Simon Ford, the creator of cocktail gin, Fords Gin, is heading to Australia and will be hosting trade masterclasses in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Fords is a cocktail gin, it’s a bartender’s gin – not only through the recipe of botanicals that make it a perfect gin for almost all gin cocktails, but also because of the care taken with the design of the bottle to make one that’s easy to use working behind a bar.
After working in the world of spirits for over 20 years Simon realised that the ultimate cocktail gin did not exist. So he brought together a group of industry professionals and began creating gin recipes, on recipe number 83, they cracked the cocktail gin code with a blend of nine botanicals.
But the gin needed to be more than just a cocktail gin, Simon wanted bartenders to really embrace his product and worked on creating the perfect bar bottle. You see and feel that work the moment you pick a bottle up, with its ergonomic shape and marks on the side, which allow for proper measurements as you batch on the fly.
To help make the bottle more inclusive to different hand sizes the bottle has a contoured middle grip and an elongated neck to help keep bartenders more comfortable on long pours. Plus the bottle’s tapered base allows for a better hold when grabbing off a high shelf.
With the gin and bottle in hand Simon set about taking his gin to the hospitality world and so gained international recognition, being bought by Brown-Forman in 2019. The first market to transition the brand across was Australia and Simon said he wanted to head over here and support the Brown-Forman relaunch in a country he considers to be one of the world’s best at hospitality and cocktails. But 2019, we all remember that right – everything was soon shutdown and the opportunity to travel was cut and so Simon’s trip was postponed, never cancelled.
So now that travel is back, Simon has stayed true to his word and is heading to Australia to share Fords Gin with the hospitality community and enjoy Australia’s phenomenal bar industry.
He will be hosting a Trade Masterclass at Hickson House in Sydney on Thursday 8 September from 1pm to 3pm. This will be followed by a similar event at Melbourne’s Pearl Diver from 3pm to 7pm on Monday 12 September and then he’s heading up to Dr Gimlette for a Masterclass between 12.30pm and 2.30pm on Tuesday 13 September.
Not only is this an incredible opportunity to learn about this cracking cocktail gin, but you get to meet Simon Ford. He’s been the recipient of the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards Best Brand Ambassador Award twice for his work on Plymouth Gin. He then held the role of chairman for the festival’s awards and co-hosted for several years.
So get involved and reach out to your Brown-Forman contact to secure a spot at one of Simon’s masterclass sessions.
