Mister Cocktail

I must admit that this gin is a somewhat difficult to find spirit, but since I left almost my entire stock of gins in G&T’s Really Really Nice Place last week, I had no choice but to dig in on my more exclusive stock. No worries though, as I wanted to treat myself to something special anyways, after the successful tour I did with Hidetsugu Ueno last week. We visited Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London for several masterclasses and we visited a fair amount of bars.

Back to the topic now, since it’s still Sunday while I’m writing this and  it’s best to finish before Monday kicks in.
I already reviewed the ‘normal’ Citadelle Gin here in the mix with Schweppes, and if you’d like to learn a bit about the story of the brand, please follow the link or go to their site.

Having a gin with such a colour in your glass is something special in itself: pale gold reveals the influence of barrel-aging and I can imagine that a long time ago most gins carried this colour as a result of transportation and storage. The nose of this gin is more smooth and sweet than that of the regular Citadelle, although that one has already some great sweet notes in its taste: cinnamon, orange and liquorice. In the taste, the wonderful high and citric notes from coriander, juniper and lemon are even more balanced after the maturation: more vanilla and peppery notes have been added and all work great together.

Schweppes: I decided to keep this brand in the testing, as it is the one that is readily available all over the world, as opposed to the other brands of Tonic Water. And even though it doesn’t come out on top most of the times, it is good for reference.
The softness of the gin somehow rules out the strong bitterness that normally dominates a G&T with Schweppes. The main flavour I’m getting is orange, which is actually quick pleasing. Long citric notes, along with the spices and peppery aftertaste still come through, making this a nice drink.
8.5/10

Fever Tree: Again, I get that feeling of excitement when I’m mixing with FT. The taste is soft and lingers to the sweet side, although some bitter notes remain in the aftertaste. The taste is fruity and floral, yet very mature and the extra depth that has been given to the gin still shines through in the mix with this tonic.
9.5/10

Fentiman’s: I always enjoy Fentiman’s as their bubble is very powerful, sending the aroma of the mix into the air. I needed to adjust the gin:tonic -ratio a bot to find the right balance – a little more gin is required in this mix versus the FT & Schhh. But the mix couldn’t really please me this time: the taste of Fentiman’s is a bit overpowering, especially the strong presence of lime. Should you be a great fan of strong lime in your G&T than you might like this better, but another gin with it is probably the best option.
8.0/10

Thomas Henry Elderflower Tonic: I received a sample of this a week or so ago and I figured this is a good occasion to test it, since there’s so many nice floral notes in the Citadelle Réserve. It’s a fun addition to the drink, but it’s one that you would really have to want. The quality of the tonic water is good and the flavour of elderflower is not artificial
8.0/10

Conclusion: The Citadelle Réserve 2011 is a great gin to mix with tonic, although it’s also great to sip neat, or to create a Dry martini with. It requires a soft Tonic Water to accompany it and Fever Tree is the obvious choice. Need I say more? Don’t think so!

My choice for today’s Gin & Tonic is 2 extremes: the exclusive, handcrafted Citadelle Gin, from the French region of Cognac, combined with Schweppes Tonic, one of the world largest brands for soft drinks. I was recently introduced to Citadelle, and I was very eager to try this one in my G&T reviews.

The story of Citadelle begins in the late 18th century, as 2 Frenchmen started producing Genièvre in Dunkirk with support of Louis XVI. The produced a small batch distillate which was primarily sold to the British, smuggled there as you will, because of the high excise on gin. The British had just barely survived the Gin-craze that lasted from 1720 to the early 1750s and had a heavy impact on the coutry’s social structure and public health. Asking a high tax for gin was one of the countermeasures. The French, who already didn’t like the British that much, would gladly help them to some inexpensive, yet qualitative gin.

Citadelle Gin is quite a full-bodied complex gin, containing no less than 19 botanicals. The taste is very fresh and balanced and it benefits from the 44 % ABV / 88 proof which opens the flavours in the glass and in the mouth very nice. Sweet notes from liquorice, orange and cinnamon are balanced by ‘sour’ notes from lemon and coriander while extra complexity and depth is added with cardamom, several peppers and star anise. And that’s just a few of them! The aftertaste is long with botanicals coming through in different stages.

Schweppes Tonic is of course known as a higher quality tonic amongst other main-stream brands, and known from slick produced commercials, including Una Thurman. They do however deserve an award for their highly dysfunctional and uninformative website, but that’s besides the point. It looks nice. Schweppes Tonic has a primarily sweet taste, with bitter notes coming through. Those come from the kinine inside. but for my taste the bitter taste lingers too long, while the sugars stay there quite long as well.

But the most important question: Will it blend Will it mix?
When using such a complex gin it is somewhat ‘risky’ to use a more commercial product but I must say they work quite nice together. I do have to add at the same time that I can credit Citadelle Gin for the larger part for this. The sweetness of Schweppes is quite strong but there’s fortunately enough room for the sweeter botanicals in Citadelle to stay upright. Because Schweppes has very little citrus notes, the taste from Citadelle has a lot of room to complement the drink. I do feel however that the long bitter taste of Schweppes holds the mix a little bit back.

Rating: 8.0/10

Method: Mix 40 ml / 1.5 oz Citadelle Gin in a longdrink, fill with icecubes and pour Schweppes Tonic over it. I tried the mix with one wedge of lime (squeezed) but am really curious what would happen when served with a slice of orange! Maybe next week!