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I was invited to Hayman’s of London for a tasting and tour of their iconic Gin Distillery in Balham.
I had successfully placed a Distillery Manager with Haymans of London, whom I had headhunted from a rival distillery. He had reached out to thank me for what he described as “the best decision” he had ever made and how much he was enjoying being part of such a prestigious business. As a thank you, I was offered a complimentary tour and tasting.
As a gin connoisseur – I jumped at the chance, Haymans are steeped in history, being the inventors of the original London dry gin and being a fifth-generation owned family business who are admired within the industry.
I wasn’t disappointed, I spent three hours in their beautiful distillery, first was a meet and greet with Phil Gabriel, the distillery manager I had placed. He gave a detailed and enjoyable brief history of the family rich ties to Gin manufacturing, we then moved on to a botanicals room – where we were able to smell and mix/grind ingredients to make a perfect gin. This was really fun, we learnt about the fundamental gin flavours, such as Juniper, Angelica Root, Coriander seeds and Oris. It was interactive as around 20 people on the tour, we all got to smell each other’s concoctions, some were much better than others!!
Next was on to the main event – the tasting! We sat around a boardroom style table. Where we were presented with an original gin, a lemon gin, and a summer cup. We tasted these with and without tonics and was taught how to saviour and identify the flavours.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and to top things off I was given a 20% discount in the gift shop, so it seemed rude not to take home a bottle of their award-winning Citrus Lemon Gin.
Cheers Haymans!
