'Gin' Ne Sais Quoi

If you follow me on Instagram (thank you) then you will have seen that I spent Saturday at The Ginstitute. It's located in one of my favourite areas in all of London, Notting Hill. Let me show you around.

The walk from Notting Hill Gate station to Portobello Road is lined with beautiful trees and the prettiest coloured houses...

The colours don't stop there either, once you get to the market you will see that the shops that line the streets are just as bright.

Beautiful, yes? They have their own way of clinging on to the better weather so that you wouldn't even know it was October.

Anyway, I digress. The Ginstitute  is, as you might have guessed, an alcohol based experience and so I would recommend eating something from the many street food stalls. I opted for this humongous spicy chicken burger. Bon Appetite.

Once you've lined your stomach you are looking for a pub called The Portobello Star, it's on the left hand side of Portobello Road and is only small so be careful not to blink and miss it.

If you identify yourself at the bar as someone awaiting The Ginstitute experience you will quickly be served a Gin & Tonic, using Portobello Road gin of course.

Cheers!

You will then be whisked upstairs to a small room with a bar in. The experience is run in small groups of about 12 people. The bar is designed to look like what a Gin Palace would have looked like back in the day, including being lit mainly by candle light.

After being greeted with a Gin cocktail (Tom Collins) you will are taken through a history of Gin. I won't say anymore so as not to spoil it. There are another few G&Ts before you are taken upstairs for the fun part...making your own Gin.

The main lesson of the day was that all Gins have the same four base botanicals: coriander seed, juniper, angelica root and orris root (with the exception of Tanqueray who have apparently swapped the orris root for liquorice root). The differentiation in the different Gins out there depends on what further botanicals are added.

Some of the options we experimented (read smelled and tasted) with were:

Cassia Bark

Pink pepper

Rosebud

There were a few already distilled.

 

We were told we could add anything from 3 to 6 of the flavours, here's what Mr B and I went with:

Yes, that is Yorkshire Gold (as in, the tea)

Once your Gin is all ready and bottled you head back to the bar for a farewell Martini.

Then it's time to make your way home. Even as the night draws in, theses buildings still look beautiful.

One more look at my favourite house before we head over to meet some friends for dinner at Covent Garden.

This experience is a must for every gin lover, and makes a perfect gift. It costs £110 per person but for that you get a bottle of your own gin, a bottle of the Portobello Road gin and at least 5 cocktails/G&T's throughout your time there.

The whole thing takes about 3 hours and you should prepare to leave a little tipsy. NB: remember to drink responsibly

It's so popular that they have actually bought a new building a few doors down so that they can expand their offering. The new place will have two bars, two restaurants (focussing on traditional British food (read pub grub)) and lots more space to carry out bigger/more Ginstitute's. There will also be a gift shop selling merchandise. This is expected to open next month (November 2016) so just in time for Christmas.

Are you a Gin lover? Then what are you waiting for? Don't forget to let me know what you think!

Je nais sais quoi: an indefinable, illusive quality, especially a pleasing one