Sip & Savour - A mini gin festival to celebrate local distilleries

Our first mini gin festival celebrating local distilleries at Langley's in Surbiton was a great success! The event was hosted by myself Cara @ginandinteriors and Sarah @ginwithsarahb. We were very fortunate to have 6 distilleries exhibiting their craft gin. Read on to find out more about the night...

Langley's in Surbiton was the perfect venue to hold our mini gin festival

At 7.30pm the doors opened and the glamorous crowd entered the beautiful setting of Langley's bar. Welcome drinks were served with Brighton gin and Merchants Heart tonic complete with a slice of orange and a sprinkling of coriander seeds.

Some snaps of the night...

First up for some sampling was Blackdown Distillery who pride themselves in using only natural botanicals including Silver Birch sap. Their range that includes a London dry, Old Tom, Tea and Sage gin all proved extremely popular. @blackdowndistillery

Sarah from Blackdown distillery talking through her fine selection of gins

Bloody Bens from Earlsfield were exhibiting too. Ben the owner proudly explained how the gin was inspired by his holidays to Mallorca. With key botanicals honey and orange this gin creates the perfect Negroni as well as a sipping gin. @bloodybens

Next up Cabin Pressure who produce their Vacuum Distilled gin at a lower temperature to help retain an exceptional depth of flavour. The lovely husband and wife team are based in Horsham West Sussex and take immense pride in their Nano-Still that has a capacity of 2 litres. Which is probably the smallest commercial gin operation known. @cabinpressurespirits

David showcasing their unique vacuum distilled gin

Greensand Ridge had a wonderful stand too with a fine selection of samples including a London Dry, Cask Aged and Rye Cask gin. They are a carbon-neutral micro-distillery, one of the first in the UK. They are extremely passionate about minimising their carbon footprint using renewable energy and food waste handling. I sampled their Raspberry Ghost gin which was delicious! @greensand_ridge

The Greensand Ridge is a line of hills which surrounds the Weald of Kent and Sussex. This area is where they source ingredients for their gins

Next up was Haymans. Daryl and Sarah were exceptional hosts and were pouring samples of their London Dry, Old Tom and the very popular Sloe gin. The distillery dates back to 1863 and now resides in Balham complete with 3 hard working stills Marjorie, Karin and Miranda.@haymansgin

Haymans team busy pouring samples

Last but not least were Thames Ditton gin. Tim, Bede and Gavin were showcasing their traditional London dry gin comprising of the botanicals; blood orange, lemon thyme and costmary. Sales went extremely well so much so they had to dash out to restock! @thamesdittongin

Gavin, Bede and Tim proudly showcasing their London Dry gin

A huge thanks goes to Merchant Heart for supplying the tonics for the evening. Guests also took away two complimentary bottles of @merchantsheart in their goody bags complete with a Gin Magazine, a Boutique-y gin dram, The Gin Club and 31Dover discount code all tucked away in a stylish tote donated by the lovely Ruth @ginandyin who host events and retreats. Visit Gin and Yin Retreats for more info.

Merchants Heart tonics chilled and ready to be poured to create the perfect serve

As the canapes and samples were flowing Sarah and I drew the numbers for the prize draw to win 3 bottles of Sipsmith gin; London Dry, Lemon Drizzle and Sloe gin.

@socialgingirl was one of the lucky winners to take home a bottle of Sipsmith gin

@mum.who.writes (left) was another winner of the Sipmith Lemon Drizzle gin and is now a gin convert!

Some more snaps of the night...

@cocktailgeneration (4th from the left) and @socialgingirl (2nd right) were part of the crowd of gin lovers

@savageinteriors sampling Greensand Ridge amazing range of gin

The goody bag contained a Gin Magazine, a Boutique-y gin dram, Merchants Heart tonic and a discount for The Gin Club and 31 Dover. All tucked into a ginandyin tote!

Ruth from @ginandyin busy making (more) gin purchases!

A big thank you to Bevan for letting us host our at event at Langley's

Finally thank you to Davina Askew for taking the pictures. Here's to a great evening! Cheers!