Review: G and Teatime : The Pickled Ginger

It’s no surprise that I love gin. Ever since I had my first office job and used to go to ‘lunch’ with the directors (every month, we were treated to an afternoon in the George and Dragon in Altrincham). ‘Lunch’ always involved G&T and the love affair remains.

With this in mind, my friend Lisa and I wandered over to The Liars Club for an afternoon’s education as to it’s origins, how to mix it, to try some new gins and eat cake while we learned.

The Liars Club is, I’m embarrassed to admit, a new one for me – but walking down the stairs, I recognised the smell of rum and pineapple – which so often at the weekend is intensified with fire, more rum and lime.

Welcomed by our Gin Broker and his assistant (who I shall call Dave, for that is his name and we have met before), the pretty bottles, tasting glasses and tiers of cake and sandwiches that surrounded us were blissful and while we nibbled and sipped, our Broker began to detail some of the history and process behind gin.

Without too much detail, gin begins as vodka – often grain based – it’s the botanicals added to the vodka that turn it into gin. These botanicals vary in strength, quantity and type with each gin, as well as the way in which they are added.

Returning to our punch – sweet, sour, strong, weak, spice and in our case, apple juice, lemon juice, Ish Gin, breakfast tea, cloves and orange bitters. Refreshing and sweet, it’s the perfect afternoon drink.

We were then introduced (reintroduced in our case) to Bombay Sapphire. A gentle gin, it’s taste tends to be light, clean, citrussy. It can make an ideal sipping gin, as it’s so gentle on the palate.

Our next offering was Chase Gin – I’ve come across this piece of England before – made in Herefordshire both the Chase Gin and Vodka productions use apples as a base – this is quite evident as both have a cleaner mouthfeel than their grain counterparts.

Dave then set about creating a perfect G&T. Using a squat tumbler, he added 25ml (think egg cup) of the delicious Gin 209 (the only distillery to produce Kosher gin and vodka), adding ice and topped up with tonic water – in this case Schweppes. Then a little more fun – picking our own garnishes – oregano, sage, basil, mint, citrus peel.

Dave then moved onto creating a perfect Martini. Using the richer Darnley’s View Spiced Gin, began our lesson. Stirred *not* shaken was the order of the day – there is much discussion about shaking ‘bruising’ the gin or vodka that’s used. All you and I need to know is that shaken provides a more dilute drink and we don’t want that do we?

With a taste of this piece of perfection, our little journey into gin was complete and we could finish our cakes and cocktails (and buy a couple more). What more could a gin fan ask for?

If you want to learn about gin, whilst eating cake and drinking perfectly made cocktails, this is well worth it.