Ginstock & Fifteen Street

The sun was shining on Saturday which only increased my excitement for Ginstock - there would be eight bars each creating a different cocktail with a different gin. Organised by Tweat Up (who have run a Chilli Off and Ribstock previously, both I which I followed on Twitter and enviously eyed up the food on offer) and its founding member, Jonathan Downey - who owns lots of my favourite places to eat and drink in London.

A £25 ticket included entrance to Fifteen Street which is just outside Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant and was jam packed with some of the best street food vendors the country has to offer (and lots of bunting), plus it included the eight cocktails and a cleansing Birra Moretti - for when we needed a break from the gin. You had to vote for your favourite too.

We headed straight for the Martin Miller bar, which had a rhubarb tonic cocktail perfectly mixed by the bartenders from Lost Diplomacy. Garnished with fresh rhubarb it instantly became my favourite (which after only sampling one is probably a little unfair) due to the delicious fruity taste and the fact you could still taste the gin, which is one of my favourites anyway. The miniature bottle of gin and rhubarb was a nice touch too.

Starving - we decided to grab a tasting plate of jungle curry from Hungry Gecko, a street van run by Masterchef runner up Jackie Kearney. It was delicious but we were glad we only had a taster as it was hot.

One gin cocktail down, only seven more to go...

Next up was a Beefeater Negroni created by Polpo. The cocktail was way too strong for me, it is pretty much straight alcohol but I enjoyed the free bowler hat and drank it anyway.

We were trying to work out which cocktail was the one with the custard cream on top, and as we queued up for Bombay Dry and the London Cocktail Club we realised this was the place - topped with elderflower powder and mixed with a sweet fruity juice, it was good. The custard cream balanced on top sealed the deal.

As we were approaching the half way mark of gin we decided to go for a cleansing beer whilst we queued for our pigeon and beetroot wrap from Wild Rover Food, it was cooked fresh so the queue moved slowly but all the customers and then the staff were lovely. We was going to only have a mini one each but were starving by the time we got the front so went for full size one - each mouthful was yummy. The gamey pigeon and the sweet beetroot were a match made in heaven.

This was followed by a gimlet with a twist by Sipsmith and The Zetter Townhouse, served in a tiny martini glass - it was perfect with homemade cassia and orange cordial. It became a contender for best cocktail of the day. The staff on the bar were lovely and knowledgable and tried to bribe us to vote for them with freebies, but the Rhubarb cocktail was still on my mind.

The guy from Worship Street Whistling Shop was serving up a cocktail with Williams Chase gin and was hysterical, he had a smoke machine which he placed in various botanicals and smoked the crowds with, may not sound amusing but we were on our fifth cocktail. This tasted like smoked apples and was really easy to drink.

We were on a roll so headed to the Nightjar bar, the queues were starting to build but the atmosphere was still good fun, the man in front of us (who was a bartender) was horrified when we said we didn't like the Negroni.  The cocktail here was made with Bombay Sapphire and I am not sure what, served with a monkey nut garnish and bits of cinnamon, it totally transformed a gin I do not really like in too something quite special. I thought Emily would like this due to the cinnamon and her love a Bathtub gin.

Another food stop was required - Mat was craving a burger so he want to find one as I queued up for some mussels from Mussel Men. The staff all dressed in stripy fisherman style top and one even with a fisherman style moustache really live their brand. As I was slightly intoxicated I thought I would go for some oysters too - Mat returned disappointed as lots of the food stalls had shut as they were cooking more food or had completely ran out, he was tempted when I offered him one of my oysters. I added a skirt of lemon and some tabasco and they disappeared really quick, they had been freshly shucked in front of me and the slippery little morsels of seaside freshness. This was followed by a good sized portion of mussels, juicy and quite big but still full of flavour I was happy.

Mat was hungry and wanting a burger still but with two more gins to try we went and queued up for another cocktail. The queues were now huge and we waited a good half an hour for one from Danger Of Death, made with a gin I have never heard from before called Hvar (it came in a weird bottle covered in what looked like dripping green wax and I can not find it online) . It was lethal - pure gin I think, Mat couldn't finish his and didn't fancy another queue so we skipped the Gilpins Gin made by the Liberty Lounge and headed out to Hoxton to find a burger...