On Sunday we visited the Tobacco Dock in East London for this year’s Junipalooza event. Unfortunately we missed celebrating World Gin Day itself there on the Saturday but we were able to benefit from the Sunday’s slightly longer session which meant we could fit more gin in! Every cloud.
The annual event played host to more than 50 gin distilleries, as well as tonic producers too. Between them there were over 100 gins available to try ranging from smooth and sweet through to punchy navy strength ones that knock you for six.
Having got our bearings we dived headfirst into the incredible smorgasboard available. Gins from all over the world with completely different tastes all in one place. Not that it’s a competition and I don’t encourage this sort of behaviour, but we were able to try 28 different gins – finding some incredible new favourites along the way!
Highlights included Esker from Aberdeenshire, Tarquin’s summery Elderflower and grapefruit gin from Cornwall, Curio also from Cornwall with its salty samphire notes, Persie’s nutty Old Tom (with ginger beer), inventive Four Pillars gins from Australia, and our local Graveney Gin from Tooting. What was a particularly lovely touch was that many of these stands were run by the makers themselves. They could give you really personal stories about how, when and why they decided to make their own gins and what gave each its own personality.
All this focus on amazing gin did mean the food offering left a little to be desired, restricted to 3 dishes from 3 street food-style vendors. When you’re spending the day drinking high quality spirits it’d be good to have food that matched, especially given that in London’s incredible Street food scene there isn’t exactly a shortage of amazing traders.
We walked away with a few lovely additions to our gin cabinet, including a bottle of Esker, Tarquin’s, Franklin & Sons Sicilian Lemon tonic and some alcohol-free pre-mixed G&Ts (shock horror) from South African brand Duchess which were so refreshing we couldn’t resist!