Plymouth Gin Festival

If you know me, you'll know I love gin. When I saw that a gin festival had scouted out the Plymouth Guildhall for the next location I texted my friend Sian (fellow gin lover) and we bought our tickets instantly! It cost us £12 for the ticket which included free entry to the festival, as many samples as we could manage, a gin bible (best thing ever) and a gin festival glass (they were selling for £3.50). I have to admit I was expecting at least one full G&T on entry for the price but it was good fun!

The event started at 2pm and went onto 11.45pm. We arrived at 3.30pm, we didn't want to get there at the start as we were going on a night out afterwards with work so wanted to pace ourselves... As you entered you got given a wristband to allow entry in and out of the festival as you wished. We also got the goody bag and then were let loose!

Now, this was the first time I'd been to this sort of event before so I had NO IDEA what you were meant to do... We soon found out that there were stalls around the left of the hall where you could go and chat to them about their gins (and buy some if you wanted) then have a taste. After you'd gone around around 10 (?!) stands tasting at least two gins you definitely feel a bit fuzzy headed! Then you'd consult your gin bible and go to choose a gin from the bar, there was hundreds. I was in heaven. My favourite gin of the day was a Warner Edwards rhubarb gin with a ginger ale tonic (Franklins & Sons tonic). The guys on the tonic stall were great at advising you on what tonic to have with your gin.

I was very excited when I saw Sipsmith as I'd wanted to try their sloe gin for agessss and debated for a very long time buying some a while back, but more on that later. Other brands that were there included Curio, Plymouth Gin (obviously), Tarquins, Copperhead and a few more that slip my mind...! Now gin interests me more than just the taste... (what, you don't believe me?!...) I love finding out what distillers put in to make them different from everyone else. Most of the stands had pots of what they put in the gin other than the normal ingredients. You were able to smell and taste the individual ingredients which meant you were able to pick out the tastes when you drunk the neat (!!) gin they gave you.

I'm a little biased, Plymouth Gin has always been a favourite of mine and their sloe gin is the best I've ever tasted. The guy on the stall has convinced me to come for a tour around the distillery, not that it took much convincing, I'll be honest, I've always bought their gin but Sipsmith is battling out with them for a top spot now! We waited for a long time to try their sloe gin as I've mentioned I've wanted to try it but £30 is a lot of money if you aren't a biggest fan of something! Unfortunately he only had one bottle of taster left and needed that for the masterclass later in the day. So we made a note to attend. 

8pm comes around and two fuzzy headed twenty somethings turn up to hear about about Sipsmith and damnn it didn't disappoint! The lovely rep Rich proceeded to talk through the history of the company and how it was formed. Two old friends reuniting and finding their drinks historian Jared who helped them brew their first bottles in a tiny garage in London. Years passed and they now make the most beautiful gin. And as I said, it is now a very close call between their sloe gin and Plymouth Gin's, I FEEL SO CONFLICTED.

I had a great day at the festival and enjoyed learning all about the gins (as well as drinking ALOT of gin)... You can't really go wrong with a good day of drinking with fellow gin lovers.