Month: April 2018

Ledger’s Tonic

Posted on by jennyinbrighton

Note: I contacted Ledger’s as I wanted to try their tonic and they kindly obliged with some samples, as always this won’t affect my review!

Ledger’s tonic is so named after Charles Ledger who discovered quinine in Peru back in 1862. Their range features four flavours, all of which are low in sugar and sweetened with stevia – a natural sugar substitute which means they are one of the most calorie friendly tonics on the market. Today we’re drinking their premium Indian tonic, tonic with liquorice, tonic with tangerine and finally their tonic with cinnamon.

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Cuckoo Gin

Posted on by jennyinbrighton

Note: I contacted Brindle Distillery and they kindly sent me a bottle of Cuckoo gin to try. This won’t influence my tastebuds though.

Based in Lancashire, Brindle Distillery produce Cuckoo Gin – a gin with sustainable and ethically-sourced botanicals and named after a local legend. The Brindle Cuckoo hails back to the middle ages when hearing the first cuckoo’s call of spring led to celebrations that the fertility of the land would reward the farm workers. So, obviously, the locals decided to catch one to keep in the village to bring them luck all year round – except the cuckoo was smart and flew off. Now, anyone born and bred in Brindle is known as a Brindle Cuckoo. They keep this theme running with locally grown botanicals from the surrounding fields and their natural water source delivers spring water straight to the distillery. Being ecologically minded doesn’t stop there; they heat their still, Maggie, with renewable energy biomass boilers and they feed any distilling byproducts to their cattle and chickens. They say their gin is smooth with flavours starting at juniper and developing to citrus, spice and pepper. Let’s see how it fares…

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Lakes Gin – Explorer Edition

Posted on by jennyinbrighton

A while ago, Lakes gin kindly sent me a sample of their delicious gin (review of which you can read here). They have a range of spirits in their collection including a whisky and a vodka. My housemate kindly bought home a bottle of their Explorer gin for me to try. This is a special edition gin produced from a single batch distillation using juniper grown in Cumbria and another four botanicals which are native to the Lake District National Park. Their original gin has 10 botanicals in total with an ABV of 43.7% and the Explorer edition bumps this up to 15 botanicals and 47.1% ABV. This gives it a long and aromatic finish with zesty, herbal notes.

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Elg No. 4 Gin

Posted on by jennyinbrighton

Now, you may have already read my blog posts about Elg gin No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. Today we try the fourth gin in their range. You probably know my feelings about colour changing gin; it’s usually achieved by adding something to the distillation that has no effect on the flavour and is only added for the colour. This gin is different. Elg gin uses three botanicals – juniper, coriander seed and Danish carrots and the only difference between their No. 1 gin and this one is that the carrots used are Danish black carrots. These are soaked in pure wheat alcohol for three days which results in the rich colour which is filled with natural antioxidants. I know that this is still done for the colour, but at least the botanical is also adding the flavour – and it is the same botanical as their usual recipe. Let’s see how this one compares to the rest.

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