A Match Made in Vegan Review
As a gin lover, hearing KIND was staging “A Match Made in Vegan” was like all my culinary Christmases had come at once. A special vegetarian feast with expert gin pairing! Just to make it too hard to resist we are talking locally made – that’s the food and the boutique gin! And since the food would be all beautiful vegan fare and practically carbon neutral, the calories don’t count, right? It was shaping up to literally be my dream evening. And it was!
I had heard whispers about this locally made Blush Gin. I figured “it’s not hard to throw some pink colouring in a bottle” but this is much more than that. It is hard to put into words the way the flavour blossoms in your mouth. It is actually rhubarb-infused but it’s hard to nail the origins of taste if you haven’t already been told. Sweet but sharp – like a sunny day with a slight touch of a southerly.
To be honest, I don’t get the science behind food pairing but proof of concept was in the eating. After a healthy helping of KIND’s miso and goat’s cheese pate, a sip of 1919’s “Blush – Penny Lane’ gin creation was so much brighter and perkier on the palate.
Soren Crabb, the man who got 1919s stills cranking two years ago, named the company after the year prohibition was voted down in New Zealand. Good call. But we also have love to thank for 1919. “I fell in love with a girl named Sam,” Soren explains. “At the time my favourite tipple was rum, however thanks to Sam’s charm and charisma she managed to convince me to try gin, none other than a cocktail called a Cucumber Lime Smash. That was it! I was hooked, and the seed for 1919 Distilling was planted.”
Soren is passionate, fascinating to listen to and about as down to earth as you get – he even hand peels some of the fruit that goes into the still! In many ways that hands-on gumption comes through in all the gins 1919 create. They are distinctive and crafted but not fussy or more about design than flavour.
A bottle of the Summer Gin, infused with local strawberries and raspberries, wafted past at one point and I swear just the smell of it sent me straight back to a PYO strawberry field with lips stained red from a few too many berries that had to be consumed then and there.
Several delectable dishes later and having borrowed a bottle of Blush “for research purposes”, I can safely proclaim the following:
Blush is divine neat on ice – sounds hard core but it’s actually delicate and lush.
KIND’s vegan food tastes incredible – I am probably the opposite of vegan (steak obsessed) and didn’t notice the lack of meat.
Soren is so passionate when speaking about gin he doesn’t notice the bottle count go down.
If KIND are kind enough to stage their Gin extravaganza again, grab a few close friends and head along for a beautiful, grown-up but slightly naughty night out.
Every few months or so we host an event like this, get in contact if you want to be notified of our next event!
