Why pay more? (Sainsburys London Dry Gin)

Member Name: SusanLesley

Product:	Sainsburys London Dry Gin
Date:	10/01/02 (286 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice taste, Nice price

Disadvantages: None

I am sure it won't come as a surprise to you all that I do enjoy the occasional glass or two of something alcoholic. Usually I stick to dry white wine, but on special occasions I tend to drink spirits and my favourite by far is gin, also known as mother's ruin for some reason!

Whilst you can see from my opinion on Remy Martin I think that if you buy an expensive spirit it's pointless drowning it with mixers, the reverse is also true. I would never drink gin neat so I find that the shops own brand is fine to mix and it's a lot cheaper than the named brands.

I will just say at this point that the only shop brand that I have tried and not liked was the one that I purchased from Lidl's, which left a strange aftertaste in my mouth. Mind you it was seriously cheap I seem to remember! (About £6.50 a bottle!)

Anyway at Christmas I had almost finished the bottle of gin that was in the cupboard so when we were out shopping Dave offered to buy me another bottle. We were in Sainsbury's at the time and we looked at their own brand London Dry Gin.

It comes in a straight sided, classic green bottle, very similar to Gordon's Gin. I find that most of the supermarket brand spirits are in bottles that are very similar to the relevant branded product.

It was selling for £10.49 for a litre bottle, but was on offer for £20 if you bought two one-litre bottles. As I also had a voucher for £1 off if you spent £20 at Sainsbury's we decided that this was a good deal. (You just knew that I'd have a voucher didn't you?)

It allegedly owes its flavour to the addition of juniper berries and spices during the distillation process, but whatever it is, it certainly tastes good. It has a light dry taste with that distinctive tang that only gin has.

It is 37.5% alcohol by volume so it's not a weak substitute for it's more expensive rivals, and as I said before why pay more when the taste is ex
actly the same once you've added the mixers?

For example Gordon's Gin currently costs £12.77 per litre bottle so you would effectively be paying roughly 20% more for no difference in taste.

I enjoy my gin with tonic, ice and a slice of lemon, if I?m feeling really posh, but it's also nice with bitter lemon. My real favourite however is gin with pure grapefruit juice straight from the fridge. I mix it in a half pint glass at a ratio of about one part gin to five parts grapefruit - now that is one seriously nice drink. Maybe it's too nice if you know what I mean - can be the subject of regret the following day!

By the way there is a customer care line available for this product on free phone 0800636262, but I don?t know whether they offer hangover advice!

The Sainsbury's website can be found at www.sainsburys.co.uk

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