What better way to celebrate the first day of Easter then enjoying a nice G&T! I noticed a less then half-full bottle of Geranium Gin in my cupboard and realised I never tasted it in the mix with Tonic – always in cocktails or neat, strangely. So here we go, in combination with Fever Tree Tonic Water. Happy Easter!
Geranium Gin is a Danish brand created by Henrik Hammer and his father, who worked around the concept of incorporating geranium in a gin. They found historical links between the use of Juniper and Geranium and investigated this combination on a scientific level. They concluded that these two are indeed a great marriage and they proceeded with the development of the gin. It is a London Dry Gin, which means that all 10 botanicals (of which 1 is a secret!) are distilled at once in a neutral grain spirit. The production of the gin takes place in the U.K. (Birmingham more precisely) and Geranium Gin is distilled in a copper pot-still that’s over a century old.
When tasted neat, Geranium Gin is a very smooth and mild spirit. It combines the freshness of lemon (coriander, lemon) and juniper very stylishly with the floral taste of geranium. What a surprising ingredient! The taste is full-bodied, but never out of balance with a great sweetness from liquorice and orange.
Fever Tree Tonic has been used by me for several other gins and I chose this today again after tasting the Geranium Gin. I figured these two could match very well: they’re both not too sweet and could complement each other on the levels of bitter and sour flavours.
The combination is an extremely smooth G&T. The bitter notes from the quinine in Fever Tree are nicely balanced by the geranium, which still doesn’t overpower. The long lemony taste from Geranium Gin gives the drink a very long aftertaste, which made me decide not to use a juice-containing garnish in here. Instead of a lime or lemonwedge, I used an orangezest which made the drink just perfect for me.
Rating: 9.5/10