Maidstone Distillery Tour

We’ve been wanting to go on the tour for a while with Barbara and David, today was the day.

An interesting tour with tastings of all 4 gins produced by the distillery. It appears Maidstone was at the forefront of gin making in the late 1700s with George Bishop and his brother leaders in the field. The baton was later passed to a family of Grants (no relation to Grants Scotch) and lingered on for many years producing Queen Victoria’s favourite tipple of Cherry Brandy.

After a lapse the distillation of gin recommences in 2018 and has, by all accounts, been a roaring success. Their main brand is Bishops London followed by a forager gin and a rose gin. Their 4th is a toffee liqueur honouring Sharps Toffee factory which used to be in Maidstone.

I volunteered to be the designated driver as I’m not a great fan of gin and tonic. I was given a low alcohol gin to try, 1%, which was refreshing. I had the merest sip of the other three neat before tonic was added. It was like a malt whisky tasting. I enjoyed the range of flavours. So why drown out those delicate botanicals with tonic?

The extra is of Susan with all her accumulated glasses. The tasting was around mid day but the sun must be over the yardarm somewhere.