Ginmas Week 4 already!
Another week and and seven more gins for Ginmas Week 4! All of the above are the gins I shared during week 4 of #Ginmas over on social media (my month of gins, one a day for the whole of December) but wanted to record them all here too. If you want to hunt them down then do look up The Gin Parlour who will be happy to sell them to you, or recommend some others too.
The first one this week was the 19th of my month and from The Isle of Wight and called Mermaid’s Gin
The distillery that makes this gin uses ingredients sourced primarily from the Isle of Wight it’s the only distillery on the Isle of Wight too. I like to think it contains mermaid tears but I suspect not. Though it does have coriander grown locally, the first place in the U.K to do so
Number 20 was from Shropshire and called Tiger Gin
As well as water and grain there are ten botanicals listed and two secret ingredients And for the life of me I can’t pick them out. I can taste the cinnamon and nutmeg and that makes me think that this would be lovely served with warmed apple juice to really accentuate those flavours. This is a new kid on the gin block, founded in Shropshire only recently but it’s already making a mark on the gin world!
On Wednesday of this week it was a gin from Munich called The Duke
Named after Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Lion it’s a lovely floral gin. It has lemon peel, orange blossom, ginger root and lavender in amongst its other botanicals
The 22nd and we were starting to feel Christmassy so loved being reminded of summer days on the beach with this Brighton Gin
Gin is an unusual spirit in that it is not made to be drunk neat, it’s typically drunk with a mixer. So as is typical of something associated with Brighton this one likes to be a bit different. Brighton Gin is superb with just a twist of orange and an ice cube. It brings out the orange used in the distillation of this gin, made in the first distillery to get a licence in the seaside town of Brighton.
Friday night saw us in a pre-Christmas frenzy and sitting down with a gin was a welcome relief at the end of the day. Thank goodness for London No 1 then!
London No 1 gin is made right in the heart of London. There are 12 botanicals in this one including almond and liquorice. It’s got a lovely fresh flavour to it with hints of the orange and lemon peel that are also in it.
Ginmas 24 coincided with Christmas Eve and a gin from The Lakes
Bassenthwaite is where today’s gin is from. 14 botanicals, the majority of which are from the Lake District. It’s another one that the distillery suggest you drink neat, which we didn’t as we were knee deep in wrapping paper but we loved it long with lemon and lots of ice.
Christmas Day and of course I got one or two gin related gifts. Including a bell that says “ring for gin” and these little Jam Jar Gins
The family motto for those behind this one is ‘Ferui et Fixi’ – ’willful and bloody minded’, a trait which also runs in the family. In their words: “For various dull legal reasons, we couldn’t call it “Thwaites Jam Jar Gin”. So we found another unusual family name – Yerburgh (actually pronounced, I’m told, Yar-borough), which somehow seemed to go well with our gin. So although you won’t see the Thwaites name on the bottle, there’s certainly plenty of willful, bloody mindedness in it even existing at all.”
It’s easy to recognise the distinctive taste of our London Dry Gin, just think “raspberries and cream”.
Firstly there’s a refreshing citric hit that comes from raspberry leaves. Then there’s an unusually long, creamy finish to the gin, which increases the colder you get the liquid.
And so endeth the fourth week of gin! Which means next week’s is the last one, though if you cant wait why not have a browse of my A to Z of gin post.