Tea, gin & zhug – a fabulous welcome to Edinburgh!

Wow, what a wonderful afternoon and evening of taste-bud tingling flavours that welcomed me to Edinburgh. 

It had been a long 40 hours of travel from leaving home yesterday & arriving at my home for two nights, the Principal Hotel, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.  And it was a very friendly welcome to this beautifully restored building.

Having settled in to my very large room, I grabbed my camera and went out into the warm spring afternoon – the sun was shining, Charlotte Square looked bright and fresh with very green lush grass, and the Georgian buildings surrounding it, had chimney stacks that caught my eye.  Everywhere I look I see these rows of chimney pots high on the roofs – hence the photo.

The hotel has an internal conservatory that is glass covered and serves breakfast, snacks through the day and into the evening, and afternoon tea each day.  A cup of tea was definitely needed after my stroll around, and this was where the tastings began. 

The tea menu has many options described in quite a bit of detail – I chose “Dragon Well” which seemed fitting given that I’m in the land of knights slaying dragons, and Nessie perhaps not that far away.

It is described as “Painstakingly hand-crafted green tea pressed into the shape of a feather. Sourced direct from the famed terroir of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. A succulent and fragrant tea with fresh, green vegetal notes and sweet hazelnuts. From Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.”  It was delicious, not unlike a sencha green tea, and went beautifully with a well-deserved chocolate brownie!

Then at 6pm, having had a short nap, I was back in the conservatory to meet with Tom, who had a table set up for me to taste and learn about gin! 

It was a fascinating 45 minutes of history and tasting – starting from the Egyptians, to the 17th to 19th centuries in Europe, and the 20th to 21st centuries in Europe and the US.  We started with Dutch Zeer Oude Genever, a very harsh gin that was all about the alcohol and led to the term “Dutch Courage.”  Next was a Jensen’s English style that changed dramatically with squeezed lemon zest & tonic water.  Following that was Navy Strength Cannonball Edinburgh Gin – squeezed orange zest & tonic water changed it from 57% alcohol to a drinkable form.  And finally the Mediterranean gin, Gin Mare, that had overtones of rosemary and basil – interesting, no sweetness at all but strong flavours. 

From there I went to Baba, the hotel’s middle Eastern restaurant, where I enjoyed a delicious dinner of four small plates of Middle Eastern food – hummus with pine-nuts & zhug, a superb beetroot marinated trout, monkfish with chickpeas, tomato & saffron, and a side of yummy sweet potato with zhug. 

And this was my first half day! 

Today is sunny and clear, and there seems to be a wedding happening a little further south.  More on that later.