Below is a cocktail from our Gin of the Month, Burleigh's Gin which featured three of their gins for our members: The Signature Edition, the Export Strength and the Distiller's Cut. Burleigh's is made at the 45 West Distillery in Leicestershire where they also hold a gin school where participants can learn everything about distilling, make their own gin, and walk away with a bottle of the gin the make. All this info and more is printed in GINNED! Magazine which goes in our monthly surprise gin parcel. Our club members are loving their Burleigh's and all the great ginformation in GINNED!

When you wrap up a long day of work on a clear day, there’s nothing better to put closure to your day than an ice-cold sundowner as you watch the sunset. But if you were an Axis soldier in the Pacific during the Second World War, a sundowner is likely not the type of closure you were in search of. In fact, you were probably used to having your sun rise.

The US Navy Fighter Squadron 111 (VF-111) originally adopted the name Sundowners in 1942 to portray its dominance over its Japanese targets. The squadron’s insignia shows two Wildcat fighter jets bombing a Rising Sun, the symbol of Japan. During its time in the Pacific, the Sundowners destroyed well over 100 enemy aircraft including an additional 55 at the battle of Guadalcanal earning them the Presidential Unit Citation, awarded to US Armed Forces units for “extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy.”

The VF-111 designation and “Sundowners” nickname was adopted by two succeeding Navy squadrons in the following decades, only to be retired in 1995 as the US military began scaling back after the Cold War.

So, next time you sit back to enjoy a sundowner, remember to tip your glass to your allies with wings, the original Sundowners.

A SUNDOWNER THAT BRINGS A TOUCH OF SPARKLE IN THE WARMTH OF THE SETTING SUN: This cocktail is like a Negroni on gin steroids topped up with the class of Champagne.