Where social distancing is now a thing, meeting up needs to get creative. You can’t just spontaneously take a trip to somewhere, anywhere really. So how to spice up a social event? None other than a virtual gin tasting of course. I first heard about this during a video catch up on a Saturday night. Two drinks in and everything seemed like a good idea.
Now I’m partial to a good gin. Something about the botanical, herbal smells is both vibrant and reassuring. There seem to be many gins, brands and distilleries popping up so I must be on something trendy. Not being able to set foot in a distillery meant no opportunity to soak in the atmosphere and wake the senses. Oh well, you have to take what you can get these days.
So I parted with $50 and through the magic of AusPost and 110 kilometres, my package arrived 3 weeks later. It took immense strength to not open the little vials of gin and taste them right then and there. We found this virtual tasting as an ‘experience’ sold through Red Balloon.
Tiny Bears Distillery supplied 4 vials of varying gins, a vial of coffee liqueur, two bottles of tonic and garnishes. All I needed was the ice and glasses. Tiny Bears is a gin distillery founded in 2017 and set up in Melbourne.
Tasting night came. We were guided through each gin, its profile and the backstory of how the gin is produced at the distillery. We had the videos up and watched them at the same time. Of course it can’t replace an in person gin tasting but technology allowed each of us follow along in real time and voice our comments as we went along.
So in order of the tasting:
- The Doctor 42% ABV
- The Gypsy 42% ABV
- Barrel Aged Gypsy 46% ABV
- The Sailor 58% ABV
- Brew Coffee Liqueur 22% ABV
After the tour there were cocktail making tutorials which we also followed for a dry martini. Of course I had vermouth on hand. Of course.
The Doctor was my personal favourite of the bunch. It had a gutsy herbaceous hit that wasn’t too warm or sweet. However, The Sailor came a close second with its pale blue tint, glossy appearance and slight oily mouth feel. The former would be more of my ‘everyday’ gin and the latter being a special gin. While I would never consider drinking them straight unless for the purposes of a tasting, all of them were in fact palatable in their pure state.
Let’s just say I was pretty done after the tastings and retired for the evening. Overall it was good fun and a relaxing way to spend a few hours with friends. The package was quite reasonable in terms of the number of gins and the sizes. As a previous sceptic of an online tasting tour, I was quite impressed. But having gone through it, I would definitely recommend as a present or a gin enthusiast. More distilleries or even wine makers should consider doing these mini tasting packs for the masses.
