Join the Club
Peter Rowley may be a familiar name to you – a national television and movie stalwart who has worked with the likes of Billy T James, McPhail and Gadsby, and more. Now, thanks to a serendipitous encounter with a dusty attic box, the infamous ‘Laughing Club’ has been reinstated, and you’re invited along for a tipple.
The Laughing Club was the brainchild of Lord Geoffrey Reardon, the charismatic and legendary racounteur who rubbed shoulders with the likes of Noel Coward, Rudyard Kipling, Charlie Chaplin, and Jean Harlow, to name a few. Raffles Hotel in Singapore was the birthplace of The Laughing Club – an exclusive club for those who loved to socialise over tennis, croquet, and the odd game of cricket at the local common whilst partaking in champagne or gin. A time of prohibition and a bit of good-natured, hedonistic fun.
Fast forward to more recent times, and Peter has set off to ‘sell the sizzle’ with the aforementioned box, filled with recipes from the 1920s.
The Laughing Club is giggling once again. Peter and the team behind The Laughing Club’s gin range recreate Lord Reardon’s original recipes to an exceptional quality, combining deep artesian water with an infusion of exotic botanicals. Traditional copper pot stills triple distil in small batches to ensure the original exquisiteness is kept.
Commonly, gin is made with ethanol – a ‘neutral grain’ alcohol. This has a neutral smell, taste, clear colour, and a very low number of impurities. All in all, making for an excellent bottle of your new favourite aqua vitae. With stockists in the South Island such as Ballantynes and The Juniper Collective, you can pick up a bottle somewhere near you today.
Famously, the Queen Mother remarked that The Laughing Club gin was like ‘drinking silk’ – now if that isn’t a prized recommendation, what is?