Gin Advent Calendar – Master of Malt Review
DISCLOSURE – THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE THE REVIEWER’S OWN.
Reviewed by: Lisa Harris
“Drinks by the Dram and That Boutique-y Gin Company have reunited for their annual Christmas time collab, it’s That Boutique-y Gin Company Advent Calendar! Exploring all sorts of flavours from all over the world, this calendar is jam-packed with 24 wax-sealed samples of delicious gin. Discover a different 30ml measure every day of Advent and ensure your festive season is jingling with juniper”.
Delivery & Packaging
This year Drinks by the Dram has reduced its calendar’s cardboard wastage by 50%, and introduced compostable dram trays inside. You can recycle both the outer cardboard shell and the glass bottles after you’ve enjoyed your calendar. Just make sure you remove the wax first by soaking your bottles in hot water!
Weighing in at 2kg and measuring 31cms x 30cms x 10cms delivery costs from £4.95.
You can add a gift message if you wish, just make sure you request it before dispatch.
The calendar arrived in good condition; the only small factor was three of the doors had the small edges already turned in. I would imagine this is because although sent in a box, with internal edges, there was no bubble wrap or shreds around it inside. I wonder how well it would stand up to being bashed around by a delivery firm. The outer box itself is not that sturdy and nowhere on it does it say fragile, or contains glass or liquid etc.
Quality, look and feel
My advent calendar contained the following gins – although the website does say that contents may vary so it is not to be assumed that if you ordered you would receive the exact same ones
Cherry Gin (That Boutique-y Gin Company) 3cl Sample
Double-Barrelled Gin – Cotswolds (That Boutique-y Gin Company) 3cl Sample
Expeditionary Gin – Golden Moon (That Boutique-y Gin Company) 3cl Sample
Moonshot Gin (That Boutique-y Gin Company) 3cl Sample
Pan-Pacific Gin – Farallon Gin (That Boutique-y Gin Company) 3cl Sample
Port-Barrelled Pink Gin – Salcombe Distilling Co. (That Boutique-y Gin Company) 3cl Sample
Yuzu Gin (That Boutique-y Gin Company) 3cl Sample
Mince pie gin liqueur
Dirty Martini gin
Chocolate orange gin
Christmas pudding gin
Christmas tree gin
Honey pomelo gin
Black cardamom gin
Spiced clementine gin
Pink grapefruit brulee gin
From Lima with love London to Lima gin
Louche lemon decadence gin
Cherry Bakewell gin
Aged Perry’s tot gin
Estate foraged gin
Toasted marshmallow hot chocolate gin liqueur
Bathtub gin 4 year old
With a 30 ml measure of each this is roughly one alcohol measure per sample of a full spirit, the liqueurs have a lower ABV, so the portion size was appropriate I felt.
As alcohol if you didn’t fancy the one you had that day, then the shelf life is of course good, to perhaps share with someone else or gift as a treat.
The bottles look good, and the wax seals seem to add an extra layer of luxury rather than a screw top.
The gins I tasted were appealing and smelled good. It would have been nice to have been told a recommended mixer for each gin, although as I sampled them neat it wasn’t an issue.
Pricing, value and practicalities
With 24 wax sealed individual bottles each containing 30ml packaged into an attractive advent calendar it would be difficult to say this isn’t worth the £60 price tag.
It certainly feels like a sizeable purchase for an advent calendar if you are accustomed to something a little more traditional. However, more recently the trend for adult calendars seems to have become for beauty products, socks and alcohol, rather than the traditional chocolate we may have grown up on has grown.
Probably more something you may buy as a gift for someone, although it would make a nice treat to self to start the build-up to the festive season.
There is a QR code on ten of them, which takes you to a survey for you to leave comments and vote on your favourite gin.
It might have been nice if the QR code took you to where you could purchase the gin, or perhaps took you to more information about it.
One thing I would have liked to have seen was a booklet of tasting notes or a small book to record tasting thoughts, this would have made a nice addition and would perhaps have encouraged a future purchase when re-reading it at a later date.
The bottles were easy to open and felt there was an element of a luxurious treat as I unpeeled the wax seals.
Usage suggestions
As an alcoholic product this is designed for those over 18 and is a Christmas advent product ready to go from the 1st of December.
If you are looking for a daily treat to look forward to or perhaps simply interested in trying samples of new gins over the month, then this would be a good idea. It is an easy way of trying lots of new gins without having to invest in a whole bottle.
My personal views
I would recommend this and I would purchase it as a gift for someone and I would be tempted to buy it for myself.
A nice addition would have been tasting notes information to read through and refer back to, perhaps a note card for scoring as the month goes along. However, in terms of being an advent calendar, it absolutely does what you would expect – it offers a treat behind each door!
What I did like was that there was a good selection of ‘Christmas flavours’ in the gin selection, rather than just a random selection of gins. It left me feeling this was a real Christmas product, not just a happily packaged gin selection.
Company Information
This is one of 3 Gin calendars the company are offering this year, and the cheapest of the 3. The craft Gin is £69, the Premium Gin is £89.
They also offer a whiskey, rum or vodka calendar, or if you wish you can build your own on the website – you can pick your casing and then pick your drams mixing as you wish.
There is also a very wide selection of spirits generally, so if that’s your thing it is worth checking out the website for a treat or gift.
If you refer a friend to Master of malt they will get a £10 voucher and you will get a £10 voucher too.
This is the Master of Malt story, the details have been taken from their Website:
Their story starts in the early eighties with the birth of three young boys who would go on to become great friends. Despite following very different academic and career paths en route, they built Master of Malt together and became fellow travellers on a mission.
It wasn’t long before these blossoming adolescents shunned the world of commodity lager, and developed an interest in fine spirits – single malt whisky in particular. This journey of discovery was made so much easier by virtue of Justin’s family having a close relationship with a whisky shop based in nearby Tunbridge Wells – Master of Malt.
Master of Malt originally started trading in 1985 as an independent bottler, fulfilling orders for single malt whiskies from the world’s best distilleries via mail order.
From there, Master of Malt opened a physical store and expanded its range. The store had a small but loyal customer base, but was pretty parochial compared to modern day MoM. As the friends entered their twenties they followed different paths – academic pursuits, careers and relationships – but remained very close friends, and started to devise plans to build a business together.
In the early 2000s Justin Petszaft (now the MD of our parent group, Atom Group), was looking for an excuse to develop some web design skills while studying a masters in theoretical physics. He found that opportunity in Master of Malt and developed their first ever website. Over time he started running the day-to-day Master of Malt operations, and eventually acquired the business. The shop was closed and MoM was taken entirely online.
These green shoots of potential were enough for Justin to make Master of Malt his mission, and so he set about rallying others to the cause.
Fast forward to 2009 and Master of Malt saw investment in two significant ways: people and technology. Specifically, Justin coaxed two childhood friends, Tom McGuinness (current MD of Master of Malt) and Ben Ellefsen (currently a director of the parent, Atom Group) away from their blossoming careers to work in a tin shed, on a farm, in the middle of the Sussex countryside.
12 months later there was a complete relaunch of the website.
They’ve continued to invest in those two things: people and technology stating Master of Malt is a mission, and also a statement. MoM to be a role model for what ‘good’ looked like in online retail.
Investing in people and technology is a winning formula, if the awards, testimonials, and growth rate (they made it into the FastTrack 100 in 2018) are anything to go by. Master of Malt is now so much more than three friends – it’s a community led by incredible people that have joined the cause over the years and made Master of Malt what it is today.
In 2018 they announced a partnership with ZX Ventures. This has enabled them to increase their investment in people and technology, to supercharge the mission. To this day Master of Malt remains founder-led, full of dedicated and passionate people, and more excited than ever about the future.
Their Culture
The vibe in MoM towers is informal, creative, fast-paced, and hard working.
They value and encourage diversity of personality, thought, and viewpoint above all else. They believe establishing an orthodoxy of thought is the way to kill innovation, so they want people that think differently from one another and who can share ideas freely and in good faith, all in the name of advancing their mission.
Their Values
Humanism for the win
They’re all about relationships over prescribed processes, it’s how they innovate and move quickly. They’re a team made up of small businesses which we’re each the leader of our own space – so we’re built around Integrity & Respect.
Give a s**t
They have a passion for not only what they do but how they do it. They make everything their concern and refuse to be constrained by the limitations of a hierarchical structure and out-dated rules, which only exist to inhibit creativity and inclusiveness.
Live in reality
We all carve our own path.. To become a true hero in pursuit of our mission we need to become a part of the solution, not just point out the opportunity to improve. So, they’re focused on fluidity in roles, which enables them to encourage growth and movement within. They don’t map out a dictated career pathway for you to follow, they instead respect individuals who embrace complexity and want to explore their capabilities and progress within – by offering unlimited potential.
Strive for greatness
They want to train the world to expect the extraordinary, so that their customers and staff are disappointed when they don’t experience it.
We’re accountable, and we raise the roof – not the floor.
A company with a great story and ethos, and some cracking products available in addition to this marvellous advent calendar, I would say they’re worth checking out.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £59.99
For more information or to buy, visit www.masterofmalt.com