I always love coming to O5’s tasting/classes. You learn so much about the history of each product. We learnt about Jensen. This Gin has an interesting back story. An Englishman had a specific type of Gin, which was unpopular with the locals. When he asked the owner of the bar where the Gin came from, the owner told him it was from a defunct distillery. The owner gave him the last bottle because he was the only person drinking it. When he returned to England, he kept thinking about this amazing Gin and became obsessed, moreso that he couldn’t have it. So he decided to remake it. He hired a gin “private eye” (I’m sensationalizing this story) to find out how to make this gin and this became Jensen.
Julia from Cuchillo was also a speaker. She made her wonderful cocktails again. I really enjoyed her creations with Kombucha, but her infusions with gin were light, aerie and spring like. She mixed it with flowers and tea, which when I think about it, is good for the juniper flavor of Gin.
Jon was also really insightful on English tea. He told us about the tea Margret’s Hope. It’s a pretty affordable fancy Darjeeling O5 offers. ($10 for 40g, $18 for 80g). The back story is depressing. The tea grower’s daughters came with him during a business trip. When they returned home, seafaring was often dangerous, so Margret did not survive this trip. Thus, the tea is named after her. (By the way, I may be confusing Jon’s name with the fellow who owns Hawksworth. He also came to event and explained the back history of gin itself. I am bad with names.)
I really had no clue Gin was shortened from its Juniper roots… that and I didn’t know Gin had a depressing history. They stated that people drank so much gin, stories from way back when exposed that women would sell their babies and men would do equally drastic things for gin. I also learnt about the word “Old Tom”. Fancier Dry gin was sold at a bar, but if you wanted cheap gin, you’d go to the back of the bar. If they had a window with a porcelain cat, an old Tom, you could purchase some cheaper made gin.
They also served some amazing chocolate! I still have yet to come back and try their chocolates. I did come in the next day for their amazing Sacred Cacao Ceremony. It was fantastic. The chocolates were from Bumble & Oak Chocolates!
This chocolate is hand made and tries to use organic materials.
What a fantastic crew.