premium gin, which is hand-crafted in small batches. Read on to learn more about his journey and how he came about launching his own gin brand - Birch Gin.

Dr Squid Gin

A gin that is anything but ordinary. Everything from the beautifully engraved copper flask to the botanicals is different and unique and this makes Dr Squid Gin stand out in a very crowded market.

South East Asia Series - Thailand - Distilleries

South East Asia Series - Thailand - Gin Distilleries

South East Asia Series - Vietnam Gin Distilleries

South East Asia Series - Vietnam Gin Distilleries

South East Asia Series - Hong Kong Gin Distilleries

South East Asia Series Hong Kong Gin Distilleries

THE FRAGRANT HARBOUR

Africa Series - Procera Blue Dot - The Martini Gin from Kenya

From the Kijabe Forest to your table....

South America Series - La Republica Gin, La Paz, Bolivia

LA REPUBLICA GIN - LA PAZ, BOLIVIA

Round the World in 80 Gins!

Round the World in 80 Gins (and Days!)

Africa Series - Pangolin Gin

AFRICAN SUNDOWNERS

THAT BOUTIQUE-Y GIN SERIES Ep.3 Green Citrus Gin (Gin Eva Distillery) 46%

THAT BOUTIQUE-Y GIN SERIES Ep.3 Green Citrus Gin (Gin Eva Distillery) 46%

Barrel Aged Gins (Part 3)

RECAP ON 2022/3 TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

THEME: CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

Strawberry Sunshine from Seville!
PRESS TRIP

3. Bareksten

8. Klimt Wien Gin

South East Asia Series
Hong Kong Gin Distilleries

THAT BOUTIQUE-Y GIN SERIES Ep.3
Green Citrus Gin (Gin Eva Distillery) 46%

BARREL AGED GIN
No. 3 - Makar Oak and Mulberry Aged Gin - 43%

Glasgow, Scotland

BARREL AGED GIN No. 2

Koskue (now rebranded as Kyrö Dark Gin)

Kyrö Distillery - Finland - 42.6%

Spirit of the Outdoors - Campfire Gin - Distilled in The Chiltern Hills
Visit to Puddingstone Distillery - April 2019