#constantine stores

Penny Drop Cornish Old Tom Gin - an impressive take on the Old Tom style of #gin from @DrinkfinderUK

Old Tom is a distinctive form of gin, generally sweeter than London Dry, owing its origin to the practice in the 18th century of making the rough gins distilled more palatable by sweetening them with liquorice or sugar. It is said that Captain Dudley Bradstreet, following the passing of the Gin Act of 1736 designed to curb the consumption of gin, hung a sign of an old tomcat outside of his London…

Smuggled From Cornwall Gin -@SfCornwall #gin a traditional dry gin with a twist of apple, bought from @DrinkfinderUK

I love my trips to Cornwall and to the nirvana of gin drinkers, the Constantine Stores, the headquarters of Drinkfinder UK. I could spend hours, and hundreds of pounds, browsing their shelves packed with tempting and unusual gins. When in Cornwall I like to come away with some gins spawned by the ginaissance that are distinctive to the county and on my last trip, in October 2020, I picked up a…

William Kerr’s Border Gin - a distinctive #gin from @BordersGin I bought on a recent visit to @Drinkfinderuk

I picked up a bottle of William Kerr’s Border Gin on my latest trip to Constantine Stores. William did not mind as he is dead and, apart from lending his name, unbeknownst to him, to the gin, has nothing to do with the hooch. Who was Kerr, you might ask? Born in the Scottish Border’s town of Hawick in 1779, William Kerr moved south to seek his fame and fortune, joining the Royal Botanical…

Curio Wild Coast Gin - a distinctive Cornish gin from @CurioSpirits which I bought when I visited @Drinkfinderuk

My wife and I enjoy our trips down to Cornwall, taking in the wonderful gardens and breath-taking scenery. Our recent trip this October was more bracing than usual, battling against the ravages of what the meteorologists dubbed Storm Alex. There is something peculiarly British in battling against the elements to stand on Lizard Point, the most southerly point in Britain. As well as…

Sir Robin of Locksley Gin - an interesting gin from @locksleystill bought during my recent visit to @Drinkfinderuk

The ginaissance has spawned so many gins that it is inevitable that some of the age-old categories of gin, London Dry, Old Tom, flavoured, contemporary and the like, are under strain. One gin that is certainly category-fluid is one that I picked up on my recent visit to Constantine Stores, the unprepossessing headquarters of Drinkfinder.co.uk, Sir Robin of Locksley Gin.  

The gin is named…

Gin O’Clock (105) - Rosemullion Dry Gin, a beautiful, distinctive gin from @CornishPure and bought from @DrinkfinderUK

Towards the end of June my wife and I normally make an annual pilgrimage to the Falmouth area of Cornwall. One of the highlights, for me at least, is a trip to Constantine Stores, an unprepossessing store with an Aladdin’s cave of gins of all shapes, sizes and qualities. It is also the headquarters of Drinkfinder.co.uk and as, what with one thing and another, we haven’t got down there, I have had…

Gin O’Clock – Part Eighty Three investigating Nikka Coffey gin

I have commented before that such is the strength of the ginaissance that companies, best known for producing whiskies, are coming down from their Mount Olympus to get a piece of the action. And it is not difficult to see why. To make a decent gin takes far less time than to distil a whisky and time is money.

On a recent visit to the excellent Constantine Stores I was recommended to try Nikka…