Author Topic: Gin!  (Read 31168 times)

ian

Re: Gin!
« Reply #125 on: 05 September, 2017, 08:20:19 am »
I have more than enough gin to replace all the fluids in my body. But I'm not going to do that.

I've not tried Durhams. I'm not sure what my thoughts are on celery seed. I like celery. In a salad. I'm waiting for avocado gin. Or, help me mummy, asparagus gin. That's the boakiest thought I've had today. Spargle gin.

My wife bought some gin-based liqueur from some random airport under the assumption it was actual gin. It's not. I've not tried it, mostly don't like sweet stuff. I did snag a bottle of Tarquins at the weekend is isn't bad (though not quite as nice as I remembered, I may have to taste some more).


menthel

  • Jim is my real, actual name
Re: Gin!
« Reply #126 on: 05 September, 2017, 12:33:07 pm »
We also had a nice experience with Tarquins when in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago. My wife liked the navy strength. Also their Cornish Pastis was very nice.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Gin!
« Reply #127 on: 06 September, 2017, 02:01:09 pm »
Seems gin-flavoured popcorn, yogurt and salmon are A Thing  :sick:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41158806

tonycollinet

  • No Longer a western province of Númenor
Re: Gin!
« Reply #128 on: 15 September, 2017, 09:54:41 pm »
Just ordered a bottle of Beefeater 24 on a whim (and an Amazon special offer)

Recently tried - 6 oclock gin. Liked, bought
Last night - Bloom, nothing special - and Forrest Gin from Macc - quite liked.

ian

Re: Gin!
« Reply #129 on: 15 September, 2017, 10:03:57 pm »
Last night, owing a colleague's overenthusiastic bar attendance, I at one point had three contemporaneous G&Ts. I feel this was overkill, but what the hell, I pushed my two beers aside and tackled them.

ian

Re: Gin!
« Reply #130 on: 19 October, 2017, 10:22:06 pm »
OK, it's a school night, but my wife is away and it really wouldn't be wrong to assume that it's nearly the weekend and serve myself a gin and tonic, right? I seem to have acquired a bottles of Infirmarian black hop gin and Harahorn Norwegian gin.

Possibly I should have two. I wouldn't want them to go off.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Gin!
« Reply #131 on: 19 October, 2017, 11:18:44 pm »
I'm feeling that this should be communicated to us in more detail through through the medium mediocre of PowerPoint.
It is simpler than it looks.

fuzzy

Re: Gin!
« Reply #132 on: 25 October, 2017, 12:08:43 pm »
My Mum was an inveterate G&T officianado in my yoof. Recently she has reduced the G&T intake to about nil. Her incerhol was limited to the occasional sangria when we dragged her to Gibraltar.

We dragged her to Gibraltar again last week. Her sangria was reinforced during a visit to the Sunborn hotel by a cheeky G&T. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when they delivered a bijou goldfish bowl sized glass to her.

We managed to stop her falling off the quay as we escorted her from Sunborn to Charlies for dinner ;D

Re: Gin!
« Reply #133 on: 29 October, 2017, 10:52:42 pm »
I appear to have just bought tickets for a gin festival, in the crypt at Liverpools Catholic Cathedral  :facepalm: .  I've been to many beer festivals there before.  Good venue, though lacking in adequate loos.
Not fast & rarely furious

tweeting occasional in(s)anities as andrewxclark

ian

Re: Gin!
« Reply #134 on: 31 October, 2017, 08:55:32 pm »
My gin habit is getting out of hand. We wandered into a local shop in a East Sussex town on Saturday evening for a bottle of water and came out, after tasting several gins (well, when the chap behind the counter asked if we'd like to try and it would churlish to decline), with two bottles of gins (Greensand and Mayfield). I wouldn't have minded, but we forgot the water.

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
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Re: Gin!
« Reply #135 on: 31 October, 2017, 09:47:27 pm »
Only 2?
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

ian

Re: Gin!
« Reply #136 on: 31 October, 2017, 09:52:31 pm »
I have some powers of restraint, they had quite a selection of local gins. Mind you, one of them was £60 (Anno). I did pay £50-ish for a bottle of gin once but that had a weasel on the bottle and I like mustelids.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: Gin!
« Reply #137 on: 31 October, 2017, 09:59:01 pm »
Hmm, my gin *glass* habit is getting out of hand.

We have some nice hand-blown glasses from Lindean Mill Glass, and one of them got broken a few years back.
I've just commissioned a replacement, along with another pair of different ones for the flat in Embra.
These will be Crimbo presents for us.

They seem to cost somewhat more than Klunks from Ikea...

tonycollinet

  • No Longer a western province of Númenor
Re: Gin!
« Reply #138 on: 31 October, 2017, 10:19:52 pm »
Well if you want a good everyday gin at a low price - Aldi Oliver Cromwell gin - £14 somthing for a liter - is pretty good.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/aldi-gin-best-world-spirit-10-cost-cheap-international-wine-spirits-competitions-awards-a7864211.html

ian

Re: Gin!
« Reply #139 on: 05 November, 2017, 06:38:11 pm »
There's indeed little correlation between cost and quality, though I'm sure the economics of small batch distilling are always going to nudge the cost up. Part of the fun of my gin habit is just tasting different ones (same for beer). I don't think I've had a truly awful one, plenty of indifferent, and several very good. I think if I plotted them on an axis against price they'd be all over the place. The pleasure is in the variety. I confess a sneaking liking for both bog-standard Beefeater and even the bargainalocious Larios in a plastic bottle (not the rosé one though, that's a bit weird and artificial and best fed to guests). I think I draw the line at £60 though, I don't see what you can do to a gin to justify that much. Unless it has a weasel on the bottle, and it's a posh bottle, and you have a mustelid-themed house.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Gin!
« Reply #140 on: 22 December, 2017, 11:18:36 pm »
We don't generally have spirits in the house, but I bought a bottle of Portobello Road No.171 gin for seasonal cocktails. Chose it for a) low price, b) pretty label, and c) 42% abv. Cracked it open tonight and I'm more impressed than I was expecting. It's a good straightforward gin, with a decent hit of juniper. I suspect gin connoisseurs will consider it bland but I would prefer to call it uncomplicated. It's what Gordon's should be - and perhaps what it used to be.

Very pleasant with a generous dash of Angostura and a not too generous glug of Schweppes tonic.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: Gin!
« Reply #141 on: 23 December, 2017, 12:04:03 am »
I have a bottle of Adnams gin from a friend who visited Southwold in the summer.  I've only drunk gin a couple of times, but might give this a taste over the festive week.
What tonic?  Are they all the same?

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Gin!
« Reply #142 on: 23 December, 2017, 01:06:50 am »
What tonic?  Are they all the same?

You can't go wrong with Schweppes, tbh.

Fever Tree is 'posh' but I think it's highly overrated. Like fizzy pot pourri. It's just trying too hard.

The one I had at my brother's last year that I really liked was Franklins. Maybe because it's quite similar to Schweppes.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Gin!
« Reply #143 on: 23 December, 2017, 11:16:13 am »
I think one of the reasons for the sudden uptick in gin drinking is the new tonics, such as Fever Tree which don't taste the same as Schweppes. I reckon a lot of the people who wouldn't have touched gin before just didn't like the flavour of tonic.

Personally I think Fever Tree tastes like lemonade. :sick: I like my tonic bitter  :demon:
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Gin!
« Reply #144 on: 23 December, 2017, 03:06:32 pm »
I agree, Mrs P. Same goes for a lot of the modern gins which seem to taste mostly of citrus. I like juniper!
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Gin!
« Reply #145 on: 23 December, 2017, 04:26:33 pm »
I agree, Mrs P. Same goes for a lot of the modern gins which seem to taste mostly of citrus. I like juniper!

Me too. I like juniper, pepper, liquorice. If you (or anyone else) would like some recommendations on that theme, here are mine.

Tarquin's gin (Cornwall) http://www.southwesterndistillery.com
Electric Spirits Co. Achroous gin (Embra) https://www.facebook.com/electricspiritco/
Bobby's https://bobbysdrygin.com
Hammer & Son Old English http://www.oldenglishgin.com/splash.html
Misty Isle (new from Skye)
Makar (Glasgow) not so much spice, more like getting punched in the face by a juniper bush. https://glasgowdistillery.com/product/makar-gin/
Cotswold Gin
Spirit of Hven (Sweden)

Having said that, for a change the Wild Beer Sleeping Lemons gin is nice. You can sip it neat. :P
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

ian

Re: Gin!
« Reply #146 on: 24 December, 2017, 05:24:45 pm »
I'm for the juniper too – along with the licorice, cardamon, etc. I don't mind floral ones too. Citrus to the front is a bit meh. I quite like some of the German gins, they're robust and tend to be less citrusy, especially the ones made with potato-based spirit, they make splendid cloudy G&Ts and 'oily' martinis that have a smooth mouthfeel.

Fever Tree is shit. Schweppes does everything a tonic needs to do. But always taste a bit of the gin neat before deciding what to do with it (that's my excuse anyway).

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Gin!
« Reply #147 on: 24 December, 2017, 05:53:38 pm »
I'm gonna have to get me some of that Makar from the sound of it.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Gin!
« Reply #148 on: 24 December, 2017, 06:06:42 pm »
Try some Monkey 47 if you haven't, it's a good gateway into the German gins, and they tend to be complex and junipery rather than the lemon-and-more-lemon.

And yes, Parcelfarce, I still want that bloody bottle of Greensand gin that you have sequestered in your depot because you couldn't be bothered delivering it. I suspect we won't be running out of gin this christmas regardless.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Gin!
« Reply #149 on: 24 December, 2017, 06:27:06 pm »
I like Monkey 47, not sure I would describe it as junipery. Medicinal, perhaps.
Their sloe gin is also nom.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.