Gin

I took the bus into Edinburgh this evening to go on a tour of the Pickerings gin distillery at Summerhall (the old vet hospital of the university). They've put their stills in the old kennels and churn out thousands of bottles of gin using ethanol imported from France. The big hit this year is Christmas tree baubles filled with gin.

The container in the photo holds 1000l of 99.6% ethanol and costs a cool £35k. Quite a precious item. No wonder they lock all the doors.

We tasted all 4 of their gins and then tried to identify 6 separate botanicals in single distillates. The only one I got right was Blood Orange. Lotus root was vile and, shamefully, I managed not to recognise clove or eucalyptus.