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G&T time, and a commendation to Bulldog Gin: lovely oleaginous mouthfeel. Rich though unspecified flavour as well. Then I added the tonic.

Amazingly the man in the shop told me that it is distributed by, ahem, ahem again, Anheuser Busch, a claim for which, happily, I can find no evidence.

Sounds like the kind of gin they would make cocktails with in the tackiest of Spanish (or Portuguese) holiday resorts for Brits on cheap holidays!

A gentleman should always consider Bombay Sapphire as his Gin of choice!

Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

KillerB wrote:Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

Who is "Chooky Embra"?!

benread wrote:

KillerB wrote:Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

Who is "Chooky Embra"?!

Married to the Queen

KillerB wrote:

benread wrote:

KillerB wrote:Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

Who is "Chooky Embra"?!

Married to the Queen

Is there an explanation for this nickname?

Gordon’s tastes slightly dirty. Belfast Gin, a previous favourite, is unobtainable. Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray Ten with Extra Botanicals (terrible website: I can’t get in) are both very reasonable alternatives.

But Bulldog Gin is the Vesuvio of juniper: new on the block; great mouthfeel; good value.

benread wrote:

KillerB wrote:

benread wrote:

KillerB wrote:Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

Who is "Chooky Embra"?!

Married to the Queen

Is there an explanation for this nickname?

Ask Derek

My guess is that KillerB has attempted to construct a two word name out of the phonetic equivalent of "Duke of Edinburgh" as pronounced by a mildly inebriated Glaswegian.

Derek

This all sounds like meaningless drivel then and nothing to do with gin!

benread wrote:This all sounds like meaningless drivel then and nothing to do with gin!

Is moving the Queen and her Spouse to MD likely to be considered as Treason?

Derek T. wrote:

benread wrote:This all sounds like meaningless drivel then and nothing to do with gin!

Is moving the Queen and her Spouse to MD likely to be considered as Treason?

Probably no more so than refering to hubby as "Chooky Embra"!!

jdaw1 wrote:But Bulldog Gin is the Vesuvio of juniper: new on the block; great mouthfeel; good value.

And does it come in lovely chestnut 6 packs with brass fittings that you can later use to store CDs and DVDs?

KillerB wrote:Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

Do you think "Chooky Embra" had a Bombay Sapphire when he went to Trent Bridge today? He turned up just in time to see KP get his century!

Edit:

See comment at 16:59 on BBC website!

BBC Sport

benread wrote:

KillerB wrote:Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

Do you think "Chooky Embra" had a Bombay Sapphire when he went to Trent Bridge today? He turned up just in time to see KP get his century!

Edit:

See comment at 16:59 on BBC website!

BBC Sport

Looked like a cup of tea to me

KillerB wrote:

benread wrote:

KillerB wrote:Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

Do you think "Chooky Embra" had a Bombay Sapphire when he went to Trent Bridge today? He turned up just in time to see KP get his century!

Edit:

See comment at 16:59 on BBC website!

BBC Sport

Looked like a cup of tea to me

A cup of tea or a tea cup? The two COULD be very different?!

benread wrote:

KillerB wrote:

benread wrote:

KillerB wrote:Just because Chooky Embra drinks it doesn't make it right. It should be Gordon's.

Do you think "Chooky Embra" had a Bombay Sapphire when he went to Trent Bridge today? He turned up just in time to see KP get his century!

Edit:

See comment at 16:59 on BBC website!

BBC Sport

Looked like a cup of tea to me

A cup of tea or a tea cup? The two COULD be very different?!

Could be a cup of tea with a dirty great slug of Bombay Sapphire in it.

I spent most of this afternoon alternating between Gordon’s and Hendrick’s and Tonic and concluded that although Hendrick’s is still my preferred gin, there really is almost nothing in it (or I have no palate left…).

Rather than produce endless varieties of premium gin, what I wish the distillers would do is produce a decent tonic water. The ubiquitous Schweppes and Britvic tonics are horrible, overly sweet concoctions and seem to ruin lots of good gin. And you can barely taste the Quinine!

JacobH wrote:Rather than produce endless varieties of premium gin, what I wish the distillers would do is produce a decent tonic water. The ubiquitous Schweppes and Britvic tonics are horrible, overly sweet concoctions and seem to ruin lots of good gin. And you can barely taste the Quinine!

Seconded. And tonic in the former colonies is terrible: Schweppes would be most welcome.

I LOVE Gin.


Some of the Gins we stock in our Bar

Beefeater - Our house gin. Great for cocktails such as slings. Perfect with tonic.

Bombay Sapphire - Always loses out to beefeater on blind tastings due to its dependency on all those botanicals but reasonable in a Martini. It gets lost easily in Gimlets, slings and Collins.

Plymouth - Voted best gin and white spirit in 2000, 2001 and 2003 at the International Wine and Spirit Competition. A brilliant standalone gin. It has great complexity with not one botanical coming out on top. This is what doesn't do it for me as it suffers the same problem as Bombay Sapphire. But as opposed to Bombay, Plymouth's complexity wins it far more plaudits.

Hendrick's: Great gin. Infused with rose petals and cucumber it is much more of an interesting mouthfeel than the others. Floral notes are what surprises you first. Although not when you're told what you're drinking.

Beefeater 24 - The new offering from Beefeater with the addition of Oriental teas and grapefruit peel from seville. We like this. Obviously different from classical gins it has much more delicate nose that only really gets going with a little warmth. The grapefruit adds an interesting citrusy note on the palate that lasts throughout. The tea doesn't really bring anything to the table though other than a marketing gimmick. Pretty bottle.

Tanqueray Special Dry - The classic tanqueray. A higher percentage of Juniper than most other classic gins but still remains bone dry on the palate. Big enough to handle anthing thrown at it but still works perfectly with tonic and a little fresh lime.

Tanqueray Extra Dry - Introduced to the UK in 1999 primarily for the Martini market. It has a lower ABV and a little less Juniper

Tanqueray 10 - The first super premium gin and one of the best. It only uses fresh botanicals which gives it a marvellous explosion of aromas on the nose. Much more coriander than citrus on the palate but still the juniper shines.

Tanqueray Rangpur - Flavoured with Rangpur limes after distillation it gives it incredible citrus bite and works very well with tonic and in gimlets. Obviously. Created for the American market, as far as I know we're one of very few bars stocking it.

Junipero - A cracking gin from those crazy Americans. This is the only gin I know that smacks you in the head with the licorice root. It's great. Quite an oily palate that takes a second or two to develop but when it does it stays forever! This really is good fun.

Martin Miller's Westbourne Strength - Another small-batch potstill gin. Made with Icelandic glacial water it has a very nice citrus and coriander palate. The juniper is very subtle. I don't like this with tonic as it loses a lot of it's complexity and leaves a grassy flavour in the mouth. It is amazing in Martinis.

Jensen's Bermondsey London Dry - This stuff is brilliant. A small-batch gin distilled in Bermondsey it has a very classicly conservative Juniper flavour that I love with all the other botanicals playing more of a supporting role. The way gin used to be made Pre War when gin was in its heyday.

Jensen's Bermondsey Old Tom - Old Tom is the old way of making gin. The neutral grain spirit is flavoured with oils and sugars after distillation. This one uses only natural occuring sugars which gives it a much more balanced flavour than other Old Toms I've tried.

Fabulous mini-reviews thank you. If I see (in New York) Tanqueray Special Dry or either of the Jensen’s I will try.

Yes, thanks for posting that. I must try to find some of the Tanqueray Rangpur as I’m quite partial to having some strong lime in my Gin and Tonic.

Incidentally, have you found a solution to the tonic problem? I met someone recently who worked for a premium soft-drink company (I think it may have been Fever Tree). She said that the advantages of their tonic were that a) they used less and better quality sugar and b) that they used less quinine and put other botanicals in instead. I quite agree that a) would be an improvement over normal tonics, but I am less convinced by b). It seems to me that our tonic waters lack a decent bitterness and that putting more quinine in would be a way of resolving that!but perhaps that makes the tonic water less attractive for use in other drinks?

JacobH wrote:Yes, thanks for posting that. I must try to find some of the Tanqueray Rangpur as I’m quite partial to having some strong lime in my Gin and Tonic.

Incidentally, have you found a solution to the tonic problem? I met someone recently who worked for a premium soft-drink company (I think it may have been Fever Tree). She said that the advantages of their tonic were that a) they used less and better quality sugar and b) that they used less quinine and put other botanicals in instead. I quite agree that a) would be an improvement over normal tonics, but I am less convinced by b). It seems to me that our tonic waters lack a decent bitterness and that putting more quinine in would be a way of resolving that!but perhaps that makes the tonic water less attractive for use in other drinks?

Fever Tree is marvellous stuff. I had forgotten about them actually - I just emailled them to send me some samples.

This place is proving delightfully helpful.

dockmaster wrote:This place is proving delightfully helpful.

For us too. We might have a new venue in which to host port tastings.