A Gin Advent-ure | Drinks By The Dram Advent Calendars

I’m going to keep this post very short (well short for me!) because I want you to have plenty of time to order one of these brilliant boozy Drinks by the Dram advent calendars and get yourself into the Christmas spirit early – quite literally. We were lucky enough to review their Bourbon calendar last year (and would happily have done so again) but this year I decided to give the Craft and Themed gin version a go this year (£124.95).

Our box of tricks, or rather gin.

The county’s obsession with gin shows no sign of waning and judging by the quality of each of the generous 30ml wax-sealed drams I’m not surprised. We do love a good G&T but tend to stick to our usual brands (being Silent Pool and Sipsmith), but the absolutely wonderful thing about these Drinks by the Dram advent calendars is that you get the chance to sample something new and possibly even discover a new favourite tipple.

Listed below is the full list of what was in our box of booze. Each cute bottle contained a fab gin, we suggest taking a little taster before adding any tonic water (or your choice of mixer) and garnish. As this gins fall into two distinct categories – more traditional dry gins (perfect with tonic) and the flavoured gins that are best sipped neat. Two of our favourites being Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla and J.J. Whitley Violet Gin

SPOILER ALERT!

Ideally, each dram you uncover from behind the 24 windows would be a total surprise. However, we know that some of you just can’t wait to find out the identity of the all-important gins. Don’t worry the drinks below are listed randomly, just to keep you guessing…

Anno Kent Dry Gin
Mary Rose Gin
Tanqueray Flor de Sevilla
Dictador Premium Colombian Aged Gin – Treasure
Bluecoat
Napue Gin
Wayfinder Gin
Hernö Gin
J.J. Whitley Violet Gin
Fifty Pounds Gin
Cotswolds Dry Gin
Edinburgh Gin Seaside Gin
Copperhead Gin – The Gibson Edition
Bathtub Gin – Old Tom
Bathtub Gin – Navy-Strength
Rhubarb Triangle Gin (That Boutique-y Gin Company)
Bareksten Gin
Gin Mare
Scapegrace Gin
Brooklyn Gin
Langley’s Old Tom Gin
Glendalough Wild Botanical Gin
Yuletide Gin (That Boutique-y Gin Company)
Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin

EVEN MORE CHOICE…

Yet it’s not all about the gin. A lot of this last year’s press surrounding Drinks by the Dram’s advent calendars was about the ‘Very Old & Rare Whisky’ edition (costing a whopping £9,995) – the ultimate in advent luxury. This year they have gone one better and they have a choice of not one but two bespoke, handcrafted wooden boxes – walnut and ebony. Must be a tough choice, we’d be happy with just the contents.

But worry not, you don’t need to be in the Sunday Times rich list to get your hands on, (or treat someone to) one of these wonderful boxes of delights. You can choose from 27 different varieties, starting from £99.95 – that’s just over £4 a day.

Drinks by the Dram was launched in 2010 as a way of offering whisky enthusiasts the chance to try sample size tasters of new releases of whisky at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a whole bottle. They definitely got it right and now 8 years on the range includes over 6,000 unique spirits. Now that would one heck of an Advent calendar, 6,000 windows that would take 16.5 years to open… I’m dreaming of a dram Christmas!

The Drinks by the Dram 2018 Advent Calendars are available to pre-order from 31 Dover, Beer Hawk and Master of Malt and will be available from all good drinks retailers (see pic below). RRPs £99.95 to £9,999.95, although we’ve seen some very good deals at the moment.

Available in all good shops…

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We were sent this product to review, this does not affect our judgment in any way.