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Old Tom Pouch

£22.50

The OLD TOM Pouch

This is a gin for those who like a gin with a history. Old School so to speak.
FOR THE FULL LOW DOWN – HAVE A READ BELOW
It is a throw-back gin, to when gin was less dry and more spicy, botanical and just, well, bigger.

So an Old Tom is the link between an old, malty, hot toddy style Dutch Genever and the now popular London Dry Style Gin.
So, with our version, you will get a big tasting gin, but using all natural botanicals and fruits and spices.

Expect a hit of citrus and pink peppercorn spice on the nose with hints of licorice and zesty ginger.
In the mouth it is a nourishing, moreish gin, not dry, not sweet, just very warm and agreeable.
Cardamom, calamus root, licorice, peppercorns and ginger, bind ever so well with orange and grapefruit with an off dry juniper finish.

People often ask me what is my favourite gin.

Well, and Old Tom, with a slice of orange peel and a good tonic does me just fine.

Enjoy!

Description

The Steel River ‘OLD TOM‘ Refill Pouch.

Handy. Economical. And if you send the empty pouch back to us, or use it again;  very good for the environment.

This is a gin for those who like a gin with a history. Old School so to speak.
It is a throw-back gin, to when gin was less dry and more spicy, botanical and just, well, bigger.

The Dutch invented what we now call Gin. They called it GENEVER. And they were producing the stuff way back in the 1500 and 1600s.
When the Dutch ruled the spice trade (many years before the British did with The East India Company)

Having access to an array of new and exciting botanicals and spices like pepper, cardamom and juniper
meant that they were the ones who established Genever as a mainstream, commercial drink.
In many places in Holland and Belgium, it was drank hot, like mulled wine.

And it was just as spicy, citrussy and botanical.

Genever made its way over the sea to England with soldiers returning from The Thirty Years War,
where they had been introduced to it by the Dutch soldiers who seemed to have no fear and were always nice and warm from drinking it.
(That’s where we get the term ‘Dutch Courage’ from!)

Also, in 1688, the Dutch King, William 3rd (William of Orange, yes he) ascended to the English throne with his marriage to our Queen Mary.

Being Dutch, he brought many of his countrymen to the Royal Court and with that, also the popularity of Genever.
Which soon overtook French Brandy as the drink of choice for the aristocracy and noblemen and women.
Also, he didn’t like the French very much anyways!

The popularity of Genever, or as it was becoming known around London as ‘Hollands’ exploded in the 1700s.
At one point the average Londoner was drinking 168 pints of the stuff a year. Now even for a Teessider that’s alot!
‘Hollands’ style gin was still a malty, spicy, citrussy affair with pronounced licorice.
This may have been to mask the roughness of the spirit as much of it was produced illegally and unlicensed. 

The reason for the name OLD TOM has many myths, legends and stories.
Some say it came from when a cat called Tom fell into a vat of gin at a distillery and drowned (but it did leave a very distinct flavour to the gin!).
Another version is that Tom was the owner and founder, Thomas Chamberlain from Hodges Distillery, who launched an Old Tom gin with a cat on the label in the 1880s.

This is maybe why it became popular to place wooden plaques of a cat on various secret gin moonshine operations around London,
when the government was trying to crack down on illegal gin making and curb the thirst for the drink amongst the masses.

Those in the know would see the cat sign, and slotting their coin under the cat’s paw repeated the lines
“Puss, give me two pennyworth of gin!” And a shot of gin would come down a tube and straight into their mouths!
Eventually, as we British are prone to do, we tweaked the original ‘Hollands’ recipe, put less exotic botanicals in, made it a slightly drier drink, with more juniper and very much improved the distilling process.

Especially as the Industrial Revolution took shape and more modern, efficient techniques
were introduced around the burgeoning distilling areas of London, namely, Bermondsey, Clerkenwell and Southwark.
Where one Alexander Gordon (Gordons Gin) founded a distillery, all the way back in 1769.

Gin became drier and distinctive and much made in that area, hence why we still call that type of gin a London Dry Style.
So an Old Tom is the link between an old, malty, hot toddy style Dutch Genever and the now popular London Dry Style Gin.
So, with our version, you will get a big tasting gin, but using all natural botanicals and fruits and spices.

Expect a hit of citrus and pink peppercorn spice on the nose with hints of licorice and zesty ginger.
In the mouth it is a nourishing, moreish gin, not dry, not sweet, just very warm and agreeable.
Cardamom, calamus root, licorice, peppercorns and ginger, bind ever so well with orange and grapefruit with an off dry juniper finish.

People often ask me what is my favourite gin.
Well, and Old Tom, with a slice of orange peel and a good tonic does me just fine.
So here you have one, all in a handy refill pouch to top up that bottle you’ve obviously done in, because you are a GIN LEGEND!

 

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