News From The Blog

So Far So Good - Raising Awareness of Mental Health

Raising awareness of Mental Health is something near and dear to us so when Sydney based Art Director, Amy Roser, made us aware of the project she had underway to address this issue we were immediately on-board.

Amy is curating an exhibition titled "So Far So Good" with 100% of the profits going to support the amazing work of charity One Wave (pictured) along with another very active charity, batyr,.

Both One Wave and batyr have approached the work of raising awareness of issues such as depression and anxiety in unique and engaging ways.  

Please have a look at their websites to see the great work they are doing.

How are we supporting Amy and So Far So Good?

Our first undertaking was to support the opening of the exhibition by donating some of our award winning Dry Gin and Sloe Gin to be served on the night and to be used as rewards for people pledging funds on the group's Pozzible page.

Our second decision was to donate five dollars ($5.00) from the sale of any of our gins on our website PLUS give a five dollar discount to the person buying the gin.

This donation will apply to any purchase made via our website before 1 Nov 2018.  Use the code sfsg at checkout to activate the donation and discount.

AMY ON SO FAR SO GOOD IN HER OWN WORDS:

So Far So Good is a text-based group show that aims to get people talking positively about mental health. 100% of profits are going to One Wave and Batyr, two local mental health non-profits. Dealing with personal stuff can be a really isolating experience so I am really passionate about starting up a dialogue with a big group of people and celebrating those who champion the mental health space every day.
I have 13 artists, a poet, the St O’Donnell boys on the music, a VR company, a number of brands, and loads of friends on board to help me realise the project – it opens on RUOK? Day and it’s already been a big success in terms of bringing a community together to acknowledge something that often gets swept under the rug. Stay tuned… I guess this is my ideal collaboration, just quietly. Tough but rewarding… and meaningful.

 

Suffragette Cocktail

This cocktail was advertised in Pittsburg (USA) in 1909 and the ad that appeared then is certainly cringworthy by the standards of today.

The advertisement stated that –
• One makes a man listen to the suffragette case,
• two makes him think the cause has some merit,
• three makes him a convert and
• four makes him go home to do the dishes.

To make this cocktail you will need -
• 30ml sloe gin
• 30ml dry vermouth
• 30ml sweet vermouth
• Dash of orange bitters
• Lemon

Put the sloe gin, dry vermouth, and sweet vermouth in a mixing glass filled with ice and stir until well chilled. Then strain into a cocktail glass and Garnish with a lemon twist.

Adding "Wow" Factor To Your Cheeseboard

When contemplating what drink to serve with a wonderful cheese platter we tend to almost naturally turn our thoughts to Port. 

But if you want to really impress your guests and take them out of their comfort zone, try serving a Nonesuch Sloe Gin or Sloe Malt instead. 

The different cheeses bring out the botanicals and flavour notes in the Sloe Gin and Sloe Malt.  These either contrast with, or complement, the different characteristics of the cheese and that makes for intriguing partnerships.

Sloe Gin with Stilton is probably my favourite pairing.  The mouth filling richness of Sloe Gin works superbly with this cheese.  The Sloe Gin has much the same rich flavour as a Vintage Port but, despite being stronger, manages to taste lighter and fresher. 

Goats Cheese brings out an herbaceous note in our Sloe Gin, or does the Sloe Gin bring out an herbaceous note in these cheeses?  Either way, this is a great marriage.

The saltiness and pungent aroma of Blue cheeses needs to be offset with a contrasting note of slight sweetness.   Our unique, handcrafted Sloe Malt is the real winner for achieving that.  It is one of the spirit’s secrets – it goes phenomenally well with cheese.  
 
With really strong blue cheeses, especially Roquefort, you could also consider a Tasmanian Single Malt Whisky.  (Tip: Keep an eye out later in 2016 for the first release single malt from Fannys Bay Distillery)

Given the nut flavours and earthiness they take on as they age, cheeses such as Camembert and Brie stand up well to the sloe gin’s fruit-filled bouquet and it’s plum/cherry notes on the palate.   
If you are serving this style of cheese singularly, you will find it superb accompanied by our Dry Gin simply splashed on ice and garnished with sliced red grapes. 

Order now and add some "wow" to your next cheese platter.

 

Hot Buttered Sloe Gin Toddy Recipe

Hot Toddy’s are thought to improve colds and flu’s because alcohol numbs pain and encourages sleep, and the addition of fruit juice gives a boost of vitamin C.

The science is out on whether Hot Toddy’s can really cure a cold, but one thing’s for certain – there’s a lot of fun in finding out.Besides being a great warming drink.

INGREDIENTS

• 35ml Nonesuch Sloe Gin
• 100ml Apple juice¹
• 10ml Cranberry Juice²  
• 10ml Pomegranate Juice²
• Knob of unsalted butter
• 1.5g sugar (or a few grams more or less to your taste or substitute honey for the sugar)
• 1 Clove (optional)
• Cinnamon stick (optional) 

1. Use juice with no added sugar
2. You can use any combination of Cranberry and Pomegranate Juice to make up the 20ml but remember to use 100% juice and not the watered down “juice drink”

 METHOD

Mix the Nonesuch Sloe Gin, and the juices and clove (if using) in a saucepan and heat but do not boil.
Using a cinnamon stick, stir in a knob of butter, sugar (or honey) to taste then remove the stick.    
Serve in hot drink glasses.
To make more, just multiply the quantities by the number of guests you’d like to serve. (Except for the cinnamon stirring stick of course. No need for a new stick for each drink)
Serve in a hot drink glass.

 

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Nonesuch Sloe Gin makes it to Northern Ireland

Selling the majority of our products either in person at the distillery or on-line has a tremendous benefit for us.  We get to meet our customers either face to face or on-line.

Quite often a note attached to an order tells us that the product being purchased is a gift or there is a comment about their enjoyment of their previous purchase.

We had one of those online and email conversations with Jackie from Berowra Heights in NSW.  Jackie informed us that she was ordering a bottle of our Tasmanian Sloe Gin to take with her to Ireland as a gift for her parents. 

More than twenty years ago Jackie’s family had lived in Cambridge and used to make sloe gin using the berries they picked from the hedgerows there.  Jackie naturally wanted them to be able to enjoy a Sloe Gin from the other side of the world. 

The sloes that we use are picked from Blackthorn trees bought from Ireland and England by early settlers so we couldn’t help wondering if some of our local trees are the descendants of the trees known to Jackie’s family.

It was fantastic to get an email today from Jackie letting us know that she and the prized bottle of Sloe Gin had made it to Ireland.  Attached were photos of her parents with their gift and some shots of Blackthorn growing along the shore of Carlingford Lough, with the Mourne Mountains in the background.

(Just a little bit of trivia - Besides being the source of sloes, the Blackthorn provided the material that the Irish used to make their renowned shillelagh.)

            

   

Sloe Gin going North by North West

It is always interesting to see where around Australia our signature Nonesuch Sloe Gin is going.  Of course the big cities and larger regional centres are well represented, as we would expect, but occasionally a name catches our eye and our interest.
It was an order for a customer in the Victorian town of Wedderburn that had us wondering today as this is not the first order to that destination.

We discovered Wedderburn is 214 kilometres northwest of Melbourne and, while it is a farming community now, its earlier inhabitants were gold miners and prospectors.

The fact that there is a replica still in Wedderburn’s Hard Hill Reserve had us feeling very close to people there even though the stills that were used in the district were for distilling Eucalyptus Oil. Albert Jacka who won a Victoria Cross in World War 1 lived in Wedderburn up until his enlistment in 1914. We understand there is a small gathering of mates around Wedderburn who enjoy a nip or two of our Sloe Gin thanks to the generosity of one of their band who discovered it on its release. Right now we are going to raise a glass to our customer and his friends up there in Wedderburn and wish some much needed rain for them.

Sloe Gin, What's That?

When I tell people  that our distillery produces SLOE GIN the next question is most often; What's that?" In short Sloe Gin can be summed up as  - a triumph of ingenuity, and a forgotten cocktail classic that deserves to be rediscovered. But first things first - Just what is a Sloe"? The sloe is the tiny blue-purple fruit of the Blackthorn Tree (ok, the serious scientific bit - Prunus spinosa) and is closely related to the damson and cherry.

A Sloe is very astringent and with only a couple of mm of flesh around the seed. When SLOE Gin was first made is still a mystery but it appears to have become popular following the passing of the Inclosure Acts in the U.K. in the 16th and 17th centuries. These Acts saw huge areas of what had previously been considered common land “enclosed” thereby creating legal property rights to wealthy landowners. This “enclosing” was largely achieved using blackthorn as a hedge plant due to its vigorous growth and long, sharp thorns.  Those vicious thorns were good (and still are) at keeping stock in and people out! More Blackthorn meant more sloes, and those enterprising country folk who wasted little but who knew the sloe was too bitter to eat, determined the only solution was to soak it in alcohol and sugar.  As the drink of the time was gin the Sloe Gin came into being.  Thankfully the early colonists in Tasmania also wanted to enclose their farms and had Blackthorn sent out which they duly planted into hedgerows like the ones back in the Mother Country. These old trees now provide the Nonesuch Distillery with the unique ingredient to make our Tasmanian Sloe Gin.  As far as we know Blackthorn does not grow in any quantity anywhere else in Australia. Because the Blackthorn is not generally cultivated the supply of sloes is always limited. The sloes are at their best after they have been subjected to a frost.  So while most Tasmanians are not looking forward to those bone-chilling mornings we get pretty excited about the coming days of picking this astringent treasure. The sloes delivered to us are then sorted and any leaves, stalks or loitering insects are removed along with any less than perfect Sloes. The fruit is then rinsed and allowed to dry before being added to our specially created gin. Nonesuch Sloe Gin is made in the way the cottage folk made it centuries ago.  In small batches that allow us to gently agitate the sloes in the gin to ensure a gradual release of juice and colour.

Sloe Gin of quality is not quick to make and Nonesuch Distillery is where time is allowed to work its magic.  We bottle our Sloe Gin according to nature’s dictate and not that of the clock or bean-counters. It will be bottled when it is ready (colour, taste, aroma are all in balance) and not before. 

It is a drink for the lucky few.  Because of the rarity of Sloes only around 3,000 bottles can be produced in any year. A recent review of our Sloe Gin –

Nose + Appearance: It has a bright ruby colour, with an appealing hint of maraschino cherry on the nose that lingers well.

Tasting (slightly chilled served neat): the flavours are very forward on the palette, not overly sweet with a quite clean + dry finish. Not a rich liqueur experience such as you get from a fortified spirit, rather this is one of complex spices, with yes, blackberry and sour cherries notes in a spirit that isn’t heavy.

It’s not like a Kirsch liqueur if that’s what you’re thinking, it’s much more lighter and delicate than that without the alcoholic kick.

The Take Home
A delicious and well crafted debut gin from one of our newest distilleries.

Read the whole review here