The Gin To My Tonic Club January (Ginuary) 2022
Meet-the-Makers Virtually on Saturday 29th January 6.00pm-8.30pm
Forget Dry January and embrace the month of Ginuary, as The Gin To My Tonic kick-start 2022 with a whole new line-up of distillers!
We are back and we are going into 2022 exactly the same way we left 2021…. surrounded by amazing gin and celebrating the hard work and talents of some of the UK’s most exciting craft distillers. This month’s line-up is particularly exciting if we do so say ourselves, including the newly launched to newly rebranded, with each distillery / maker at a completely different stage of their distilling / gin journey.
Let’s start the year as we mean to go on! We can’t wait to see you all once again and raise a gin from afar.
Love and Best Wishes,
The Gin To My Tonic Team
ON THE NIGHT - MIX WITH THE BEST
Faith & Sons Pineapple Gin – Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic & a garnish of Pineapple.
Orkney Kirkjuvagr Origin – Fever-Tree Indian Tonic & a garnish of Orange
Ruddy Fine Lockdown Gin – Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic and a garnish of Red Apple
Shetland Reel Ocean Sent – Fever-Tree Indian Tonic & a garnish of Pink Grapefruit or Samphire
The Only Way Is Gin – Fever-Tree Naturally Light Tonic & a garnish of Pink Grapefruit.
These are recommendations of The Gin To My Tonic and Fever-Tree.
Fine Modern Spirits Driven By Exploration with Faith & Sons
Former Manchester bartender and Portugal native, Filipe Sousa, founded Faith & Sons in 2015. Not only was it a natural progression from his bartending career, but it gave him the opportunity to continue working on the skills he first began honing in Germany under legendary distiller, Klaus Hagmann. Apt in its name, Faith & Sons required faith and belief as he and his family undertook a huge life-changing decision to chase a worthy dream.
Fuelled by passion and encouraged by faith, Faith & Sons’ portfolio has grown immensely since its initial flagship gin – a nostalgia evoking gin made with ingredients prominent in Filipe’s upbringing – with flavoured gins, liqueurs and rums now calling the Manchester micro-distillery home.
Their philosophy is reflected in the heart of their distillery and in the way they make spirits. Passion is the fuel and faith is the key.
What inspired you to begin making gin and what do you love about the distillation process?
Gin is an easy way to start in the distillation path.. What I love about the process, is the flexibility within recipes and product creation through distillation.
Our distillation process involves no ninja tricks, instead, only serious and heavy rock and roll.
This involves tons of fruit, long maceration periods and distillation methods that push boundaries.
What did Faith & Sons look like in the early days?
After working as a bartender for 14 years, it was a natural progression to producing my own spirits. My distillation journey began in 2015 in our new Manchester home. My wife, Maria (the real boss), allowed the removal of the dining table from the kitchen and I installed a small flame-fired copper still.
Once I had been running my home distillery for two years, and after millions of prayers from Maria to the distillation gods, it was decided that the time was right to find larger premises to allow expansion.
What is your perfect serve?
For a perfect G&T, take 50ml of our Original Gin, add 50ml of premium Tonic Water, and garnish with Pink Grapefruit Zest.
If you’re hosting a dinner party, the perfect after dinner treat is our Chocolate & Orange Gin Liqueur This is a fine blend of our classic gin, delicately infused with smooth, pure cacao and the sweet fragrance of orange peel. Simply serve chilled in a shot glass. To really ‘wow’ your guest, simply rim the glasses with melted chocolate, leave in the fridge to cool and add shavings of chocolate on top.
Unmistakably Orcadian – Orkney Distillery
Reflecting the boldness of their Norse ancestors, the clarity of their seas, and the purity of their air, Kirkjuvagr pronounced ‘kirk-u-vaar’ is proudly hand-crafted on the Orkney Islands by Orkney Gin Distilling.
The Orkney Distillery is situated in the heart of Kirkwall. Their flagship gin – Kirkjuvagr Origin– which is the Old Norse pronunciation for Kirkwall – was released in 2016. In 2017, their Navy-Strength, Arkh-Angell followed. In 2018 they released both Harpa, a sweeter juniper led gin, and Aurora, a warming spiced gin, with their Honey and Raspberry Old Tom expression, Beyla following in 2019. Their gins are traditionally distilled in their two copper pot stills, using a range of unique Orkney botanicals inspired by Orkney’s Norse heritage.
This London Dry Gin is made with hand-harvested Orcadian botanicals, including Ramanas rose, Burnet rose, borage, angelica and traditional Orkney bere barley.
What do you love about gin / distilling?
I love how diverse gin is. The Scottish market has well over 50 different producers all doing various ranges. There is so much to choose from and I find that exciting, the challenge is to get through them all. It is an ever changing top 5!
What was your favourite moment from 2021?
Being able to also launch our new, bespoke bottle design in November last year was definitely a highlight. Another project which we had been working on for a long time and one that we wanted to make sure we got right! Not without its struggles – we had a fair amount of delays and setbacks during they’re production due to COVID etc but we are so pleased with the outcome of the time and hard work that’s gone in to the new design – we hope you guys are too!
Can you tell us more about your visitor centre and distillery?
Our visitor centre and distillery itself was then opened in Kirkwall in the July of 2018 and little over a year later, we were awarded a 5 star accreditation from Visit Scotland and Gin Destination Of The Year at the 2019 Scottish Gin Awards! We have also been awarded Trip Advisor’s ‘Traveller’s Choice for 2021’ putting us in the top 10% of attractions worldwide!
Ruddy Fine
When Cheryl and Rory were chatting over gin cocktails on their first date, they could never have envisaged where that mutual appreciation of this iconic spirit would take them just a few short years later… Ruddy Fine Gin came from a fascination in the flavours and methods involved in creating gin, and a desire to make something truly amazing!
Tinkering with steeping a few locally sourced botanicals soon progressed through to a little 5 litre copper still in their kitchen, and now we proudly develop our range of gins close to home with the help of our beautiful still, ‘Marion’.
Based in the little village of Ruddington in the heart of the Nottinghamshire countryside, the Ruddy Fine Distillery is the very essence of a small artisan producer.
All their gin flavours are still meticulously developed in our kitchen at home, before being taken down the road to their Distillery to be cooked up in batches of just 350 bottles at a time. As you can imagine, this involves a great deal of sampling, so being at home really saves on taxi fares!
What has been your biggest challenge so far?
Our biggest challenge to date was shortly before we launched our Navy Strength Gin. Time was tight anyway and sadly, we had not realised quite how dense the Cassia was when using our development still and when it came to make the first batch it sank like a stone, wrapped itself round the element and burnt the whole batch.
The entire batch was ruined, not only costing us a fortune but also destroying the element in the still. There was no choice but to go ‘old school’ at 1am with the still on the hob in our kitchen and a make shift cooling system. The kitchen was a wreck but we got it done and managed to produce 40 bottles for launch day!
What was your favourite moment/ biggest achievement from 2021?
When our Lockdown Gin got shortlisted by the grocer Magazine for the Best New Alcohol product of 2021. Sadly we didn’t win but just to have got to the final 6 in such a prestigious competition and the first one we have every entered was fantastic
Do you have any exciting plans for 2022? What can we expect to see from you in 2022?
We are opening our very own tasting bar/room at our distillery. It will be Art Deco themed to enhance our brand and available for small intimate tasting/ meet the makers events for up to 8 people. We cant wait until its finished!
2022 will also see the launch of more exciting Limited Edition Gin’s including a collaboration with a Brewery in the village and a Honey Gin made with honey from the bees in our garden!
What inspired you to begin making gin / what inspired your range?
Gin for me was the drink I had got horribly drunk on in my younger days and couldn’t even stomach the smell of. It wasn’t until I met Cheryl and she persuaded me to power through, that I really saw what an amazing spirit Gin is. What became a mutual love then turned into a hobby and the rest is history. Our current range reflects our own personal favourite Gins and we like to think supplies a ‘gin for all seasons’.
The adventure beGINs here with Shetland Reel
The Shetland Distillery Company is owned by two married couples sharing a passion for producing top quality products in local communities.
Over the past 12 years, Frank and Debbie Strang have regenerated the former RAF site at Saxa Vord, Unst into an award-winning tourist resort with year-round self-catering accommodation, seasonal hostel and bar/restaurant. The Supplies Depot on site looked like the ideal building for a distillery, and with the unique selling point of ‘the most northerly’, experience of doing business in and from Shetland, and the building, Debbie and Frank set about finding partners who would share their vision of creating top quality products from the edge of the UK.
They were fortunate to find Stuart Nickerson, who has a pedigree in the drinks industry that is second to none, and his wife Wilma who is also skilled at distilling and creating fabulous gins. The rest is history!
What inspired you to begin making gin / what inspired your range?
Like many distilleries the long-term is to create Shetland’s first single malt whisky, we are the first and only distillery in Shetland! But the success of the gin means we haven’t quite got round to the whisky….. We decided to create gin first, 7 years ago to develop the brand and to prove you could develop a sustainable business in one of the most remote parts of the UK, and we haven’t looked back.
What was your favourite moment from 2021?
Selling out of our first gin launch in 2021 in 4 hours. We launched a very limited edition gin (121 bottles only) to celebrate the winter fire festival Up Helly Aa. We do this every year to coincide with the parade of the Vikings on the streets of Lerwick (the capital of Shetland) on the last Tuesday of January. We actually called it ‘Not Up Helly Aa 2021’ because the festival didn’t go ahead, but it still sold. Up Helly Aa 22 was/will be launched on 25th January, and is a very special cask-aged gin.
What is your perfect serve?
Quite often we suggest a slice of pink grapefruit and mint leaves – our Original Gin has locally harvested apple mint so it compliments it really well. But this serve also works with our Ocean Sent Gin which includes bladderwrack seaweed!
The Only Way Is Gin
As the name might suggest, The Only Way Is Gin Hails from Essex! Created by Nikki Mendes, she set out to create a gin that shouts out proudly. The name is always greeted with a smile and its hugely memorable. It’s not about stereotypes though, it’s about being recognised as coming from Essex and being exceptionally proud of it.
So what is it like? Eight carefully selected botanicals come together. There’s a vibrant burst of orange blossom inspired by Nikki’s many years of living around Valencia in Spain. Bright floral citrus notes continue on the palate with a soft creamy mouthfeel as the iconic country flower of Essex “Poppy Seeds” deliver their charm.
As for the design it’s modern, colourful and slightly flamboyant. Would you expect anything less?
What is your perfect serve?
It’s got to be a Gin Fizz!
Ingredients: 50ml The Only Way Is Gin, 6 blackberries, 25ml lemon juice, 15ml sugar syrup, 1 egg white, Soda water
Mash the blackberries with our gin in a cocktail shaker, add the rest of the ingredients, add ice and shake for 30 secs. Strain into a coupe or champagne glass (fill two thirds full). Top up with soda and enjoy!
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FEVER TREE
Fever-Tree began in 2003 with a meeting of minds and one simple premise: if three quarters of your G&T is the tonic, wouldn’t you want it to be the best?
It became apparent that Charles and Tim had both come to the same conclusion – namely that the growing prevalence and popularity of premium spirits had not been matched by what was on offer in the tonic category. From the very beginning, Charles and Tim approached their business in a different way – there would be no compromise at Fever-Tree. Flavour and quality were of the utmost importance. This mindset led them on an 18-month adventure from the archives of the British Library to facing the wrong end of a Kalashnikov in the Democratic Republic of Congo and concluded with the launch of our Premium Indian Tonic Water in 2005, with the belief we still operate by today.. If 3/4 of your drink is a mixer, mix with the best. As well as quality, Charles and Tim wanted to put the choice back into the category. The whole company has been built on innovation. Constantly developing new mixers, new flavours, new ideas, thus creating, an array of flavours to pair with the myriad of premium Gins, Vodkas, Whisky’s and Vermouths.
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