Last weekend I journeyed to Bruny Island. I spent the weekend with one of my best buddies, Tezza, and her husband, Dazza, and their two kids. Tezza and I go way back. We flatted together whilst at Uni and have had many adventures (and misadventures) together. We have sworn each other to secrecy on any story that includes portaloos, divvy vans, bar pickup strategy or cocktails with more that one straw!!! Needless to say that we are old time drinking buddies.
A slumber party with Tezza and Dazza requires a special drink so, in preparation, I took myself down to Brooke Street Pier in Hobart to visit the McHenry Distillery outlet. The trickiest part was trying to decide which of their wonderful products to select. The lovely man let me try their new Summer Gin. It was goood. A bit full-on to be drinking straight but would go brilliantly with ginger ale and lemon grass or lots of ice and some soda water. I finally selected the McHenry Navy Strength Gin as my weekend drink of choice - go hard or go home I say.
From McHenry Distillery Facebook Page
Travelling to Tezza and Dazza's Apollo Bay property confirmed to me that we really do live in the best place in the whole wide world. Tasmania is so beautiful and it is easy, as a local, to forget how special it is. Bruny Island is the nature-loving gourmand's delight - sand, surf, farmland, bush, sand dunes, plenty of local fauna and flora then there is a distillery, a chocolate maker, cheese maker, winery and the list of goodies goes on. But for me, on this trip, the best thing was good times with good friends.
We tried the Navy Strength Gin straight - wow enough to knock your socks off. Then we made martinis - stirred not shaken. Shaken is for wimps who like their drinks watered down by ice chips, Mr Bond. Again it really packed a punch or more likely this was my dodgy martini making. It was perfectly lovely, however, with some tonic and lemon juice. I reckon that it would have been even better with some sugar syrup. New cocktail* - Tom Collins meets McHenry Navy Strength Gin..... Captain Tom Collins! We were staring to get a little silly.
"Would you like to try my Cranberry Vodka?" says Dazza.
Now I have been asked many silly and redundant questions in my time but I can only assume that Dazza's judgement was impaired by all the gin. Of course I bloody want to taste your vodka. It was great too. If he ever starts up a legal distillery then this delightful spirit will be a permanent inclusion in my home bar.
The next evening after a day of snorkelling and relaxing we went to the Bruny Hotel, colloquially known as the Alonnah Pub, for a meal. The customer service was high quality and extra friendly - getting a drink was a little slow but that was because the staff took the time to talk to each customer as if they were a friend - decent food and a place for kids to play. The only thing lacking was a singer/guitar player in the corner to make this a top-notch venue. I took the opportunity to try the Bruny Island Cider. It was pretty good - nice and light but, for me, lacked the full-bodied appleness of Willie Smith.
Due to illness I was unable to get to the Cygnet Folk Festival to check out a few more acts but with MONA FOMA on the horizon. I have a few activities lined up for the next week or so. Watch this space.
From BIC Facebook site
Bruny Island Cider is vintaged exclusively from bio-dynamic apples grown in Australia's southern-most orchard, fermented and aged for 12 months in barrel.
From McHenry Distillery Website
McHenry Distillery is Australia's southern-most whisky distillery and with its family heritage makes it the southernmost family run distillery in the world. Its southern location takes advantage of the cool-moist-maritime environment, giving the maturing spirit the right conditions to make the most of its time in the wooden barrels. The property also has its own abundant pure spring water which becomes the heart of the developing spirit.
Captain Tom Collins Recipe
- 3 parts McHenry Navy Strength Gin
- 2 parts lemon juice
- 1 part sugar syrup
- 6 parts soda water
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