Roald Dahl has a lot to answer for! I remember his books so fondly from my own childhood that I thought T1 and T2 were now of the age to appreciate great childhood literature. One of my favourite Roald Dahl books is George’s Marvellous Medicine and I knew the mischievous nature of this book would soon have my boys hooked. So much so we finished it in two nights.
Now what I wasn’t expecting was for T2 to take the main narrative of the book quite so literally! Waking up the following Saturday, things seem far too quiet and T1, T2 and the +1 are already awake and downstairs. Having learned from the Golden Syrup incident, I cautiously approached the kitchen door. From here I could hear a mad flurry of activity and whispers “quick daddy is coming, hide it”. To be honest, at this point I did contemplate going no further in to the kitchen, turning round, going back upstairs to bed and letting the wife “discover” whatever they were hiding. However, my gin collection is in the kitchen and I need to make sure its safe!
Taking a deep breath I walk in to the kitchen and find the fridge, table, floor, walls, cupboards, in fact pretty much everything, including the 3 kids covered in red dots of some wet powdery substance. The whole kitchen looked like it had chickenpox….kitchenpox! Ha!
Calmly and with a forced smile, I asked the 3 of them what had happened…….Silence. I ask again and T2 jumps in, “nothing, what do you mean Daddy?”. Sometimes you feel like pointing out the bloody obvious but I bite my lip and ask what the red spots are over everything. “What red spots Daddy?”….Umm the ones that now cover every bit of the kitchen and you and your brothers faces! No no no, keep calm and remember it’s only harmless experimentation. Where is the whatever it is you were playing with? T2 quickly replies “I don’t know”, but T1 says that he’s hidden it under the sofa.
Bending down to look under the sofa, I find a large bowl filled with some red goo and a spoon. When I ask what it is, T2 tells me it’s his potion. Ok, and what is in this potion!? “I don’t know”. T1 then informs me that there is bicarbonate of soda and vinegar in there. I enquire how much as there is a lot of this “potion”. “Oh the bottle and the pot are there Daddy”. Umm that’s a whole bottle of vinegar and a whole pot of bicarb, that’ll explain the explosion then and how it hit the ceiling!
Hang on, back up, this is red. What else is in here!? Now T2 can’t wait to spill the beans, all of a sudden he’s found his voice and like some crazed scientist he leads me round the kitchen telling me what he has added. Salt, sugar, suncream, hand wash. The list is endless, but none of this explains why it is red. Eventually we get to another cupboard and it contains the baking things, I’m not sure I like where this is going. Why is the lid missing from the red food colouring? That stuff stains my hands, how is this coming off the white ceiling!?
After explaining to them that some “ingredients” are probably not the best to mix together and can have nasty effects such as mini eruptions (queue sniggering and comments of that’s why we did it), but more importantly can burn your skin or damage your eyes, we promptly got them a subscription to a kids science experiment magazine to harness their curious chemistry interest. Why did we do this!? It seemed like the right thing to do, just like when we bought them a drum kit. Something tells me I’ll regret this further down the line. Watch this space.
Gin time! I’ll be upfront here, the creator of Tiger Gin was so confident I would like his gin that he sent me a sample. However, this is still a completely honest review just like all our others.
What I like about the story behind Tiger Gin is that it’s where a lot of us have been. JJ Lawrence took that interest and passion about gin, turned it into an obsession and created a beautifully balanced gin.
Tiger Gin has a smooth, well balanced yet complex set of flavours. The initial hit of juniper is softened quickly by a balanced sweetness from the liquorice and warmth from cinnamon. The citrus finish is perfectly coupled with the sweetness and freshness of a slice of orange. Tiger Gin is a very easily drinkable G&T and perfect for a sunny summers evening (or daytime!).
Price Paid
Sample from the very kind people at Tiger Gin.
Can be purchased for around £40 online and a list of stockists are available here
Tastes Like
It has a bit of everything, sweet, warm, citrus, yet smooth.
Would go well with
Tonic and a generous slice of orange
Recommended?
Oh yes! It’s so easy to drink.