I den lille, idylliske landsbyen Woodstock (ca to timer med bil fra London) ligger hotellet The Feathers. Hotellet har en super restaurant og verdens største ginbar. Baren inneholder 188 forskjellige typer gin, så er du klar for en helaften med drinker, er det kanskje ikke så dumt å ha et eget hotell på huset, og dermed kort vei til sengen.
Jeg spiste i restauranten, som var en opplevelse i seg selv. Woodstock ligger rett ved Winston Churchills slott, Blenheim Palace, så jeg anbefaler en matbit på The Feathers før man drar over til det gedigne, men praktfulle bygget.
Dette er slik The Feathers selv beskriver den ultimate gin & tonic:
With over 60 Gins to choose from, how do you choose the perfect Gin to
complement the awesome Q Tonic? After much tasting, we believe that we have created the Ultimate G&T.
• Blackwood’s 2007 60% Vintage Dry
The first Gin to use local botanical ingredients from Shetland, the beautiful islands situated at the far North of Scotland. Made in small batches, each bottle is individually numbered; the 60% volume reflects the Shetland’s 60 degree North location. Bracing, crisp and richly aromatic, Blackwood’s Nordic Dry Gin’s unique flavor comes from its ingredients which include wild water mint, sea pink and meadowsweet flowers, coriander, and angelica root strain all picked on Shetland by local crofters as well as seven other botanicals including turmeric, citrus peel and orris root.
• ‘’ 1724’’
We´re not going to bore you with the usual tonic water history class, we just want to go back to its true origins. So we won´t tell you about the Spanish conquistadors who discovered quinine in the Americas and used it to save the life of a dying countess in the eighteenth century, nor will we recount tales of the ancient Inca civilization that had used quinine over 100 years earlier, or even that the trees from which the quinine was extracted were to be found on the legendary Inca Trail. All you need to know is that for this tonic they collect the quinine by hand at 1,724 metres above sea level, there where the story began, on the inca trail that stretches from Argentina almost all the way to Mexico.
• Ice Cubes
From Blenheim Palace Natural Mineral Water, the spring is located just 1 mile from The Feathers.
Min G&T:
For meg holder det med Tanqueray gin og Schweppes Tonic. Isbiter med vann fra springen og en skive sitron, lime eller agurk.
Blandingsforholdet er 4 cl gin i et longdrink-glass og resten tonic og isbiter.
Dette høres kanskje klysete ut, men jeg elsker gin & tonic, og især etter en lang dag på safari. Safari er nemlig en av de beste måter å feriere på, og jeg er heldig å opplevd det mange, mange ganger. Etter å ha vært ute i frisk luft en hel dag og sett på skjønn natur og flotte dyr, er det deilig å sette seg ned med en iskald G&T og oppsummere dagen.
