[Press Trip]
I recently got the chance to spend the weekend on a press trip with Visit Hull and East Yorkshire with several other bloggers and I had the best experience. You can read all about our visit to The Deep, Hull’s award-winning aquarium here.
As part of the weekend, we went back to school! Well, GIN school (now that’s my kind of school!) Hotham’s Gin School and Distillery is in the Old Town of Hull (I loved walking around the Old Town) in Hepworth’s Arcade, a unique L-shaped quaint shopping centre.
Hotham’s Gin School offers a unique experience where you create and distill your very own gin and I couldn’t wait. Hotham’s was founded by Simon and Emma who met over a G&T back in 2007 and they gave us the warmest of welcomes. When we arrived I paired up with Nicola from Mummy to Dex and we headed over to our workbench to enjoy the first gin-based cocktail of the evening.
After an introduction (and a drink) we headed over to the Botanicals Bench in our pairs to smell and taste key ingredients plus over 100 other botanicals before deciding what we wanted in our custom gin. After much deliberation (me and Nicola weren’t the most decisive plus Nicola hadn’t had gin before!) we settled on citrus flavours including Sweet Orange, Lemon and Cardamom.
Next, with help from Emma and Simon we decided on the final recipe and weighed out the ingredients before heading back to our workbench to start the distillation process (and to enjoy another drink). We added our ingredients into our very own Still, ours was named ‘Jenni’ and then we waited.
Whilst we waited Emma gave us an interesting incite into the history of gin and Hotham’s itself. Me and Nicola kept testing our gin (just a little taste every so often) and once we had distilled 400ml (ours seemed to take so much more time than other people’s) we could test the alcohol level. Again we were offered another delicious award-winning gin whilst we continued with our distilling process.
When it was just right, ours was 49% alcohol in the end, we could then fill our very own bottle and labelled them. We decided on Cardamummy for the name, using the Mummy from both our blog name. We even sealed the bottle ourselves using wax.
The overall experience lasted around 4 hours and I had lots of fun. Once our bottles were ready we posed for graduation pictures and took our bottles home. I opened my bottle of gin two weeks after I made it, I mixed it with tonic and think it’s delicious. I’m really impressed and will definitely be requesting another bottle!
It was a fantastic opportunity and I would certainly recommend, it’s perfect as a gift or for a special occasion such as an anniversary. You can find more information about Hotham’s Gin School experience here.
I was invited to Hotham’s Gin School by Visit Hull as part of a press trip. All views in this review are my own.
Check out some of the fantastic reviews and articles about this trip from the other bloggers I was lucky enough to meet on this trip including;
Out and about mummy 
Such an amazing experience! I really enjoyed making our own gin and I’ve loved drinking it even more. Can’t believe I’d never had gin before!!
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Me neither, but so glad you enjoyed our gin! It was a great experience x
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