Hautecake by Sonnda Catto – The Negroni infused “Briottone” or “Panettoche” hybrid

August 25, 2015August 25, 2015theglasgowginclub Uncategorized Tags: #ginme, Cake, Campari, GBBO, Gin, ginclub, Glasgow, glasgowginclub, Greatbrittishbakeoff, Hautecake, Negroni, No. 3 London, Puntemes, Sonnda, Sonnda Cato Leave a comment

So I know this is significantly late and there is only one excuse and that is that me (Graeme), got married to that stunning woman whom I proposed too in March called Rachel Brand (Macdonald now) and Stuart was my best man so we have been out of action all weekend. We had every intention of blogging etc but weddings keep you really busy, then ill in my case.

So below our friend Sonnda Catto (http://sonndacatto.co.uk/) created an amazing recipe for us. Sonnda is an incredible Food consultant, nutritionalist, cake designer and patissiere (missing the proper French punctuation I know).

So we at Gin Club gave her all the stuff needed to craft a Negroni, some fine cocktail Gin (No.3 London), Punt-e-Mes and Campari. Sonnda exchanged this booze for Panettone so a fair swap.

Below is the amazing recipe:

Recipe development went something like this:

Orange and white chocolate are fab together. The bitter orange flavour from the negroni and peels is going to offset the richness coming from the chocolate, dough and nuts. And on those nuts, what nuts do I want to eat with a negroni? In Italy, I’d be served a little bowl of salted almonds alongside, but I want something richer here. Macadamias. So far so good. And it’s got a classy gin cocktail in there. What’s not to like??!!

Taking inspiration from both brioche and panettone, the dough bears a resemblance to each while not quite being either. Unlike any bread I’ve encountered before, the mixture is so liquid you literally pour it into the cake tin! But that contributes a wonderful moistness.

I want to call it “briottone” or “panettoche”. Since it has the same shape and orangey additions as the Italian classic, I’ve settled on panettoche.

This is great eaten on its own. But with a bit less chocolate, 50g say, I reckon it would go very well with a top-quality pâté as a posh starter, toasted brioche being a classic French accompaniment to pâté. Duck liver would be my first option; duck and orange being another classic combo, and also because the bitterness from the negroni and peels is going to work so well against the richness.

Let me know how you enjoyed eating it!

Makes 1x6inch round cake tin

Ingredients

100g whole glacé orange peel, excess sugar rinsed off and diced fairly finely*

100ml Negroni (33ml each of gin, Punt e Mes** and Campari)***

10g fresh yeast (or 1¼ teaspoons dried)

125ml lukewarm water (not more than 30C)

250g strong white flour

15g caster sugar

1/2 level teaspoon salt

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 whole medium egg, beaten

zest of 1 whole orange

50g macadamia nuts, quartered

100g best quality white choc you can get your hands on, chopped roughly (I use Valrhona Opalys – leave the pistoules whole so they don’t completely melt)

egg glaze made with 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water

Notes on specialist ingredients

Negroni+bread-3+of+8-lo

*This has a far better flavour than the diced mixed peel you get in tubs, fairly yukky stuff saturated in sugar syrup, which means it will absorb hardly any of the steeping alcohol. However, it’s not that easy to get hold of whole glacé peels these days. Try your best local health food shops and delis. Or order from Wholefoods online: Peel – Whole Orange 125g.

**Punt e Mes is an Italian red vermouth with a strong, distinctive flavor, half-way between regular rosso vermouth and Campari. It works better here because it’s drier and less sweet. If you can’t get hold of it, substitute with a regular red vermouth.

***Unless you’re a regular negroni drinker you’re unlikely to have Punt e Mes, any other red vermouth or Campari in your drinks cupboard. In which case, drop into a local pub or cocktail bar with a small tupperware tub. They’ll have no problem giving you a few measures to takeaway. Thanks to Paul from Epicures who did just that for me!

Method

Soak the chopped glacé peel in the negroni. The aim here is to get as much of the alcohol into the fruit as possible, so soak for 24 hours at least. Longer if you’re not in any hurry.

This can actually be done days, even weeks, in advance; the peel is preserved and alcohol is a preservative. Just pop everything in a tupperware tub with a tightly fitting lid, or place in a small bowl and cover with cling film. Let the fruit soak up the alcohol at your leisure, and use whenever you’re in the mood to bake the loaf.

When you’re ready to make the bread, crumble the yeast into 100ml of the lukewarm water in a small jug/bowl. Leave for 5 minutes, then stir to dissolve.

Mix the sieved flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and add in the yeasted water.

Use a wooden spoon to draw enough of the flour into the yeasted water to form a soft paste. Cover the bowl with a tea towel, and leave to “sponge” until frothy and slightly risen, 20-30 minutes.

(NB: The sponge method adds a period of fermentation to mixing, resulting in a bread with a lighter crumb and a less yeasty flavour.)

Strain the excess negroni liquid from the glacé orange peel.

Combine 50ml of the strained negroni with the remaining 25ml water.

Mix in the flour from the sides of the bowl, gradually stirring in the 75ml negroni and water mixture. As the liquid is added, the texture of the combined ingredients will move from a crumbly mixture to a slightly sticky mass that will begin to come away from the sides of the bowl and form into a ball. The end result will be a soft, sticky dough.

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured work surface. Knead until soft, smooth, silky and elastic, about 10mins.

Return the dough to the large bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Negroni+bread-1+of+8-lo Negroni+bread-2+of+8-lo

Grease a 6inch round cake tin (at least 3 inches tall) and line with silicon baking paper (aka baking parchment). If you only have greaseproof paper, brush the insides with melted butter (15g will do) or it will stick so fast you won’t be able to peel it away from the bread.

Knock back the dough, knead for 5 minutes, then leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Meantime, place the soft butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Add the strained peel and orange zest and beat with the paddle attachment until thoroughly combined. Gradually add the beaten egg and continue to mix until combined. At this point you’ll have a softish paste.

Negroni+bread-4+of+8-lo

Next, add the remaining strained negroni and beat until combined. The mixture will now look like a thick cake batter. Finally, add in the chopped macadamia nuts and chunks of chocolate/whole pistoules. Mix briefly until just combined.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, and using a spatula fold the mixture to ensure the fruit, nuts and chocolate are evenly dispersed throughout.

Negroni+bread-5+of+8-lo

Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface, pushing any visible chocolate chunks just below the surface to ensure they won’t burn.

Holding the tin a few inches above your work surface, drop it down. Repeat several times until the surface is completely level.

Negroni+bread-6+of+8-lo

Cover with a tea towel and leave to prove until the dough has doubled in size, about 2 and a half hours (check after 2 hours).

Negroni+bread-7+of+8-lo

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Using a soft pastry brush, brush the dough with the egg glaze. Be very gentle so as not to rip or deflate the dough. Also, be careful not to “glue” the loaf to the edge of the baking tin.

Bake for 45mins until the surface is glossy and a deep golden colour (think of the colour of brioche here). Check at 35 minutes, turning the tin 180 degrees to ensure even browning.

Turn out of the tin, place upside down on a baking sheet, peel away the lining papers and return to the oven for a further 10-20 minutes until hollow-sounding when tapped underneath – check after 10 minutes, giving another 10 minutes if need be.

Turn out of the tin onto a wire rack to cool.

Negroni+bread-8+of+8-lo

Best eaten within 1 day.

The Birthday & The Botanist Foraging Event

June 10, 2015June 10, 2015theglasgowginclub Uncategorized Tags: #ginme, Birthday, Birthday party, Caorunn, Fever-Tree, Foraging, ginclub, Glasgow Gin Club, Heather Rose, No. 3 London, Strathearn, The Botanist Leave a comment

First I would like to say thanks to everyone that came down for our Birthday party, it was one of those rare Gin Club’s now where Kate, Stuart and myself got to ditch the car (#carsgettingditched) and have “some” Gins for ourselves. I completely hogged the Heather Rose.

ginbirthday-1-5

I have said it in a couple of other Blogs, our best ideas are conceived drunk at 1am, Gin Club was one of them. Going to the Cat House when you are 31 after a Gin Club is not up there with the greatest of ideas, but worth it for all the looks “Alternative” teens (btw alternative doesn’t exist anymore, alternative is so mainstream that word is now null and void) were giving us when we were dancing, not a single f*ck was given. Teens really are self-conscious, if only they had had Gin.

So after that minor expletive (I couldn’t find an alternative for that saying), we have moved out of our first year as Gin Club. Again a massive thank you to all you Guests who came along drank Gin, learned about small batch and craft Gin, ate cake, cracked jokes and join Kate, Stuart and I in the art of social drinking. When we started Gin Club (at the time we never thought it would come to anything), all we wanted to do was make something fun but at the same time have something the Gin brands would want to be part off.

So on our first birthday we went back to our first event and used The Botanist, Strathearn Heather Rose, No.3 London and Caorunn. These at the time were our most commonly used and favourite Craft Gins. The Botanist was the first Gin we confirmed for Gin Club and picked up from Lynne McEwan before heading off to Ritchie Patton’s wedding at the time we had the date for the event but didn’t even have a venue. Strathearn is a distillery close to our Perthshire homes and Heather Rose is one of those Gins I go back to time and time again, like a perfume you constantly buy as you like the smell, my drinks cupboard isn’t complete without it. No.3 London was the Gin we used for our first dedicated single brand events, which we did in a Kroma Hair and again who we used for the Abandon Ship online and London shop launch events.

The main difference (other than the free cake, balloons and party bags) between the setup we had at the first event and Birthday party was the garnishes we used: On Friday I met with a lovely man called Gary and there in Argyle street he handed me three bags of greenery, which I in turn handed over money. It looked exceptionally dodgy, but it was just bags of Sorrel and Spruce Shoots, all hand foraged by his himself that very day.

All our Garnishes for the birthday party were garnishes that can be found in environment around us then Foraged to be used in Gin. For Botanist instead of Lemon and a complimenting herb we used Sorrel. It has a naturally and surprising taste of citrus and can be foraged around Glasgow. For No.3 London we went away from the citrus notes and used Spruce Shoots, which add a pine flavour to the gin, when you chew it, its sweet but very very dry. For Caorunn we used fresh brambles, mint and Braebury apples. Wild mint grows all over the UK, Brambles are often the bane of a gardener’s life as it grows quickly and everywhere (Braebury apples are from New Zealand but hey two out of three ain’t bad).

The reason for this change in tact is that as of this Blog post we are announcing our first dedicated single Gin event of 2015 which will host The Botanist.

the botanist

On the 4^th July we are hosting along with The Botanist a foraging event which will start at the Botanic gardens then walk through Kelvingrove park, while stopping along the way to forage for wild ingredients which are used in the production of The Botanist and for botanicals which can be used to garnish or make Gin cocktails with.

The foraging event walk will finish at the Kelvingrove Café on Argyle Street where the lovely Mixologist Danny Whelan will walk you through The Botanist, explaining the tastes and notes as you try it neat. Then you will try three G&T’s all garnished with Foraged ingredients which complement the botanicals which create the fine drink. After that you will get nibbles and a Foraged Gin Cocktail.

Tickets for this event will be very limited as numbers have to be small.

Here’s the link for tickets (Golden ticked doesn’t include this sadly):

http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/182875

Thanks for spending a year with us.

Proud Parents

May 26, 2015May 27, 2015theglasgowginclub EVENTS Tags: #gindout, #ginme, #lettheginbegin, #notgunclub, Botanist, Brew at the Bog, Caorunn, ginclub, Glasgow, Glasgow Gin Club, glasgowginclub, Heather Rose, No. 3 London, Strathearn, The Hidden Lane Tea Room Leave a comment

First Birthdays.

Obviously we can’t remember our own first birthday’s (if you say you do then you’re either Stewie from Family guy or your drunk), but we certainly remember other 1^st birthday parties. Having been to a few for my lovely Nephew and Nieces and now (god help us) my friends children, we know the format, crying, napping, half the adults drinking the other half drinking endless cups of tea, the one year old who couldn’t care less about the presents as the wrapping paper or the box is significantly more interesting. A first birthday party is for the parents. And if I’m honest they are lovely despite the flu or stomach bug you contract from playing with the little disease carriers (btw I’m getting a little broody in my old age) you really wouldn’t have it any other way.

So like proud parents (god does this mean that Caldo, Kate and I had a child together, remove Caldo from the equation and its normal haha), we move into the first birthday of our labour of love which is the Gin Club.

Our first solo event was the 6^th of June 2014, however like a proper child it had a long gestation period, about nine months actually. We recently did a blog for Ticketweb which describes how to create a club, so I best repeat myself on the gestation period to birth of Gin Club;

Conception

“The Art of Social Drinking” is something Caldo has always harped on about, where people go to a pub and drink nice alcohol and not just get wasted on the cheap stuff, dance and try and get off with people (these nights are ok too though). Gin Club began while engaging in this Art form, two men in their late twenties, drinking artisan gin while trawling through YouTube for rap battles, Taylor Swift and Mylie Cyrus videos, then discussing the merits of both these two rather good female artists.

From these special moments slumped on a couch discussing which one would our mothers would prefer, a throw away thought in the form of Hashtag (#Ginclub) was born, which was instantaneously shared through each of our failing music and social media sites (it had been a long established fact that a photo of an album got less than 20 likes while a picture of a Gin pour or a beetroot and chocolate cake broke easily into triple figures). In that one hashtag Gin Club was born (impregnated).

Don’t tell anyone it’s not three months yet

For the next few months we maintained the exclusivity of our club, while the member’s waiting list swelled with people retweeting, sharing photos and Gin Brands evening sending us stock! But the intake was capped at two with the occasional “Gins a mine”, while our friends drank our expensive Gin and Tonic. Keeping this cap along with the promotion of Gin and all its merits only increased demand. Our Gin Club rules came into fruition too. “No Gordon’s” and “Gordon’s is acceptable if there is nothing else”.

“Your showing”

Once our solid foundations had been set, we had demand, popularity and a thirst corporate engagement the next stage was to float our club idea. In the case of Gin Club this came with getting involved with the popular Brew at the Bog festival. From this first big venture we had to draft in organised support in the third member, welcome the scientist (not the Coldplay song) Kate.

In developing this idea we had now made contact with all the Gin brands we loved and wanted to share with festival goers in Inverness. This proved popular as all the Gin was drunk in the first day.

Birth

Our Idea was simple; it wasn’t to be formal Gin Club. No noising glasses, just Gin served right so people could enjoy something a bit different to the norm and open to all Gin lovers.

Our club needed to be formative but informal so our guests left knowing more than what they did when they arrived without it being forced upon them or with them having to taste everything straight in crystal flute glass while writing notes in a language they would never use.

Fun / Nice were the words of choice, where people loved their night so much they took hundreds of photos, got to a good merry stage of drunkardness but happy their night wouldn’t be a late one.

Then after being at Gin Club they would want to go to a shop, buy a special Gin and realise what they have had in the pub for years is nothing compared to what they could be drinking.

We had the idea, we even had the date, the venue however wasn’t set, but a wee five minute conversation in Sainsbury’s solved that and it was set that we would be hosting Gin Club in a vintage tea room (with cake and the venue matched the feel of the night), then combine it with DJ’s, random props, table games, food (which get very competitive) and mountains of Fever Tree tonic.

Thinking back

I can’t believe that was a year ago! Thinking of all the meetings with Kate and Caldo in Tinderbox or at Kate’s flat drinking loads of tea and eating way too much cake.

1^st Birthday Party

So as it’s been a year we are going to celebrate by throwing a birthday party at the Hidden Lane on nearly the same date (one day out) as our first ever event. To mark this we will be using the same Gins we started with;

Strathearn Heather Rose

Botanist

No.3 London

Caorunn

There will be all the usual trimmings along with lots of other special surprises. I’ve been looking for the Happy Birthday song which gets playing in Jimmy Chung’s, can’t find it anywhere.

So get your tickets for the 5^th June at the Hidden Lane Tea Room.

Squirrels Year End (Not Rear) Review

January 11, 2015January 11, 2015theglasgowginclub Uncategorized Tags: Brew at the Bog, Chris Grant, Gin, Glasgow Gin Club, Mylie Cryus, No. 3 London, Radio Scotland, Taylor Swift Leave a comment

So me (being Graeme or Squirrel to everyone except my family) used to write a blog every year, a new year’s summing up what had happened in past 12 months and my thoughts going forward. I feel I should continue you this through, taking it from whatever band blog I was in at the time and bring it into the Gin Club world.

2014 might be the quickest year of my life, I feel it was only a few weeks ago that it was my 30^th birthday in February and that I was feeling all sad about being a different tick box on a survey or worse that certain surveys no longer apply to me. Like the feeling you get when you are older when walking down the town on a Saturday night and club reps ignore you as you’re not cool enough.

They do say though that from now on the years blur into one, they go quickly and that the all significant birthdays have a zero in them. Maybe the zero should signify the lack of hope. Jokes.

So apart from my ever increasing descent into middle age and having nothing to show for it lets review the year.

This was the year that we finally created Gin Club into something bigger than me and Caldo drinking gin in our pants and watching Mylie Cyrus on YouTube while constantly commentating on how “why yes I would” then comparing the difference between her and Taylor Swift. One you want to go home with and one you want to marry and have babies with the latter being Tay Tay.

We did our first official event at the Brew at the Bog festival which seen us pedal lots of gin through a new gin bar devised by the exceptional brain of Yvonne Murray. In doing this we put out the word of Gin Club to lots of gins. We were asked to comment on gin on Radio Scotland. At this point our “Club” had growing a torso, legs and we needed a head. Welcome Kate Gill. A woman who I have known for years only as Caldo’s cousin and seen either in Oxfam books or in her joggies on university avenue (and not in a clatty dirty old man at night meeting on university avenue way btw), she brought note pads and “don’t be stupid” looks / comments then made us have meetings. It’s fair to say she sorted out our ideas into a format. This then formed into our first sell out event in the Hidden Lane Tea Room.

From there we have essentially done a sell-out gin party each month in various locations (mainly the tearoom) until the end of the year. I think a highlight for me with these events would be the London No.3 event in a hair salon (Kroma), as it was so random and really educational from a brand prospective. I also got to see Chris Grant not in a tracksuit and not talking about jumping stuff instead watching him craft gin cocktails.

Outside Gin Club life has gotten rather grown up. Caldo has buggered off to the Bermuda triangle of Glasgow’s south side, where people piss off too and they stay there hidden away, never heading west. You can’t just walk down the road with them for a pint; you have to bus it or drive. Me I decided to buy a house, not a flat, but a proper house, with a shed, lawnmower and a conservatory (the shed is full of gin btw; I need Wifi out there and a couch hehe). Kate did the biggest move, she traded Glasgow for Wolfhill. Yes no one who isn’t from Perthshire has a bloody clue where Wolfhill is. Essentially if you don’t need to you won’t ever go there, it’s a wee hamlet where I was once told the last wolf in Scotland was killed there. Glasgow or Wolfhill??? Hmmm tough one J . Then changed her job from Science to making money. Big move but she’s happier. Now she needs to open Perth’s first gin bar.

I usually get a big reflective in thinking about the year past. I have to say I am one of these people who evaluates his yearly performance. This year I don’t know what to make of it. I have made huge steps forward in my life, but think other aspects have frozen still. I have always felt that since finishing university all those eight years ago I have been minus achievement. Each year you sit exams and pass or fail them. Sadly the only exam I have sat this year was for P30 programme management training which I failed. I also hung up my musical hat and put my last band to bed. Which is a huge deal for me but one that only me and the five men involved seemed to be bothered about, like mist it just was there then wasn’t, you know it’s time to call it a day when an album you make gets less hits than a beetroot and chocolate cake. Haha. This isn’t a problem it’s just one of life’s things, the cake was bloody good though.

In our older life’s we don’t have this constant learning and evaluation. One of the few measures we have is our events or activities that cannot be quantified as pass or fail but busy, fun or educational. For Gin Club it’s been a huge success, we have created a grown-ups party where people drink small batch Gin and learn about the brands and the love each distiller puts into their products (except Gordons)

I don’t know what more to say about 2014. I would say it was fun, quick and I’m not sure if I did my best as a human this year. I know I could do so much better.

Next year we have some great ideas for events, some big things to come for Gin Club and I hope the gins and the guests will be up for drinking the Mothers Ruin with us. Actually I hope that Kate, Caldo and I get to drink more gin. The more events we have the less gin we get to drink, we only get to sample it and write the tasting notes L

Thanks

Graeme

Rocking The Boat With Our Rollers In

July 19, 2014July 21, 2014kategill87 Uncategorized Tags: Abandon Ship, Fever-Tree, Gin, Gin and Tonic, Glasgow Gin Club, Kroma, Negroni, No. 3 London Leave a comment

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

West Side To The East Side

June 24, 2014June 24, 2014kategill87 Uncategorized Tags: Blackwood’s, Burleigh’s, Caorunn, Crossbill, Darnley’s View, Gin, Gin and Tonic, Gin Club, Gin Mare, GinTime, Glasgow Gin Club, Heads and Tales, Hendrick’s, NB Gin, No. 3 London, Opihr, Pickering’s, ScottishJuniper Festival, Summerhall, The London No.1, Tonic Leave a comment

Saturday the 14th of June 2014, possibly the most prolific date in the Gin drinkers diary. Yup, you got it – World Gin Day! And what better way was there for Gin Club to celebrate this momentous occasion, than to attend Scottish Juniper Festival at Summerhall in Edinburgh.

Summerhall is the former Royal (Dick) Vet School and functions now as a venue and art space. Rather coincidently and somewhat luckily for us, it is also the home of Sumerhall Distillery – the birthplace of Pickering’s Gin. On Friday 13th and Saturday 14th of June, for 2 days only, this unique setting was converted into complete Gin paradise.

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t feeling my best towards the end of last week. One by one the Beatson drug discovery lab has been struck down by either a cold, flu or chest infection and in some cases all three. I knew it was only a matter of time before I was handed the baton. However, in the name of Gin I set the alarm for early Saturday morning and made my way towards Queen Street Station. There was only one thing on my mind, nope not the Gin venture that lay ahead, but rather getting my hands on that white coffee cup with the green face, and my name scribbled in marker pen on the side (needs must). And as I sat, waiting on cousin Stuart to arrive – I’m sorry to me Caldo refers to 5 family members – I gave myself a firm pep talk on the art of manning up.

Anyway, enough prattle….

What exactly is Scottish Juniper Festival? Simple, a celebration of all things Gin – think masterclasses, cocktails, talks and tastings. The festival itself was split into two sessions; afternoon (12-4pm) and evening (5-9pm). You must understand that for two VERY big gin fans this is an extremely limited amount of time, when you have a very long list of things to do.

Over the two floors and the courtyard of the main Summerhall building, 14 Gins were on show – where oh where to begin? In essence, it did not matter as either way we’d be making sure we visited each and every one. Between the two of us, we had probably at some point or another tasted most of the gins before, however, to be able to compare and contrast each Gin back to back is fantastic. It’s funny how easily your recollection of how something tastes changes, when you are comparing it to another Gin of even just slightly different botanical composition. Gin no longer just tastes like Gin. New notes, finishes, sweetness and spices all reveal themselves, both to great surprise and delight. In fact just being able to see so many artisan products all in one space at the same time was enough to leave me in awe (further ammunition for the boys at the next Gin Club Meeting)….

There are too many Gins to mention individually so I will put a list at the end. I did however, love the Opihr display (only mildly disappointed there was no Tuk Tuk – google it) and the Darnley’s Gin Cake! It was great to see a few of the Gins from our event the week before too and have a proper chat and say thanks.

Throughout the day various Gin led talks were also taking place, all within the “Spiritual Sessions Theatre” – accompanied of course, by various juniper based tipples. Picture the scene; curved rows of tiered wooden seats, a blackboard on the wall, a vaulted sky light, 3 antiquarian lady chairs on which the Gin experts sat and desks flanked by Gin, oh and there was a man with a dog. As I sat there 4 Gins in hand, I couldn’t help but think, that if only all my chemistry lectures could have been delivered in the same way (I’m sure I could have argued relevance in some way) then maybe I would have found studying the different lattice structure of metals more interesting….I did say maybe. Geraldine Coates, the prolific author of GinTime certainly blew any lecture I’ve ever sat through out of the water.

The central courtyard was a visual feast with the Pickering’s Snickering Pig Roast and Gin Cart, Hendrick’s Ma’am (Winnebago) and the Cocktail Bar all occupying separate corners.

Just a few small steps into Ma’am and you are instantly transported into the wondrous world of Hendrick’s; jars stuffed full of sensuous botanicals, etchings, maps of London Gin Dens, books in glass cases, a typewriter, a branded lamp, a cuddly toy (loved the generation game) and Hendrick’s, lots of Hendrick’s! Duncan McRae led visitors (or maybe more aptly passengers?) through the history of Gin; from Holland, through the scandalous Gin soaked streets of London to an English Rose Garden where one would enjoy tea from the finest china whilst nibbling on cucumber sandwiches. All to be rounded off with a mighty fine peach cocktail.

23 Gins in (a mere estimate I had lost count somewhere between 1.30 and 2pm) and there was still more to see…..but first food, I needed food. Pit stop at the Snickering Pig before onwards and upwards to Pickering’s. Pickering’s is a relatively new Edinburgh Gin and we were fortunate enough to have a chat with Marcus about his creation. This was followed by a good old look around the distillery – I was pretty much in the copper still with excitement, as Stuart measured up the size of the thing, realising that getting one in his flat was in fact achievable.

It was definitely after 4pm by the time we left the distillery and Summerhall was hotting up for the evening guests. I know we would have stayed for another 4 hours but there was another action on the To Do List that had to be seen too.

In fear of not yet being Gin’d oot we had spied the opening of Heads and Tales – a new bar at the home Edinburgh Gin in Rutland Place, it really would have been rude not to at least go and see the place wouldn’t it? One Gin cocktail (Stuart opted for an Irn-Bru Botanist – when in Rome), a G&T, and a Zizzi’s pizza later, I was definitely ready to get back home. We rolled back into Glasgow at the very respectable time of 11.30pm – definitely the earliest return after a night out I’ve ever had!

To top it all off, on Sunday my head was positively clear – the world was a great place, I’d had the best day learning and talking shop, caught up with all the family in Edinburgh and drank the best Gins…..

It wasn’t until Monday morning when I chirply got in my car to drive to work that I realised that my glasses (which I had to pitch to my Mum as an investment) were still on holiday in an unknown location Edinburgh…..cue a long day of phone calls describing comedy sized tortoiseshell spectacles.

It would be criminal to finish this post without acknowledging Martin Duffy of Solid Liquids for pulling the biggest and best Gin jamboree together. Gin Club are counting on the event being annual!

A list of the Gins we enjoyed and chatted to; Burleigh’s, Opihr, Caorunn, No.3 London, Darnley’s View, Crossbill, Gin Mare, NB Gin, The London No.1, Blackwood’s, Hendrick’s and Pickering’s.

Kate

The Glasgow Gin Club Premiere

June 11, 2014June 12, 2014kategill87 EVENTS, Uncategorized Tags: Bruichladdich, Caorunn, G&T, Gin and Tonic, Glasgow Gin Club, Heather Rose, Hidden Lane, No. 3 London, Strathearn, Tearoom, The Botanist, Tonic Leave a comment

As you may or may not know, Glasgow Gin Club had it’s very first Glasgow event on Friday (June 6th) at The Hidden Lane Tearoom. It certainly would have taken a great deal of skill to avoid this information if you are friends, work colleagues or mere Facebook acquaintances of any of the three of us.

Our aim for the night was always simple – bring really good Gin to the people, have a good old chat about the stuff and just have fun. There are SO many mind blowingly good Gins out there that people don’t know about, and it was almost criminal not to do something about it. I guess we knew (or should I say hoped) that no matter what happened along the way, as long as we had enough great Gin and really good tonic on the night, plus a half tonne of ice shards we could keep a tearoom full of Gin fans happy.

After 6 weeks of; planning event format, confirming Gin’s, designing membership cards, matching garnishes, securing a venue, changing original event format, roping in friends, calling in favours and sourcing 100 miniature spoons for Gin jelly with 24 hours to spare – Gin Club was almost ready to open it’s doors for the very first time.

The Gin gods were definitely on our side on Friday night – the sun continued to beat down as the evening drew in and although for once we were not celebrating Gin o’clock ourselves, it was the ultimate G&T weather. The Tearoom doors opened at 7.30pm with the event set to kick off just after 8pm and as membership card no. 4 was handed out at around 7.35pm (the founders being numbers 1,2 and 3 and Snoop Dogg 213 – see instagram) Glasgow Gin Club became official.

Tables were set with tasting cards alongside the corresponding bottles and in keeping with the vein of our amazingly unique venue, it seemed only fitting that we used some empty bottles from our personal collection to hold one or two flowers – let’s just say Stuart had a busy week to ensure we had enough Gin Club vases.

Ok, so details…..what Gin’s did we actually serve at Gin Club? The running order (all served with Fever-Tree Indian tonic water);

(i) London No.3 Dry Gin – a traditional London Dry Gin created with 6 botanicals in copper pot stills – garnished with a slice of lime.

(ii) The Botanist – hails from Islay and contains 31 botanicals in total – 22 are foraged on the island – served with a slice of lemon and sprig of thyme.

Interlude – Gin and Elderflower Jelly

(iii) Strathearn Heather Rose – the combination of Rose and Heather produce this uniquely delicate, floral Gin – no garnish just tonic.

(iv) Caorunn – 6 traditional and 5 celtic make up the 11 botanicals in Caorunn, one of which – the Rowan Berry gives the Gin it’s name – delivered with a slice of red apple in the glass.

To Finish – Gin and Tonic Sorbet courtesy of Mad Chef

The lovely Craig Johnston kindly agreed to come along and drop some serious tunes as the soundtrack to our evening (promised payment in Gin of course) and who didn’t enjoy a bit of The Temptations, Chrvches or the Jurassic Park theme tune while sipping on their Gin and Juice? Bridget from the Hidden Lane Tearoom was also on hand to serve some of their own delicious baked treats. Gin, Jelly, Cake, Sorbet and Sunshine – think we covered almost all bases.

Now, 5 days after Event No. 1, we can confirm that we served over 200 G&T’s to a little over 50 Gin Clubber’s – a number that we’re still overwhelmed by. As a result Gin fever has well and truly hit Gin Club HQ – Who are we kidding? We’ve always had it. But the ideas for what comes next are certainly mounting up.

Thanks again to absolutely everyone who came along (both under order and free will) and helped us through the Gin and 120 bottles of tonic. We hope that a few of you may be willing to do it again…?