Dodds gin pop up - What's Katie Doing?

Tonight Gin Club with a Reading Problem went along to the Dodds gin pop up on Greek Street.

They are doing a two week stint to publicise their crowdfunding campaign to raise £1.5m of investment to further grow the business. Oh and serve some mean cocktails!

Pretty bottle! Note the postcode on the back…

Funds raised will be used to expand the business and even more excitingly to create a brand home and visitor attraction in London. Somewhere new for Gin Club to visit…

For the pop up they’ve decorated with their own still Christina in the window:

Apparently the dog is called Sebastian

So what’s unique about Dodds? Well their key botantical is honey from urban hives around London. Each bottle has the postcode of the hive the honey was from.

Lots of lovely honey from all around the UK

Bee nice!

We had a taste of the gin neat (hardcore gin drinkers that we are!) and it was beautifully flavoured. Dodds use Bulgarian juniper macerated for 24 hours before being distilled with angelica root, Mexican lime peel and the aforementioned honey.

The special bit is after the main distillation – they take a smaller amount of the gin and add bay leaf, green and black cardamom and red raspberry leaf and put through a vacuum distillation. The vacuum means that the distillation can be done at a lower temperature – preserving the more delicate flavours, this is then added back to the main distillation.

The result – a wonderfully aromatic gin that works superbly with tonic or in a cocktail.

The list of cocktails for today – it changes everyday – today was negronis and tomorrow is martinis from 1930….

A G&T with a twist of lemon for garnish

Dodds have partnered up with Flavours of Spain to produce some tapas to accompany the cocktails – I don’t have any pictures as we ate it all too quickly, but I can guarantee they are good!