December 2022's Craft Gin Club subscription box arrived last week to mark the start of the festive season. In this subscription box, members receive a full-sized bottle of gin along with mixers and snacks to pair with the gin. The monthly box also contained the "Ginned!" magazine to accompany the month's gin and pay tribute to the location and season with many gin cocktail and food recipes. This month, the full-sized bottle of gin is Graveney Festive Fayre Gin, and it is a special edition for Craft Gin Club members. The distillery is based in Tooting in London. The gin is described as having a festive flavour of cranberry, clementine, and Christmas spices. To see what else was in the box, keep reading.
To pair with the gin of the month, I received three bottles of the Artisan Drinks Co. mixer in the Winter Tonic flavour. It is a citrus tonic with a hint of winter spice. It pairs nicely with the gin of the month. There are additional cocktail recipes in the magazine to use the Winter Tonic, but I had the standard gin and tonic with the garnish of the month. The garnish this month is Orange and Star Anise, which is a Christmas combination.
Awfully Post Christmas Pudding Popcorn was a treat. It's a sweet popcorn flavour, and I was happy that it did not taste like Christmas pudding to me, because I am not a fan. It tasted sweet with caramel flavour.
I also received a Christmas card in the magazine. Whistlefish is based in Cornwall, and all of their cards and packaging is made from recycled materials. I love the design of the card and colours.
Merry Mimosa cocktail syrup (from Craft Gin Club) and Cawston Press Sparkling Orange were two of the additional mixers, which are used to create the gin cocktail this month. The result is a festive twist on the traditional mimosa cocktail. Cawston's fruit juices are all made naturally with no added sugar.
I received a couple more mixers. Tia Maria Matcha is another mixer in this month's box, and it's a cream liqueur with matcha flavour. As always, there's at least one cocktail in the magazine that uses it. A tiny bottle of Angostura Bitters is the second mixer received, and subscribers will get one of three flavours: cocoa, aromatic, or orange. A separate cocktail recipe accompanies each flavour.
In addition to the snacks previously mentioned, I received an additional three. (We really were spoiled this month.) I received a full-sized bag of Tyrrell's Lightly Sea-Salted hand-cooked crisps, which I've bought previously and do enjoy. Real Handful Brandy Cream Peanuts were the second snack, and they are suitable for vegans. Willie's Cacao was the third snack and is a chocolate orange with a mixture of milk and dark chocolate. The first two went down a treat, but I'm not a fan of chocolate orange as it makes me feel ill.
Another treat this month included a tea sampler of four different flavours of tea by Vahdam Indian Teas. The flavours include Mint Melody green tea, Cookies and Cream herbal tea, Earl Grey Citrus green tea, and Ginger Chocolate herbal tea. The teas can be used in cocktails. The brand is carbon neutral, and they donate 1% of profits to educate children of farmers.
Overall, I enjoyed the selection of products, and I enjoyed the gin of the month this month.
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