The Gin experience at Game City Roof

The Stanbic Bank Fitch & Leedes Gin Festival is scheduled to take place this Saturday at the Game City Roof. The inaugural event was born from the undeniable growing appetite for gin around the world. The event is organised by the Liquid Library in collaboration with Fitch & Leeds and Stanbic Bank Botswana.

Organisers are promising to pull all the stops, and will treat patrons to a one of a kind experience. Highlights of the day will include handpicked regional boutique gins from South Africa such as Wixworth Gin, Tripple Three Gin & Six Dogs Gin, Trag Gin, a very first Motswana owned gin inspired by the Kgalagadi, as well as the classic London Dry’s such as Beefeater Gin.

Other highlights include patrons, getting a chance to taste all of the gin available on the day, and will also be given coupons to nit-pick their preferred gins.  The event is targeting patrons aged between 25-50 years, with an aspirational or executive lifestyle.

Sharing the story about how the event was conceptualised, one of the organisers, James Briscoe from the Liquid Library explains that boutique and artisanal craft gin distillers are at the forefront of the growing appetite for gin, and that they were each trying to innovate with different colours, bold flavours, and stories.

“There is a huge world of expertise, craftmanship and appreciation out there, and we decided to bring the beverage wonderland to Botswana for the first ever gin festival,” he says. He also points out that crafts, ranging from craft food, craft coffee, beers and the latest being gin, is trending right now across the world.

Seeing that the craze has reached Botswana through various South African gin distillers, the organisers saw it fit to have an event that doesn’t only celebrate this great beverage but also incorporates the wonderful pairings, and ways of serving it. The event, he says also seeks to educate Batswana on gin, and take patron’s palates on a journey and explore what the gin world has to offer.

“At the same time, it is a platform for networking amongst key people who fit into this aspirational or executive lifestyle,” he says. Quizzed on the local trends with regards to gin consumption, he points out that, with the gin craze blowing up all over the world, the wave has definitely come into Botswana, and that more and more people are choosing gin as their preferred tipple.

“The interest in gin is growing and more and more people are experimenting with different aromatics and flavours to find their flavoured combinations,” he says.