SIPSMITH
BY THE CQ
SIPSMITH
If you cast your minds back to the January 2018 edition of Wirral
Life some of you may remember reading an article called ‘Gin
Time’. This not only highlighted the fact that there had been a
massive rise in the popularity of gin over the previous three or
four decades but that, in more recent years, there had actually
been something of a gin explosion in the UK.
Gin is now the most popular spirit in the UK. One of the driving
factors in the UK’s gin explosion in recent years has undoubtedly
been the emergence of a large number of craft distillers who have
made, and continue to make, a variety of wonderful hand crafted
gins.
The visit also included a visual, working, tour of the distillery from
close quarters. To visualise perhaps think of a modern day Willy
Wonka chocolate factory, but one that makes gin – smart, chic,
cosmopolitan, funky and fascinating.
Of course it wasn’t all about listening and looking. It was, as you
might have guessed, about tasting too. So what did we taste? Here
we go:
One of the gins I have been enjoying over the last couple of
years has been a classic London Dry Gin from one of the many
wonderful little distilleries that has appeared over the last 10 years
or so. So - welcome to Sipsmith! In fact, in the very same ‘Gin
Time’ article that I have just referred to, I reviewed their VJOP
classic gin earlier this year. Suffice it to say, I liked their London
Dry and VJOP classic gins so much - I decided to pay them a visit!
THE VISIT
The first thing I should point out is that the Sipsmith distillery is in
Chiswick, West London, tucked away in a leafy residential suburb
of our capital city. So not exactly local for most of us that will be
reading this months edition of Wirral Life!
Anyway the visit included a talk on both the history of gin and
on the Sipsmith story itself. All in all a history lesson really – but
nothing like the history lessons that I remember from school! The
talk was interesting, it was informative and it was enjoyable. The
talk on the history of gin was fascinating. As to Sipsmith, their
story started in 2009 when they became, amazingly, London’s first
copper distillery for nearly 200 years. Their gins are hand crafted
in small batches in three beautiful copper stills named Prudence,
Patience and Constance! Great names, great place and great gins.
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1.
First up was Sipsmith’s ‘London Cup’. This was described as a
‘punch’ and, effectively, is their answer to Pimm’s. It is made
from their classic London Dry Gin, but here infused with earl
grey tea, borage, lemon verbena and rose petals. We tasted
this with tonic, tonnes of ice and with a sizeable amount of
fruit thrown in to boot. Whilst we tasted it with tonic, this
would also work wonderfully well with lemonade, again
with plenty of ice and fruit. Perhaps try it with strawberries,
raspberries, grapes or any other red fruit. In fact it would
work wonderfully well with almost any fruit; just depends on
what takes your fancy really (no hard and fast rules here).
This was a fabulous little punch. Refreshing, tasty, quenching
and delicious in equal measure. Definitely one for drinking