Among a small group of friends we enjoyed an Indian meal at Chai in the Barn café of Mandira’s Kitchen, adjoining the Silent Pool Gin Distillery at Albury in the Surrey Hills. Then, of course, we followed with a fascinating tour of the gin distillery.
Authentic Indian décor accompanied our Indian food in the Chai in the Barn café which you can see in my photos below. We ate from tiffin carriers, enhancing the Indian authenticity. And no we didn’t have a gin with our meal, if that’s what you were thinking.
Following our meal we learned the history of gin making in England, and how the Silent Pool gin is exported all round the world. We learned how it’s made, more importantly we tasted half a dozen gins and and different tonics. It’s the fun of the tastings drunk with the accompanying talk that’s what the tour is all about.
Silent Pool gin is sold in attractive bottles, which can be bought with equally attractive glasses. On our tour we also tasted some of the 24 botanicals used in the making of the gin, and after the tour a visit to the shop for a gin purchasing experience. None of our small group bought a bottle of black juniper gin, at £295 a bottle, while the juniper in the craft gin comes from the Balkans, the black juniper gin’s rare juniper comes from Bhutan.
Here’s my photo record of our visits, and of course wouldn’t you know it, I failed to take a photo of the silent pool, a water source fed by an aquifer, which has been there for centuries, partly feeding the Tilling Bourne stream.