A taste of gin and Asia with Musgrave and Wangthai

On Friday, 28 July evening our client Wangthai Sandton alongside Musgrave Gin hosted a gin and Asian cuisine tasting experience overlooking the beautiful Nelson Mandela Square. The event hosted a diverse and exciting bunch of people including influencers, Wangthai customers, and CN&CO clients and friends from GT247 and Satrix.

The Thai influence 

Guests were treated to an evening of the finest cuisine custom prepared by Wangthai‘s award-winning head chef, Chef Jerm.

“Thai food is all about balance, combining ingredients to create unique flavours that evoke happy memories and stir warm emotions,” says Chef Jerm. Thai cuisine is most recognized for its perfectly blended flavors – sweet, sour, salty and bitter. For this particular event, the menu was specifically designed to target the sweet and spicy flavors of Asian cuisine in correlating with the undertones of Musgrave 11 and Musgrave 12 gin.

Guests indulged in a three course Thai menu which included some of Wangthai’s favourite dishes, to name a few:

  • Prawn Toast (Sweet)minced prawn meat on a thin slice of toast, crumbed  and deep fried, served with a plum and ginger sauce
  • Po pia taud je (Spicy): deep fried corn, pea and butternut spring rolls served with a sweet malay tamarind chilli sauce
  • Goong phad nam makham (Sweet): grilled prawns topped with sweet tamarind sauce (a crowd favourite!)
  • Nua phad gra pao (Spicy): stir fried beef with basil and chilli

One of Wangthai‘s sell out desserts is their Thai Silk which are white and dark chocolate mousse balls. Keeping to the nature of a ‘tasting’ guests were provided with four condiments: sweetened ginger, chili flakes, fresh berries and coconut shavings to which they could then mix with their Thai silk in order to find a flavour combination best suited for their taste buds. Something exciting, unique and lots of fun.

A little bit more about Musgrave Gin

Musgrave Gin is celebrated as an artisan gin with top notes of Cardamom, African Ginger and Grains of Paradise. Musgrave original crafted Gin has 11 botanicals and is born out of the flavours and history of Africa and its ancient spice route.

Musgrave 11 is an aromatic gin with exotic notes reflecting the spice route of Africa. Musgrave 11 Premium is no ordinary gin and its top notes of aromatic Cardamom, African Ginger (Whitei Mondei) and Grains of Paradise are reminiscent of the perfume of spice markets.

Musgrave 12 is a Pink Gin has all of the spice and flavour of Musgrave 11 but is toned down to be gentler and less spicy and to bring out the floral of the rosehips and the infused rosewater. Musgrave pink celebrates the rose, the flower of love and beauty with the source of the rose, rosehip, which complement Musgrave’s spicy nature.  It is then infused with rose water for its timeless perfume and romance.

The guests on the evening were provided with a Musgrave tasting plate consisting of a mini Musgrave 11 and 12, soda and tonic water and numerous different botanicals such as: grapefruit, lime, rosemary, basil and rosehip. Guests were guided through the tasting experience by founder of Musgrave Gin, Simone Musgrave and were encouraged to create their own G&T using their Musgrave minis and botanicals as inspiration for their very own flavor combinations.

A social media competition encouraged the guests to give an Asian inspired name to their unique G&T’s in order to win a wonderful Musgrave Gin hamper. Some of the G&T titles given by guests present at the event were: The Chopstick; The lemongrass ‘rose’ blossom and the Bangala bomb gin. The social media competition winner went to our very own Josie Dougall with her ‘Thai’m and Thai’m a gin‘ creation. Inventive and certainly Thai inspired!

All in all it was an evening of wonderful company, decadent Thai dishes and absolutely delicious gin. A completely new take on a standard tasting experience that delighted all.