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City of London Distillery – tours & tasting in the heart of London

I first visited the City of London Distillery (COLD) back in 2014. (If you read that first visit on my blog you can see how far I’ve come since I started blogging). This time Joe their brand ambassador invited me back to check out the changes and the new additions to their gin range.

Bar back display lit up at City of London Distillery

The striking back bar at City of London Distillery

*Full disclosure – my tour and gin tasting at COLD was hosted by them for free*

 

City of London Distillery

 

Where is City of London Distillery located?

City of London Distillery is just off Fleet street right in the middle of the old City of London. The green lights projected on the pavement are the first sign that you are approaching the distillery.

Green projection of the City of London coat of arms and distillery name on the pavement

The first sign of the City of London Distillery is this projection on the pavement outside

When you approach the door you spy the green paneling and a cat statue:

Street entrance to City of London Distillery

Entrance to City of London Distillery

 

Cat statue mounted on old wooden door

Close up of the cat ‘statue’ mounted on the door

 

The cat is a nod to the ‘Puss and Mew shop’ – a way for the gin addicted to get their fix after the Gin Act of 1736. There would be a slot that a coin could be dropped into and as a result the cat would dispense a shot of gin via a pipe in its mouth. Inginious!

Head downstairs to access the bar and distillery area:

The City of London Bar

Walking into the bar it has a speakeasy vibe, with the dark green extended in and complemented with pieces of vintage furniture and wood panelling.

COLD gin bottles lit up on display on the back bar

This is an impressive display on the back bar

Whilst City of London have an impressive array of their own gin, there are other gins available at the bar. It’s a full bar that includes other spirits and the makings for cocktails too, more on that later…

Bar with bar stools

You can sit at the bar or at one of many lower tables in the room

All  around the room are gin memorabilia – including this Gin Lane game:

Gin Lane game

Gin Lane game

 

Print of the Gin Lane etching by Hogarth

There’s even a large print of Gin Lane – the famous etching from William Hogarth referenced in the game

 

Bronze stills on the side

Bits of old still kicking around – does this count as distillery chic?!

The bar is a great place to pop in and grab a gin and tonic or cocktail. You can also visit to do a gin tasting or actually make gin with City of London Distillery:

The new gin experience rooms

Since I last visited the distillery has developed the space to showcase the Gin Lab and ‘make your own gin’ experiences. They also do tours and gin tastings that are less involved than the gin making experiences.

Looking through the window from the bar into the Gin Lab

Create your own bottle of gin at the Gin Lab

When you make your own gin at City of London Distillery, there are loads of botanicals you can choose from.

The gin lab with miniature stills and glass jars of botanicals

A professional set up in miniature!

The session starts with smelling and selecting your ingredients (with a guiding hand from the staff). You then add these to the mini stills and distill your own gin!

Stills and glass jars of single botanical distillates

The stills are all named after the 7 dwarfs from Sleeping Beauty!

 

More mini stills!

Can you see all the names of the dwarfs?

The actual distilling for City of London Gin isn’t done on the mini stills (although Joe says they still use them to play around with ingredients). The actual distillery where the magic happens is next door (& also fully visible from the bar due to the large window).

 

Inside the City of London Distillery room:

This bottle represents the botanicals that make up the City of London, London Dry gin – only 8 botanicals (can you see the layers of botanicals?)

Bottle of botanicals for the COLD London Dry gin

Botanicals for their London Dry gin

 

Dry botanicals inside the still

Inside the still!

Yes I do go around sticking my head in stills (but only when they are cold).

When I first visited City of London Distillery they had 2 stills – Clarissa and Jennifer, named after the two fat ladies.

The still room at City of London Distillery

The stills at City of London Distillery

Vertical shot of the three stills at City of London distillery

This shot was trying to get the full length of the stills in the picture – I think I failed!

They now have a new still – named Elizabeth – so three in total. The stills are all different kinds (hence the difference in looks).
Elizabeth the newest still in the distillery

The latest girl in the distillery – Elizabeth

COLD are currently replacing Jennifer (the tall column still) with another pot still (the rounded ones with copper tops).

 

Tasting City of London gin

City of London distillery has expanded their range considerably since 2014. Now they have 9 gins in total, with 5 being part of the core range, the others more seasonal/limited edition.

Bottle label collage on display in the bar area

Some of the different gin bottle labels on display in the bar area

COLD Dry gin

As I mentioned before, City of London Distillery use 8 botanicals in their Dry Gin and they generally try to keep to the minimum number of botanicals need. In fact 8 is the maximum botanicals they use in all their gins – no more! So what are these botanicals?:
  • Fresh lemon and grapefruit
  • Dried orange
  • Juniper
  • Coriander
  • Angelica
  • Liquorice
And to taste? Well you get a nice citrus hit on the nose, from those fresh and dried peels. The mouthfeel is well balanced, slightly oily and citrus forward, but with the spice on the finish. At 41.3% this isn’t the strongest gin, but it’s well above the minimum % for the category and they’ve chosen this level to let the botanicals shine. This gin is a gin drinkers gin – perfect in a gin and tonic, or as a martini too.
Holding up the tasting glass of City of London dry gin

Pretty tasting glass too!

Head distiller, Guy Martin, has worked with a lot of big names in business. So some of the other gins are inspired or collaborations arising from this.

Christopher Wren gin

This gin is a collaboration with Tom Nichols. Together they worked to create a classic traditional gin with contemporary twist. With only 5 botanicals this comes out with a very different flavour to the Dry gin. Botanicals:
  • Liquorice
  • Angelica
  • Juniper
  • Coriander
  • Dried orange
Christopher Wren gin has an earthy nose and a very different profile. It’s amazing how versatile the combination of botanicals can be! This gin works with citrus forward drinks, gin and tonics and classic cocktails like the Bees Knees, the White Lady etc.
The inspiration for the name came from Christopher Wren, the architect who designed half of the square mile – the other name for the City of London. This is also where the inspiration for the bottle design came from. Local St bridges church was also designed by him and inspired the tiered wedding cake! All the City of London Distillery gins now use the same bottle design, with the colouring of the glass or labels indicating which gin is inside.
The core City of London distillery gin bottled lined up

The core City of London Distillery line up in those unique bottles

The Square Mile

This is the strongest COLD gin at 47.3%. It was created to be a martini gin, as the higher ABV is good for cocktails, especially martini’s! It uses the same 8 botanicals as the Dry gin, but in different quantities. The juniper is upped with the coriander, but there is less citrus. This creates a very juniper forward liquid, piney fresh, with a dryer smoother mouthfeel. Stands up to mixing even in wet martini it shines through.
Tasting class held up by a hand

Look at the legs on this one!

Old Tom

Old Tom gin is a sweeter traditional style of gin. For this one they added cassia, my fave cardamom, and lemon to the base ingredients – but with orris instead of liquorice. Sugar is added at the end post distillation and it’s bottled at 43.3%. This creates a spicy gin with sweetness, rather than a sweet gin. To taste it’s smooth with a light mouthfeel. The layers of spice are lifted by the citrus from the lemon. It’s not sweet per se, but works wonderfully with richer cocktails like a Bees Knees or a Martinez.
Martinez cocktail with orange peel garnish in front of COLD Old Tom bottle and red menu

My Old Tom Martinez – I’m totally suggestible!

Six bells

Six Bells was originally made as a special edition for Craft gin club. However it was so good, that COLD decided to carry on making it. The name comes from nursery rhyme ‘Oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clements’ which should give you a clue to the flavours… To make this gin, they blended the citrus with COLD gin distillate. For the Lemon gin this creates sharp fresh lemon notes on the nose – but you can still smell the juniper. In the mouth it has a very light mouthfeel with summery sherbet notes.
With such a light gin they recommend to serve with soda to ensure the flavours are kept at the forefront and to garnish with a twist of lemon. If you decide to go with tonic, then City of London Distillery recommend a 2:1 ratio maximum (tonic to gin) and say that it’s best with a 1:1 ratio (my kind of people!), the suggested garnish is basil or mint. It is also superb in a super dry martini with no garnish. So plenty to ginspire you there!

Murcian Orange gin

The Murcian Orange gin is still a London Dry (i.e. all ingredients are distilled together). As well as adding orange into the pot still, they also added it into the vapour basket (that hangs high inside the pot, above the liquid) to enhance and deepen the flavour. A mixture of bitter and sweet oranges give extra depth of flavour. To this they have added ‘winter spice’ of cassia and cardamom. On the nose I definitely get the orange up front and then the cassia (similar to cinnamon) and cardamom.
With these spices this would be great served with a ginger ale and orange, either fresh or dried. In a negroni Joe suggested playing with the proportions a bit to emphasise the orange flavours and suggested 50ml gin to 25ml Campari and vermouth

 

Murcian Orange gin bottle with orange coloured glass

Warming Winter orange, but it would also be refreshing in the Summer!

R&R – Rhubarb and Rose

When I visited the distillery this one was literally hot out of the still! As it was only cut with water that day it needed some time for the alcohol and water molecules to distribute and ‘mind meld’ (not a technical term!). At 41.3% this gin has tart rhubarb notes on the nose. It’s a London Dry style gin and has a light mouthfeel, with lemon and tartness. There isn’t strong rose note coming through and Joe explained that the rose was added to lift and add softer notes to the overall mix.

This was a collaboration between Head Distiller Guy and Jonnie Neill from Whitley Neill gin. They wanted to make a different take on a Rhubarb gin, whilst maintaining London Dry status.

Small bottle of gin with R&R label

This was the bottle I tried

Now that it’s out in full production you can identify it from the pink bottle:

Rhubarb and Rose gin in a light pink City of London Distillery bottle

Pretty in pink

Sloe gin

City of London Distillery sloe gin is made with both the fruit and stones of the sloe berries. This adds an almond nuttiness to the flavour. It’s not the sweetest or driest sloe out there, but well balanced with lovely marzipan notes with the fruitiness. They macerate the Slow berries for 6-8 months, monitoring and stirring by hand every couple of months. This is easy to sip on it’s own or with ice, or pimp your prosecco with a splash!

Newest release – Strawberry gin

Created with Wimbledon in mind, their latest edition is the Strawberry gin, which comes in it’s own dark pink bottle. I’m not sure if this is a permanent addition to the range or a limited edition, but it’s lovely in a Summer punch, with lots of fruit.
Strawberry gin in it's dark pink bottle

Strawberry gin in it’s dark pink bottle

The full range of bottle colours means you can colour coordinate with them now!
Katie matching the blue and pink gin bottles

Katie with her outfit matching the COLD gin bottle colours! Ps this is Joe – say hi if you see him around!

Cocktails

Cocktails at the City of London Distillery bar are good. The list is extensive and they can make all the classics too. As I mentioned from my first visit, they make a great martini and you have plenty of choices for gin and tonics too.

City of London Distillery red embossed menu

I love this red embossed menu!

 

When I visited this time I enjoyed a Martinez cocktail made with City of London Distillery Old Tom gin. This cocktail is a precursor to the martini, and is made with gin and sweet red vermouth, a little maraschino liqueur and a dash of bitters. Mine was garnished with orange peel to complement.

 

Martinez cocktail in delicate glass in front of COLD menu and Old Tom gin bottle

A perfect martinez cocktail – such pretty glassware too!

 

Visiting City of London Distillery:

If you are in the City of London or wandering Fleet Street, then I highly recommend popping into City of London Distillery for a drink. The COLD bar is open from 4pm-11pm Monday through Saturday, and you can book a table for drinks online.

If, like me on my first visit, you want to know more about gin, City of London Distillery and to taste their gin range, then I’d recommend pre-booking a distillery tour and tasting (£25).

You can also book for the Gin Lab experience (£125) where you will make your own gin in one of the seven dwarfs stills. You can also buy vouchers for the experiences as gifts. The distillery is open 9am-5pm Monday through Friday

 

Find City of London Distillery:

 

Visit other London based gin distilleries, find out more here:

 

Visit City of London Distillery: Tour, taste and make your own gin at this central London distilleryPin me for your City of London Distillery visit planning

 

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Comments

  3. Ava says

    What fun! This is right up my alley. I just moved from a wine region where I did wine tasting at least once a month. I took a wine blending class and created my own wine. I’ve also visited sake and rum distilleries. The gin lab would be such a fun, hands-on way to learn more about gin.

    Reply

  4. Lindsey Puls says

    I really need to try gin again. It’s been years since I decided I didn’t like it. But some of these gins you listed sound really good! And this distillery looks like so much fun!

    Reply

  5. Renata says

    I haven’t been to London for quite a while – and this tour would be another reason to go back. Artisan gin is getting really big everywhere and I guess, the best one will be distilled in the UK, still. I’d love to try the rhubarb one.

    Reply

  8. Kelsey says

    That looks like so much fun – I’ve never made my own gin before! And love that the stills are named after the seven dwarves.

    I was literally JUST in London and wish I saw your blog post earlier!

    Reply

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