It all started with a gentle Sunday morning coffee and stroll with my husband across Exeter Quay when we happened across the Quayside Distillery standing proudly on the water’s edge. The doors were open so being nosey in we went. Ooh nice! A really cool stylish venue for a few drinks. Just a bit early on a Sunday morning ….even for me! Then I spotted something unusual. Behind a huge glass window to the rear of the premises there appeared to be a laboratory. Founder and director George Nightingale appeared and explained that not only was this a venue for private events and special occasions but they made their own gin on the premises and suggested I came for one of their ‘gin experiences’. Well up until then the only gin experiences I have had have involved the usual. No, this ‘gin experience’ was where I would learn the fundamentals of building, and I quote ‘a well-balanced gin’, whilst creating my own recipe!!!  Having spent my life trying to find balance the chance to achieve it even through gin seemed too good to pass up. I didn’t need to ask twice, especially when he suggested I bring a friend and, the bonus ball, we would each be taking a bottle of our masterpieces home with us. I knew just the woman for the job.

Now I know there are plenty of other ‘local’ gins and ‘experiences’ around at the moment but what really appealed to me was that The Quayside Distillery are not just ‘local’ to Devon logistically but actually uses ingredients foraged by Tom Cook ‘Head Distiller’ and team from the Devon shores. Ingredients like rock samphire sea bluebells and lemon verbena.  Now you can’t get more local than that! So having just recovered from our Burlesque experience, my wing woman Glen and I rocked up on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon where we were introduced to Tom who proceeded to explain the history of gin explaining how it all began in the Netherlands in the 13^th Century with ‘genever’, a drink distilled from malt wine softened with herbs, spices and junipers berries and originally sold for medicinal purposes. It was while fighting in Antwerp, in the 80 Years War of the late 16th and early 17th Century that the English soldiers discovered it. They drank it before battle to calm their nerves ….hence ‘Dutch Courage.’ By the 18^th century due to lower import duties and deregulation, meaning anyone could distill it cheaply, the gin craze had taken hold in this country, particularly with the poor, giving it the nickname ‘mother’s ruin’! The Quayside has a new approach when making gin using low-temperature vacuum distillation, which allows it to distil almost anything without burning botanicals, which of course cuts down on cost and time. In fact, we had a blind tasting to see if we could identify some of the ‘flavours’ Tom had distilled which included coffee, doughnuts and Monster Munch!!!! You’ll be pleased to hear when we were let loose among the 25 botanicals on offer those were not chosen. I settled on a combination of ginger, pink peppercorns and limes to add to the distillery’s unique gin, whilst Glen included strawberry in hers. After much testing, measuring and a good deal of tasting under Tom’s expert guidance, and thankfully steady hand, we bottled, labelled and named our bespoke gins. I called mine ‘Gin Gineous’.

What had started out as a gentle Sunday morning stroll with my husband ended with a giggly Tuesday afternoon taxi ride home with a friend …cradling our very own bottles of bespoke gin which I will of course keep for ‘medicinal’ purposes. Yeh right!