Edinburgh now has a society dedicated solely to drinking Gin

It’s been a long time coming

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Edinburgh University now has a society dedicated solely to celebrating – and drinking – gin, with their first social taking place next week.

Though established last May, the society became EUSA official in November, with hundreds of students already liking their Facebook page.

As the brainchild of President, and third year Ancient History student, Ellis John Ridley, he told The Tab: “It was one of those drunk ideas that you never think will come to fruition, but after myself and a friend slurred that we should start a gin society, we actually did it.”

Though their first social as an official society will take place in Teviot next week, they plan on having weekly or fortnightly socials.

According to Ridley: “We plan on alternating between things such as distillery tours, flat parties where you play bring the cheapest or worst gin, and pub crawls where every pub is a different gin based drink

“It’s basically the opposite of an alcoholics anonymous society centred around gin.”

When asked whether there were any problems setting up a society based solely around alcohol, Ridley said: “As none of us have any experience starting or running a society the whole process of the EUSA rules and training was a bit like a 9am on a Monday with a hangover.

“We thought it would be more difficult due to the alcohol nature of the society, but to give credit to the societies team it was quite smooth.

“Although I am apprehensive of putting it on my CV despite a president or a founder (of a society) normally looking quite good.”

Not a gin drinker but all your friends are? Not to worry, explains Ridley: “We also welcome people who hate gin who just want to come for the fun.”

You can join the Edinburgh University Gin Society Facebook group here