When it comes to alcohol, the only thing I drink is gin. Since I came across it at a London bar in 2010, it has become my drink of choice, which I generally drink with apple juice (yes, it sounds weird but give it a go and let me know what you think). Such is my love for gin that I currently have over three litres of it in my house just waiting to be consumed.
So when I came across The Humble Tumbler (Clare Burder) and the The Gin Queen's (Caroline Childerley) gin masterclass, I knew it was something I had to partake in. Throughout the course of the evening, Childerley and Burder take us on a journey through the early beginnings of gin and provide tastings of nine gins from across Australia and around the world, each with its unique distillation, botanicals and taste.
It is an intimate dinner party style setting for 14 people, all strangers except the two people I attended with. The table is adorned with the varieties of gins we will be drinking along with some mouth-watering olives and cheeses. I'm not a big cheese fiend but I immediately fell in love with the Meredith Feta and the L'Artisan Le Fermier.
There are only three beverages
that I drink; water, fruit juice (except orange) and gin. That's it. I don't
like the taste of wine, coffee, tea and the rest of them. Weird I know.
So when my friend advised me that a Bombay Sapphire inspired gin pop-up bar
was opening in Melbourne for a limited time, I got more than a little excited!
Called Project Botanicals,
Bombay Sapphire created a unique bar with ten brilliantly designed gin
cocktails, each one specific to one of the botanicals found in Bombay,
including juniper berries, coriander seeds and bitter almonds. Paired with
these cocktails were some mouth-watering tapas style dish created by chef Gary
Mehigan.
For a $38 entry fee, you received two cocktails and accompanying dishes, which is more than reasonable but I was a little disappointed by the lack of vegetarian options. There were two desserts that were meat-free but of the 8 'tapas' dishes, only two had a vegetarian alternative. Fortunately, you could mix and match your dishes, and so I ended up with:
Cubeb Berry Fizz and Tartine of Field Mushrooms and
Orris Root Aviation and Strawberries and Cream.
