Mister Cocktail

You may have noticed that I haven’t updated my blog the last couple of months on a regular base. Some larger projects, travels and tradeshows have taken up a lot of my time, but I intend to provide you with new information, insights, reports and reviews again!

First up is Venuez BE, the Belgian Barshow. The only good tradeshow for hospitailty professionals regarding spirits in Belgium and Holland. This means that there will be loads of Dutch visitors in Antwerp, making this a very international tradeshow. Seminars play an important role during these two days and some very well-known (or famous, depending on how deeply involved you are in bartending) people have been invited to show their skills. My old collegue Giuseppe Gallo is one person I’m looking forward to hear and there will be loads of laughter during the presentation of Mr Rum himself: Ian Burrell, organizer of the world’s largest rumevent. One seminar in particular is one to look out for and that is where Marian Beke and Luca Cinalli, the 2 bartenders of Nightjar, London will show their deep knowledge of making drinks and, more in particular, their skills for making drinks beautiful.

Amidst this line-up there’s also a small place for your humble narrator to spread the love for Gin & Tonic, by explaining how and why certain gins go along really well with certain tonics. Or not.

On both Monday and Tuesday, you can witness me go down in a sea of gin&tonic and I hope you will join me!

I’m still updating my first posts I made earlier this year when I started with the G&T Sunday Reviews. I only tested Hendrick’s with Fentiman’s, so 3 others left to go with this most peculiar Scottish gin.

A quick update on what Hendrick’s is, just in case you’ve forgotten: “It has a distinctive bottle, resembling an Apothecary bottle from long time ago, coloured almost black. When you turn the bottle, you may notice the sentence “It is not for Everyone” and I must say: it isn’t. You can read the ingredients on the back label as well and the first stage of the distillation is making a ‘vapour-distilled’ gin, which could be classified as a London Dry Gin. In this first step, ‘ordinary’ botanicals are infused in a neutral grain spirit. Think of Juniper, Coriander and Citrus Peel. But Hendrick’s Gin becomes, well, Hendrick’s Gin after the addition of two extra infusions: Cucumber and Rose Petals. Here’s a link to their blog, where you can read a lot more about their gin.”

1724: The nose is strong and cucumber-rose combination comes directly to you. The taste reveals mainly these 2 flavours with only a slight bitterness. In the aftertaste the coriander comes through, taking over completely. I think this tonic water is not strong enough to complement the dominant flavourings in Hendrick’s Gin
7.5/10

Fever Tree: This taste just scream Coriander from the first sip! CO-RI-ANDEEEER!!!! Cucumber is detectable in the middle which is a bit more sweet and it gets more floury (=rose) towards the end, but wow, I’ve never taste so much coriander in one sip!
7/10

Thomas Henry: Here I also get a little bit of the Coriander-experience, but milder. The taste is much more balanced and I get very pleasant sweet notes in the middle, accompanied by the typical rose and cucumber.
9/10

Fentiman’s: I needed to try this mix again, since I rated it with a 6 last time. One of worst combinations I tried but did I make a mistake in judgement? Time to find out!

Nope. It’s a terrible mix, too citrussy, too perfumed and there’s hardly any cucumber nor rose left in the taste. Both are great products, but not together.
6/10

Conclusion: Hendrick’s Gin has such an outspoken bouquet that it is more difficult to match with a tonic water. Most make an all-right mix, but we’re looking for the best combination, the one tonic water that really compliments the gin and that lets it shine. I only found Thomas Henry to do this for Hendrick’s really well, but with the addition of fresh cucumber I’m pretty sure that the mix with all other tonic waters will be very pleasant. But in my tastings I compare without garnishes so I can taste the combination best.

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the Chase Distillery in Herefordshire. I was given an extensive tour around the farm with great weather accompanying me. Master Distiller and also my guide for today Jamie Baggott took a good few hours to show me around, taking me through all the processes they work with to create their 70+ variations. Mainly the production of their alcohol was explained to me: Potato for their Vodka and Williams Gin and Apple for thier Williams  Gin. The two main agricultural products of Herefordshire are indeed Apples (Producing cider is the big thing in this area) and potatoes, for which the red clay soil is perfect.

Chase Distillery was established by Will Chase in 2008, when he sold his previous company: Tyrrell’s Potato Chips. Having learnt a great deal about potatoes, he recognized the potential of launching a spirit-brand and after a testing period of 4 years he launched Chase Vodka. In 2010 it got awarded  Double Gold and best in class at the IWSC in San Fransisco over  249 other brands and it could name itself World’s Best Vodka. I found a great interview with Will Chase here, no need for me to rewrite all that.

Williams Gin is distilled at the farm, where both the apples (gin) and potatoes (vodka) needed for the base-spirit are grown. First, a base spirit made of apples is distilled for the gin. This is then re-distilled with the botanicals, being Juniper, Coriander, Orris, Liquorice, Angelica, Hops, Orange, Lemon, Elderflower and Brambley Apple. They use a small carterhead still for this, making sure the small batch distilling gives it the elegance it needs. To read about their full process of making their products, check here.

The bottle: The shoulder and foot of the bottle are about 2 mm wider than the middle at both sides, creating the optical illusion of a very slender bottle. It is fully transparent, except for the lowest 5 cms, with the absolute minumum of information displayed on the bottle: only the name, origin and some practical information is printed on it. It is decorated with an old apple tree in wintertime and because of the dark bottom, the Union Jack is a nice eyecatcher.
92/100

The nose: Creamy and slightly sweet on the nose, with juniper and coriander coming through right after. It has a somewhat damp yet fresh flavour that I recognise from ciders. This  is logically caused by the base-alcohol being created from  apples. 97/100

The contents:  The first taste I get is juniper and coriander. Due to the high level of alcohol (48 % abv/96 proof), the gin releases some of it’s flavours only later. I kept the fluid in my mouth for 10 seconds and I noticed it started releasing more floral and fruity notes. It also reminded me of a fine Jasmin tea. The orange and lemon zest are part of the very long aftertaste, together with apple and elderflower. The mouth feel is silky-like and doesn’t get tart at any point.
98/100

The Mixability:
You might get the idea that I’m writing a raving review on this product because I had visited the distillery, but I can assure you that this is not the case. I have visited a lot of distilleries (some of them more visitors centres actually) over the past few years and although visiting a location definitely contributes to appreciate a brand more, I’m focussing on the product, which basically is what it is. And on how it combines with Tonic Water. Chase produces both the “Elegant Crisp Gin” and the “Extra Dry Gin”, the latter at 40 % ABV. However, I carried a bottle of the “Elegant Crisp Gin” home with me, so here we go, in the mix!

Fever Tree: I must admit that I expected this to be the perfect match, but it wasn’t. A very dominant bitter taste is produced in this mix. A little strange, since neither the gin nor the tonic are very bitter. Especially in the aftertaste, the bitterness suppresses the palate too much. In the middle there are some sweeter (orange, liquorice, elderflower) and citrus notes. It is not a bad combination, don’t get me wrong, and you can still enjoy this mix for both are great products.
8.0/10

Fentiman’s: This mix goes in a completely different direction, but also not he one I was hoping for. A little too perfumed for my taste, very high on the citrus notes and with a floury (not floral) mouth feel.
7.5/10

Thomas Henry: The first sip indicates that this could be a very good combination. The characteristics of the gin are clearly present, with a nice juniper and citrus note at the beginning. The tastes evolves to more floral and fruity, slight bitterness in still present (quinine of course) but never predominant. The citrus in the gin and tonic work together great an to me this is a great example of how a tonic should serve the gin.
9.5/10 

1724: A nice combination with Chase Gin, as it is a very soft tonic water. Especially the aftertaste is long and nice with citrus (both lemon and orange) and elderflower.

Conclusion: This is an amazing gin to taste neat and surprisingly more difficult to match with a the right Tonic Water. Thomas Henry was by far the best combination for me, but as tastes vary, another tonic water may be better for your taste. I also stirred a Dry Martini and this serves the gin much better. It is an amazing product, with a great story behind it that is honest and true (as I have seen with my own eyes), just like the people behind it.
96/100 

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 (Juniper, Geranium, Coriander seeds, Lemon, Orange, Liquorice, Cassia, Angelica, Orris root and 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 is over a century old.

When tasted neat, Geranium Gin is a very smooth and mild spirit. It combines the freshness of citrus (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: 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.
9.5/10

1724: This is a very soft and gentle combination. A subtle bitterness really complements the taste of the geranium. The bubble in the 1724 tonic is small and slow and combines very well with this gin. In the aftertaste there’s a very pleasant hint of spicy orange. Great g&t for he or she who enjoyes a mild and gentle gin & tonic.
9.5/10

Fentiman’s: When I poured the tonic, a very pleasant small of rosewater arose from the mix. The tonic is the first you taste, the gin a bit later and it gives a very surprising effect. The lemontones are much stronger in this mix and this is the perfect tonic if you like a g&t with a bite.
9.5/10

Thomas Henry: This mix accentuates the more earthy notes like Orris and Angelica. In the middle more floral and fruity notes come through, the Orange and Geranium. A slight bitterness is present from beginning until long in the aftertaste.
9.5/10

Conclusion: This is actually the first gin I’ve tried for this blog that matches great with all the tonic waters that I tasted it with. But is is very important to note at the same time that all 4 mixes are for different g&t-drinkers. I tried to describe along each mix which match is good for which type of drinker. Just like the mix with Fever Tree (which I tested a few months ago), I used a fresh orange zest as a garnish additionally, but the rating is based on just the plain mix of Geranium Gin with each Tonic Water.

Since my last G&T Sunday review, I had tried several combinations during the summer. One of the gins that I had very pleasant experience with, was Caorunn Gin, so I was looking forward to tasting it in combinations with the 4 Tonic Waters. The bottle really stands out, especially the shape of it. Caorunn (read label for pronunciation) claims the Celtic heritage, since there’s some other famous gins being produced in Scotland and marketed as such (Hendrick’s, The Botanist and Old Raj being 3 of them). Next to 6 classic gin botanicals (Juniper, Lemonpeel, Coriander, Cassia, Orange Peel and Angelica) there are 5 ingredients specific to Caorunn. These are 5 botanicals that can be found in many parts of the world, but they have been used in Celtic medicine for ages: Rowan Berry, Bog Myrtle, Heather, Coul Blush Apple and Dandelion Leaf.

I found that the site of Caorunn Gin describes their heritage, production and ingredients very well and to-the-point. No need for me to rewrite or copy that, so make sure to check there!

The bottle: Both the 5-star symbol on the bottle and the shape of the bottle itself represent the 5 Celtic botanicals that are used in Caorunn Gin. It is quite a unique shape and it holds very nicely while working with it professionally. The neck is perfect for a hand to fit around it and swing the bottle upside-down to make a pour. The cork is also very well designed: thick and heavy with a wooden top.
95/100

The nose: Fresh pine and citrus are very strong when the spirit first hits your nose. To me this is an indication that it’s a gin that leans towards the classic gins, which turns out to be so, but there’s much more to it. Sweet fruity notes from the Rowan Berry (also the giver of the name Caorunn, which means berry in Celtic) and Coul Blush Apple appear directly after, giving it a very nice and specific character.
91/100

The contents: The first sip is, just like the nose, very fresh and full of juniper, pine and citrus: a walk in the woods. For a moment, the alcohol takes over a bit too much to lead to the middle part of the taste. This is much more sweet with a nice tingle on the sides of the tongue.

There’s a very long aftertaste, where a menthol-like coolness develops in your mouth (I suspect the Dandelion has this effect). Some very nice sweet notes appear in the end and here you can really taste the Heather and Bog Myrtle, at least I get some flavours that I can relate to from the description, since these are not in my standard palate. In Holland we have a type of liquorice that is based on Bay leaf which has a very comparable taste!
92/100 (97/1oo on just the aftertaste)

The mixability: Because of the 5 botanicals that are specific to Caorunn, it can serve as a base for some classic gin-drinks. Even more so, it can be an inspiration for a load of new drinks and I was curious to try Caorunn in my selection of Tonic Waters.

Fever Tree: Before I added the apple in this G&T, I could already taste the apple in it. The citrus notes were much gentler and the strong juniper was less dominant. The addition of apple makes this mix nice and extra fruity, but in my opinion it could use just a little more citrusflavours now.
9/10

Fentiman’s: This tonic is strong in bitter- and citrusnotes, so obviously this is a completely different mix. The bubble in Fentiman’s in much stronger, giving the mix the taste of apple much faster while it emphasises the lemon and coriander in Caorunn much better.
9.5/10

Thomas Henry: This combination is quite sweet and it works very well with Caorunn. I think the pleasantly sweet notes of the heather play a big role here, leaving a long and pleasantly sweet aftertaste.
9/10

1724: The most delicate of these tonic waters is 1724 and it leaves a lot of room for the Caorunn to move around. I just feel that the quinine in this tonic water dominates the taste, making it a little dry with very little citrus left in the taste.
8.5/10

Overall: This is a very nice gin to stock in your home-bar. If you are looking for one special gin, this is certainly one to take home with you. It mixes very well and I enjoyed it neat at least as much as in a g&t. The mix with Fentiman’s was the best-balanced combination, but differences in taste might lead you to other mixers no doubt. As things usually go.
92/100

After a long weekend, this day feels like a Sunday to me, that’s why I probably  postponed the G&T Sunday posting to today. It’s been a great weekend and I celebrated being married to the Mrs for 1 year exactly last Saturday and treated our guests to a nice amount of G&T’s, which were happily accepted. The next day we enjoyed a friends’ birthday in the park in Amsterdam where we also filled the booze table with 2 nice transparent blue bottles of gin accompanied with some quality tonic. Again, people were happy with this. The gin-craze is slowly starting in Holland, a good 250 years after it ended in the UK (which was 1757 in case you’d like to know).

For this G&T review I choose The Botanist, which had been looking at me for some time from the spirit cabinet. Of course this wasn’t the first time for me to mix it at all, but sitting down and really describing what happens in several mixes is a different ballgame from enjoying one in the sun while reading.

This gin is created by the Bruichladdich Distillery which is located on the Isle of Islay, in the North-West of Scotland. This area is famous for it’s peaty whiskies and this distillery has always been in the centre of innovation since it’s opening in 1881. The still which produces The Botanist is a Lomond Still, the very last of its kind and affectionately called Ugly Betty. This is a steam powered, low-pressure still which takes 17 hours to complete the distillation cycle. And this gin requires two of them: 1 for the ‘standard’ gin botanicals and 1 to infuse the 22 local botanicals in the gin.

The result in taste is a complex, yet strangely accessible gin. The nose contains a lot of sweetness and freshness from the flowers, fruit, herbs and spices: there’s chamomile and elderflower, orange and mint. The juniper in this gin is quite strong, but never overpowering.  In the mouth there’s all these herbs that work together and the huge range of wild flowers they are using work their magic here. Getting the right ingredients at exactly the right time is a proof of intimate knowledge of local vegetation by the distiller. The one that stays there in the aftertaste in the mint (peppermint and water mint leaves). My taste buds are not that refined, so naming all ingredients is too far fetched for me, but you can find the complete list of botanicals on this great gin-blog (but please keep reading mine as well).

Schweppes Tonic: The Botanist benefits quite well from the strong bitter and sweet notes in Schweppes although it struggles to keep itself upright next to this tonic at some moments. The floral notes still shine through and the complexity of the gin still shows.
7.5/10

Fever Tree: These 2 meet each other in a soft and sweet middle taste, which works towards a slightly bitter aftertaste with long floral notes and a lovely taste of mint. I used a slice of lemon to balance the drink more.
8.5/10

Fentiman’s: The Botanist is quite low in citrus taste and benefits really well from the stronger citric notes in Fentiman’s Tonic. This tonic water contains kaffir lime and lemon and balances this gin in a great way. The sweet and floral notes in the gin get all the room they need to come through and are nicely balanced by the quinine.
9.5/10

Conclusion: The tonic water that compliments The Botanist best is Fentiman’s Tonic: in gins with higher levels of citrus notes (could be from lemon, coriander, orange etc) this tonic water tends to overpower, but here they go together just fine!

How to: I mixed 50 mls of The Botanist Gin with 100 ml tonic water in a longdrink filled with icecubes. For garnishing I used a lemonwedge. I tried it with lime, but found this too strong for my taste. I also tried orange and orangepeel and these proved to be quite pleasant as well, taking the drink to a sweeter side. If you prefer an ever more herbal taste, I tried it with a sprig of thyme which worked very nice as well.

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

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!