Did you know that “all gins must contain juniper – in fact, the predominant flavour must be juniper, otherwise the drink can’t be defined as gin, by law”?

Well, that’s a “crucial” little fun fact I discovered while perusing all things gin on the ol’ www this morning, more specifically on the Craft Gin Club website.

The reason for such perusal on a Sunday morning …

Typically, thinking about a spirit on a Sunday morning, after what may have been a boozy Saturday night, is the last thing you’d want to be doing!

… is that yesterday, 12 June 2021, was World Gin Day.

And sadly, I missed it because I only discovered that it was in fact such a day when browsing the marie claire Instagram this morning, and stumbling upon their article, ‘Celebrate World Gin Day With These Six Unique, One-Of-A-Kind Gin Flavours’.

Let the celebrations be GIN!

According to worldginday.com, World Gin Day, which began in 2009 and has been celebrated on the second Saturday of June each year since, is about getting “people together all around the world to raise a glass to the brilliant spirit that is gin”.

In fact, it’s about giving “a platform to bars and brands to engage with the gin-loving public”.

And given the coronavirus crap we’ve all endured the last 12+ months, which the hospitality industry has felt the brunt of perhaps more significantly than most due to all the lockdowns and social distancing restrictions, what better way to celebrate the industry than through days like World Gin Day.   

For more on the story behind World Gin Day, visit: worldginday.com/about/

It started with a little bit of Dutch Courage

While J will tell you that it really started with an early visit to the airport in December last year (and yes, that was definitely the case), I like to add that our love story was really cemented with a little bit of gin and a whole lot of Dutch Courage 😉

It was the start of the new year and having just flown back to Brisbane after a whirlwind trip to visit my family in Melbourne for Christmas (my holiday down south was cut short because of, well, you guessed it – corona!), J and I had planned to meet up at a local bar, Dutch Courage.

Our second first date. The beginning of what has become the best thing to ever happen – the greatest li’l love story.

We’d spoken about going for a gin when I got back to Brissy (“Play your cards right and we’ll see *wink*,” was my I’m-trying-to-be-flirty response), so it was only fitting our second first date was at a gin bar.  

And Dutch Courage, “a plantation-style gin bar” (in fact, according to its website, it was actually Queensland’s first gin bar) was the perfect setting for our second first date.

The gin cocktails were absolutely divine, the setting with its “vintage campaign furniture, hessian curtains and authentic safari touches” was perfectly intimate and the food was delicious – it was the perfect summer’s night.

The perfect second first date.

With World Gin Day being yesterday, and with gin officially becoming the drink that cemented the best thing to ever happen (J + G), let’s raise a glass of gin (well, maybe after midday … 8:30 AM on a Sunday morning is possibly a little early!) to this fine juniper spirit.

A day late but nonetheless, Happy World Gin Day, lovers.

x G.