As soon as I spotted Portobello Road gin in my local Booths supermarket, I didn’t even look at anything else. It’s all about the label for me, the fickle being that I am, and this caught my eye straight away.

If you like a dry London gin, then you’ll love Portobello Road gin. I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for a fancy gin that’s been infused with all manner of weird and wonderful plants or fruits, so this gin took me a while to get used to. The juniper is really apparent in this gin and there’s a little hint of citrus in the aftertaste. You can taste that Portobello Road is a good quality gin, it’s really crisp and smooth. Mixing it with a good quality tonic water is essential though. I tried it with a supermarket own brand and it was nowhere near as good as it is mixed with Fever Tree. Note to self – when spending £25 on a bottle of gin, don’t scrimp on the tonic.

This review is the only one I can ever see me writing where I don’t bang on about drinking the gin out of a balloon glass. Portobello Road gin makes the perfect long G&T in a narrow glass with a little slice of lime and loads of ice. However, if you did fancy jazzing up this gin a little bit, a little slice of pink grapefruit is the bomb!

My biggest issue with Portobello Road gin is the headache that it gave me – and it wasn’t because I’d sunk half a bottle in an evening. Every time I drank more than a few glasses of this gin, I woke up boiling hot with a huge headache that I haven’t had from any other gin.

Headaches aside, I did enjoy this gin; I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. Dry London gins just aren’t for me, I found myself really missing that oomph. It’s the perfect bar gin, but I want something a little bit more exciting from my gins.

When I drank it

On a Saturday night in front of trashy TV

What I used as a garnish

Lime for a classic G&T, grapefruit for something a bit more exciting

Is it worth the money?

As a change, yes, but it’s definitely not a gin I would buy time and time again.

You can buy it online here