The Little Bird Gin

This post is for you, xx. The girl who loves gin. A chilled glass would go so nicely with tasty eats off your newly bought BBQ. Or the grilled meats off your stove. Wouldn't mind some of your summer. Don't pass on the rain please.

Alcohol before noon. Gin (otherwise known as 'mother's ruin') at that. So going to blame you for this. But I can't. Am an alcoholic. No hiding. *shrug* Gin has always been my 'killer'. Never had good memories of gin. The two times I completely concussed and not even know how I got home safely (in the company of trusted friends) were all thanks to gin. I was 21. From then on, I've never gone near gin. Perhaps the one or two martinis if I forgot to tell the bartender to replace gin with vodka. Otherwise, zilch. Nothing.

Yes, yes. Gin is a flavored grain spirit. The 'flavored' portion refers to the added botanicals and main ingredient of juniper berries. Then it's up to the master blender to add in the rest of the 6-20 spices to make each distillery's gin unique. It's the ultimate blend that confuses my body and knocks me out. I suspect it's just my general intolerance to herbs and how the tastebuds never react well to odd and traditional herbal concoctions.

Now, The Little Bird Gin. A London Dry. Distilled in Peckham at a low volume of only 1000 bottles per batch, master distiller Tim Moore uses grapefruit as its main botanical. Strolled by its store at Maltby Street Market and couldn't help but stop. It was such an adorable set-up. Winter notwithstanding, we still like our alcohol cold. Tried the Bloody Mary. It was bloody gorgeous. SO GOOD. Generously topped with plucked tomatoes on the vine. We had to have another mug. The Little Bird gin is light on the spices, but as its copy promised, we got hints of coriander and ginger.

Our party had earlier split up to wander down the lane, chomped on brunch, browsed the other stalls, and somehow, gravitated back to The Little Bird's shopfront to plonk at the long table. Hahaha. The sky was grey. Wee bit of a misting came down, but we didn't care. Stayed snug in our coats and refused to further into the shop. Wanted whatever little bit of sun we could have. The sun here is never really blazing. Always comfortable to sit down, even in direct sunlight, if you could be so lucky. We ordered plenty more glasses of Bloody Mary, other gin-based cocktails using freshly squeezed juices, and also the standard gin-tonic in a vintage-y glass. Just to try out how beautiful this gin is. On the rocks, the signature notes of this gin floated through crystal clear. Fearlessly we chugged.

I held back after two drinks. Wary. Didn't intend to be roaring drunk in daylight. That would be very unglamorous. Then we tumbled into the car and stumbled off to lunch. The friends merrily continued with beer at lunch. Madness. I stuck to sparkling water. To my great delight, no buzzing or headache set in. HURRAH! Henceforth, I shall proceed gently and with utmost caution in the tasting of gin.