Gin fans – it’s time to get excited! Sipsmith’s Lemon Drizzle Gin is now available to buy.
Inspired by Mary Berry’s Great British Bake Off lemon drizzle cake, the gin is a glaze of biscuity sweetness on the nose, reminiscent of the golden crisp top of a lemon drizzle cake, followed by a fresh, zesty, warming zing and a beautiful liquorice-laced finish. And I can most definitely vouch for how sweet and beautifully zingy this tastes!
Growing in popularity in the 1930s, citrus gins were all the rage well into the 60s and were made by several London distilleries. This recipe takes a classic London Dry backbone and layers on sweet, sun-dried lemon peels, lemon verbena for aromatic sweetness on the nose and vapour infused fresh hand peeled lemon for sharp bite and floral notes to dial up the spritz.
The result is a naturally sweet lemon gin, perfect for sipping neat on ice, with a dash of tonic or making the most gorgeous of martinis. An absolute all-rounder!
The Sipsmith Sipping Society
The launch of Lemon Drizzle comes after it had massive popularity in the Sipsmith Sipping Society, a subscription box that gives its members four different hand-crafted gin creations a month. Priced at £160 a year, each of the four gins is accompanied by a cocktail recipe card.
As well as the Lemon Drizzle Gin, the team have created flavours such as Christmas Tree gin, Hot Cross Bun gin, Strawberries and Cream gin and The Phantom Negroni.
“Everything we produce at Sipsmith celebrates the depth of thought and creativity that goes into creating gin of uncompromising quality, like our London Dry Gin. Our Sipping Society brings together gin lovers who share our passion and who want to experience the very best of our Distillery’s experiments. We follow a modern-day expression of traditional distilling, by carefully crafting unexpected flavours on our 50lt copper still, Cygnet, and in turn only release the editions that reflect the quality we’re obsessed with. It’s truly been a team effort and we’re so proud to finally announce our Sipping Society to everyone.”
– Jared Brown – Sipsmith Master Distiller.
Visiting the Sipsmith distillery
When I visited the distillery earlier this month, I was expecting a massive manufacturing set-up, with little human interaction in order to churn out gallons of gin a day. But the reality couldn’t have been further from my expectation!
The Sipsmith creators and their team are at the heart of the manufacturing process and have a massively hands-on approach to their craft.
Based in Chiswick, south west London, Sipsmith opened its distillery doors in 2009 – becoming London’s first copper distillery to open for nearly two hundred years. Their mission was – and still is – to bring back London Dry Gin to the city where it earned its name.
With just thirty employees, they are still a relatively small set-up but everything they create has the hallmarks of a distillery that has been around for decades.
“Sipsmith, where old meets new and the two hit it off rather spectacularly”
– Sam Galsworthy, co-founder.
The success of Sipsmith
Seven year since its launch, the company has really sealed its position in the gin market, winning over 30 international awards for their London Dry Gin. They’ve also featured in the Top Ten global trending gins for the last 4 years; were awarded the 2015 Craft Distillery of the Year; and most recently were accredited CoolBrand 2016/2017 status.
Their full range includes London Dry Gin, London Cup, Sloe Gin, V.J.O.P (Very Junipery Over Proof) Gin and now, Lemon Drizzle. Sipsmith combines modern technology with traditional recipes and techniques; with all spirits being made by hand and in small batches – driven by the belief that this is the only way to craft spirits of such high quality.
If you’re at a loose end in London, I’d seriously recommend popping down to the distillery. Sipsmith do tours and tastings at their in-house bar and are literally the most welcoming team. And, obviously it’s an opportunity to try some of their new flavours. Who knows, you might even get to sample a future Sipsmith release!
The Sipsmith range
Sipsmith’s Lemon Drizzle Gin (40.4%) is exclusive to M&S and is priced at £24 for a 50cl bottle.
A full list of stockists can be found here.
The Sipsmith Sipping Society is priced at £160 annually and is available from Sipsmith.com.