Gin with ice

One of the best things about doing the Spirit Trail walk with Karen last September is that I now get a lot of gin themed gifts and invites.  I acquired two spectacular bottles of small batch gin for Christmas (thank you Ruth and Phil) and earlier in the month an invite popped into my inbox to go and visit The Lakes Distillery to enjoy one of their "Ginuary" afternoon teas.  How could I refuse?  (Well, technically I did refuse the first time on account of the fact that I had a migraine and had to cancel our original booking - Steve knew I was really ill when I cancelled my date with gin!)

The Lake District looked magnificent as we wound our way through and obviously we had to stop to take a few photos.

Actually, we didn't even stop for this next photo, I just hung out of the window and managed to get a lucky shot.

Once at the distillery we were ushered into the Boardroom ready for the fun to begin.  First up we got to learn a bit about how they make their gin and sample the regular Lakes Gin, as well as the stronger Explorer Edition which was gloriously smooth and a lot more earthy.  ("I'm getting heather and herbs" said a voice at the back "I'm getting gin and I'm getting tipsy" I muttered to Steve.  Thankfully he was driving home.)

Apparently, in the good old days, gin and lime was served on ships to ward off scurvy and gin and tonic helps with ailments such as malaria and restless legs thanks to the quinine in the tonic. Technically I think the gin could be omitted from both those things with no detrimental effect to the health benefits, but why take that chance?

The food arrived next, accompanied by a Gin Sparkle cocktail - the food was fabulous although we did have a minor debate about which order to eat it in.  Whenever I'm presented with afternoon tea, or a buffet, I can still hear my mum telling me "no sweets until you've had your sandwiches!"

They made it all look so pretty and then we went and did this to it...

By now we were stuffed to the gills so took off on a short walk to admire the alpacas in the field between the Distillery and the Derwent.

This, of course, lead to an increasingly silly conversation in the car on the way home "if the farmer had decided on llamas instead of alpacas, would that have made him a llama farmer?"  Things rapidly deteriorated when I asked the question on Twitter - you can follow the silliness here

On the drive home and we both noticed how the nights are beginning to draw out again.- it's tempting to say "not long till summer" but I don't want to wish the year away.  Plus in the summer there'll be a lot less chance of snow.  Not zero chance, of course, this is still Cumbria.

The Ginary afternoon teas are only available in January but The Lakes Distillery Bistro is open all year - find out more and make your booking here.

NEVER MIND GIN AND TONIC - what about Gin and a Good Book?  Click the pic to find out more about our books & order yours.  😀

Click here to find out more

FINALLY - here's the earworm I've had running around my head ever since we booked this trip - I'm not saying it's responsible for my earlier migraine but it certainly didn't help! 😁