The Craft Gin Club
The Craft Gin Club provides members with a monthly box of goodies, not only a full bottle of unusual gin but mixers, snacks, cocktail recipes and a magazine.
When my first box of goodies arrived from the Craft Gin Club it was like Christmas had come early. I hadn’t known quite what to expect, apart from a bottle of gin and a few other treats, but it was amazing.
Craft Gin Club Goodies
The August box I received was an enterprising collaboration with the Singapore Tourism Board to commemorate Singapore National Day on 9th August. This celebrates Singapore’s independence from Malaysia in 1965. The Craft Gin Club pulled out all the Singapore stops.
Exotic Gin and Tonic
First off there was a bottle of Brass Lion, a Singapore gin. Then there were two bottles of Thai Lime and Lemongrass Premium Tonic Water from Twisted. We tried a sip of the tonic and it was absolutely delicious on its own. Then on a rare warm summer evening we mixed the tonic with the Brass Lion Singapore Dry Gin and sat in the garden to enjoy this new twist on a G&T. It was, we both agreed, the most refreshing gin and tonic we’d had in months, the subtle Asian flavours of the tonic marrying with the gin to make a perfect G&T.
More Craft Gin Club Goodies
Each monthly box also contains the ingredients for a gin cocktail. This month’s was, appropriately, a take on the Singapore Sling – a Singapore Fling. The mixers were also in the box, these being a special Singapore Fling Cocktail Syrup and a bottle of Martin Frobisher’s Cherry Juice. We only had to supply some lime juice. They even provided the garnish of dried pineapple slices and pink peppercorns.
Singapore Fling Recipe
The cocktail recipe is in the glossy magazine, Ginned, that also comes in each box, and which costs £4.99 if bought on its own. There are dozens more gin cocktail recipes as well, along with features and stories about the contents of the box, like the story of Twisted Tonic and, of course, the Gin of the Month – Brass Lion Singapore Dry Gin.
Yet More Goodies!
When we made the Singapore Fling to reward ourselves for a day’s work in the garden, we also tucked into the other goodies in the box. These were some sweet chilli peanuts (‘A taste of Singapore’); some Brown Bag Crisps (Tiger Prawn with a hint of Chilli and Lime); some Sweet Chilli and Onion Wild Cassava Chips; and, best of all, the totally delicious Uncle Saba’s Sweet Chilli Popadoms, a lentil crisp that has been made in Singapore since 1919 – almost as long as the Singapore Sling! We were fighting each other for the bits in the bottom of the bag.
Singapore Fling
The gin cocktail, created by the Craft Gin Club’s Master Mixologist Maria Vieira, was awesome! The gin on its own had already proved to be smooth and subtle enough to drink neat, as well as producing a perfect gin and tonic, and an even better G&T with the Twisted Thai Lime and Lemongrass Tonic. But the cocktail, which used a generous portion of gin, combined with the tart cherry mixer, and the cocktail syrup provided (a mix of pineapple juice, orange juice, lime juice and sugar), was stunning, and really refreshing on a hot evening.
There were enough ingredients to make two generous cocktails, with a little bit of the cherry mixer left over. So when we’d drained our glasses we shared that, added some more gin, and as the sweetness of the dried pineapple slices had now kicked in, we got another half a cocktail each – not quite the original recipe, but it was still good!
Joining the Craft Gin Club
You can find out how the Craft Gin Club works here. It costs £40 a month in the UK but you can cancel any time. I noticed with their August box that the Brass Lion Singapore Dry Gin on its own costs £45, so along with all the other goodies in the box (the club reckons each month’s box contains about £55 worth of stuff), that’s a real bargain. And some of the gins you wouldn’t be able to buy anyway, as they’re specially sourced by the club.
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