Yes! Your coordination does get better after gin tasting!

But that’s not all we learned at Sipsmith’s, which held a distillery tour and ping pong tournament yesterday evening for London Cocktail Week.

Sipsmith is the dream of two drinks-industry veterans that witnessed first hand the explosion of all things craft in the US. A desire to bring the trend back to London grew and, after a year of pressuring the government to grant them a distilling license, in 2009 they launched the first distillery in London in over 200 years.  

After the license came London’s first copper still in 200 years, Prudence, which was followed by Patience and Constance. Prudence was so named because of all the talk at the time of austerity due to the financial crash. Seeing as the sip-smiths had thrown caution to the wind and put their savings into developing a distillery, they liked the irony of “Prudence”. 

Sipsmith’s sister stills have recently moved to a new space in Chiswick where the smiths introduced a group of London Cocktail Week revelers to their gins and vodkas as well as to Jaques of London table tennis. Some tasting and a few rounds of ping pong later a victor emerged - Jouni from the Kyro Distillery Company in Finland, makers of rye whisky and gins. 

Jouni walked away with a table tennis set and a bottle of Very Junipery Over Proof, at 57.7% ABV, Sipsmith’s strongest spirit. And everyone continued to enjoy the Sipsmith cocktails being mixed at their distillery bar.