Blend Your Own London Gin
We get our kicks from bars as much as the next cocktail lovers but sometimes it’s nice to mix things up at home. Not just your average drink mind but proper boffin-style, chemistry set stuff like blending our own gin.
Oh yes, it’s true, as born and bred Londoners we have an affinity with the juniper spirit and being able to play around with various distillates is like giving children the keys to the sweetshop.
Thanks to Ian Hart and Hilary Whitney at Sacred everyone can have a go creating their own gin. From his kitchen table in Highgate, Ian creates all manner of wondrous distillates and has cleverly packaged them up in dinky 20cl bottles so you can play mixologist at home.
Start with your juniper base, next add some citrus (take your pick from a range of exciting flavours including pink grapefruit, mandarin, Sicilian orange and Persian lime). Then take your tastebuds on a voyage of discovery by blending a little bit of this (nutmeg, aniseed, fennel stems, black peppercorns, perhaps) and a little bit of that (plumstone, allspice, greenhouse tomato stems and liquorice), until you’re ready to puff your chest out with pride.
You can either blend in a single cocktail, really have fun making a bottle or simply crack one open and sample the distillates on their own. Whatever you decide, you’ll certainly get a better understanding of the complexity of gin by sipping and savouring the unique botanicals that go into it.
There are around 50 flavours in total but you can start with the Traditional Collection or Contemporary Collection gin blending kits, both containing six 20cl distillates, or mix and match your own by ordering from the www.sacredspiritcompany.com. Who knows, you might just find your true vocation…
Prices from £12.50 each; Gin Blending Kits £87.50
