Did you know that on Saturday it’s WORLD GIN DAY? A day to rejoice in all that is good about juniper concoctions! As a slightly belated celebration, I’m off on a GIN TASTING evening with Zomato and Fever Tree next week, at the East London Liquor Company, and in advance, they’ve set all attendees a little World Gin Day challenge….

A little bag of goodies was gifted to me with a task in store.

Inside was a bottle of Fever Tree tonic with  the label removed, so as to test our senses to see if we could guess which one it was (PRETTY SURE mine was the Mediterranean blend, which has floral and herbal notes) and a miniature bottle of the East London Liquor Company’s Batch Number 1 Gin.

THE TASK- To create a gin and tonic recipe using these as base ingredients and spread the word about it. The person with the most twitter interaction wins a prize (so help a brother out yeah!?!).

Now sure, I could have whipped up a bitching gin and tonic with those base ingredients, adding my own garnish and flair to the glass, however, I thought everyone would do that, plus bonus points for creativity are also awarded. As a result,  I thought this would be the PERFECT opportunity to whip up a batch of refreshing ‘Ginspiration Gini Ice Lollies’! (That is what I have named them. YES.)

GINSPIRATION GINI  ICE LOLLIES!

Ingredients

50 ml of ELLC Batch No. 1 Gin

1 Bottle of Mediterranean Fever Tree Tonic

1 Pink grapefruit (half to squeeze, half to garnish)

A few sprigs of lemon thyme

A twist of black pepper

Method

1. Pop a couple of the lemon thyme sprigs into the gin bottle and leave overnight, to infuse. The Batch No. 1 is distilled with  lemon & grapefruit peel so the thyme will blend nicely with the gin, plus add to the thyme notes in the Fever Tree.

2. Blend the gin and tonic together in a jug, removing the thyme sprigs as you go.

3. Add the juice of half a pink grapefruit and a twist of black pepper.

4. Pour into mini ice lolly molds.

5. Add a small segment of pink grapefuit to garnish.

6. Freeze overnight.

7. SUCK IT!

Here’s what they look like when they come out!

The perfect mini summer refresher! Tangy, herbal, with a hint of spice (thanks black pepper) and most important of all, ALCOHOLIC. Be aware, the gin doesn’t freeze too well (obviously) so they need to be gobbled down PRONTO when they emerge from the freezer.

WHICH IS FINE BY ME!

If you’d like to be a massive huuuuge total babe and help me win the prize on World Gin Day (Saturday 13th!), please do tweet this blog with my twitter name (@katie_brennan- also HIYA FOLLOW ME GO ON!), the hashtag #GinFever and either @FeverTreeMixers, @ZomatoUK, @DistillingginE3. SO SOCIAL MEDIA! THANK YOU in advance to anyone who does!

I strongly recommend that as the weather gets sunnier and sunnier you should make these ice lollies, they went down an absolute STORM with my pals when I whacked them round at a party! And what’s more you can make loads of rude jokes about sucking. SO EVERYONE’S A WINNER!

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