international gin and tonic day

October 19th is International Gin and Tonic Day. It was created by Jayne Withers in honor of her grandmother Mary Edith Keyburn. Mrs. Keyburn lived to the ripe old age of 95 and enjoyed her gin and tonics. Indeed, her family smuggled a gin and tonic into the hospital in water bottle and served it to her in a tea cup. She sounds like she was my kind of older woman!

I plan to honor this day (and Mrs. Keyburn) with a gin and tonic made from one of the craft gins that I brought back from my two trips to South Africa this year mated with a tonic from Franklin and Sons. The British Empire will be well represented with a UK tonic and a South African gin. As an aside, distilling craft gins in South Africa is quite the industry with small distilleries scattered across the country.

There is a special day for anything and everything. Thus, today is International Gin & Tonic Day.

I shall be partaking of course. I am thinking Fever Tree Tonic with one of my Texas gins such as Calamity or Waterloo No. 9. The only gins I have in the house right now are from either Texas or California. I don’t know where Sam’s Club distills their gin so I won’t worry about it.

The day was founded by Jayne Withers in honor of her 95 year old grandmother who refused to drink water in the hospital. She insisted on her gin and tonic so it was smuggled in to her as Ms. Withers explains below.

So here is to Mary Edith Keyburn who preferred gin and tonic over just plain water.