Newsletter – World Gin Day

Newsletter – Wednesday 6th June 2020

Happy Wednesday Team!

Strap yourselves in. This week is something special. Because on Saturday, we all get to celebrate WORLD GIN DAY! Woooooo!!!

World Gin Day was set up some 6 years ago by a top notch lady called Emma, otherwise known as the Gin Monkey. You can find her on this handle on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as her blog at http://www.ginmonkey.co.uk/. She is one of the leading gin bloggers and she knows her juniper! Do give her a follow, a tweet, a like, and strap yourselves in for a fantastic celebration of everything that is gin.

As with everything right now, World Gin Day is going virtual with it’s celebrations. But fear not! There is a wealth of stuff to do, from distillery tours to tastings to gin runs. There are some great distilleries involved. It’s all about getting together and enjoying the lovely stuff. My advice? Check out https://worldginday.com/whats-on/ for a full list of what’s on through the day and what great things you can get involved in. An extra bit of advice, check it soon and get in any supplies you might need for a marvellous day of gin and gin-based cocktails. All I ask is if you’re making gin-based cocktails, or you’re celebrating gins then you share those pictures with the hashtag #WorldGinDay. Likewise you can search that hashtag to see what everyone else has been doing to celebrate.

Are you thinking of making a few cocktails for the weekend? My cocktail shaker is a damn good friend of mine and we’ve had many a good night together. A cocktail shaker is very important. Though, if you don’t have one, you can make do with stirring. Martinis can be stirred, not shaken, you know? There are differences in preference, but at the end of the day, it’s your drink, you make it how you like it.

So with that, I wanted to give you some recipes from the two king of gin cocktails to try and as always, some gin recommendations from our shop to get your drinks a’clinklin..

The Martini. So, I share a lot of martini recipes and the thing is, it’s such a versatile drink. Gin and vermouth right? But gosh, it is not that simple. You can shake it or stir it. Some people will stir/shake the vermouth with ice then drain it and shake the gin with the ice. Some people will use a small amount of vermouth and mix it in. And then we have the astounding variety of gins and vermouths to use so your palette so to speak is just massive. Try and match flavours. Think about what works and what doesn’t and the fun part, try it out! Here’s something to get you started:

https://www.thespruceeats.com/classic-gin-martini-recipe-759739

The Negroni. Gollygosh a Negroni is a special piece of work. The villain to Bonds Martini, a Negroni is fierce, intense and bitter. There are bouts around the world as to whether the Martini or Negroni is King of the cocktail. Maybe you could try your hand at both and have your own tournament. Here’s a great selection of recipes just for you:

https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/cocktails-and-drinks/best-ever-negronis/

So as we always do, here are some recommendations for some great gins that are going to make some really good gin cocktails with a little bit of edge. Also, this week they are taken from our World Gin category, to celebrate World Gin Day.

Sloanes Dry Gin: Named after the 18th century botanist Sir Hans Sloane, who is said to have discovered many of the plants used to flavour gins today. Botanicals include iris root, coriander, angelica root, cardamom pods, liquorice root and whole vanilla beans. Buy it here

Scapegrace Gin: Now, this is a particular favourite of mine in the gin world. Scapegrace Gin comes to us all the way from New Zealand, featuring a selection of 12 botanicals, jjuniper, coriander, nutmeg, cardamom, lemon peel, orange peel, orris, cinnamon, cassia, angelila and liquorice. Lovely stuff. Buy it here

Glendalough Rose Gin: Wild Rose from the Wicklow mountains. Large, fragrant Heritage Roses and the ancient prized Damask Rose make up the rose gin. All of which come together to make this a naturally pink and very floral gin. Why did I go for this? It’s niche, it’s particular, there are a lot of cocktails it won’t work in. But if you have a love for floral flavours and fancy making some floral cocktails then this could be the one for you. It’s always worth thinking about how those spirits are going to work with everything else in there. Buy it here

So, once again, there we are! I am so super excited for World Gin Day. I can’t hype it enough! It’s a great event and Emma has gone to great lengths to ensure that despite the lockdown we can all celebrate in style so get yourselves involved and have a fabulous time!