Guys, Taylor Swift was right. August really has sipped away like a bottle of wine. Or, in this case, gin. As per usual, today’s post is all about the recent offerings from Craft Gin Club in their August box, which is inspired by the rich cuisine and culture of Singapore, aka. The Lion City.
Disclaimer: I am not an affiliate for Craft Gin Club, and have not been compensated in any way for this post. My gin subscription is ordered and paid for out of my own money and all opinions are my own.
What’s in the Box?
Brass Lion Singapore Dry Gin
Twisted Tonic Water – Thai Lime & Lemongrass
Martin Frobisher’s Cherry Juice
The Dormen Sweet Chilli Peanuts
Wild Cassava Chips – Sweet Chilli & Onion
Upstream Strawberry & Lychee
Uncle Saba’s Poppadoms – Sweet Chilli
Brown Bag Crisps – Tiger Prawn with a Hint of Chilli and Lime
Singapore Fling Cocktail Syrup
Pineapple and pink peppercorn garnish
Brass Lion Singapore Dry Gin
Distilled in Singapore, Brass Lion Gin has won multiple awards including Best Contemporary Style (Gold) at the 2021 World Gin Awards and the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong 2019 International Wine & Spirit Competition (Silver). Launched in the UK exclusively through Craft Gin Club, it’s crafted with 22 botanicals, each one reflecting the culture and flavours of the Lion City. Among others, it combines chrysanthemum, torch ginger flower, lemongrass orange peel, mandarin peel, cinnamon and cardamom to create a tropical gin that’s packed with flavour. While Brass Lion Gin wasn’t my favourite gin out of this year’s offerings (nothing specific that I didn’t like, I just liked some of the others more) I can certainly see why it’s won so many awards. Flavour wise, there was so much going on. You get citrus, you get floral, you get spice – so chances are it’ll appeal to most gin fans. If you regularly read my Craft Gin Club reviews, you’ll know I’m all about the citrus notes, so it certainly didn’t disappoint on that front!
Twisted Tonic Water – Thai Lime & Lemongrass
Twisted wasn’t a brand I’d heard of until their tonics appeared in this month’s box, but I’ll definitely be looking out for them in the future. This refreshing craft tonic is gorgeous and pairs so well with the Brass Lion Gin. Described as a “craft tonic with a difference,” Twisted’s selling point is that it has the same sweetness of lemonade, making it a great option for those who aren’t fans of your average tonic water. I loved how well the tonic paired with this month’s gin – you had the tropical flavours of the Thai lime, as well as slight hints of cardamom for balance. Once you combined the G&T with this month’s garnish (pineapple and pink peppercorn), the flavours were enhanced even more, making it a gorgeously refreshing summer drink that had the ideal balance of bitter and sweet.
Snacks
If you’ve followed my Craft Gin Club reviews for this long, you’ll know how I’ve felt about the various snack offerings each month. Initially, when I unpacked this month’s snacks, I was pretty disappointed – how many fricking sweet chilli flavoured things did they need to throw in this month? I’ll answer that – four. I don’t mind sweet chilli as a flavour, but it’s not my favourite. So, with that in mind, these instantly went into my snack cupboard never to be seen again. However, cut to a few weeks later, when I was drunk and desperate for snacks. It was then that I demolished three of the four in record time. The Wild Cassava Chips were probably my favourite – they had everything you’d want from a decent packet of crisps but they generally felt much lighter and I could have polished off a bag that was double the size. The poppadoms were really tasty but they had quite a kick to them compared to the flavour of the other two so by the end of it my mouth was on fire. When it comes to the Brown Bag crisps, the sweet chilli flavour was quite punchy but the tiger prawn side of it was a bit too much for me. Still, the combination of all three meant that all of the booze I’d consumed that evening was absorbed and my hangover the next morning was virtually non-existent.
The Cocktail: Singapore Fling
The Singapore Fling made use of the Frobisher’s cherry juice, along with the syrup which had a pretty strong pineapple flavour to it. I’d tasted Frobisher’s cherry juice before in a Cherry Bakewell cocktail (cherry juice combined with almond liqueur and vodka), and the sweetness of the almond created a really nice balance with the cherry flavour. So, with that in mind, I wasn’t sure whether or not cherry juice alone with gin would be my bag. Admittedly, it wasn’t bad, but I can’t say I’d have another one. The flavour was far too sickly to have more than one of them. Normally the ingredients they give you are enough to make at least one more cocktail, but on this occasion I decided against it and just necked the gin with the tonic.
Final Thoughts
While this was one of the rare occasions where I actually ate the snacks, I still felt that the variety they sent in August’s box was a bit of a letdown. Normally they send you a combination of different flavours among the snacks (I’ll admit, I got sassy in a few posts about the ‘weird’ flavours they send, so I’m aware I’m being a bit of a hypocrite now), but it seemed like this month was very heavy on the sweet chilli. Of course, some people may have loved that, and that’s fair enough, but they definitely could have done with throwing in something of a different flavour. Again, while I wasn’t the biggest fan of the cocktail this month, the gin and the tonics picked to go with it were winners in my book, so they certainly saved some otherwise meh offerings.
Sassy Cat Lady 