It’s my favourite time of the month again – it’s a Craft Gin Club delivery! This month we received a special edition of One Gin which features the sage we know and love from their original gin, but with the addition of russet apples, along with a host of goodies including Lixir tonics, Gusto ginger and chipotle, cucumber Dash water, lemon and juniper Divine chocolate, and a bag of Chika’s chilli and lime nuts. If we were playing Only Connect and these were the clues, the connecting factor would be “ethical and organic brands” (ok, Victoria Coren Mitchell would phrase it better). One gin works with charity partner The One Foundation who pledged to raise £20 million for clean water projects by 2020 – to date they have already raised a staggering £19.3 million. A bottle of One gin gives 10% of its profits to the charity which currently works in Kenya, Malawi, Ghana and Rwanda and features botanicals such as juniper (obviously), cassia bark, nutmeg, lemon peel, and sweet and bitter orange peels alongside the fresh sage and russet apples that give this gin its name. Bottled at 43%, it has a kick to it and they say it tastes fresh and crisp.
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Tarquin’s Cornish Christmas Gin
As per the last two years, I’ve received my Craft Gin Club delivery in December. Due to the daily blogging for Ginvent, I then never get to try it until after Christmas. But here we go; this month’s delivery contains an exclusive collaboration with Tarquin’s, one of my favourite distillers. I’ve tried many over the four years I’ve been writing, too many to list here but feel free to have a search back, and never have I been disappointed. This edition is only available to Craft Gin Club members and was distilled using a whopping 18 botanicals including Tarquin’s staple violet alongside Christmassy botanicals nutmeg, star anise, ginger and allspice. There’s also plenty of citrus fruits and tonka bean to bring a mulled fruit note to balance the zest and marzipan.
Six Bells Gin
Happy Craft Gin Club delivery! And a big cheers to the first in my new home (spoiler alert: buying a house is stressful and expensive). This month’s delivery is yet another exclusive gin, courtesy of the City of London Distillery (which is about 50 feet from my day job just off of Fleet Street by the terrifying junction that is Ludgate Circus.). Alongside the gin, this month we were treated to two Belvoir pressés, a packet of Bahlsen crunchy hazelnut choco moment biscuits, some salt and vinegar London Crisps and a tub of popaballs. The City of London Distillery is so called because, surprise surprise, it is in the heart of the city; they opened their doors in December 2012 and have since gone from strength to strength, winning awards aplenty and now have five gins to their name (with Six Bells becoming their sixth). The focus of this gin is citrus. The usual gin botanicals of juniper, coriander, angelica root and liquorice root are joined by lemon rind, fresh grapefruit and sweet orange to create a big zesty mouthfeel.
Dry Island Gin
Today is exciting because it’s an extra Craft Gin Club day (shout out to Lizzie for sorting my delivery problems)! I’m not meant to get my next subscription box until September, but when I saw what was in the box this month, I had to get one ASAP. Dry Island Gin is the lovechild of two great distilleries, Four Pillars in Australia and Herno in Sweden, and this is their Eurpoean exclusive launch! Being mutual fans of each other’s work, they got chatting and after discovering they had a lot in common and throwing around some ideas, they decided to collaborate and work together. The first step sounded like a lot of hard work – tasting the whole Herno and Four Pillars range side by side to work out what characteristics from their current range should go into the collaboration. They decided to aim for a classic gin using Swedish meadowsweet and Australian river mint, strawberry gum and roasted wattleseed to bring together a range of flavours and textures. This is a Four Pillars gin, made in Australia using their base spirit and the pure water which is one of the aforementioned pillars, with Jon from Herno weighing in with the distillation. Removing Four Pillars’ still plates, Jon recommended they distil at a lower temperature over a longer period to for higher purity. I’ve waited long enough, so let’s crack this open.
Vidda Torr Gin
It’s one of my favourite times of the year – Craft Gin Club delivery time! This month’s delivery contains a gin I’ve never even heard of before so this is very exciting alongside a host of goodies including Franklin & Sons tonic, Purdey’s rejuvenate drink, Arden’s Lockerbie cheddar and onion chutney biscuits, bottlegreen rhubarb cordial and gin and tonic chocolate from Coco Chocolatier. So what’s the gin? Vidda Tørr hails from Norway, a country with notoriously strict distilling laws in the past. Luckily restrictions were loosened in 1996 and founder Marius spent several years helping big brands import into Norway before deciding to open his own distillery in Oslo. Vidda is a celebration of Norway’s diverse flora – deciding to only use botanicals which are native to the land around them. Luckily, this includes juniper, but it made it tricky for the founding team as they couldn’t use staples such as coriander seed, lemon or orange. Instead they experimented and included bilberries, heather, chamomile flowers, elderflower and meadowsweet, which apparently combine to balance floral notes with fresh pine.
Elg No.1 Gin
Happy March! Along with the snow, March brings us a delivery from Craft Gin Club yay! This month’s delivery includes a bottle of Elg No.1 Gin all the way from Denmark, along with a bottle of Franklin & Sons light tonic, a bottle of Newton’s Appl Fizzics, a jar of Bonne Maman marmalade, a bar of Divine dark chocolate and hazelnut, and a bag of Pipers jalapeno and dill crisps. Yay to being snowed in for the weekend! Elg gin comes from a place of science, founder Henrik used to be a biochemist. The unusual thing about this gin is that it only uses three botanicals. Juniper, coriander seed and danish carrot. Yes, carrot. Apparently the distilled carrot enhances the juniper, and that was Henrik’s aim. He looked back at historic recipes and wanted his gin to truly taste of the piney juniper. Despite the lack of botanicals, this gin doesn’t lack flavour or complexity – apparently it starts bold with tangerine, black pepper and lemongrass before mellowing to a creamier, earthier note. And at 47%, it should have quite the punch! They also produce No.2 Old Tom gin, No. 3 Navy Strength gin and No.4 colour changing gin.
Batch Gin
It’s December! Which means one thing…it’s Craft Gin Club delivery time. Now you may have noticed that this post is coming rather late, but I had enough gin to get through with #ginvent so I’m only just getting around to this. This month’s delivery comes from Batch Gin, along with two bottles of Fentiman’s tonic – one rose lemonade and one ginger ale – some Paterson’s shortbread, a bar of Beech’s Ginger Dark Chocolate and a jar of Bonne Marman Salted Caramel spread. Batch Gin is distilled in Burnley and features festive botanicals including frankincense, myrrh and allspice plus cloves, orange peel and lemongrass. Working from a converted windmill, the family team are adventurous – their plan for 2018 is to release a new product every month. Like most brands, founder Phil dreamed of starting up his own business, which was actually a brewery at first. Then he got annoyed at the sheer number of craft beers on the market. So he settled on that other tiny market – gin (although they have since made a vodka and have a rum ageing in barrels as I type).
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
Warner Edwards Honeybee Gin
It’s June which can only mean two things – it’s nearly World Gin Day and I’ve got a Craft Gin Club delivery! Firstly can I say how much I’m enjoying the new branded boxes guys – they look SO much chirpier than the old plain ones! Secondly, this is a bumper box. We have the world exclusive look at the new Warner Edwards Honeybee gin. That’s right, they have chosen the lucky Craft Gin Clubbers as the first people to get their hands on the new addition to their Botanical Garden range. Also in the box is a miniature of their Elderflower Gin, a bottle of Franklin & Sons Lemon Tonic, a bag of Burts Firecracker Lobster crisps and a bar of Mighty Fine Dark Chocolate and Honeycomb. Nom nom nom.
Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin
It’s the best time of year again – my Craft Gin Club delivery arrived! Another bumper box includes a full bottle of Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, a bottle of Peter Spanton No. 9 Cardamom Tonic, New York Delhi Wasabi Peas, Butler’s Milk Chocolate Irish Cream Truffle Bar and, if there’s any room left, Ten Acres Sweet and Sour Crisps. After my tumble down the stairs the other week, this was finally a ray of sunshine. Can we also take a moment to talk about how beautifully designed this month’s copy of Ginned is? Mostly just for the cracking travel photos. Which leads nicely into the gin – based in Ireland with botanicals from around the world, this gin is the brainchild of Patrick J. Rigney. Whilst travelling in Morocco, he discovered Chinese Gunpowder green tea. Blended with grapefruits from Indonesia, kaffir limes from Cambodia, juniper from Macedonia, and caraway seed and cardamom from India, this gin’s botanical list is basically my travel bucket list. I’m fully expecting a big, bold gin with this one – anything that crams so many flavours in to one bottle is never going to be dull.
Opening the bottle and pulling out the branded cork, it smells gentler than I anticipated, but opened up in the glass it hits you. Big, bold and zesty it hits your nostrils with a bam. Loosened up with some water, it is more savoury than I anticipated. It’s quite deep in flavour and heavy but not too oaky. A hint of spice at the edges but with a lightness at the front of the tongue.
I decided it would be rude to not try it with the tonic provided (which on its own is very yummy and exciting, slight hints of curry from the cardamom but the lightness of the tonic, I wouldn’t normally drink tonic on its own but this tastes really exciting) and the cardamom from the tonic highlights the more exotic flavours and it tastes absolutely nothing like a normal gin and tonic. I’m suddenly really gutted that I was too lazy to go buy a lime to garnish this with. It’s not too heavy, but also not too “strange” – we know from ginvent I’m not a massive fan of overly flavoured gins but this one has a good balance to it. It’s different to your usual tipple, and I imagine will work well with normal tonic, ginger beer or in a cocktail to add some depth of flavour. At first taste I wasn’t sure of this, but the more I drink the more I’m used to the flavour. I really like the little hit of citrus at the back of your throat which helps to lighten the drink.
You can find a bottle of the 43% gin on Master of Malt for £31.50 (at time of writing). My opinion – invest in a bottle. It will spice up your evenings without being too wacky. You can get in touch with Drumshanbo on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.