With the number of mixers now available, how do you know which one is best? Well, luckily I’m here to take one for the team and to try them all. Netherlands born and raised Double Dutch have won an award from Richard Branson for their innovative brand. I’ve tried their Indian tonic as part of my tonic taste test blog – which can be read here – which also has a slim version. But they also have a number of slightly different flavours… Continue reading
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Marylebone Gin
I’ve wanted to try Marylebone Gin for a while now, and was gutted when it was included in a delivery from the Craft Gin Club…which I didn’t get as I don’t get deliveries every month. However, my good friend Orla (who, by the way, has two insanely cute dachshunds which obviously have their own Instagram account) did get that delivery and kindly shared the gin love with me. Founder Johnny Neill is the eighth generation descendant of John, a Liverpudlian solicitor, and Isabella, the daughter of Greenalls gin founder Thomas Greenall. With distilling in his blood, Johnny set out to make his name in the gin world, and launched Marylebone. He matches traditional botanicals juniper, orange and lemon peel, and liquorice root with newer flavours such as grapefruit peel, cloves, lime flower, lemon balm and chamomile. These botanicals were carefully selected from around the world to bring together balanced flavours and aromas designed to reflect the magic and excitement of the old London Pleasure Gardens. Continue reading
Monkey 47 Distiller’s Cut
If you haven’t heard of Monkey 47 gin before, then where have you been? It’s delicious – I actually reviewed their regular gin here. Thanks to having gin friends from Twitter (Hi Andy!) I’ve managed to get a sample of their Distiller’s Cut gin. The Distiller’s Cut edition of their gin is made but once a year, bottled in a limited run of just 4,000. So what make’s it different? The 2017 edition is their traditional 47 botanicals with added musk yarrow leaves and flowers which are macerated, distilled, distilled again and then left to mature for three months. This year, the team trekked up a Swiss mountain to ensure their special ingredient is as fresh as possible – with a lovely photo story over on their website. Continue reading
Peter Spanton Mixers
As part of my ongoing quest to make sure my gin is as good as it can be, I’ve started looking at tonics and the range that is now out there. A unique player in the market is Peter Spanton who like to do things a bit differently. I’ve tried their original No. 1 tonic in one of my tonic taste tests (which you can read here), but in this post I’m going to explore some more of their flavours. Continue reading
Regency Tonic
In case you didn’t know this about me, I live in Brighton. Well, Hove actually. Regency Tonic come from three roads away from me (and after chatting to co-founder Rich, it turns out he used to live just three doors away from me, small world). Regency’s aim was to create a tonic low in sugar so that you can #tasteyourgin – their original gold tonic contains just 1.3g per 100ml which is less than the Fever Tree Naturally Light tonic. Rich admits himself that this is quite divisive for consumers – the dryness of the tonic doesn’t compliment every single gin and needs to be paired with a slightly sweeter one to balance it out. So, to widen their reach they have just launched their new blue tonic. This has a higher sugar content to make it taste more like a traditional tonic and hopefully to appeal to a wider market. Continue reading
Dutch Gin Tasting Night
If you follow my Instagram stories you’ll know that a little while ago I went to a gin and cheese night hosted by Brighton Gin Club at La Cave a Fromage. When I was there I got chatting to the team and mentioned that they were combining my two loves – gin and organising events (#eventsprof). They then told me about one of their upcoming events, a night of dutch genever and gin. They kindly invited me along, so I jumped at the chance (and dragged the boy along with me).
Isle of Wight Distillery
Note: I met Isle of Wight Distillery at both Junipalooza and Imbibe Live and they kindly sent me a sample pack to try. As always, I’ll let you know if I don’t like it.
Guess where the Isle of Wight Distillery come from? Based at Rosemary Vineyard, they are the first and only distillery (with a license!) on the Isle of Wight. They started with their Mermaid Gin followed by their Rock Sea Vodka and their HMS Victory Navy Strength Gin. They also have an Apple Pie Moonshine which sounds INCREDIBLE, but I don’t have a sample of that to try so whatevs I don’t care. They use locally foraged, hand picked ingredients in their gin such as Rock Samphire (from a secret location, they won’t tell you where they get it from), along with 
Isle of Wight grown hops and coriander seeds plus a touch of elderflower and grains of paradise. The Navy Strength gin is made in partnership with The National Museum of the Royal Navy using the same recipe but bottled at the higher 57% ABV to make the flavours more intense. Plus, for the first time on this blog, they have a vodka – grain distilled with the addition of rock sea salt and bottled at 40% ABV.
The Tonic Taste Test – part 3
We’re made it to the third, and final (for now), part of my tonic taste tests. After testing the market leaders and the large ranges, today we try the one off brands. Namely, Regency Tonic, Distillers Tonic and BTW Tonic.
The Tonic Taste Test – part 2
For those that missed it, I conducted a blind taste test of Fever Tree, Fentimans and Franklin and Sons tonic waters (in the name of science of course). After checking out the three market leaders, today I’m focusing on what I’m calling “the tonic ranges”. So called because they each have a wide range of flavoured mixers to their name, today I’m still only trying their original tonic’s (there will be later blogs about the whole range). So, what are we trying?
Caspyn Gin
Note: I met the team behind Caspyn Gin at Imbibe Live and they kindly sent me some samples post-event. As always, I’ll let you know if they’re grim.
Caspyn Gin is the product of Pocketful of Stones distillery, yet another craft gin from Cornwall – this time in Long Rock, just outside Penzance. They currently produce two gins – the Cornish Dry and Midsummer Dry – as well as the Cornish Summer Cup. The original Caspyn gin is loaded with floral and citrus notes using the less regularly used botanicals hibiscus flowers, Japanese tea, gorse and lemongrass. The Midsummer version takes the original gin and infuses it with fresh English cucumbers. This leaves the gin with a slight green tinge (apparently, I can’t quite spot it). The Cornish Summer Cup is their take on the English cup (aka a Pimms to us plebs) loaded with fruit such as raspberries and strawberries mixed with star anise and wild carrot seeds. So all in all, for a small batch distillery, they’ve got a lot going on – there’s an Absinthe in the pipelines. And, more importantly, my bottles arrived with my name on them. So they’re the best.