Your Guide To Planning A Unique Hen Party With A Gin Infusion Workshop
Hen nights and stag nights are the highlight of any wedding. And undoubtedly so, because these are evenings when you can actually spend time with the bride, get drunk (within reason!) and revel in her joy. Hen parties involve inviting your intimate friends, sisters and cousins, anyone who is part of your closest Mean Girls clique for an evening of drinking, games and fun. You can literally go all out at this party and bring home kegs of beer, order up some pizzas and dance through the night.
Or, you can turn your hen party into a more elegant and sophisticated affair by engaging in an interesting activity – before you go crazy and get sloshed! One of the ways in which you can plan a slightly unique hen party is by attending or home hosting a gin infusion workshop where you learn how to introduce different flavours into this spirit and craft some interesting cocktails out of the flavoured and aromatic concoction.
Gin As A Trending Liquor
In the 18th and 19th century, gin used to be a wildly popular drink. It was particularly enjoyed during the Prohibition Era because gin could be crafted easily in home distilleries or underground production units away from the radar of officials. However, overtime as whisky and vodka took over the mixology scene, the popularity of gin witnessed a slight decline. It is around a century later that the delicious botanical spirit is being revived and experimented with in many cocktail concoctions because it is full of many wild botanicals. The spirit can take a lot in terms of flavour too, which is why it is becoming a much sought after liquor for infusing with different ingredients other than juniper and playing around with lots of layered textures.
Gin Infusion Kits
If you are hosting a hen party at home, one of the best ways to curate a gin infusion night is to bring home readymade kits with which you can dabble in the art of crafting your own flavoured spirits. The kits are complete with different spices, spirit bottles and glasses to pour your drink into. The apparatus also includes an instruction manual or video link where you can watch how to do the infusion by preparing your botanicals, crushing them and pouring them into the spirit to be stored away. Some of the more experimental infusions include using smoke guns with fragrant wood chips to add an aromatic, forest-y touch to the spirit.
Themed Infusions
Another way to work with infusions at a hen night is to narrow down the flavours which you want to add to your gin. This is a botanical spirit with herbaceous notes that go well with lots of spicy and floral ingredients. So you can introduce really aromatic infusions like rose, lavender, vanilla and spices like cinnamon, cardamom, anise or cloves into the drink that are ideal for a wedding theme. You can store the bottles you prepare with labels on them to indicate who prepared which one. After the gin has adequately absorbed the flavours, you can send the drinks to your hen party guest list long after the wedding is wrapped up as a reminder of an exciting time spent together.
Cocktail Craft
Some of the gin infusions can be tasted and savoured immediately, so you can prepare them and pour them into cocktails as a base liquor. Gin cocktails are aplenty in mixology and you can use these infusions for making different variations of favourite classics. Many of the gin infusion kits contain recipes to make cocktails and if you attend a workshop, experts will always be at hand to tell you more about how to craft drinks using your infused spirit. The cocktail recipes will also change according to the ingredients that are used for the infusions so be sure you pair your spirit well with other complimentary floral and botanical bitters, aperitifs and mixers.
