Gin Club outing to Kew Gardens

Some of Gin Club getting tuned into nature at Kew (this was after two gin based drinks!)*

So the inaugural Gin Club with a Reading Problem outing (with more than two members), happened at Kew Gardens on Sunday.

The gang ready to get going

Our aim was to combine some touristing (I haven’t been to Kew since I was a kid), some nature (Oooh plants!) and some gin at the Gin and Tonic garden.

We met at Victoria gate (the nearest to the underground and overground Kew garden station) around 2.15 on Sunday afternoon and paid our £15 to get in. First up we headed to the pagoda and the healing garden.

Pagoda – you can now pay to climb up it, we weren’t up for that!

Girls amongst the flowers at the healing giant

All the plants have healing properties – whether that be in traditional medicine or current cancer treatment.

After browsing the plants for a bit we headed to the free treetop walk.

Woo hoo – we don’t have to pay to go up!

Don’t look down…

View to the other side of the walk – it’s a circular path in the tree canopies

View of the temperate house from the tree tops

Lots of follies dot the grounds and add interest to the gardens as well as the iconic green houses:

We went into the waterlilly house to check them out – phew it was hot and humid there!

Finally we made it to the secluded garden and the Gin and Tonic garden, where they had displays on the different botanicals used to make gin, and the chance to try out No. 3 cocktails and their specially made flavoured syrups.

So pretty!

Botanical info

We tried the whole selection of gin garden cocktails, including the botantical G&T – very tasty!, the Kew cumber – lovely and refreshing and the Wild Glasshouse, quite sweet with the raspberry and lavender syrup and the Gin Garden Ice Tea, not quite as boozy as a normal Ice Tea cocktail!

My favourite was definitely the botanical G&T – some of the drinks with the syrups were too sweet for my taste, but the G&T was zesty & fresh.

We enjoyed lounging around on the grass with our drinks – I’m glad we made it before they close up for the season – Gin Club appreciated the outing to different climes and the chance to try different presentations of the gin, we didn’t take the learning too seriously!

View over the ponds on the way out – you can just see the airplane going over – that’s the only thing that spoils the tranquility of the gardens.

A new exhibition opening soon…. Interesting!

I have many more ideas for Gin Club outings – but the next meeting is at the club house aka The Oliver Conquest.

*like all good posts this one was written with the aid of a G&T (Sipsmiths London Dry!)

Comments

Bintu Hardy says

12 September 2014 at 8:49 am

My gosh I have not been to Kew for such a long time. I would love to do that walk and then end with some cocktails. Nice to meet you at Dim Sum class.

Camdenite says

12 September 2014 at 3:00 pm

Lovely to meet you too Bintu! Kew is great and fun for the kids too – interactive displays and lots of room to run around, the area around the station is cute also – lots of little cafés & restaurants.

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