It’s 6.30pm on Wednesday – scheduled weekly meet time at Gin Club HQ. I’m somewhere between locating Sri Lankan tea leaves and boiling the kettle, when Squirrel comes out with “we should do it at Kroma, I go there, they are up for it”.

The thoughts that are going through my head; I need more loose tea, I wish I’d bought chocolate, what on earth is he talking about now?

So here is a brief insight into what happens at a midweek Gin Club meeting. Contrary to popular belief, we don’t drink Gin, we usually eat cake and lots of unrelated statements are delivered as a monologue and require deconvolution.

It materialised that Kroma was being suggested as a venue for an evening with No.3 London, I was then later informed that Kroma was a hairdressers. Ok, so we had done Gin in the Tearoom and it was a hit (so much so we are doing it again) but could we really pull off Gin in a hairdressers? Guess there was only one way to find out….cue Monday the 7th of July in Finnieston.

No.3 London is an extremely classic and perfectly balanced London Dry Gin and it was raved about highly at the Hidden Lane. Having the opportunity to allow some of our Gin Club members to find out more about the Gin itself, from Amanda, the brand ambassador was such an exciting prospect for us.

Amanda gave us an insight into the fascinating story behind No.3; from the copper pot stills in Schiedam (Holland) that give birth to the spirit, to the origins of its name – 3 St. James’s Street in London is the residing address of the creators – Berry Bros. & Rudd.

No.3 is a Gin which has been somewhat crafted to near perfection, and all with the undeniable expertise of Dr. David Clutton. Dr. Clutton is unashamedly my new hero, he is a chemist with a PhD in Gin. You read right, an actual PhD, he is a doctor IN GIN (the only one I should add). Nobody mentioned this option when I was considering Chemistry PhD’s – thank you University of Glasgow careers service and every graduate fair I ever attended.

So what makes No.3….well, No.3? Like all good London Dry Gins should, it has a heady note of juniper, this is combined with 2 other fruits – sweet orange peel and grapefruit peel, which are joined further by 3 spices; coriander seeds, cardamom and angelica root. Steeping these 6 botanicals prior to distillation allows their distinct flavours to really mingle and infuse into the mother liquor. Upon tasting neat, my first hit was distinctively piney from the juniper, followed swiftly by a complete citrus rush.

As well as a neat tasting, throughout the evening we also served; classic G&T’s garnished with lemon (plus Fever-Tree naturally), Negroni’s with a sliver of orange peel and G&T’s with a twist (lemongrass and coriander garnish), all were created and poured by the expert hands of Chris Grant. I have always claimed that Negroni and I are not exactly best friends, placing him (Negroni is a male FYI) in the exact same friendship group as Aperol – bitter with a deceptive appearance. However, I put my hands up, Chris I think I may have been converted. And although the bitter man may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, the lemongrass and coriander Gin’s went down a storm – seriously buy some No. 3 and try it!

Thanks to everyone for coming along to the hairdressers in Finnieston and drinking some No.3 with us. And of course an even bigger thanks to Amanda for bringing No.3 to a salon of Gin Clubbers in cutting chairs. A credit to Fiona for the amazing photos!

Not being content with stopping at just one night of bringing No.3 to the people of Glasgow, we packed up the silver key stirrers and headed along to the Abandon Ship womenswear launch in the Princes Square shop.

The prints for the new line are amazing, uniquely ASA and like nothing else you’ll find on the high street….hurrah! The watermelon crop tee and skirt are to die for. We selected 3 serves for No.3 – the classic and twisted G&T’s as per Monday night and a Ginger Gin Fizz. I think it’s safe to say Glasgow LOVE No.3 London (and we love peanut butter and jam doughnuts).

To end this blog post in stereotypical girl style, I would be lying if I said that sometimes I worry people don’t understand what we’ve set out to achieve. However, if I’ve learnt anything from my fellow Gin Club founders in the last 6 months, it’s stay true to what you believe is right. We really love Gin and all we want is to find a fun way to make other people fall for it too….simple really?

Gin Club