World Gin Day happens on the second Saturday in June every year, which means this year it is June 13th, today!
I have written about gin ALOT over the years so thought I would do a round up post for you to have a read through in case any of the previous posts had escaped your attention.
The funny thing is that I really didn’t like gin until about five years ago, or should I say I thought I didn’t like gin. Turns out that it was actually tonic that I didn’t like, and once that realisation had sunk in I ditched my usual Martini and Lemonade for gin and lemonade/ginger ale/bitter lemon/Appletise and never looked back.
To the point where in 2018 I made my own gin, with the help of Pin Gin in Lincolnshire. We did a limited run of 80 bottles having devised the recipe together. I specifically wanted a gin that worked with lemonade so we went high on the citrusy botanicals, and added a fiery hint too. It was a steep learning curve of what you need for a gin bottle to be legal such as barcodes and what needs to be on the labels and Blogger Gin was born. I launched a website, had it sold through my friend Adam and within five weeks it was sold out. In the back of my mind are plans to buy my own still and do the whole process but bureaucracy puts me off (though you better believe I have already registered the domain and social channels for it).
The first time I wrote about World Gin Day was in 2017 and looking back at the photo of my gin collection then it is hard to believe that in three years it has more than doubled. I don’t know if that is something to be proud of or slightly embarrassed!
Ditto now having an A to Z of gin. Four shelves of my gin cabinet show off my collection, with at least one for each letter of the alphabet. Next I want to try and get one from every country, an updated version of the fridge magnet souvenir.
That wasn’t the first time I had written about World Gin Day though, in 2015 I made waffles to celebrate, having just been to the Warner Edwards (Now just called Warner Gin) distillery. They were delicious and I might have to make some more, you know, because it would rude not to.
Last weekend my Gin Garden was shown on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen after they asked what people were growing right now. I tweeted in a more recent pic of the garden, complete with LED lights and they mentioned it on the show. It is a really simple idea, easy to grow in a small space, and incredibly satisfying when you pick your own mint or basil to add to your Friday night gin.
And if you want to know how to make the perfect G&T then I also wrote about that a few years ago too.
However and wherever you might be marking World Gin Today I hope you have a peaceful one.
Image of gin glass courtesy of Shutterstock