This year, I wanted to do something completely different for Christmas gifts. I was tired of giving the same old body gift set, and felt the need to go homemade this Christmas. As most of you know, I love gin, and I love to create, so why not but the two together.
Naturally, I named it Clumsy Gin
If you didn’t know already, gin is essentially flavoured vodka, but must have the juniper dominant flavour, otherwise it really is just flavoured vodka. The gin boom over the past few years is because of this reason. My gin however if you notice is a lovely golden haze, which is because I do not have a distillery in my back garden. But it all tastes the same right?
Below is my step by step guide in how I made it, and how you can make it too! All credits to research will be listed at the bottom of the page, along with where I bought ingredients
Step One
You will need the following ingredients and equipment:
- 1 bottle of decent vodka
- 25g juniper berries, 10g coriander seed, 3g angelica root, 2g orris root
- 2g orange peel, 2g lemon peel, 4g grapefruit peel (I used mainly grapefruit to give a delightful crisp note)
- Funnel, sieve, filter paper, containers or jars
- Bottles to gift the gin in
- Bottle Labels
Step Two
Pour the vodka into your chose container, making sure there is room on the top as you will be adding ingredients. Weigh the dry botanicles (juniper, orris, coriander, angelica) and add to the vodka. Let infuse for 24 hours. Keep the vodka bottles.
Step Three
Make sure the white bits are removed, otherwise it will give the gin a horrible bitter taste
Now its beginning to taste all juniper and lovely. It should be a lovely golden haze colour. Add the peel, and infuse for a further 12 hours
Step Four
Drain the gin into another container, and you can dispose of the botanicals.
Step Five
You then need to filter out the remaining sediment, using a funnel and filter or cheese cloth. (I had neither, so made do with a tea towel and filtered it twice). Leave to sit for 24 hours. Filter out any remaining sediment.
Now decant into your chosen bottles or jars.
Step Six
Decorate the bottles as you wish. I had designed AMAZING bottle labels on the computer, but my printer failed last minute, so chalk labels to the rescue! I made recipe cards for the perfect G&T plus the Classic Martini. (I will also add these to my blog in the future). In the gift set, I matched with a Tonic, Gin Goblet, Clumsy Gin and Cocktail Card.
Job Done. Time for a G&T I think.
Clumsylorr 