Drinks on a train

Gordons G&T I’ve been avoiding buying Gordons gin in a tin for a while.  Why?!? I hear you ask. Well when this pre-mixed drink thing started off I wasn’t really into it and the first G-inna-T I tried was cordons, I was somewhat dissapointed as it wasn’t as delicious as I remembered, but things have changed. I don’t know whether it’s my tastes or the recipe they are using but Gordons and Schweppes have teamed up to create a very decent gin and tonic. Crisp and fresh, sweet and satisfying, this is really the industry standard of Gin & Tonic. Sure cordons isn’t an amazing Gin, sure Schweppes have been left in the dust by the likes of fever tree. But there Gin in a Tin is solid, not amazing, but decent and better than the M&S version I’ve got to say. Until a premium beverage maker like fever tree teams up with a quality gin maker this will be what we measure other G&Ts against. It’s gin and tonic, it does what it says on the tin, what more is there to say? Sc...

I’ve sung the praises of Long Flint before so I won’t go into it again, see my Paloma post to read a little more. The first thing that strikes you about this Negroni ASDFASDs is the depth of colour, it looks purple in a lively an evocative way that still evokes nature. This branding and vivid colour give you a feeling that this is a drink of class and you’re not dissapointed on opening it. On opening I got floral note on the nose with a smell of hibiscus and hints of cranberries. The taste starts with a light fruity sourness and ends with a nice balanced bitterness that lingers on the tongue. The length of the bitterness is what makes this a really interesting beverage: not the sudden and short punch of tonic, it evokes the negroni of it’s name, but as the bottle says a much lighter version, which is helped by the delicate carbonation. The bitterness lingers making this drink a more serious beverage - I can imagine myself drinking this as an aperatif, sitting in a sun soaked p...

It is not often that one has to reassess how one looks at and scores a category, but every once in a while you’ll have a coffee or beer, watch a new film or tv show, and think, oh shit, what I was consuming before wasn’t that great. This was the experience I recently had at Craft Beer Rising when I encountered Long Flint, who make premixed drinks with craft spirits. I was blown away by the depth, complexity and balance of these drinks, they’ve redefined the category for me, setting a new bar. I was thinking of changing the rating system just because of them, and whilst I haven’t done that they do deserve extra credit for raising the bar in the premixed drink sector. I know I originally said I’d only review what you can get at a supermarket or in a train station, but since you can buy these on Amazon I feel it’s within my remit. Anyways enough chat, let’s get onto the drink. What struck me first about the Paloma is the freshness, I have no idea how they’ve done it but it really does...