How much weight do you think this shelf can take?

As those who know me, I am partial to a good gin and tonic. I am not an alcoholic and to be honest I usually only have a drink on a Friday and Saturday, although some nights, I have been very tempted.

Where did my love of gin come from? Probably from my maternal grandfather, lovingly known as Gaga to his 4 doting grandchildren, but as Bob to the rest of the world. As long as I could remember he had 2 gins and tonics every night, accompanied by a couple of Cheddar biscuits. When he became diabetic in his later years, he was advised to stop drinking it, however, his bargain was that he would change to “Slimline!” He lived till the ripe old age of 93, so it cant have really caused him any problems!!

Did I always drink it? NO! I went through the stages of Cherry B, strong cider, real ales, Martini of varying colours, (quite often in the same glass) Blue nun, Liebfraumilch, much like everyone else in their student years and pre-children days.

I now take great pleasure in hunting out new gins of varying flavours, strengths, countries of origin to find ones I really enjoy. There is also the enormous minefield of what to drink it with, not like my grandfather’s dilemma of full fat or slimline, now we have to take, so much more into consideration: cucumber and mint, Valencian orange, Mediterranean, aromatic, elderflower, a veritable nightmare!

Plus – what do you put it? NO more simply ice and a slice……….well slice maybe, but of what? Lemon, lime, cucumber, grapefruit, every type of berry, herb, pepper, endless variations!!

Then: what glass do you use? Personally I think that the goblet is the best as you can get more in it!! Have had it served in long, short, ridiculously tiny, and even half pint glasses. We definitely drink with our eyes.

A minefield of possibilities, long gone are the days of “Oh I’ll have a g and t please.”

Get the gin menu out!!

This post is not about particular gins, however, a couple of my favourite ones at the time of typing are:

Bloom Jasmine and Rose gin, Martin Millar’s gin, both widely available in supermarkets and Sir Robin of Locksley – a Sheffield artisan craft gin.

Just before I finish, I must admit to “growing my own” this year, my elderberry gin will be ready to sample on 12th October and my blackberry and apple gin needs straining on 15th of November, no doubt I will be back on here with their developments, who knows, may even go into a major production with them!! Somehow I doubt it.

So what prompted me to write this blog………simply this, I have kept the empty bottles of my gin on the shelf on my extractor fan above my hob. Dave, my partner commented the other day, “How much weight do you think this shelf can take?”

The answer is simply “I have no idea.”