The gin is in.
Not only in, it’s everywhere.
Every bar has always had at least one gin on their shelves, but now most (not all as experienced by me at my niece’s christening a couple of weeks ago) have not just that old green bottle on the shelf, but a myriad of colours, shapes and sizes.
Well, at least a blue square one alongside it anyway.
And yet there is still so much to learn about gin. It’s a flexible spirit, only juniper and a neutral spirit are your starters. After that you can go anywhere with it, play with it, redistill it, infuse it, age it. It’s why so many love it – it can be anything to anyone.
And for those who ‘don’t like gin’. There are over 600 different gins in the world. It’s like a relationship. You just haven’t met the right one yet.
And that’s where events like the Gin Journey, like the tastings I run with the WI and private events, even the Gin Clubs across the country come in for those already enamoured with the spirit. When you love something (or someone) you want to learn about it.
It could be argued I know a lot already. But I’m learning all the time. I regularly quiz a fellow gin lover and chemist about elements of the distillation processes, even the molecules of the spirit. And the history? Well that’s an intriguing thing. History is always open research, discover and to interpretation – particularly secondary evidenced occurrences, where we’re relying on word of mouth for information. I’m nosey. I ask questions.
So that’s why I found myself on the Gin Journey a couple of weeks ago, for gin chat, and cocktails.
OK, it could be argued that the latter was bit of an incentive too.
We began in a favourite haunt, Hawksmoor. Our host, sadly wasn’t to be the man himself, but instead Lewis Cooke of Epernay was our host, modelling the gin scarf* here that indicates his status as host.
Lewis has long been a gin lover and whilst he talked to us about gin in general, covered the housekeeping for the night (and we awaited some late comers to the party) we welcomed both sips of our first gin, and our first cocktail.
Thomas Dakin gin was our first gin to sample. Made (currently, a home is still being sought in the centre of Manchester) in Warrington, it has nods to both it’s own history and gin history throughout it. From the name (Mr Dakin set up the original distiller in Warrington) through to it’s botanicals (it includes red cole, aka horseradish, and orange, both used in a drink of the period to revive weary travellers.
The result is a smooth, cool, savoury gin that works beautifully in our first cocktail. The Corpse Reviver No2.
The Corpse Reviver was designed (as the name may suggest) as a ‘hair of the dog’ style cocktail. Whether you awoke at breakfast or in the afternoon, this was designed to awake the senses and replenish your booze levels – to both pep you up, and settle your head.
Fond as I am of a breakfast cocktail (it’s what Breakfast Martinis are all about) even I’d find this a little punchy first thing. That said, it’s a favourite of mine, though possible more a post work ‘I’ve had a bad day’ drink.
Before we knew it, bar two beckoned and we walked over to Home Sweet Home for our second gin.
Our second gin was Martin Miller’s. Now very sadly no longer with us, Mr Miller was responsible not only for Miller’s Antiques, but for bringing us a gin that has a hint of cucumber, and a clean soft taste – all thanks to it’s Icelandic water.
It’s long been a favourite of mine, and of many a gin tasting, because it’s simple, and for new gin lovers, very accessible. The gentle juniper means it doesn’t overpower the palate.
The cocktail was the Super Maple Blueberry Flapjack Collins – which as the name would suggest reminded me of blueberry pancakes with oodles of maple syrup, and was garnished with a little lemon drizzle cake. It was, unfortunately too sweet for me, even the acidity of the blueberries couldn’t lift me from the syrup.
My date, however, had no such qualms and enjoyed both before we headed to the gin tour bus, which would take us to bar number three.
Our third bar was Gorilla – and up to the gin parlour we went for a little sample of Plymouth Gin.
Plymouth is a much more traditional style gin, with heavy juniper and rich flavours. It’s a ‘ginny’ gin, and perfect for our next cocktail, a little DIY G&T. We had gin, we had tonic, now to add garnishes of our own.
Plymouth’s strength and simplicity means you can play a little garnish wise and whilst I might normally have opted for citrus (lime or lemon zest) this time, I added a slice of orange and a star anise from the selection on the table.
And then it was onto our penultimate bar.
In we went to favourite, Cottonopolis Food & Liquor for a Workers Bees Knees – an adaptation of the Bees Knees cocktail using our fourth gin, Manchester Gin.
A full blog post and review on this gin is to follow this week on Manchester Gin, so I’ll keep it short and sweet.
Manchester Gin is very new to the scene and it’s botanicals include dandelion and burdock – yes that flavour from your childhood is in a gin.
The cocktail was sweet with a rich mouthfeel and while we chatted to our table neighbours who were up for a hen do from Essex about the history of the worker bee in Manchester, we sampled some vegetarian sushi provided for us by the chaps at Cottonopolis. Spoilt.
But sigh soon it was onto our final bar, our final gin, and our final drink.
This time it was to Science + Industry – the new name for the first floor bar in Cane & Grain. Our gin was another juniper forward gin, Sipsmith, the originators of the craft gin revolution following their untiring work in convincing HMRC that it was a good idea, and releasing their first gin in 2009.
Our final featured peach, grapefruit, violet and chamomile, and here I hit a snag. I have an allergy to chamomile, and again had to pass my cocktail on to my heroic date to sample. She declared it delicious, sacrificing her sobriety and drank both, and I again cursed my body for being allergic to random ingredients. 
To be fair to Gin Journey, it’s an allergy I regularly forget about and rediscover when I start getting a migraine.
Overall, we had a lovely time – and owe much of it not only to the gins, bars and the cocktails, but also to the ladies who were on the journey with us. Apparently gin journeys are like supper clubs – you meet new people, you make new friends and I’m sure if we’re ever down in Essex, we’ll have hosts to take us on our own ‘gin journey’ there.
With thanks to Gin Journey and to Lewis. The drinks sampled on this tour were provided free of charge by Gin Journey.
*It might be a tea towel, but I didn’t tell you that.