Last month, I signed up for my first ever monthly membership to Craft Gin Club. The monthly box comes with a full-sized bottle of gin, a selection of tonics and other mixers (syrups, juices, sodas), a few snacks, and the monthly magazine named Ginned!. The Ginned! magazine contains information about the products, highlighting the gin and information about its location and founders, and includes several different gin cocktail recipes.
The box included a full-sized bottle of multi-award-winning Seppeltsfield Rd Distillers gin. This gin comes from the Barossa Valley in Australia and is an easy-going and light gin with an citrus and a sweet and fruity botanical fusion of juniper, cinnamon, peppercorn, chamomile, elderflower, orange, and grapefruit. Not too strong nor dry, this gin is easy to pair and mix, and it is a winner by my tastebuds.
The mixers contained in February's box were two bottles of Amalfi Lime Tonic from Artisan Drinks Co, a bottle of Martin Frobisher's Cranberry juice, Soda Folk grape soda, and Craft Gin Club's Cosmopoli-gin syrup. Additionally, the box comes with a selection of dried lime and cranberry slices to use as a garnish.
A selection of sweet and savoury snacks includes Nuts For... selection of nuts in Rocky Road Riot, Cheesies crunchy popped cheese in the cheddar flavour, and Willie's Cacao in Luscious Orange. The Nuts For... selection includes a mixture of nuts with miniature marshmallows and malted chocolate, and I found it tasty with a gin and tonic cocktail. The cheddar Cheesies were so delicious and paired so well with the "Gin of the Month" cocktail that I had to purchase some; they are a light popped cheese snack. The chocolate orange was my least favourite of the snacks; I dislike chocolate orange flavour as it's always made me ill in my stomach for some reason; some subscribers got the lime and ginger flavour, which I would have much preferred.
First up is the Gin Cocktail of the Month. The recipe for it is in the magazine, and it's esentially the Craft Gin Club's Cosmopoli-gin syrup, the Martin Frobisher's Cranberry juice, and Seppeltsfield Rd Distillers gin. This is the typical type of cocktail I normally mix myself (cranberry juice features a lot in my cocktail-making as I use it as a mixer with gin or vodka), so it was enjoyable. The cranberry juice is a flavourful variety; the cranberries are harvested in the autumn for maximum flavour.
The next cocktail is the simple classic gin and tonic with Amalfi Lime Tonic from Artisan Drinks Co and Seppeltsfield Rd Distillers gin. This was also a winner.
I made the two cocktails that required the Soda Folk grape soda mixer in the magazine. I had a taste of the soda first; unfortunately, it's not a sweet grape soda, and I absolutely love grape soda as a drink. Grape soda is not easily found in the UK, but it is popular in the USA, and it's one of the flavours I seek out. Soda Folk celebrate good deeds with their brand, so it's a charitable brand. Vanilla and caramel syrup, lime juice, the grape soda, and Seppeltsfield Rd Distillers gin were included in one cocktail. The other included Campari, grape soda, lime juice, and Seppeltsfield Rd Distillers gin. Both of these were strong cocktails, and the Campari is a very strong taste. I didn't care as much for these two cocktails.
The last gin cocktail that I made included Seppeltsfield Rd Distillers gin with Amalfi Lime Tonic and a mixture of lime juice, pineapple juice, and Angostura bitters (I used the orange flavour as I didn't have the standard flavour). Again, this is a very pleasing cocktail and went down easily.
There's still a few recipes in the book for additional cocktails that I have not tried, so I will keep the remaining gin to have an attempt to make those. I need some more of the ingredients and syrups for some of the other recipes. In addition to cocktails, there's also some food recipes in the magazine! I am tempted to try those as well.
Overall, I enjoyed my first ever Craft Gin Club box, and I've already purchased the March edition, which arrived yesterday. So, keep checking back for my reviews on it.
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