13 December, 2018
Festive Gins
Last Saturday I hosted a Festive Gin night! This was the night when myself & my Gin Bestie Hayley sampled Christmas themed Gins and paired them with Gin themed foods! I’m sure this will become an annual event!
First on the menu was ‘Yuletide Gin’ by ‘That Boutique-y Gin Company’. This is a dry style gin which uses a host of traditionally festive botanicals, as well as other traditionally festive flavours (including Christmas pudding, festive spices, Christmas tree needles, clementines etc). What’s more, it contains edible gold flakes, giving it a snow globe quality! We served this with Fever Tree Aromatic Tonic, garnished with pomegranate seeds.
Next up was ‘Gower Pinwydd’ from the Gower Distillery just down the road in Port Eynon! A London Dry Gin, made in small batches with foraged pine needles, orange and cranberries. We served this with Fever Tree Light Tonic, garnished with cranberries and a twist of orange zest.
Next was ‘Pickering’s Gin’ from the gin baubles! This is a small batch Edinburgh dry gin with citrus, cinnamon and nutty notes. We served this one with Fever Tree Light Tonic and a grapefruit wedge. The Pickering’s Gin baubles are genius! You get 6 brightly coloured, reusable baubles in a box. A great idea for a Christmas gift.
Next was Marks & Spencer’s ‘Christmas Dry Gin’. This is another gin distilled in Edinburgh with a range of botanicals, including ginger, cardamom and cinnamon, giving your G&T a spiced Christmas twist. This gin is perfect with Indian Tonic and a peel of orange zest, or for something a little different, garnish with rosemary, lime and a cinnamon stick.
Finally we sampled ‘Tarquin’s Cornish Christmas Gin’. This was December’s gin of the month with ‘Craft Gin Club’, an exclusive gin just for members. Hand-crafted to capture the wild spirit of Christmas on the Cornish coast, it has tasting notes of clementine, cinnamon and eastern spices. Perfect served with any premium tonic, a slice of orange and a cinnamon stick.
To compliment the Gins, I sourced a range of gin themed foods! Aldi came up trumps with their ‘Sloe Gin Mince Tarts’ and ‘Spiced Cranberry & Sloe Gin Cream’. Their ‘Yorkshire Wensleydale with Cranberry & Sloe Gin’ was a welcome addition to my cheese board!
M&S provided the perfect accompaniment to my cheese board with their ‘Blackberry & Gin Jelly’.
I can also highly recommend Morrisons ‘Sloe Gin Christmas Pudding’!
Another perfect pairing to the Gin’s were my ‘Gin Marinated Olives’ (recipe in ‘Let The Festivities Be-Gin’ blog post 12/12/18). These certainly have a kick!
All that’s left to say is….. Merry Ginmas! May Santa leave Gin in your stocking!
Photo credits: Hayley & Josh Pritchard