Back to school…Gin School! And we know just the place to get a learning – Quayside Distillery on Exeter Quay, where the new bar, eatery and high tech vacuum distillery has opened its canalside doors this spring.

Open five days a week, it’s a cool drop-in, whether you fancy a cocktail or a light tapas-style bite, with Med-inspired seafood, meats and salads on the local menu. Ooh, and caviar, just saying.

As for the Gin School, you can forget the copper stills of old, their rotary evaporators are uber-modern and high-tech, with the ability to distil at lower temperatures, and create sophisticated flavours with unusual botanicals, like lemon verbena. Create your tipple here and they’ll keep your unique recipe on file, meaning you can get a bespoke top-up any time you fancy.

The owners George, Joe (both of Spoken in Exmouth) and head distiller Dan, want here to be an everyday drop-in, with prices to reflect, rather than somewhere you save for a special occasion. Spot on for the times, we say. Watch out for a Muddy review of a distilling sesh at the Gin School, coming soon!