#gin monkey

I have the absolute pleasure of being friends with some wonderfully, fabulous ginny folks.  One of them being the lovely Emma Stokes, better known to many as Gin Monkey.  If you’re a fan of gin, but aren’t sure who she is, she’s the gal in charge of World Gin Day which is held every year on the second Saturday in June.  You’d have thought coordinating something so big and ploughing on with her day job as a Scientist would keep Emma busy enough, but oh no, not this little Monkey!  Amongst other things she has collaborated with a Science Jewellery company to create Gin and Tonic necklaces which show our favourite tipple in their molecular forms.  She wrote a book entitled “The Periodic Table of Cocktails” and had just released a Gin Rummy deck of playing cards dedicated to the drink of the moment and beautifully illustrated by a very talented chap called Jean Andre.

Just before Christmas Monkey contacted me to ask for my address, I had a rather giddy feeling as I thought I knew what she might be sending me in the post…the finished product of a project she’d been working on for a little while!  Sure enough, a few days later a cardboard tube popped through my letter box…eeeeeeep!  I carefully unravelled the contents to reveal my very own 99 bottles of gin on the wall scratch off poster!

My problem then became my line of attack, after much debate (with myself) I decided to scratch off the bottles of gin which I own or have owned.  I don’t throw out gin bottles, so have a permanent record of my gin history in the form of bottles…lots of bottles…in lots of rooms!  I also decided to go through alphabetically.  Apparently I suffer from a mild form of OCD.

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There are a real mix of gins on this poster which range from ones which are common and well known, Gordon’s, Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire.  To ones which many people will be far less familiar with, Brookies, Garden Swift and Willem Barentsz.  I asked Emma how on earth she set about whittling down her options to settle on these final 99.  She said, before making her short list she started off with a very long list.

“I made sure there were some people would have tried before, or could get hold of easily.   All of the gins had to be available in the UK and easy to pick up online if they weren’t available in physical stores.  There’s nothing more frustrating that getting it and not being able to scratch some off. “

Of the gins featured on the poster, I can proudly say that I own (or did once own but have consumed with only the bottle left as evidence) 59 of the gins and have tried 71 of them in total.  I maintain it is not a problem, it is an obsession!  I also now have a very useful list of gins which I need to try or more likely buy, so that I can complete the poster.  I’ve even reduced a monthly gin subscription and made it quarterly so I can fill the remaining months with gins which I can scratch off.

These posters can be purchased from the Gin Monkey website for £14.99 plus £1.99 p&p for UK purchases and £3.99 p&p for international shipping.  However, if you use the discount code GINOBSESSIONS when purchasing off her website, the generous little Monkey will give you 10% off until the end of March 2019.

So, that’s me done with my gushing.  Yes I know she’s my friend and some people will say I’m being biased, but I genuinely do really love the idea of the product, which would make a great gift for a gin lover.  The only problem is that I have become slightly obsessed about it and it would appear that the cats are jealous of the amount of attention the poster is getting.

99 bottles of gin on the wall poster was gifted.