The Gin Journey – Chester #Blog

Briony Wilson
4th November 2019

For a Gin lover like me, nothing sounds better than a Gin tour, so this was an invite I wasn’t going to miss. The Gin journey run fabulous tours all over the UK including; London, Manchester, Liverpool, Brighton and now… Chester as well! They even have a few tours overseas in Singapore and Prague – you can guess where is next on my hit list!

The tour is described as 5 Gin cocktails, and 5 Gin samples selected by the gin experts, in 5 different bars. What a great opportunity to try something new in somewhere new. The day is lead by your gin guardian and we were lucky enough to spend the day with Jono, who certainly knows his gin.

Whether you class yourself as a gin expert or just want to try something new; I can highly recommend the tour. Your guide has plenty of information to share with you about the drinks, from the best way to sample them,  to some amazing gin facts. If you are a gin expert, it comes in handy, as this fun tour has lots of games and the opportunity to show off your knowledge and  win some great prizes.

One of our favourite elements about the tour is the element of surprise and upon booking, you don’t know which bars you will be visiting, in fact you don’t even find your starting point until 7 days before. The bars will differ from tour to tour as will the drinks but here’s what we got to enjoy.

We started in Lono Cove, with a Sipsmith London Dry and Sloe Gin samples ( winner winner – 2 samples to start) our first cocktail was a  Gin sling; made from Sipsmith London Dry, Sipsmith Sloe, Apricot liqueur, ginger and soda. This drink was presented beautifully and a favourite around our table.

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Gin sling

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G’Vine Floraison: Hibiscus Collins

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G’Vine June liqueur: June Spritz

On to bar two – Bar Lounge, this was our opportunity to enjoy some nibbles and me and the team basically ordered one of everything on the small plates menu- I can strongly recommend. Gin traditionally is not your typical spirit to enjoy with food but both cocktails went really well with everything. The bars are asked to create a drink that represents their place and menu, and they certainly did this. First, we had the G’Vine Floraison: Hibiscus Collins; made from G’Vine Floraison, hibiscus syrup, lemon, raspberry and soda. On to the bonus cocktail;  G’Vine June liqueur: June Spritz: a mixture of June Gin Liqueur and Fever tree Mediterranean  – personally this was my favourite drink of the night, something so different to what I would normally pick off a menu.

Next stop – Craft& Co, where we enjoyed a traditional Manchester Gin and Fever tree Indian Tonic. This was garnished with Pink grapefruit and Rosemary a lovely flavour and looked amazing.

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Manchester Gin and Fever tree Indian Tonic

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Garden Thyme

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Bramble

I mentioned earlier the element of surprise and if you haven’t been to Cabinet Club yet I won’t ruin it for you, but it will definitely put a smile on your face. Here we enjoyed a wonderful local gin – Forest Gin. The cocktail was a Garden Thyme – a regular tipple of mine I must admit, made from Forest Gin, St Germaine Elderflower, cucumber, thyme syrup, lemon juice and apple juice; topped off by a big square ice cube – that’s makes all the difference to the style and taste.

Sadly on to our final bar – Kuckoo, our last sample Haymans London Dry Gin and a Bramble. The Bramble was made from Haymans, creme de mure and lemon – again a beautiful cocktail

You may notice my accompanying images are a little more captioned than normal and that is because of one of the many competitions from the tour. When we heard there were additional prizes for the best shot, but it had to include certain tags, we got a little over excited.

The gin journeys are becoming a regular fixture on the Chester calendar and will take place on the last Saturday of each month starting on November 30^th. Tickets are just £50 per person plus booking fee and with Christmas coming up don’t forget that a golden ticket a 365 day gift voucher, which could be the ideal gift for the tricky family and friends.

*The kind team at The Gin Journey gifted this experience but we stand by allour comments, if you don’t believe us, or even if you do, we encourage you to check it out for yourself. Take a look at there website here.