An evening full of experiments, but above all very VERY nice gins.
That could be the conclusion of our last gin tonic tasting of the year 2019.
If you’ve been to one of our tastings, you already know that we have a high standard and we like to challenge ourselves with choosing the gins we serve and the combinations we make. So please read on to know what we served last tasting!
If you’ve never been to one of our tastings and you would like to have an idea of how a typical gin tasting looks like, please read on!
We started the evening with a very straight forward GT. We served Old Raj Red from Cadenhead’s with normal Thomas Henry Tonic water. We added a slice of lemon and juniper berries to that. Very tasty, traditional GT but a gin at 46% always packs a punch! Next up was French gin Citadelle. This gin has a very citrussy, fresh flavor so we decided to add coriander and liquorice. Together with Fever Tree Elderflower tonic this formed a lovely combination of a herbal, sweet and citrusy GT that almost all participants of the tasting loved.
After those two we decided to do a nice experiment that started a few hours before. We took fresh, cloudy applejuice. Added cinnamon, cloves and aniseed and let that simmer for 1,5 hours. Then we poured this in the glasses and added Sipsmith V.J.O.P. to that. As it was pretty cold outside we thought it was a great idea to serve a warm gin drink (can’t call this a GT can we). A nice experiment and as we expected, not everyone’s favorite, but overall a great success!
Still two more to go!
GT #4 was a gin from Edinburgh, Cannonball Gin. At 57,2% (navy strength!) you can really call this a cannonball! We choose to serve this with a light tonic as we didn’t want to lose the power this gin brings to the table. Light tonic contains almost no sugar, so the flavor of the gin stays intact. A little Szechuan pepper to finish this off. Szechuan brings a little peppery, but also citrus and that really helps this GT.
We finished the evening in Italy. Well not really in Italy, but a gin from Rome. The Gin del Professore Monsieur with Fever Tree Lemon tonic. Garnished this with a big slice of orange so that people could add orange as much as they like to. Orange makes the somewhat sour tonic a bit sweeter, so it is slightly more likeable for some. We also served this GT completely separate so that you could taste the gin apart from the tonic. To many this was a nice surprise. Turns out that gin is also a lovely drink to have without the tonic.
So, another great evening in the books. Awesome atmosphere, great people and of course lovely drinks!
First tasting of 2020 will be on the 24th of January. Same place, same two guys serving you great GTs. You can sign up, just send us a message: info@whiskysocietyhaarlem.nl. See you there!
