What I Buy Wednesday

About twice a year, I go to the liquor store to stock up on gin. I love a good gin & tonic! 

On our first book club trip to England--8 years ago--we went to Nottingham for book club at our member, Diane's house. Her husband, Gren took us on a tour. He introduced me to Sipsmith lemon gin. I loved it! I had never heard of flavored gins before--now I'm hooked.

Our local Total Wine has a huge selection. There are so many choices:

From left: elderflower rose gin, cucumber and lemon, rose flavored, indigo gin.

Gray Whale contains 6 California botanicals!

Another botanical, blood orange and grapefruit. I haven't had these brands, but I do like the blood orange and grapefruit.

There's even Irish gin made with potatoes, Sevilla orange and Rangpur lime (I've had the lime and liked it).

Italian fig and laurel, California orange, Sardinian citrus, Brazilian pineapple, and plain Irish gin. I have never had this brand nor, these flavors. They are kinda' pricey for me.

Both of these are just regular gin. 

I have no idea what St. Andrews love gin is, but it's pretty.

Now this cranberry and blood orange sounds interesting.

This is an assortment of regular gins--ther are so many! I would never pick Mr. Pickles.

More regular gin. 

More flavors. But now, let's talk about the bottles. 

I am just as likely to be attracted to a beautiful bottle as I am to what's inside!! So many choices. 

So, without further ado, here's what I actually came home with:

I went ahead and bought the Malfy grapefruit and lemon. I love both of those, although I still prefer the lemon Sipsmith, but that's hard to get here. I've also had blood orange gin and like it too--this is a new brand that I haven't tried before. And finally, the Wild Roots is grapefruit and cucumber. That sounds really interesting. Plus, how cool is that label? I'm a sucker for it all!!

I had planned to take one of these bottles with us to the beach. Instead, as I was putting these away, I saw this one:

I'd forgotten all about it. I don't even remember if I was the one who bought it. Persian lime and orange blossom. This is the bottle we took with us to the beach. It's delicious--even Butch agreed--very refreshing. It's very likely I bought it just because of the brand: Bathtub Gin. Sounds like something right out of the "bootleg" era!

So, what are your thoughts on gin? Do you have a favorite?