Author Archives : Tom

Distillery 209,San Francisco


When we decided to visit San Francisco we knew a visit to the only distillery in We were lucky enough to be taken around the distillery by head distiller Arne who gave us an excellent tour of the distillery, talked us through all the botanicals he uses & treated us to a tasting of the whole range of gins that…

Old Harbor Gin


Situated in a nondescript warehouse in East Village San Diego, Old Harbor Distillery is breaking the mould. In a city where craft beer is king, they decided to make spirits. They make three delicious spirits in total – gin, navy strength rum and a cold press coffee liquor. The guys behind old Habor, Michael Skubic and Ricky Warner, where kind enough to…

The hunt for tonic…


What do Americans put with their gin…? Sounds like the start to a bad joke! We’ve been in the US for almost 4 weeks now and still struggling to find any decent tonic! At the bars it mostly comes out of soda guns and it doesn’t taste good! Very bitter…. After talking with head distiller Arne at Distillery209 he suggested…

Do you nose your gin?


Do you nose your gin….? Well, the guys at Persie gin think its a must! Persie gin is the brainchild of Simon Fairclough, who back in 2014 started running gin tasting groups. He toured through Scotland, and other parts of the UK, teaming up with distillers, pubs, hotels and restaurants. His mission? To help thousands of gin-lovers in their quest…

Atelier Vie – New Orleans Spirit


What can you do on a rainy day in NOLA? Visit Atelier Vie distillery that’s what! Atelier Vie Today saw us visit our first distillery on our world trip – Atelier Vie in New Orleans. Situated in Art Egg studios in the MidCity district of New Orleans, Jedd Haas has been distilling spirits for the last 7 years creating two…

Gin spotting in the US


We always like a bit of gin spotting and so it was high on our list of priorities while visiting US supermarkets! While gin isn’t massive in the US, it’s still considered niche, there are some interesting ones on sale in the supermarkets. Big Gin This gin is from Washington and is barrel aged in bourbon barrels. Tasting notes from…

What we learnt in NOLA…


So while in New Orleans as well as visiting Atilier Vie (more of that later) we did a lot of looking around and learning about NOLA customs and history. On one of the days we went on a tour around the French Quarter that focused on the VooDoo religion and it’s links to NOLA, and guess what? Juniper is quite…

Nordés Atlantic Galician Gin


I first came across Nordés gin while on a weekend in Cardiff. I surveyed the back bar and saw the usual candidates… Hendricks, Beefeater, Tanqueray…but then I saw a beautiful white bottle with a black image of the world and a nautical compass a the bottom. I was taken by it! I had to try it… Served with premium tonic,…

Edinburgh Seaside gin


Looking for a gin with a hint of the seaside? Then Edinburgh Seaside gin is probably the one for you! Inspired by the East Coast shoreline near Edinburgh, Edinburgh Seaside Gin is the product of a collaboration between the Edinburgh Distillery and Heriot-Watt University’s Brewing & Distilling MSC. It uses foraged shoreline botanicals including ground ivy, bladderwrack and scurvygrass, along…

Sharish Gin… A little bit of Blue Magic


If you like a little magic with your gin and tonic then you can’t go wrong with Sharish Blue Magic. This stunningly bright blue gin from Portugal gets its colour from extracts of a flower known as the blue pea. When mixed with tonic this gin turns from stunning blue to a lovely shade of pink! Produced in the quaint medieval…