The Beefeater Gin Experience
Last weekend I was lucky enough to be taken to The Beefeater Gin distillery, and what a fanatastic afternoon we had.
It was out of the BR6 area, so we jumped on the train to Waterloo East, changed here and took a train from Waterloo to Vauxhall, where we had a 1 minute walk to the distillery. Such an easy journey to make and one I will be taking again very soon!
We arrived at the prestigious Beefeater building and headed straight in to the main reception area being greeted by the very friendly Beefeater staff. The building was immaculate and warm and as we were a few minutes early we had a quick browse around the shop eyeing up some purchases for later!
The start of the tour you take in your own time, browsing through the history of gin itself which takes you back to the 1700’s, the museum has been really well thought out and is informative, has many exhibits and pictures, is fun and interesting instead of being stayed, dull and boring and having to read lots of articles.
You soon understand why gin was such a popular spirit in those days and what people did to sell it to others. You can read and see exhibits on the history of cocktail making, and then up a few stairs it brings you back to modern day life via the history and making of Beefeater Gin.
Reunited with our ‘gin guide’ we were then taken up to the actual gin distillery. I could not believe how immaculate the place is, it’s so clean and tidy, I was expecting more warehouse, cold and damp. As we walked up the stairs you automatically feel as though you are entering an adult “Willie Wonker World” with all the copper funnels and stills about. We were taken and shown through the whole gin making process, my oh my how interesting it was, and not to give to much away but….. how the Beefeater Gin distillers do it, is amazing.
We were allowed to touch, feel, smell and sniff the ingredients, some of which you would have no idea were in the making of Beefeater Gin. Once we had a few minutes with question’s and answer’s, we headed down to the Beefeater Gin bar where we were greeted with a lovely long Beefeater Gin and Tonic, not only did it have lemon in, but a slice of orange too, which gave the drink a delicious twist. During our debrief of the tour between ourselves, bouncing the interesting facts and finds that we had all individually learnt or found, some had another gin cocktail, others were just taking the whole experience in, one question that kept on being bounced around was “how do you learn that sort or skill or are you blessed with it” one we will never really know the answer too! With us pondering this we then went into the shop, cleverly thought out products on sale not the usual type of toot, bottles and glasses that you would want to keep and use, of course a bottle was purchased, it had to be done!
All in all a thoroughly informative, fun and enjoyable afternoon out. Thank you to all at Beefeater Gin I’d recommend a visit to any gin lover! We continued our gin afternoon by touring a few of the local bars and trying out the various Beefeater Gins that they sold!
I’m back up to the Beefeater Gin shop in the next couple of weeks as there are some great gifts for gin lovers for Christmas, including the fantastic Christmas crackers which each contain a gin miniature – what’s not to love about that!