Anyone Fancy a Gin?

The answer was a resounding 'yes please' at the Broadbridge Bombshells' WI February meeting... Ah what a treat for the gin lovers among us, and those of us that just like a drink no matter what the tipple!

We were so lucky to have the lovely Helen, one of the founding members of a local gin distillery in Dorking called 'The Gin Kitchen' as our guest speaker. Helen came reassuringly loaded down with various bottles of gin and we all settled down to start tasting whilst Helen told us the story of how her little business started and grew...

Helen and Kate were two friends with a passion for gin, they enjoyed it on nights out, and instead of a cuppa and cake their daytime meetings would usually involve gin too! To say they liked gin was an understatement, they were actually more like budding connoisseurs. Both mums with young kids, and both with day jobs the idea of starting a business was not particularly at the top of their list, but the idea to buy a small still and start to play around with developing their own distinctive gin as a hobby was an idea that turned into a reality and then turned into a business opportunity.

The two friends got together in Kate's kitchen to experiment with different botanicals... these are the substances which give gins their distinctive flavours and are usually herbs or spices but can be anything that is strongly flavoured e.g. citrus peel, lavender or spruce... Helen told us that there were quite a few failures before their first successful gin was distilled. But by using the failures to work out what was working and what was not, the recipe for their first gin was perfected and the uniquely named Gutsy Monkey Gin was born -distinctively warm, with hints of citrus, ginger and pepper it is truly delicious.

Still not necessarily seeing this a business opportunity, and more of a hobby, every costly attention to detail was followed in the packaging and presentation of their first gin, it is contained in beautiful but expensive white bottles with hand painted original designs in place of labels, and with a poem to describe the attributes of the gin on the reverse. As all the hard work had been done exclusively in Kate's kitchen, the name for their budding venture was obvious to the pair and 'The Gin Kitchen' in it's early existence was now up and running, and a quality brand was in it's infancy.

The next step was to see if the gin would sell, so the friends offered their gin to their local pub who loved it and decided to buy a few bottles... from these small beginnings the business started to grow, they moved premises into the shed in the garden of their local pub, and then once again into the premises they are currently operating from. Kate gave up her job and now works full time in the business and they now employ 5 people.

I've made this all sound quite simple but, in reality a lot of time, effort and not to mention a fair chunk of the pair's own money went into the business as well as their love and unwavering belief in their product.

A huge positive for business is the friends' unique cheeky way of marketing their product which has always paid off... a visit to Fortnum and Mason gave them a big break when they took a bottle of Gutsy Monkey for the cellar manager to try. He loved it and wanted to make it 'Spirit of the Month' but they had no way of meeting the amount of bottles needed as their still was too small. As luck would have it their next gin 'Dancing Dragonfly' was starting production and he liked this one just as much, it became 'Spirit of the Month' and was the best selling of all time. Another two gins followed: The Ginger Cat Gin and Blushing Monkey Pin Gin, and we were lucky to sample each and every one of them as Helen chatted to us. My personal favourite was the Gutsy Monkey and the beautiful 'Blushing Monkey Pink Gin'.

All of these beauties can be obtained from Crates in Horsham or direct from the Gin Kitchen in Dorking. Tasting experiences and distillery tours are also on offer, so please take a look at the website for details : http://gin.kitchen/

Our next meeting takes place on Tuesday 31st March, come along for an introduction to Tai Chi, if you are not a member your first meeting is free!