I don’t know about you, but we love a nice drop of gin, so we were excited to be invited to the 10^th anniversary celebrations for Balmenach Distillery’s Caorunn Gin, the handcrafted small batch gin from in the Scottish Highlands.

Caorunn Gin really pushed the boat out with a fantastic immersive gin experience for all the senses and as well as introducing us to their new Caorunn Highland Strength (54%) as well as their first ever flavoured gin: Caorunn Scottish Raspberry, which were both launched earlier this year and join the Caorunn small batch Scottish gin they have been producing for a decade.

There were quite a few surprises for us in store at the beautiful with botanicals and flowers decorated venue, just South of the river near London Bridge, teaching us to use our senses of smell, sight, taste, hearing and touch and how they all work together so we can truly appreciate the subtle nuances of flavours.

For example, at one station we were given a nose clip to make sure we could only taste, but not smell, an apple sorbet. It tasted of apple, but as soon as you took the nose clip off, you could suddenly also taste the cinnamon in it. I would never have believed that you need your taste buds and your sense of smell to taste a strong spice like that.

At another station we were given two cocktails, one red, one yellow and had to decide which one we preferred. They tasted quite distinctly different to me, but, as it turned out, they were exactly the same, just given a different hue with the help of a few drops of food colouring.

There were different cocktails (I loved the one with honey and served with the new Caorunn Scottish Raspberry) and nibbles. Eating the Asian beef salad with 1.5m long forks was a bit of a challenge – but fun! The raspberry ice lollies were much easier to navigate!

It was a fun and educational evening.

 

About Caorunn

Caorunn gin is handcrafted infusing five locally foraged botanicals including dandelion, heather, coul blush apple, bog myrtle and rowan berry along with six traditional gin botanicals and natural Scottish water. Fresh and floral on the nose, this gin is clean, sweet, full-bodied and aromatic with a long-lasting dry and crisp finish.

About Caorunn Scottish Raspberry

Crafted at Balmenach Distillery in the Scottish Highlands, Gin Master Simon Buley made Caorunn Scottish Raspberry in small batches of 1,000 litres at a time, infused to perfection with Perthshire raspberries in the world’s only working Copper Berry Chamber.

He comments:

“We’re incredibly proud to be introducing our very first flavoured gin just ahead of our 10-year anniversary of Caorunn gin, here at Balmenach Distillery. Caorunn Scottish Raspberry leverages the same trusted process that has made Caorunn gin such a success over the last decade. This process, paired with the unique infusion of Perthshire raspberries has allowed us to create a bright, clean and fruity gin that we’re incredibly proud to be adding to our range.”

Bottled at 41.8% ABV, Caorunn Scottish Raspberry retails at £21 per 50cl bottle and is available to buy from Independent & Specialist Retailers.

About Caorunn Highland Strength

Gin Master Simon Buley:“Consumers right across the UK have told us that they’d love to see a gin at this higher strength so, we’re very pleased to be introducing Caorunn Highland Strength to our range of gins this Summer, just ahead of our 10-year anniversary. The strength of this gin enhances the unique flavour of Caorunn to create a fragrant and herbaceous gin that tastes both peppery and fruity and leaves a luxurious and satisfying finish.”

Caorunn Highland Strength retails at £40.00 per 70cl bottle and is available from Independent & Specialist Retailers. At this year’s International Spirits Challenge – an event which promotes outstanding quality spirits across the world – Caorunn Highland Strength was awarded a Double Gold medal.

The doors of their iconic Balmenach Distillery are open to the public, where visitors are invited to experience the distilling process first-hand. For more information on Caorunn and their Highland distillery, please visit: www.caorunngin.com