Adnams Copper House Dry Gin — #MBGC

For the inaugral #MBGC (Mummy Barrow Gin Club) I am cho’sing a gin that brings back childhood memories.   You see drinking for me isn’t about forgetting or getting hammered.  I don’t like being drunk, mainly because I can’t spend the following day feeling ill since children don’t understand that mummy is ill.   So drinking for me is always about remembering, reminiscing, chatting.  It is a social thing.  I don’t enjoy drinking alone at all.  I enjoy sharing the experience with other people.

Which is why I was drawn to this bottle of gin.   Made in Southwold by Adnams their “Copper House Dry Gin”  reminded me of weekends spent in Southwold and Suffolk when I was nannying just over the border in Essex.  My parents had recently moved to Germany and on my weekends off I would go and stay with a good school friend who had a holiday home in Southwold.  We rode bikes along the lanes and had picnics on the beach.  I remember wandering along the beach trying to find evidence of Dunwich, the town that now lies under the North Sea.   The coast line eroded to such an extent that the town literally vanished.  And we would spend hours thinking we could still hear a church bell, or that the piece of sea glass we had just picked up was part of an old window.

Lazy and happy days and despite the fact I was drinking this gin in Hampshire 28 years later I could still vividly remember those days in Southwold.

This gin is made in Southwold and in 2013 was awarded the title “World’s Best Gin” at the International Wine and Spirit Competition.   And whilst I drank it with lemonade it is a great gin to drink neat, with ice and a slice of orange rather than lemon.  It is warm and comforting and the sort of gin you could drink neat from a hip flask when out for a wintery walk after a big pub lunch.

But is equally fabulous as a long drink with lots of ice and three parts lemonade to one part gin.

There is hibiscus flower in it which I couldn’t identify until I read about it,  I could definitely taste “something” that I hadn’t come across in a gin before.  I liked it alot.   A great botanical to add to gin and it makes sense since it is often added to tea (and tea added to gin).

You can buy it from all decent supermarkets, and it is around £25 for a 70cl bottle.