Ginmas Week 5

Week 5 of Ginmas, our final week of a gin a day

Week 5 of #Ginmas is now done and I have to say that at the beginning I really wasn’t sure if I would manage to post a gin a day for a whole month. To be organised enough that every day at 6pm I would have a photo of each gin and a little bit about each one of them but I did it. And then felt sad that it was at an end as I had some lovely comments from people saying they loved a particular gin, or had loved learning about some of them. I even considered doing Jinuary but thought if I did people might think that all I did was drink gin all day (I can think of worse things to do) and I don’t want to have to commit to another month of 6pm postings. But it might evolve into a gin of the month or maybe half way through the year I will do Gine or Gily. Who knows but for now, here are the last few for Ginmas, and links to the other week’s posts

Boxing Day and it was all about Day 26 of #Ginmas and pork pie. Our gin of the day was from the Isle of Wight, in our home county and called Victory Gin

My first gin that is Navy Strength, In the 18 century the Royal Navy legislated that all naval ships were to carry a quantity of gin on board and that it must be 1 00° proof (the English standard of the day) which equates to 57% ABV. It was discovered that gunpowder soaked in alcohol with a strength of more than 57% could still be ignited and this became the standard test for Navy Strength or ‘gunpowder proof’ gin.

On the 27th I didn’t share a gin I had bought or been given, I shared a gin that marked an important day in our family calendar. We took Mr and Mrs Barrow Sr to the venue for Caity and Dan’s wedding in 2018 so they could see for themselves where it is all happening. It was a lovely crisp day and and having seem the ceremony room and had a wander we decided to stop and have some lunch, and a drink. A gin and lemonade as we talked weddings and planning and general family fun. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon, and an ideal backdrop for a small gin and lemonade

Day 28 and the bottle of the Pothecary gin that was today’s gin is one of my favourites.

One of the best things about trying out 31 gins this month for my #ginmas quest has been the array of bottles and labels that I’ve been able to look at. This bottle is one I’ve been saving because I love it so much. This one didn’t actually make it into my homemade advent calendar as it’s a bigger than usual “miniature” but I have been staring at the bottle as it’s just so cute. It’s also got a bigger than usual taste to match. Just five botanicals but wow, lavender and mulberries mean it’s got a fabulously floral flavour.

Forest Gin on Day 29 is a gin we have had for a while. A year in fact as it was a present from Mr B’s parents last Christmas

If Mr B was back at his parent’s home this would have been made on his doorstep. The botanicals all come from the Peak District and Macclesfield Forest and the Bond family that own and run Forest Gin use a pestle and mortar to mix the botanicals together. Quite some feat! It is a bold gin with a really strong and distinctive taste that I love.

My penultimate gin wasn’t actually a gin as such. It was day 30 and from Larkin’s Larder who had seen on Twitter I was doing #Ginmas and sent me some of their fabulous jams and marmalade, made with gin so we could “tart up our toast”. I am not a fan of marmalade normally as it is too tart but I really liked this, and the jam was gorgeous. Do hunt them out on social media and say hello.

My final gin was on New Year’s Eve and was pretty much summed up when I looked back at the picture

Thirty one different gins this month and it feels right to end on this one from Eden Mill called Love. It says to drink it with those you love so I have to drink mine the following night because we went out for New Year’s Eve, properly out out and I was meant to be driving so couldn’t drink. I ended up drinking (Silent Pool which we had taken as a gift. Is it wrong to drink your own gift?) so Mr B drove but this one was worth the wait though even if #Fatcat bombed the shot. A really gorgeous gin with another bottle that I am going to add to my “must keep it because it is pretty” collection.

If you want to catch up on the other posts then you can find them here:

Thank you to everybody who commented on the posts, said cheers or liked the photos.