Hello Folks!
Jim here.
Now, many of you regular Jim and Tonic punters will be well versed in our menus, and that we like giving each drink a name to bring each one to life…
Think ‘John’ or ‘Nigel’ but a little bit more exciting (sorry to any John’s or Nigel’s reading this) 😂
Sometimes we serve other craft gins, and obviously we serve our own collection of sustainable urban gin, but regardless of the brand, every drink always HAS to have a name (it’s a Jim and Tonic rule)...
For those of you who are new to Jim and Tonic, firstly…. Hello and welcome! Secondly, and the important stuff…
Here’s a few menus of ours from over the past couple of years so you get the idea...
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
When I started Jim and Tonic in early 2016 (read more on that in my 7 Ginteresting Reasons why Jim and Tonic was started post), I really wanted to give our customers the BEST possible Gin and Tonic…
Which is no easy task 😧
And the thing with Gin is, and one of the things that makes it so amazing and popular, is that the flavours can be so WILDLY different...
We know most of you know this but it’s good to remember anyway and if you don’t believe us check out The Botanical Tasting Wheel from the good people over at The Gin Foundry...
One person’s favourite G&T would be avoided by another and we’ve generally found those who say “I don’t like Gin and Tonic!” just haven’t tried a good one! (or got too drunk as a teenager on their Grannies cheap Gordon’s and Schweppes…. You know who you are).
SO MUCH can affect the taste of your G&T:
- the Gin
- the tonic
- the carbonation of the tonic
- the garnish
- the ice
- and even the glass (we’ll talk about this in detail another time)
So from the very outset, I knew I wanted to give people the Tina Turner of a G&T (simply the best) 👊
OUR VERY FIRST MENU
Before we even served our first G&T in 2016, I spent lots of time drinking G&T’s - someone had to and in the name of quality myself and my original business partner Nick put our next mornings on the line for our lovely customers…
We sampled a plethora of craft Gins from up and down the UK, and truth be told all over the world, with different tonics and brands, different garnishes, we used suggested perfect serves from our lovely friends and partners, we tried our own concoctions, we listened to ANYONE and EVERYONE 💁💁♂️
BUT ultimately we chose what we thought was best and put that on our first menu trying to create a nice balance for all to try and enjoy...
And this was it! (May 2016 at Astound Commerce’s Annual Retail Open Gold Day – our very first gig)
FAST FORWARD TO 2020
As time went on Jim and Tonic grew from just a mobile gin van called ‘Genevieve’, to moving into a permanent bar inside Mercato Metropolitano, the sustainability-focused food and drink market in South London.
And so our journey to distil our very own Sustainable Urban Gin in Zone 1 London began in the summer of 2018…
So now our menus are a mixture of our own gins fresh from the distillery behind the bar, as well as a carefully selected range of other craft gin brands we know and love.
Our bar menus are changed each of the four season but we didn’t want people to come to the bar and say…
“I’ll have the Rhubarb and elderflower please”
or
“I’ll have the raspberry and Mediterranean”
or
“Another one of those supercharged cucumber ones please”
No no no! The menu needed more oomph…
Needed to come alive and each drink needed to take on its own personality…
So what better way than to name them. Much better to order a RUBY 💃, PENELOPE 🎀 and BOBBY 🤠
Our customers remember them and become much more fond of their experience with Gin and Tonic, whether it’s their first G&T since their Gran gave them an ill-fated one as an 18 year old, or whether they're a G&T veteran.
NAMING IS FUN
Naming them is fun for us (also lets us taste more Gin)…
It can be as simple as “err that one’s called Bobbys gin lets call the drink BOBBY”…
Progressing to the likes of “PENELOPE she’s a Pinkster and sounds a bit like and dresses like Penelope Pitstop all in Pink”…
HANK was a no nonsense American who used Marshmallows as a garnish and nobody questioned him.
CLELLA (pronounced pretty much as you see it.... KL-ELL-A) is our Flagship Mercato G&T and named after our lovely copper still behind our bar in E&C…
And BECKER is our collab with German Kraft Beer with Ginger Beer. Becker - Ginger, German….think you can guess how we got here.
Anyway when lockdown is over and life moves back to normal or “new’ normal you’ll be able to come and meet our friends again, RUBY, CLELLA, BECKER and the guys and gals will all be waiting for you…
And don’t forget if you’ve bought one of our Gin Gift Set Boxes during lockdown, a G&T is on the house.
Over and out,
Jim
xx
psssst, if you've made it here then I've got a little gift for you.
For the FIRST 5 customers only, I'm offering a 15% VOUCHER valid on any order on our online shop
Simply enter this code at checkout: RUBY15
Be quick, this is only valid for the first 5 customers who use it
