Under the Ginfluence

There has been something resembling a three week delay on this post due to rather a run of bad luck for the ladies. Doctor's prescription for the gloom: Gin by mouth.

That is our half hearted attempt at saying better late than never as we proceed to tell you about the gin ladies' "missing week".

Under the good ginfluence of Craig Harper and his friend Emma (rum and gin expert) we went on a bar hop round town; quick cocktails at Just St. James, then on to the infinitely better Dukes. An institution. A warm welcome from Alessandro, what followed can only be described as effortless magician style mixing and the consumption of delicious, giant martinis on empty stomachs. Ian Fleming discovered the martini here apparently. We discovered a cashew shaped like a penis. Ladies and gentlemen we can only apologise. These things find us. However, if you enjoy that type of smut we can highly recommend the Knoblog. Less said about that the better, back to gin.

Next stop was a party for gin doyenne Geraldine Coates. She launched her new book The Mixellany Guide to Gin which proves to be a great little gincylopedia of brands, history, botanicals and recipes. The great and good of the gin world were out in force, the location was the beautiful Georgian cellars of Berry Bros & Rudd and most importantly we drank the soon to be launched No 3 St James London Dry Gin a Berry Bros own brand. When Geraldine says this is a classic, we think she's right. 46% ABV ourselves by this point, we stumbled, signed books in hand, to an unnamed pub. Unnamed only because things were a little hazy at this point.

We scooped up the dapper cocktail expert Jay Hepburn and headed for more cocktails at Quo Vadis alongside a spot of light pool playing. As we're ladies we won't say who won, but in a private joke sort of a way - Craig and Jay there is a promise never to mention the f-word in your most excellent company and promise to selves to eat something before drinking 8 gins next time round...