On Wednesday, we went to Plymouth.
I know Plymouth isn't in Cornwall, but I was very interested in seeing the Plymouth Gin distillery. And the Beryl Cook gallery. And a few other things, but we ran out of time as we had to be back in Cornwall for a wine tour.
Anyway, Plymouth.
I hate gin. It has a very....oily... texture, smells vile, and tastes worse. DH hates it, along with Creme de Menthe, having got very badly drunk and subsequently very ill on a concoction of the two when he was a younger chap. So why would I want to go and taste Plymouth Gin?
Sad to say, it's because I saw Oz and James' programme about it. I was intrigued to discover that Plymouth Gin is different to London Gin, the latter is very heavily dependant on Juniper and the former on botanicals. Maybe I'd only ever tried London Gin? (Gordon's and Bombay Sapphire, to be precise).
The tour started with a potted history (very interesting), and then a tasting before we went to see the process. Plymouth Gin uses seven botanicals: Juniper, lemon peel, orange peel, cardammom, coriander, Anjelica and Orris root. Each one adds to the characteristic of the Gin, and you drink the Gin you can identify each element.
It was....okay. Actually, quite drinkable, especially with a high quality tonic water such as Fever Tree. And then we tried their Sloe Gin.
Now, I make my own fruit vodkas, and I've been very successful (and not very successful, if I'm honest). And this Sloe gin was out of this world.
I was interested to hear how they add their fruit, so I'll be trying that when I next make some tayberry or blackcurrant vodka. I might even try some Gin, using plain Plymouth as a base.
The tour was great, and included a free G&T in the cocktail bar as well. The restaurant looked good too, shame couldn't stay.
Wine tour that evening was also good fun, despite the pouring rain.
I know Plymouth isn't in Cornwall, but I was very interested in seeing the Plymouth Gin distillery. And the Beryl Cook gallery. And a few other things, but we ran out of time as we had to be back in Cornwall for a wine tour.
Anyway, Plymouth.
I hate gin. It has a very....oily... texture, smells vile, and tastes worse. DH hates it, along with Creme de Menthe, having got very badly drunk and subsequently very ill on a concoction of the two when he was a younger chap. So why would I want to go and taste Plymouth Gin?
Sad to say, it's because I saw Oz and James' programme about it. I was intrigued to discover that Plymouth Gin is different to London Gin, the latter is very heavily dependant on Juniper and the former on botanicals. Maybe I'd only ever tried London Gin? (Gordon's and Bombay Sapphire, to be precise).
The tour started with a potted history (very interesting), and then a tasting before we went to see the process. Plymouth Gin uses seven botanicals: Juniper, lemon peel, orange peel, cardammom, coriander, Anjelica and Orris root. Each one adds to the characteristic of the Gin, and you drink the Gin you can identify each element.
It was....okay. Actually, quite drinkable, especially with a high quality tonic water such as Fever Tree. And then we tried their Sloe Gin.
Now, I make my own fruit vodkas, and I've been very successful (and not very successful, if I'm honest). And this Sloe gin was out of this world.
I was interested to hear how they add their fruit, so I'll be trying that when I next make some tayberry or blackcurrant vodka. I might even try some Gin, using plain Plymouth as a base.
The tour was great, and included a free G&T in the cocktail bar as well. The restaurant looked good too, shame couldn't stay.
Wine tour that evening was also good fun, despite the pouring rain.
