Just sent out a fresh Glass — this time on getting The Fear pre-publication, wanting comfort from my drinking venues, and the flavour of buchu.

Read it for free here 👇

https://theglass.substack.com/p/gin-diaries-no-5

#GinATastingCourse #Newsletter #Cocktails #Gin #Buchu #Alcohol #CocktailBar #DrinkingCulture

Hi, who dis?

An updated #Introduction for new followers:

I'm a #DrinksWriter from #London.

My book #GinATastingCourse will be published in September 2023.

I write about #Beer, #Cider, #Spirits and #Cocktails. (Sometimes with a #Travel or #Sustainability angle.)

I mainly post about #Booze but also sometimes #Coding — I like to automate my boring admin using #Python and #ObsidianMD.

I also post about #Writing and particularly #NonFiction, and what it's like living the #WritingLife.

God, who knew acknowledgements pages were so hard to write!?

#AmWriting #NonFictionBook #GinATastingCourse

Just delivered a whole buncha book to my editors.

Totally normal to get The Fear at this point and imagine you've picked terrible nonsense gins to include, right? Right??

Comes out in September with DK Books, title is GIN: A TASTING COURSE.

Find out then if my fear is misplaced or totally justified, I guess. :)

#GinATastingCourse #Gin #Spirits #Cocktails #NonFictionBook #AmWriting

Good tasting day today, handed out a few 10/10 perfect scores. Only a couple of duds. Lists for all but two flavour groups starting to look fairly settled and complete.

Can't say yet which ones got top marks - got to keep something back for the book! - but I can say one was French, one was South African and two were English.

#GinATastingCourse #NonFictionBook #Gin #GinTasting #AmWriting

Getting a bit poetical in my tasting notes today. If gin were a town... Juniper driving the citrus party bus... I wonder what's next.

#GinATastingCourse #Gin #AmWriting #NonFictionBook #GinTasting

Nerding out about the various flavour compounds present in gin (especially the monoterpenoids), and how they can uncover links between its various botanicals.

Gone about 400 words over and need to stop now, but I feel like there's lots more to say here.

#Gin #GinATastingCourse #AmWriting #NonFictionBook #OrganicChemistry #Alcohol #Flavour

God I love it when I get to write up a 10/10 super delicious gin. Even more so when I know the people who make it are lovely folks who deserve success. Just hoping I managed not to gush *too* much.

#Hyperbole #Gin #AmTasting #AmWriting #NonFictionBook #GinATastingCourse

I've spent so long googling various gins for this book that I'm now shown gin-related ads inside citymapper.

#GinATastingCourse

Over 100 gins tasted now and luckily very few rejects so far.

Just tasted a superb one from Japan. Have received 10 Japanese gins so consider for my book. The tally so far stands at 6 yes, 1 maybe and 3 no.

(This is all provisional, mind you, until I've tasted through all the other possible contenders.)

#GinATastingCourse #Gin #NonFictionBook #AmWriting

I'm very lucky to have a job where I get to sit around tasting gin all day* and call it work.

Most of the time they're pretty good, too. Sometimes I get disappointing gins or lacklustre gins, but very rarely do I get anything outright unpleasant.

The one just now though... fuck me that was vile.

* Using a spittoon, before you make drunk jokes.

#OccupationalHazard #DrinksWriting #Gin #AmWriting #NonFictionBook #GinATastingCourse

Short thread on using Obsidian for managing my notes while writing a non-fiction book on gin.

It's satisfying to see how my notes are growing. They've already proved useful for teasing out connections such as gins that share unusual botanicals, or quickly seeing which gins vapour infuse which botanicals.

#Gin #GinATastingCourse #NonFictionBook #AmWriting #ObsidianMD #PKM

Tasting again. Starting with this lot but hope to fit in a few more besides.

#GinATastingCourse #Gin #NonfictionBook #AmWriting

First gin out the tasting blocks today is a belter.

I didn't expect anything from this gin, so it's a really pleasant surprise to boot.

#GinATastingCourse #GinTasting #NonFictionBook #AmWriting #DrinksWriting

Today's agenda

#GinATastingCourse #Gin #NonfictionBook #AmWriting

Massive spreadsheets will only get you so far.

I've started using Obsidian to organise my notes on all the gins I'm tasting for the book I'm writing.

It's great, you basically build a personal wiki to organise and link up all your knowledge.

I've only plugged a handful of them into it so far, but already the graph showing my notes and how they're linked looks like this.

http://obsidian.md/

#GinATastingCourse #NonFictionBook #Obsidian #LinkingThinking #PKO #KnowledgeOrganiser #Markdown

I was today years old when I discovered Australia* has no legal definition of gin.

It's lumped under 'spirit', which is: "a potable alcoholic distillate, including whisky, brandy, rum, gin, vodka and tequila, produced by distillation of fermented liquor derived from food sources, so as to have the taste, aroma and other characteristics generally attributable to that particular spirit."

* I think this applies to New Zealand also.

#Gin #Australia #NewZealand #Spirits #Drinks #GinATastingCourse

A mini thread for you.

Things people ask me when they learn I'm writing a book on gin:

"How many gins will you taste?" (It's always more than they think.)

"Are you just drunk all the time?" (No. Spittoons exist.)

"How many gins are there? Like... 20?"
(LOL no, it's much more than that.)

"It must be hard figuring out what to say."
(Well...)

If you're also wondering how it all works, check out this post on The Glass - link in next toot 👇

#Gin #GinATastingCourse #NonFictionBook #AmWriting

New Gin Diaries post coming up on The Glass tomorrow.

This one is on what it's like to be writing a #NonFictionBook about #Gin. A day-to-day behind-the-scenes sorta thing.

If you want to get it right into your inbox you can sign up here:

https://theglass.substack.com

It's a free, irregular newsletter on #Beer #Cider #Sprits #Cocktails.

#GinATastingCourse #TheGlass #NewLetter #DrinksWriting

Tasting a 'gin' that, while absolutely delicious, doesn't seem to contain any juniper at all. And marking it down accordingly.

Love it, but I can't put it into the book.

#AmWriting #GinATastingCourse #NonFictionBook #GinTasting #Gin