Came across a really interesting article on Gin by Brent Rose in Gizmodo’s weekly booze column. The Ancient Art of Perfect Gin: Our Visit to Beefeater and Plymouth – Learn more
The Cholmondeley Arms Saturday afternoon Gin tasting classes have got off to a great start!! As we reached the 140 gin mark (just 21 behind the Guinness book of records) Terry and his family, celebrating his birthday, were first off. As the picture shows Terry and his family wasted no time after their training to get home and mix some serious G’n’T’s!!
The class consists of tasting the six styles of Gin, tasting four different tonic waters, learning about botanicals, gin history and the perfect serves. You then get to order your favourite of the ones tested as a complete Gin and Tonic!! There is a warm up quiz and lots of fun and banter in the name of gin!! You can see our ‘Gin Champion’ Struan taking a class through their paces with our landlord Steve as the ‘assist’.
If you want to come and enjoy our gin tasting classes then book your party (maximum 12) in on a Saturday afternoon with Steve or Struan and become a gin expert!! Remember we also have 6 bedrooms if you want to stay and make a night of it!!
TERRY AND THE FAMILY BACK AT HOME AFTER TRAINING!!
Beefeaters
OUR GIN CHAMP STRUAN LEADS ANOTHER CLASS!!
With the arrival of four new gins the 140 Gin ‘barrier’ has been surpassed. It is hard to believe just under a year and a half ago we opened the doors to the new Cholmondeley Arms where we thought we had done well to have 40 gins on our bar. The Gin market has grown significantly since we decided gin was the thing at Cholmondeley. Now we have added 100 more gins which is fantastic. We are now 27 from the Guinness Book of records!! The new additions include two different gins from Gordon’s and Tanqueray!!!
Here at the Chum we have now agreed regular supply of 1724 tonic. This premium tonic is great as a non-alcoholic drink with lots of ice and a slice of orange or as recommended on our gin quarterly with Sloanes Gin and a slice of lemon and orange. We are now in search of our 10th and 11th tonics as the pictures show. Tim our owner discovered these Tonics in Mallorca and we are now searching them out to hopefully add to our portfolio. The world of Gin is growing as so too is the premium tonic market. So next time you are here at the Chum talk tonic when ordering your gin!!
1724 Tonic restyled and in stock
Farmers Gin is Inn!!
Sprock Caribanana Gin is the weirdest Gin to arrive so far. It is from the Caribbean! As part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, many citizens were accustomed to the “Jenever” of the Netherlands and enjoy this popular “Dry Gin”.
The Distillery House is located in Sharloo, an old and quaint section of the city of Willemstad Curaçao, which was nominated one of the Unesco World Heritage Cities in the Caribbean. The House was founded in July 1929 by the late Don Jaime Antonio Jose Sprock.
Out of the desire to exceed customer’s expectations by providing quality products at affordable prices, Don Jaime began the factory with bottling of its own brand of rum for local consumption; “Ron Superior” in a variation of sizes; In the next 10 years, he had also created his own Vodka and Gin. This is his Gin……… mmmmh we will let you decide!!
Also arrived is the Farmers Gin from the U.S.A as detailed below so see you soon to try a tot or two.
I stayed at the Cholmondeley Arms on Saturday with my husband Bob. It was our first visit and we thought it was out of this world. Really enjoyed the relaxed vibe and the food and drink was excellent. So big thanks to everyone for a great stay.
I loved my Greenalls Bloom and Fevertree with strawberries so much I have to have a bottle, so as usual I’ve been stalking the internet. Don’t know if you already know of it, but there is a brilliant website, Master of Malt.com. Obviously they specialise in single malts, but they have a decent selection of other spirits, liqueurs etc. They’ve got about 60-70 gins and genevers in stock and some of them look pretty special. I expect you’ve got most of them, but it might be worth a look. I like the look of the saffron gin, and the heather one.
Anyway, sure to see you again in the near future.
Cholmondeley ‘Bloody Mary’ Club
From 11am every Sunday. How do you like yours?
The best way to enjoy a Sunday Morning!!!
Yes it is true Jess and the team have introduced the Cholmondeley ‘Bloody Mary’ Club every Sunday at 11am, where you can enjoy a Traditional Bloody Mary with Manzanilla Sherry or the usual Bloody Mary with Chase Vodka, or there is The Red Snapper with Opihr Spiced Gin and boy does this work well, then there is the Bloody Maria with a hint of tequila or of course the Virgin Mary with not alcohol at all. All the ingrediants from celery salt to horseradish you can add yourself with two types of tomato juice!!
Bacon butties are the brunch munchies as Christian looks to develop the menu as the following builds. 25 BM’s were sold on the opening Sunday and we believe a tradition is building. So fancy a crispy bacon sandwich and mixing your own Bloody Mary??! Come on down to the ‘Chum’. See you Sunday!!
The Tomato Table is set up for everyone to mix their own Bloody Marys!!
Even Helicopters turned up for Cholmondeley Brunch. Bloody marvellous!!
Garnishes-galore
I just wanted to say a really big thank you to everyone at the Cholmondeley arms for a great weekend stay. We picked the pub completely out of the blue. We wanted to stay somewhere in Cheshire and we had no idea where to stay but we fancied a warm cosy pub with good food. We looked at various websites but we liked what we saw of the Cholmondeley Arms on the website. We were not disappointed. Great food (the best steak and kidney pie ever), great pub, friendly and helpful staff, great location particularly being so close to Chester and some great Sunday walks. Oh and a great gin selection.
We will definitely recommend the pub to others and we look forward to returning again.
Thank you and well done to everyone for providing first rate service.
Best wishes
J P and M P
OUR GIRLS ENJOY VALENTINE’S AT WORK.
to Tail’ week….celebrating all things Pig… the romantics turned up to celebrate cupids arrow here at the Chum. It was a record Valentine’s day and
Steve ensured chocolate roses were enjoyed by all the ladies present including our wonderful team of girls (pictured) who worked very hard to ensure a good time was had by all. They were rewarded by chocolate roses of their own…even Steve received a hamper of sweeties from his girlfriend as the night enjoyed a sweet note to say the least!!!
So if you want to impress a loved one…remember we have 6 bedrooms and there is nothing more romantic than dinner at the Chum in February!!
AT CHOLMONDELEY
Loyal customer and very keen cyclist Jonathon is the first of our cycling customers to complete the ‘Cheshire Cat Pub to Pub to Pub (Trio) Challenge’.
Setting out from near Knutsford in pretty cold and snowy conditions Jonathon headed first to our Cholmondeley Arms Pub out near Malpas on the A49 heading to Whitchurch!! The picture shows just how snowy Cholmondeley was compared to the rest of the county. Having taken on a warm hot chocolate for energy, Jonathon then headed to our next pub the Three Greyhounds Inn at Allostock. Conditions here were much better for a cycling enthusiast. After another picture outside this pub it was on for the final leg of the journey to a rather misty Bulls Head before heading home for a hot shower and an early night. Just over 70 miles later without any performance enhancing drugs or a Steak and Ale Pie even!!! The respective pub teams gave Jonathon a warm welcome as well as helping with photo taking and ensuring he was back on his bike for the next leg of this journey!!
Jonathon commented “I was at a loss as to where to go on my Sunday ride today. So thought I would tackle that well known ride ‘The Cheshire Cat Trio’!! Cholmondley is a little further down the A49 than I thought and there was also more snow than I anticipated when I got there but I am thrilled to be the first of many to hopefully tackle the challenge!!”
Well done Jonathon a great effort and there is a Pie waiting at a pub of your choice from the trio as and when you have recovered!!!
If you are a keen cyclist and want to be listed as a ‘Cheshire Cat Trio Cycling Challenge beater’ then set out and ensure your photo is taken with your trusty bike at each pub with the signs in the background of each picture and send them to info@cheshirecatpubsandbars.co.uk. You will get your photo in our ‘hall of fame’ and we will send you a ‘refreshment voucher’ as well as a pint on us at the final pub!!
Thanks again to Jonathon for taking on the challenge and beating it!!!
AT THE BULLS HEAD
AT THE THREE GREYHOUNDS
Yes thanks to regular Chris ‘Gin is coming to the Inn’ this time from the U.S in the form of Farmers Organic Gin …..Big thanks to Chris you can read about the gin below. If you want to ‘Bring Gin to the Inn’ email us from your holiday in Europe or the US and we will confirm whether we have the gin you have found. If we haven’t please bring it back with a receipt and we will pay you back for it as well as paying you £10 in Cholmondeley vouchers to buy a couple of Gin and Tonics on us!!
Botanicals in Organic Balance
Farmer’s Organic Gin is handcrafted in small batches from carefully selected botanicals and the purest grains. Providing a pristinely clean palette for the artful infusion of botanicals, the distillate is made from sustainably farmed grain grown in the U.S. Certified organic by the USDA, Farmer’s Gin possesses a complexity and unique taste profile due to its remarkably balanced selection of organic botanicals, including juniper, elderflower, lemon grass, coriander, and angelica root.
Why they call it Farmer’s
In order to produce a flavorful organic gin, they sought out farmers dedicated to sustainability and preserving the earth. They found four farms growing organic crops that could help them create the highest quality organic gin. They think that there is no better way to honour their farmers than by naming our organic gin after them.
Spring is on its way…honest!!! To celebrate Steve, Tim, Ben Stru and Monika have been looking at their next top ten gins to share with you for the coming season from the wonderful selection on the back bar here at Cholmondeley.
The selection covers some of the most innovative gins on our shelves not least the Mallorca gin named Eleven featured in news below. The new Gin quarterly will launch on January 30th 2013 so come on down and enjoy the taste of Spring!!
Well Happy New Year!!! There were many modes of transport used to get to the Cholmondeley Arms over the festive season as the picture shows!! A wonderful vintage motor bike parked outside on Christmas day!! In 2011 in was Ponies and this year a classic motor bike…what will it be on Christmas day in 2013??
On behalf of landlord Steve, Our Deputies Monika, Ben and Struan, Head Chef Christian and the entire team at the ‘Chum’ plus of course Tim and Mary, we wish every one of our customers a very happy and prosperous new year. We also wish to thank everyone for supporting the Cholmondeley Arms through its second festive season since its restoration and indeed supporting us for the whole year!!!
Here’s to 2013!!! Let’s hope it is drier!!!
What a great week it was last week both at the Bulls Head celebrating 200 years as a pub in 2012 and amazingly the Cholmondeley Arms celebrated 150 years as a building, the old school house opening in 1862!! Cakes were baked, celebrations were had, Lord and Professor Ted did his birthday quizzes with great curry evenings on the nights too, Cholmondeley had its 2nd Annual Gin making competition and the Bulls Head had a jazz evening with the ‘smoooth’ old boys Laurie and Stewart. We are still waiting for the 5000th dog to stroll in to the Bulls Head to finish off the celebrations!!! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard on the week when all our Christmas specials ‘went live’ too. Thank you to all our customers who turned up in support and joined in the festivities!! It might become an annual event!!
CARS LINE UP
It isn’t every day you walk across the car park of ‘the Chum’ from the pub and look left and see a line of cars like these!! It was one of those days when the posh cars come to lunch.
No it wasn’t our car club, the old Toads and nor was it the annual ‘Pageant of Power’!!
Just a sunny day (for once) when you can bring the car out to enjoy itself!!
It seem obvious that the supplier with the white van felt proud enough to line up next to them….or was it just a delivery??