Last month on the 25th of May, our Basingstoke members and their guests visited the Bombay Distillery at Laverstoke Mill, just outside of Basingstoke. This was a Guest event with a difference!
The day combined networking, a distillery tour, a delicious hot food buffet and a gin cocktail masterclass! What more could you want?
The members and their guests arrived at the Bombay Distillery at 9am and entered the beautiful gallery. The day commenced with everyone enjoying some breakfast rolls and tea and coffee over informal networking. Laura Bizpedia’s host then introduced herself, and the members followed, introducing themselves and their guests, which allowed everyone to become acquainted.
At 10.15am, the group were met by their distillery guide. They were taken into the cinema room, where they had their first gin and tonic of the day and sat down to watch a film about the creation of Bombay Sapphire and the history of the location.
The guide then took the group around the distillery to show them all the spices and botanicals that create the gorgeous flavours of gin, and then into the distillery room itself.
At 11.45am, members and their guests got to take part in a cocktail masterclass in which they were taught how to make the most delicious gin cocktails, using tricks from the bar trade. They made (and many drank) 3 cocktails from scratch and also tasted some samples of certain liquors and spirits that went into the cocktails.
The aim was to make the cocktails look similar to the hostess’s cocktail, and Jason Daniell’s cocktail was the closest! We also had some very enthusiastic cocktail shakers, Rachel and Claire, who managed to break two glasses in the process, which brought some laughs in the room! The all-time record for breaking glasses was 3!
The most popular cocktails were the famous Laverstoke cocktail, which was created by the Bombay Sapphire team, and Negroni. The Laverstoke cocktail consisted of Bombay Sapphire gin, Martini Rosso vermouth, elderflower cordial, fever-tree ginger ale, lime wedges fully squeezed, ginger slice, and a mint sprig. Many thought it was delicious!
Once the masterclass had finished, members had a mouth-watering hot buffet lunch in the gallery, with more informal networking. The day concluded with everyone leaving with a gift to make their own delicious cocktail at home, using the skills they had learnt on the day.
Everyone had a wonderfully fine time and these are just some of the comments:
“Really good event, good quality networking and engagement, like-minded people, and enjoyed everyone’s company.”
“Venue was excellent, the tour really good and I really enjoyed learning all about the place.”
“Such a nice day, enjoyed the opportunity to network with other people in other businesses and discussing challenges they are facing too.”
“Good event, nice day, lovely people. Everyone was natural and chatty. Really good mix of people.”
Laura, Bizpedia’s host of the Basingstoke group commented: “I have spoken with many of the members and guests and everyone had a great time. Some really good connections were made on the day and people are already starting to follow up with each other and arrange meetings. What Bizpedia does best is create an environment where business people can connect and our ethos is that we believe the better connected you are, the more successful you will be. We certainly achieved that on the day.”
We try to cultivate networking events which allow attendees to have fun and to get to know each other informally and build relationships. If you are interested in joining Bizpedia, please contact us via our website.