2018 Great British Bake Off finalist Ruby Bhogal is working with The Old Curiosity Distillery in Edinburgh to bring back its popular Christmas gin.
The Old Curiosity Distillery’s Christmas gin is distilled with ginger, cinnamon and cardamom which gives the undeniably familiar smell of Christmas and provides a festive spicy flavour.
The ingredients used to create this gin are ‘nature distilled’, all natural and mostly sourced from the distillery’s Secret Herb Garden.
The drink is infused with mallow petals to provide a distinctive festive colour which transforms to a vibrant pink when mixed with tonic water. The flavoured gin gets its magical, colour-changing properties from a natural reaction which causes the PH levels of the gin to adjust when tonic is added.
The Old Curiosity Distillery’s Christmas gin is smooth and elegant with a light base and comes with a bespoke Gin Spiced Shortbread recipe developed by Ruby Bhogal. Garnished with a slice of dried orange peel, a cinnamon stick and a dash of tonic to activate its colour changing properties.
Hamish Martin, herbologist and founder of The Old Curiosity Distillery, said: ‘Following our initial success in 2018 where a small batch production of 50 cases sold out in a few days, we decided to make the Christmas gin a regular variant as part of our seasonal collection.
‘The backbone for this gin is juniper and coriander where the seeds and berries are lightly crushed. Angelica root and the subtler flavours of the angelica leaf are used in conjunction with winter savory. These four botanicals are macerated before distillation and offer a smooth, elegant and light base gin, to which we add freshly distilled cinnamon, ginger and cardamom.
‘All of our gins are made using natural herbs and botanicals which we grow on site in our Secret Gin Garden. At The Old Curiosity Distillery, we want to celebrate the natural environment through the unique and flavoursome gins we create.’
Bake Off 2018 finalist Ruby Bhogal
Christmas gin is 39% ABV and available from October in 50cl bottles. Purchase online at theoldcuriosity.co.uk, from department stores including Harvey Nichols, Fenwicks and Dobbies garden centre. RRP £35.
The Old Curiosity Distillery was founded in the Secret Herb Garden, a botanical nursery just outside Edinburgh. The herbs are grown, picked, dried and infused by hand, so they are guaranteed to be 100% natural.
The Secret Herb Garden opened in 2014 and is the brainchild of Hamish and Liberty Martin. Hamish was a wine merchant with a passion for herbs and a dream of a magical herb garden, while Liberty was a resource manager with a love of all things vintage. Hamish studied for a Diploma in Herbology at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh in 2013 and after securing a 7.5-acre plot of land at the foot of the Pentlands, the couple left their existing roles and set up the nursery, café and shop.
The Old Curiosity Distillery launched in October 2017; born of the couple’s love of fine herbs and botanicals; their characteristics, flavours and magical properties.
Author
TAGS
FOLLOW US
