With November well and truly underway, many of us are brushing the dust off the boxes of baubles, untangling reams of Christmas lights and searching for the most appropriate time to put the tree up. So as December 25th sneakily comes around the corner, the amazing city of Preston has a Christmas event coming up that you certainly don’t want to miss. 

The Christmas Switch On

Their Annual Christmas Light Switch on takes place on Saturday 23rd November from 5:30pm with the With over 1.5 miles of sparkling lights dazzling the streets of Preston, this is one switch on that is most definitely going to light up Lancashire. Based in the heart of Preston’s Cheapside, Flag Market will be lined with onlookers ready to countdown to one of the best festivities of the year. 

What’s happening?

Funded in part by Preston City Council, this year’s switch one promises to be the best one yet. With a mass array of performers from YouTube stars to Children’s TV characters from PJ Masks, Preston has gone all out to bring in the crowd to help bring in Christmas. Amongst the amazing performances, the brilliant ‘Boyz on Block’ (consisting of ex members of boyband legends such as Five and Boyzone) will be taking you back to the 90s as the headlining act and with Fosters & Strongbow at £2.35 a pint – you will 100% be asking – wait…what year is it? 

Where should you celebrate? 

Wondering where to enjoy the Christmas festivities during the Flag Market Switch Market, well, look no further than Hogarths. With just a 3 minute walk between Hogarths and Flag Market, you can catch all the fun of the countdown to Christmas whilst enjoy a fabulous drink in the best bar in Preston. Perfect serves of Sweet & Spicy featuring Gordons Pink, Zymurgorium Flagingo, Kraken Spiced Rum and Puerto De Indias gin, create some terrific tipples that will be available all night long. With competitions and prizes occurring all night too, Hogarth’s is the number one place to be for Preston’s Christmas Switch On. 

Bottled and distilled right in the heart of Belfast. This is a gin that packs an almighty punch. With its signature style coined in the phrase ‘greatness through graft and craft’, this new gin on the block promises to wow until the very last drop. 

The Jaw Box Story

Based just outside the beautiful Belfast, there lies a vast 300-acre country estate dating back to the 16th Century that is home to the distillery and fields that the grains for their gin is grown and harvested. Triple-distilled on-site in traditional copper pots the distilled in small batches using time-honoured methods using a secret recipe of botanicals, including their local Belfast Black Mountain heather. 

With gin becoming a focal point in rich and poor homes across Belfast, this sassy spirit became a talking point in many a kitchen cross the wonderful city and thus Jawbox was named – the gin that everyone is talking about. With a classic London Dry at its heart and then jazzed up with a secret recipe of botanicals – this glorious gin is definitely something us at Hogarths will be talking about each and every night. 

The Jawbox family

With a tremendous trio of glorious gins – we can’t help rave about the brains behind this brilliant brand:

First up is The Jawbox Classic Dry Gin,  taking the lead as the showstopper to this triage but it is closely followed by two lavish liqueurs that taste amazing until the very last drop. 

Jawbox Classic Dry Hogarths Perfect Serve: Fever-Tree Tonic & Lime

Pineapple & Ginger liqueur. Take their classic Jawbox gin, add some fiery ginger spice and finish with the intense flavour of pineapple. Yes pineapple and what you have is a drink that takes you right into the tropics.  Expertly balanced and perfectly combined this gin marries sweet and spice with the unique botanicals of their classic gin.

Jawbox Pineapple & Ginger Hogarths Perfect Serve: Schweppes Ginger Ale & Pineapple

Rhubarb & Ginger Liqueur. It’s a classic combination, sweet and tangy Rhubarb which is then balanced with warming ginger for a perfect balance of flavours. This classic garden vegetable (yes it’s a vegetable) has been grown in back yards and pots for generations creating a tart freshness of flavour that synchronises so sweetly with their gin.

Rhubarb & Ginger Hogarths Perfect Serve: Schweppes Ginger Ale & Fresh Ginger

So with this Belfast beauty hitting our shelves, great yourself to Hogarth’s and take and adventure with this incredible Irish indulgence. 

The sun is shining, the weather is warm and school staff have kicked off their heels and finished for the summer holidays. Across the country, teachers and teaching assistants can wake up without the pressure of a 9am class and spend their time planning what fun things they are going to do whilst enjoying classroom-free time off. 

At Hogarths we applaud the hard-work school teachers and support staff put in to nurture the minds of the next generation and with the term well and truly over – we have some fantastic gins to celebrate that school is finally done and dusted…at least for the next 5 weeks.

Our Top 3 Gins For You Hardworking Teachers:

A Fruity, Floral Favourite 

This fruit-laced gin is perfect for the summer months. Brockmans gin is flavoured with 10 botanicals, including citrus and wild berries which blends perfectly with the soft and rounded harmonies of blueberries and blackberries. We recommend to serve this glorious gin over ice with a garnish of blueberries and blackberries and a splash of Ginger Ale.

The Quintessential Gin

We would be wrong to recommend any gins without including a British classic. Tanqueray London Dry Gin is the gin of champions and to all you educational professionals out there – you deserve the best.  This classically crisp gin has exceptional, fresh grapefruit citrus fruit notes as well as subtle juniper and a delicious hint of spice, along with a touch of dryness on the palate. We serve perfectly over ice with Fevertree Tonic and a handful of lemon wedges

The Luscious Liqueur

There are ever expanding flavours coming from Zymurgorium. We’re still loving the sweet shop inspired ‘Parma Violets’ – this has been one of our best-selling gins since opening. This sweet violet gin liqueur from the inventive Manchester distillers produces a subtly floral gin that is great for those of you knew to gin or that fancy something a little sweeter on the palette. We perfectly serve this Wonkatastic creation with Schweppes Lemonade, over ice and with crushed Parma Violets. 

So now that many of you have been literally ‘saved by the bell’ – get yourselves and your friends, take some time to relax and grab yourself one of our perfect serves and start your summer in style. 

What’s better than gin? Is there any reasonable answer to this fantastic question…well yes… what’s better than one gin – of course it is THREE!

Our gin flights are served on wonderful wooden trays and gorgeously garnished to give you three perfect serves of our amazing gins: Hogarths, Tanqueray, Edinburgh and Pink Gins are finished with our recommended mixers to really give your gins the perfection they deserve. 

Hogarth’s Flight

Featuring a triage of Hogarth’s own premium gins. This fruity flights gives you a mixture of mouth-watering gins that will most definitely transport you to summer days with our Strawberry & Vanilla gin making you feel like you’re enjoying a punnet of fresh strawberries and cream right in the heart of Wimbledon. We decided to include the best of Hogarth’s range of own brand gins staring Passionfruit Gin Liqueur, Strawberry & Vanilla Gin and our sweet-shop speciality Bubble Gum gin. Perfectly paired with fruit garnishes and Schweppes Lemonade – this trio will kept your tastebuds tingling. 

Tanqueray Flight

Being a British classic it is no wonder we had to create a flight of three of Tanqueray’s amazing gins . Featuring Tanqueray’s original London Dry and their No.10 – these classically crisp and refreshing spirits are pleasing to the pallet and you will notice a difference in taste between the 2. For a fruity twist, the game changer to this flight is the Spanish speciality of Tanqueray’s Seville edition producing a subtle orange flavour to give this gin flight a thirst-quenching, refreshing finish.  

Edinburgh Flight

Infused by fruits and natural botanicals, our Edinburgh Gin flight features all flavours natural and British. Presenting a trio of incredible gin liqueurs that have been firm favourites amongst Hogarth’s patrons since our doors opened. Raspberry, Plum & Vanilla and Rhubarb & Ginger are the three stars in this gin flight. Garnished with fresh fruit and perfectly paired with Schweppes Lemonade, we highly recommend this gin flight if your new to gin or simply want a sweet, succulent and fruity explosion of great gin that will keep your taste buds tingling.

Pink Gin

Since pink gin hit our bars it has proved to be immensely popular, and with great taste it’s easy to see why. Our pink gin flight contains 3 very flavour packed gins: Puerto De Indias, Greenall’s and Gordons Pink. Each showcase their own very different yet sweet flavours. We recommend choosing Schweppes 1783 tonic water or Schweppes Lemonade – depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have. Each gin is garnished perfectly with strawberries and raspberries.

The sun is out, the lawns are cut and a lifetime supply of strawberries have been picked for one of the great British sporting events that we all have come to love and adore. Britain is showcasing the best tennis the world has to offer. That’s right…it’s Wimbledon!

With the world’s eyes fixated on the battle of the top 3 male players Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic – will this be the year a shock underdog takes the crown? With Serena Williams back on fine form, does she have what it takes to snatch the title back from reigning champion Angelique Kerber? No matter who wins this year, we have everything you need to really put the wow in your Wimbledon. We have selected our top three gins that will keep your taste buds tingling..

Here are our “Game, Set and Match” gins to enjoy at Hogarths whilst watching all the tennis action in our bars.

1 Puerto de Indiasis

Their scrumptiously sumptuous Strawberry Gin so succulent its good enough to eat. With notes of fresh strawberry and juniper, this 37.5% ABV gin offers a wonderfully whimsical summer sensation that is perfectly paired with Schweppes Lemonade for a juicy and delightful tipple.

2 Brockman’s – A Fruity Favourite

A beautifully crafted and ultra-premium gin. With a fruity punch to keep your needs for strawberries and cream at an all-time high, this glorious gin is intensely smooth and features botanicals of coriander, angelica and juniper teamed with sweet influences of wild berries and citrus. Perfectly serve over ice with Schweppes Ginger Ale, fresh Blackberries and blueberries.

3 Zymurgorium – It’s All About The Strawberries

As Wimbledon hands out more punnets of strawberries in two weeks than are bought in most supermarkets throughout the year, we couldn’t recommend a drink more than Zymurgorium’s succulent Strawberry & Mint. With no less than 50% pressed strawberry fruit per bottle this glorious gin is full over flavour! We suggest serving perfectly over ice with Schweppes Lemonade and strawberries. 

A special mention and fingers crossed to our previous champion Andy Murray, let’s hope he smashes his doubles tournament and takes the title again. No matter what the outcome, our perfect serves are a must to enjoy whilst watching the perfect serves of some legends at Wimbledon this year. 

As the month of June has come to a sunny end, here at Hogarths we wanted to take pride in one of the most influential events taking place across many countries in the world. LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The rainbow flags are out, marches are booming and across the world people are coming together to show tolerance, diversity and show that it “is okay to be gay”.  At Hogarths we most definitely believe that Love is Love is Love and to celebrate this annual celebration of overcoming all things queer, one of our bars; Hogarths Lancaster has something amazing on offer to commemorate this fantastic event. 

Welcome all, to the Pride Gin Tree. Consisting of 9 Perfect Serves – this colourful rainbow of our best gins is on offer at just £55. The wonderful gin sharer contains a double measure of gin, complimentary mixer and a glorious garnish. Representing each of the colours of the Pride Rainbow – this Pride Gin Tree is definitely one to share with your loved ones and raise a glass (or 9) to how far we have progressed in LGBT+ gay rights and all things rainbowfied. 

The Tree Consists Of:

1X Hogarth’s Strawberry & Vanilla

2x Boe Spiced Orange

2x Hogarth’s Passion Fruits

1x Zymurgorium Sweet Violet

1x Beefeater with Midori & Mixer

2x Beefeater with Bols & Mixer. 

Focused around the Stonewall riots in Manhattan in June 1969, Pride is a positive stance against discrimination and violence towards Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer people. Pride celebrates the love that each and every one of us has a right to and across our Hogarths home towns – events will be popping up with marches, parties and festivals across the UK such as Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds Pride. With recent homophobic attacks hitting headlines in places such as London, Pride is important now more than ever to raise awareness and tolerance that is it ok to love who you love. So from all of us at Hogarths – get your rainbows ready because although the official month for Pride is over – we cannot wait for the LGBTQ+ events that are still to come.

So come and share a perfect serve with whoever you love and remember be PROUD OF WHO YOU ARE