A new gin and vodka school has arrived in Leeds city centre where you can make your own perfect bottle to take home.
Called Nelson’s Distillery and School, it officially opened its doors inside the Hilton on Friday, 21st May 2021 following a bit of a rocky launch.
Through no fault of its own. the school initially opened in 2020 and served customers for just two weeks before it had to close again due to Covid regulations.
Now it's back in full swing, offering local gin lovers the chance to book on for a 4-hour experience that will see them distill their own bespoke bottle of vodka or gin, using the in-house mini stills and a choice of over 50 botanicals.
The experience runs 2 days a week, with classes on Fridays 4-8pm and Saturdays 2-6pm. On occasion, classes also run on Sundays - but this is only on Bank Holiday weekends.
You'll be greeted with a hot drink on arrival before learning anything and everything you need to know to make your own unique boozy blend, taking home a 70cl bottle with you at the end of your session.
There's a choice of either a single still option for 1 person, or a shared still option for 2 people when booking, and lunch and three gin and tonics per person are included in the booking fee.
Guests will also receive a £20 gift voucher on arrival to spend on Nelson's online shop.
Based in Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, Nelson's was first founded in 2019 and now has a number of gin schools across the country.
Producing a range of vodka and rum, Nelson's supplies its products to Waitrose as well as independent restaurants and bars across the country.
The tiramisu hype lives on, and this time it's coming to Leeds.
It really does feel like the traditional Italian dessert has taken the world by storm as of late.
Everything from tiramisu cups and tiramisu coffees have been popping up all over our feed, and now tiramisu in drawer form is popping up in the city centre.
Misu Tiramisu is an independent business that began at Manchester's Christmas Markets and quickly became one of the most popular operators, all thanks to its miniature tiramisu ‘drawers’.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
The individually portioned and colourfully packaged desserts quickly became one of town’s top puddings, and owners Aleem and Aishah went on to launch a stand inside the Manchester Arndale too.
And now they’re branching out again in Leeds inside Trinity shopping centre for a two month residency.
You’ll find all their delicious flavours of handmade tiramisu, including classic, pistachio, chocolate, Biscoff, mango, and lemon - they'll also have some gluten-free tiramisu on offer as well, so no one has to miss out.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
Misu Tiramisu owners Aleem and Aishah spent a year refining the recipe for their tiramisus after a trip to Milan, first launching with their first market stall in Sale.
Misu Tiramisu is now open inside Trinity shopping centre opposite Boots Opticians and Pop Specs.
They're open every day of the week for you to get your tiramisu fix, from 9am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 11am to 5pm on a Sunday.
And trust us Leeds, they're just as delicious as they are adorable.
Fossilised 320-million-year-old fish found in Leeds’ Roundhay Park
Clementine Hall
A prehistoric fish fossil has been unearthed at Roundhay Park in Leeds.
The fascinating prehistoric skull bone of a coelacanth fish was discovered by a geologist at Roundhay Park earlier this year.
It is thought the creature was frozen in time aeons ago, during an era when the park was submerged under a vast tropical lagoon.
The remarkable discovery has now been kindly donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries and added to the natural sciences collection at Leeds Discovery Centre.
Image: Leeds City Council
The Leeds fossil was found by Ru Smith of the Yorkshire Geological Society during a reconnaissance walk he was carrying out ahead of a planned field excursion in the north Leeds park.
Describing the moment he made the discovery, Ru said: “There’s a layer of rock in the park which dates from around 320 million years ago, from a time before the breakup of the continents, when what is now the park would have been situated close the Equator and under the warm waters of a tropical lagoon. West Central Africa would be a good place to find similar environments in the present.
“There’s a bed of freshwater mussels called Carbonicola at one level in the rock, and opening a piece of shale from this bed in my hands I saw something unusual – a distinctive skull bone of a large fish. I knew straight away this was something different and very rare."
The bone was verified byexperts as belonging to a coelacanth older than those found elsewhere in Yorkshire, making it the oldest fossil coelacanth discovered in the region.
Ru added: “Coelacanths are pretty amazing fish and it’s just very cool to think that at one time, you could have been standing in Leeds and watching them swim around above a bed of mussels in Roundhay Park.
“That’s really the wonder of geology, looking at the rock and time travelling in the imagination to what was a very different world.”
Georgina Pellant -
26th May 2021 
