November 18, 2015

Winning at Ginning

Oh, gin. My favourite spirit, I love it with tonic or bitter lemon – I’m not fussy which. I also love learning about it, as there are simply an overwhelming range of varieties of gin available and there is always more to try! So when The Snug invited me to their Gin Masterclass, I couldn’t wait for a gin-teresting evening:

cambridge-distillery-gin-tasting
the-snug-food
the-snug-food

Last Christmas, I headed to the English Spirit Company Distillery in Dullingham and learnt about all the spirits they create at the tiny Cambridgeshire distillery. It was fascinating so I was excited to revisit the topic of gin for another evening!

For our gin masterclass, we got to taste five gins – Beefeater, Hendrick’s, Adnam’s Copper House, Bulldog and the Cambridge Distillery Gin. I had tried the first three gins before but it was a completely different experience trying them with a dash of water rather than mixer – it’s a method I’d recommend to really taste a gin with no distractions. We started with the mainstream gins before moving to the more specialist (and expensive) gins. I was really excited to try the Cambridge Dry Gin as it’s simply out of my price range and I wanted to try a top-end gin. However, my favourite was actually the Bulldog London Dry Gin, which was unlike any gin I’ve tried. It was delicious neat, which shows how good it is served with a mixer! However, I can’t manage to track it down as my local Waitrose has stopped selling it – I need locate a bottle for my gin collection!

After we had tasted our fair share of gin, I definitely needed something to soak up the booze and The Snug promptly brought out some chicken wings. The Dante’s Inferno wings really were super hot and since I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to heat. my favourite were the Lemon and Pepper chicken bites. I love that you can choose a variety of heats, as well as either boneless or buffalo wings – perfect if anyone is picky about eating meat off the bone.

I was seriously impressed with the range of gins and cocktails, as well as the knowledge of the staff, at The Snug and can’t wait to head back – are you a gin fan? Which is your favourite?

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