Song: Liam Gallagher – Wall of Glass (just for Caroline)

Drink: Gibson…and lots of them.

Melbourne was mad. Beautiful. Perfect.  In my head, I’d already moved in! There were some incredible bars and restaurants.  Food was taken seriously here, particularly Breakfast/Brunch.  Some with Asian influences, some more western, but my god was this the perfect way to start a day!

We frequented many-a-bar – one in particular – Bartronica – with Nintendo 64 Booths and retro arcade and pinball machines was a favourite.  Also Melbourne Gin Palace was well worth checking out.

Highlight of our time here however was two-fold. Junipalooza Melbourne and a bar called Bad Frankies.

Firstly, if you’re lucky enough to have attended Junipalooza in London before – this was another level. Epic food (mouth-watering brisket, melted cheese, crème brulee, and nitro ice cream…not all in one of course), crazy Australian Gin Distillers and our favourite faces from Gin Foundry behind this epic event.

There was so many amazing Gins here. Have to give a big shout out to Never Never Distilling , Patient Wolf and Red Hen – just a few of our favourites on the day. One of the biggest highlights however was meeting the team from StrangeLove drinks. An impeccable line up of mixers, paired with some really awesome branding – I really hope to see this over here in the U.K. soon.

Once the crowd were starting to stumble home, we stayed to catch up with our friends and organisers from Gin Foundry, Olivier and Emile, and Caroline, The Gin Queen herself.  We were also joined by some awesome Aussie Industry lovelies.   I’d like to carry on the tale of me making a complete arse of myself in front of my gin heroes at a post-Junipalooza dinner…but I will leave that in Melbourne.  All I will say is that in involved an ill-placed, immaculately polished pane of glass.

Second big highlight of Melbourne was Bad Frankies.  Not only had they been mixing some mad cocktails at Junipalooza, but it was also SUCH a great bar.  Unbelievably vast spirit selection, amazing staff and one of the most fantastic food selection known to man – the Jaffle.  To you and I – the perfectly formed Toasted Sandwich.  If you’re ever in the area – make sure you drop in and have a Gibson.

There we are!  Thank you for reading my tales of Australia.  Of course, there were plenty of amazing non-gin related experiences that we enjoyed too – but you’ve got TripAdvisor for that…

A massive THANK YOU to everyone who we met –  for your kindness, generosity and just for generally being awesome.  We can’t wait to come back soon and see more of this beautiful country.