Greetings, foul friends!
The best time of the year is here! Yes, the Spooky Season is finally upon us, and we couldn’t be happier. That’s not strictly true, as we hate being happy, but you know what we mean…
Greetings, foul friends!
September is upon us once again, which means that Autumn is officially here, and it’s less than 2 full moon cycles until Halloween. As you can imagine, with the vast majority of the Black Lodge staff either being undead, a creature of the night, not of this planet, or from a different ethereal plane, we look forward to this time of year immensely.
Greetings, foul friends!
2025 is chugging along nicely – like an unstoppable possessed train on an express track to hell – and it won’t be long until it’s officially autumn, or Fall if you’re American. (Fall on what? A hidden bear trap? A rotting corpse deep in the woods? We approve of either, to be honest).
Greetings, foul friends!
Now that we’re into the second half of the year, it only seems fitting that we start preparing for Halloween. Forget your spring lambs and flowers in bloom; think morbidity, decay, and extended darkness. Actually, think pumpkins, comfy sweaters, and sipping Black Lodge Potions in front of a roaring fire.
Oh, how we love this time of year!
Greetings, foul friends!
2025 is officially halfway over, and on the 21st of the month, it’s the summer solstice. After the 21st, the days will officially start to get shorter, the nights will be darker, and the weather will start to deteriorate slowly.
Marvellous news, don’t you agree?!
Greetings, foul friends!
The sun has been unusually high in the sky for the past few weeks, so we’ve had to break out the Factor 5,000 sunblock for the vampires. And they’ve moaned incessantly about it.
Greetings, foul friends!
Well, the rain dance we performed on the summer solstice appears to have worked a little too well, as it’s barely stopped raining since. Isn’t it delightful?! And, as it’s August, that means it’s officially less than a hundred days to Halloween, so we’re as happy as a worm in a cemetery this month.
You’ll also be pleased to know that Brother T is back on his feet and making handcrafted small-batch gin again after last month’s little mishap. It’s so nice to hear his curmudgeonly grumbling in the distillery again – the old place just hasn’t been as miserable without him.
So, on the back of that wonderfully depressing news, here’s what else the month of August holds in store for us and you.
FESTIVALS
We don’t mind the rain; in fact, we prefer it, but we know many of you humans aren’t partial to it, which is why we’ve been a bit quiet on the festival front of late. That changes this month, though, as we’ll be back with a bang (quite literally if we can’t stop the goblin children from playing with our store of dynamite) at two different festivals.
Shropshire Food and Drink Festival Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th of August.
Lichfield Food and Drink Festival 24th, 25th, and 26th of August in Lichfield city centre.
Admission is free, so drag yourselves out of your coffins and come and have a chat and a Black Lodge Potions award-winning gin with us.
EXCITING NEWS (WE CAN’T TELL YOU ABOUT YET)
The homing raven has just arrived with some incredibly exciting news. But, we’re sworn to secrecy for another few weeks before we can reveal what it is, so be sure to come back next month for the full reveal. We promise it’ll be worth the wait.
GIN OF THE MONTH
For those of you who prefer your gin with a bit of a kick to it, we have some special stuff under the counter that we stole from the restricted vaults in the catacombs under the Vatican.
Ah. This is awkward. It turns out that there’s none left. It appears that Agrigast the Wizard used it in a spell to help remove his veruca, but after drinking it, he’s gone temporarily blind and now believes himself to be a General at The Battle of Agincourt, so it’s probably just as well we didn’t let you have that…
What we have instead is our delectable craft gin. Slightly stronger than our other gins at 44% ABV, this fresh-tasting citrusy number won the Guild of Fine Food’s 2023 Great Taste Award. It’s one of our best sellers and pairs extremely well with tonic. Here’s its profile in a bit more depth:
Nose
Sweet juniper notes, Zesty, Grapefruit.
Palate
Fresh, with a peppery heat that tingles the tongue & gums. Smooth, Creamy, Vanilla.
Finish
A complex flavour, warming and slightly dry.
Botanicals
A selection of juniper, grapefruit, cubeb, cardamom.. plus more!
The owl on the bottle is a clue to the inspiration behind this flavour. Those of you who have seen the TV show Twin Peaks will be familiar with the phrase “The owls are not what they seem.” Is that a clue to unravelling the hidden secret on the bottle…?
Order your award-winning Black Lodge potions Craft Gin to find out.
COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH
Craft Gin ;
UNTIL NEXT TIME
That’s it for this month, mortals. If you have questions about any of our artisan gins or would like to suggest a feature for the Black Lodge Potions journal, then please contact us via your favourite carrier raven or seance practitioner. Alternatively, you can email us at hello@blacklodgepotions.com.
Stay spooky,
Brother G and Brother T
