Those of you eyeing this post will notice that as a gin fanatic, I have what can be seen as an ‘ugly’ bottle hiding on the picture.
I’m no gin snob (I know which I prefer, which I don’t, and each to their own), but actually Gordon’s Gin is how I cut my G&T teeth.
Before the huge popularity of Bombay Sapphire and Hendricks, I was working as an office junior for company in Trafford, run by a couple of old school boys. Once a month Bob and Robert (for those were their names) would descend the stairs, blazers and striped ties neatly done up, and state we were going out to lunch.
This wasn’t just lunch however. Both myself and the office manager knew we should shut down our computers, grab our belongings and lock the door. We weren’t coming back to the office that afternoon.
In an age that saw me reaching for alcopops or a Bacardi & Coke, these two chaps had a rule. We could have whatever drink we wanted but only after we’d had a gin and tonic – specifically Gordon’s Gin and Scweppes tonic. It was tradition.
So, when The Bar invited me to play around with Gordon’s Gin and their OMG&T I was only too happy to indulge in a little nostalgia.
Except the weather hasn’t been playing ball. I wanted to relax with my friends in their garden and sip these fruity flavoured drinks, as is befitting. But though, as I write this, it’s promising to be a scorcher and I have a lazy lunch planned, when I finally poured these pretties, it was dark, dingy and we were relegated to indoors. I wanted this:
Welcome to a British Summer.
And then, just as I reached into the fridge for the strawberries, I spotted a problem. They had gone off. Now fluffily grey, they had turned into an inedible pile of ick.
They should have looked like this. Sadly, they looked like… Well, I’ll save you the visual. However, I’m not a member of the WI for nothing – I reached for my home made elderflower liqueur (when in doubt, add more booze), and some ever ready citrus and set to work.
Lemon and elderflower work rather well together and so a little sliver of peel along with the lime worked with the ice, gin, elderflower shaked in a jam jar before being topped with tonic.
Jam jars are perfect if you don’t happen to have a cocktail shaker handy, and even better, you can drink out of them afterwards. This saves on washing up, which in turns saves on water if you’re experiencing a summer drought….. oh wait….
Even Mr GFB – not a fan of a G&T in general – joined in, with a little extra elderflower for sweetness – though I suspect he’d have preferred the strawberries.
So, while we finished these off on the sofa, I made a note to buy some strawberries this afternoon for another go – maybe in the sunshine this time.
I need to do it properly…. Right?
With thanks to The Bar for the gin and the jam jars – I’m looking forward to some more nostalgia, as well as some gin in the sunshine. I hope.