Move over mulled wine. Britain’s got a thing for gin this Christmas and Martin Miller’s has created the perfect gift for discerning juniper loving drinkers.
With Mad Men, James Bond and The Great Gatsby fuelling the premium gin revival*, the mixologist’s favourite has introduced its Christmas 2012 limited edition Gin & Tonic Connoisseur Gift Box.
A design and taste feast for gin aficionados, the Gift Box includes an essential collection of a full 70cl bottle of Martin Miller’s award-winning, classic dry gin, a long handled mixing spoon (used by the world’s top mixologists as the twisted top helps to aerate the bubbles when pouring tonic water) and a jar of junipers which, when floated on the top of a G&T, bring out a more intense flavour of the drink.
Inside the box, the secrets of ginspiration are revealed with tips for preparing Martin Miller’s perfect gin & tonic, although the gin is as good served neat to enjoy the full flavours of the botanicals or mixed into a classic cocktail to impress the neighbours over drinks.
Presented in the gin’s signature heavy-weight, crystal clear glass bottle the gin and its botanicals are a taste feast – familiar juniper, coriander, angelica, and orris root, coupled with the more unusual cassia, cinnamon bark, and liquorice, with citrus elements of bitter Seville orange peel and lime and hints of cucumber on the finish.
Batch distilled
Martin was the first to use cucumber in his gin and his obsession with every last detail of recipe, quality of ingredients, distilling processes and his inspired madness by insisting on the use of Icelandic spring water to blend the gin to bottling strength gives the gin’s characteristic smoothness and multi award-winning taste and aroma. Uniquely, the gin is batch distilled like whisky and unlike any other gin uses two separate distillations in their century-old copper pot still named ‘Angela’ – one for the juniper and earthy botanicals and one for the citrus peels which gives Martin Miller’s its clarity of flavour.
Give your gifts some ginspiration this Christmas. The Martin Miller’s Gin & Tonic Connoisseur Gift Box is the perfect present for cocktail gurus, gin lovers and foodie fans alike. Available from Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Wine Rack, Nicholas, Oddbins and Drinkshop.com. RRP£25.
Top tips for preparing Martin Miller’s perfect Christmas G&T
COLD: It is most important to use all the ingredients as cold as possible – both the gin and lots of large ice cubes straight from the freezer
THE GLASS: The best type of glass is a large balloon style. Perfect for holding the glass without warming the contents and for displaying the beautiful citrus and botanical aromas
GARNISH: Use a long twist of lime peel. Lime is the floral pairing for Martin Miller’s, not lemon. Don’t use the pulp of the lime either as this destroys the bubbles! Then drop into the glass 3 or 4 juniper berries
BUBBLES: It’s the bubbles that bring out the nuances in Martin Miller’s gin, so be sure to keep as much fizz in the tonic as possible
BE PATIENT! Wait 30 seconds while all the ingredients mix and marry together. Gently stir with the mixing spoon if needed. ENJOY!
The Gin Revival
- Martin Miller was the first to ‘kick off’ the gin revival with the launch of his eponymous gin in 1999.
- The super premium gin market has quadrupled in four years
- Premium gin sales in the UK rose by 11.6% last year to 304,750 cases – premium gin now represents 7.9% of the UK gin sector (source: International Wine & Spirit Research)
- Ocado gin sales rose by over 70% during the Jubilee, Euro 2012 and London 2012 – their biggest uplift this year
- Gin consumption amongst young urban Brits rose by 60% last year
- Martin Miller’s global growth year to date is +80% making it the fastest growing and largest independently owned gin made in England.
Martin Miller’s Background and the Gin Renaissance
Born of love, obsession and a degree of madness, Martin Miller’s passion for creating the best gin money could buy became a reality in 1999, 18 long months after he first sat down with two friends in a Notting Hill pub and announced that he wanted to make his own gin. Gazing into their very sad looking G&Ts and limp lemon slices, and bemoaning the parlous state of gins available, the trio discussed how good a gin they could make if they placed no practical, fiscal or even geographical limitations on its creation.
By the end of a long and liquid lunch Martin had persuaded his friends to take a stab at making the best possible gin money could buy, with the only downside being left lots of very expensive gin to drink if things didn’t work out.
For Martin Miller, boutique hotelier and author of the famous Miller’s Antique Price Guide, his mission was clear. To re-invent the quintessentially British tipple, shed its ‘old man and spinsters’ image, challenge the woeful examples being poured into G&Ts in almost every pub in Britain and get good gin back into the glasses of discerning drinkers. During those 18 painstaking months, the trio tried out endless combinations of distilling processes and botanical ingredients.
Either by design, or what Martin calls stumbling around in the dark” (probably a bit of both), the world’s first super premium gin was born.