I woke up this morning freakishly early thanks to ridiculous dreams of going to the wrong hotel. 5am early to be precise, but due to my 6am taxi it actually worked out alright. Do you know how hard it is to decide what to wear when England is cold and raining, but the forecast for your two week holiday is 33 degrees and sunny?
So, wearing ALL THE LAYERS (not enough, I was still cold), I headed to Heathrow T4. I forgot how dull it is flying on your own. Who do you drink prosecco with? As I write this, I’ve been on the plane for 4 hours, with 7 still to go (delayed flight yay). I’ve had an alright chicken curry, two glasses of prosecco and watched Kingsman: The Secret Service. As we’re forced into Hanoi time (2:40pm London, 9:40pm Hanoi) they’ve turned all the lights off. This is where I should be trying to sleep but it is hard when everyone keeps walking past to go to the toilet. I’d like another drink but feel it’s rude to ask again on Vietnam Airways. On the plus side, I don’t feel scared any more (yay prosecco!). We’ve hit pretty bad turbulence twice and now I feel I can do this.
I’ve felt pretty sick for the last few days with nerves – what was I thinking booking a trip to Asia on my own? It seemed like a good idea at the time. Oh well, too late to turn back since we’re flying over Eastern Europe now! This feels strange to be writing things down but I don’t trust myself not to break my iPad. Already dreading getting back and having to type this up [current Jenny: at least I identified this early on!]. I also can’t work out how to turn on my overhead light, but luckily Catriona suggested I buy a clip on light for my Kindle which is currently clipped to my tray table.
It’s pretty incredible that in 7.5 more hours I will be on the other side of the world. Now seems like a good time to re-watch Avengers – Age of Ultron. When in doubt, watch two of my favourite Chris’ – Hemsworth and Evans (Pratt makes it in the top three). I still can’t quite believe I’m doing this. This is uncharacteristically brave of me.
[Current Jenny: This seems to be all I was able to write on the flight. I was alternating between being FINE and freaking out. And watching films. Then thanks to time difference we lost a day]
My December delivery from Craft Gin Club arrived whilst I was in Bangkok, so I hot footed it home to give it a try (technically my holiday had finished and I was coming home anyway but whatevs). This month’s treat came courtesy of Sibling Distillery, a family of four aged between 16 and 23. Makes me feel rather inadequate that they’re all younger than me and have their own gin. Maybe I’ll start distilling – who wants to invest in me?
The four grew up working in Battledown Brewery, set up by their parents to supply local pubs, hotels, restaurants and shops with premium local ales. The foursome from Cheltenham work on a ‘grain to glass’ approach, fermenting their own grains to make vodka before infusing it with their botanicals to make gin. This process means it takes nearly three weeks from start to bottle, by way of comparison a big brand can turn around a batch in hours, and craft gins that buy in their base spirits take around 12-48 hours. Their botanicals are changed every 17 batches to ensure freshness, with lemons, oranges and blueberries hand chopped and grated. Interesting fact: as the quartet are under 25 they aren’t allowed to to use images of or communicating any information about themselves on their website or at trade events – basically they can’t include a photo of all of them for another 9 years until Digby, the youngest, turns 25. Guys, if you need a brand ambassador over 25, I’m here. Just saying.
I digress. The bottle is beautiful – I enjoy well designed bottles as these end up as lamps around my flat, plus it feels nicer to drink if they have put effort into the bottle (just me?). The siblings created “the first glass and stainless steel still in Europe, ensuring that we produce the purest vodka base” – you can tell brewing is in their blood, can’t you? The botanicals they use are slightly different, in between the usual coriander, orange and lemon there sits blueberries and vanilla.
After having a little struggle to open the seal (in my defence, when I cracked into my bottle I hadn’t slept for a while and was still on an Asian time zone), I pop the cork. Taking a whiff from the bottle, the vanilla is quite prevalent. It smells sweeter than other gins but not in a cloying way. Diluted with one part water, the juniper scents come out along with more vanilla. It smells a bit like a cake in a glass. Smooth and easy to drink (never a safe thing to say about straight 42% gin), the botanicals are well balanced so that none of the flavours are overpowering. There’s a slight tang at the back of the throat – coming, I presume, from the orange and lemon but the vanilla and blueberries balance it to leave a good taste. I’m not one to drink straight spirits (alas the days of my youth are gone) but this is nice. It helps that as I type this, a Brighton seafront storm is brewing, it’s dark and cold and windy and wet outside, but I’m snuggled up. If only my flat had a fireplace!
It’s impressed so far, but how will it fare in the gin and tonic test? Before I opened this I had a look on the Craft Gin Club Facebook page and was concerned to see a few negative reviews – would this finally be the gin I don’t like? Pairing it with the Bottle Green Light Tonic supplied in my box and making it in my new Martini glasses (birthday present from the wonderful house mate Jenny Bernarde) – although I then realised due to the size of the Martini glass compared to the size of my gin serving I am in for a strong drink.
On first taste I understand one of the Facebook reviews which I believe said it reminded her of disinfectant, it certainly has a chemically taste to it on the first mouthful. With the tonic it seems sharper on the tongue – whether this is the gin or the tonic I don’t know, I’ve never had the Bottle Green tonic before and a quick taste of it shows that it is slightly more bitter than other tonics. I am also aware that I’ve made a strong drink which will alter the taste.
Once you’ve got past the initial taste, the blueberries come out and a sweeter taste comes in. After a few sips I added a little more tonic to make the drink better balanced/I was already slightly pissed and the chemical taste disappears and you’re left with a fruity gin. I’ve had a “mixed berry” gin before that was fairly terrible as it tasted of fake fruit and sugar but this has a subtle hint to it. If I didn’t know it had blueberries in, I wouldn’t have guessed it.
Adding some lemon wedges (because I’m sorry Sibling distillery and others, I will NOT be adding orange to my drink, won’t, shan’t) makes it, in my opinion, pretty damn close to perfect. I know I’m a fan of citrus, but the sharpness from the lemon contrasts the sweetness and enhances the sharper notes making it a smooth drink. With some lemon, I will happily drink this all day long.
All in all, yes it’s a little different at first taste, but very rewarding. I like that it is set up by a group of young entrepreneurs, I think they are ginspirational (that’s right, I went there) and it’s a shame they can’t present their product as a family (although I do wonder how much tasting the 16 year old does…). But seriously, if you’re hiring…
You can get your hands on a bottle through their website, their 42% 70cl bottle is £34 plus £6 postage. This price puts it up in the luxury gin area, but (including postage) this is the same amount as my fave Brighton Gin and others. I appreciate this might be a bit much for people to buy to drink every day, but this brings some interesting flavours to the party and will make an impressive addition to any upcoming Christmas cocktail parties. I know that once I’ve shaken this post-holiday lurgy I shall be enjoying it and trying out a few new drink ideas to change things up a bit for the New Year.
Sibling Gin are all over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (of course, they are run by a load of youths!)
I’ve been following Fatto a Mano on Twitter since they opened and I’ve seen other bloggers going so I decided it was time to go get me some pizza. Situated at the top of London Road next to Hare and Hounds, it’s the latest addition to the ‘let’s make London Road nice’ effort.
We arrived at 7.30pm on a Wednesday and it was really busy but we just got a table. As soon as you open the door an incredible smell hits you. As we were seated we looked around and saw the queue going out the door. We gots lucky. We were tucked away in what is normally our favourite place, the corner, which was great until we tried to order and were hindered by the surrounding tables which took a few attempts to get someone’s attention. We order a Hugo (prosecco, elderflower liquer and soda) and an Aperol spritz with a garlic foccacia to share and a pizza each – the Salsiccia e Friarielli for me (sausage and broccoli and chilli) and the Pizza Panna without cream for Catriona. Both are ‘white’ pizzas so neither feature tomato sauce on them.
Hugo and Aperol Spritz
The drinks take a little long time to arrive but the Aperol spritz, according to Catriona, was “fantastic! Not too much soda which is usually a big problem.” My opinion is that I still don’t like orange. The Hugo however is lovely with not too much mint. A good balance of elderflower and soda so it wasn’t too sweet or too bitter. Worth the wait.
Garlic Focaccia
The focaccia is not focaccia as I know it, it’s quite flat and looks more like pizza dough. Still bloody tasty. My one critique is that it could do with – and I realise how this sounds but – a more even distribution of garlic (half was covered in garlic and half had none).
At this point Catriona grabs my phone and writes: I enjoy the fact that the couple next to us seem to be eating chips as a starter. I think I want to be part of that relationship. (Sorry to the couple next to us, we did stare at you a lot. But you definitely had the chips to start. They did look great though.)
An hour after we arrive we have drinks and a starter but no pizza, but obviously then as soon as I typed that into my phone our pizzas appeared.
Catriona: Most of the ingredients were clearly very fresh including the dough and the ham, but I would say there is too much cheese. As I asked for it without cream maybe they added more cheese to compensate. There were a lack of mushrooms and the mushrooms that were on it did not taste fresh. They felt cooked before hand and then added to the pizza, rather than a topping that was then cooked with the pizza which meant they were slimy and flavourless.
Pizza Panna (no cream)
Salsiccia e Friarielli
I enjoyed my pizza. The broccoli was so soft and tender that it felt more like spinach. The chilli gave it a really great kick that was cooled down by the cheese along with some good quality sausage meat with no gristly bits. The dough was really good, whilst it was thin it wasnt so crispy you couldn’t cut it. Nice and chewy and was great to eat at the end with some Mayo that we had asked for. I thought that I would miss the tomato sauce but the toppings of mine were so good that I didn’t miss it at all.
It was certainly good value for money. Neither of us finished our pizzas and for a starter at £3.50, cocktails at £5 and pizzas at £7.50 and £8 it’s a great place to get a quality (and unpretentious) pizza without spending a small fortune. The atmosphere in the restaurant is great, it was busy with couples and groups chatting away and really friendly staff. It helps that as the evenings draw in, we were warm and cosy as we hid from the cold weather. I had a better experience than Catriona did, so I would recommend going back. It’s simple food done really well. Plus you can have lemoncello at the end. Because that is obviously what we needed after wine and cocktails…
(Plus, added bonus, if you go up the sneaky steps to the old railway bridge before/after your meal you can see a train with the magic lighting. Thanks to Catriona for finally showing me how to get up there!)
