Last week, on the hottest day of the year we were kindly invited along to review Harrogate Tipple’s Gin School Experience. Drinking Gin in the sunshine, what’s not to like – we immediately said yes and off we went! The experience is all based in Ripley, there is plenty of parking, but you’re advised to leave the car at home! The number 36 bus runs right through Ripley to Harrogate.
Check out our hilarious Instagram Reel from the day here.
The Gin School Experience runs for approx 3 hours. Its £125 per person, so ideal for a special occasion. We were there with a mother and daughter celebrating the daughter’s birthday.
Once the tour is over we walked over to their Gin School, which is located within Ripley Castle. You enter via a secret door from their shop next door. To say we were getting serious Harry Potter vibes was an understatement. We were served the most delicious, and rather large, Gin and Tonics over the next few hours . I think we had 3 or 4 G&Ts over the course of the afternoon, but my memory is a little fuzzy! We also got to taste their Rum too – which was delicious. You get the most gorgeous canapés throughout the afternoon too, all prepared by a local chef.
At the Gin School you get to create a personal recipe for your very own gin. Choosing from over 80 dried and over 60 seasonal fresh botanicals, with Andrea on hand to provide you with his expert advice! The fresh botanicals are all grown on site in the castle gardens. We spent about 30 minutes here – tasting and smelling all the delicious herbs, picking any that took our fancy.
We all then headed back to the school to make our very own gin – using our own unique blend of dried and fresh botanicals, as well as Harrogate Tipples own blend (a gin isn’t a gin without junipers!) . We each had our own copper still, again lots of Harry Potter vibes/ chemistry lesson flash backs. It was great fun, and by this point it was fair to say we were a little sozzled! It took about 40 minutes for our own gin to be distilled – we all got a little try. You have to name you gin, Harrogate Tipple will keep your recipe safe and if you ever want to reorder some they’ll make it for you! They had a couple come and do the tour who then asked ordered 12 more bottles to be served at their wedding. Sally named hers Mumbler’s Ruin and I fell in love with all the different types of sage in the gardens so called mine Sage Advice. You then get to bottle up your gin and take it home, along with a lovely little hand santizer.
We really did have an awesome afternoon – Ripley is just gorgeous and the beautiful setting really added to the experience, as did all the staff we met – you can really tell they all have a real passion for what they do. We appreciate it’s not a cheap experience, but we do think it’s the perfect gift/experience for a really special occasion.
Reviewed June 2022
Disclosure: We were gifted our Gin School Experience, however we pinky promised to only write a truthful account. Phew, we really enjoyed it! (otherwise that could have been awks!)
