Kalispell, Montana.

I visited Kalispell just a couple of summers on my cross-country voyage. The scenery, the place, those mountains and that sky. They’re inseparable in my head. So when I hear the word “Kalispell” I immediately think of these things. And when I think of Ridge Distillery Silvertip American Dry gin, I think of northern Montana.

On Perceptions
So like I said, I’m looking for glacial coolness. Mountain air. Fresh mountain flowers, and spry juniper. That sounds like a review already, right? I like to try and do these reviews in isolation. I don’t want to read what my colleagues have said. I try to ignore what the Beverage Testing Institute, Spirits Competitions, etc say. But they’re almost inescapable. A lot of times those lists are one of the ways I discover or learn about some of the great new gins that are out there. So let me say one thing that I found striking was the review written by the above mention Beverage Tasting Institute when they were faced with the gin in their 2011 tasting competition:

Aromas of red licorice, citrus cheese pastry and buttery peanut praline with a soft, fruity-yet-dry medium body and a zesty licorice and clove gum finish. Interesting and very well made, but more of a licorice cordial than a gin.

Those last words are rather damning, and they stuck with me even before I had ever tried Silvertip gin.

On Tasting
The nose has a slight hint of juniper and only the smallest hint of  the anise flavor. The taste is remarkably “soft” and rather smooth. It definitely does not taste like it might be an 88 proof beverage. The character is rather creamy and mild. The juniper is a slow riser. It comes in the middle of the tasting, but it is hard to avoid that upon tasting the first note is anise, and the last note that lingers in the back of your mouth along with some residual heat- is also anise. But is it a licorice cordial? Let’s investigate.

On Anise
Anise is not novel, nor even rare among gins. I’d say that its probably a botanical in maybe a good quarter to a third of gins out there. Its rarely as front-shifted as it is in silvertip, but this in and of itself is not something worthy of note.  A couple spirits immediately come to mind as being “anise cordials” of a sort. Annisette: lots of Anise, almost overwhelming. But no Licorice, and the review specifically said Licorice, and not anise. Then you have Pastis, which has a little bit of both- but Pastis definitely carries that specific flavor combination. I just don’t feel that Silvertip even comes close to that level of anise/licorice. In fact, I’m not sure that I taste the licorice. I would have called it anise from the outset and I’m rather confident that is what’s going on here.

That being said, if you do not like anise (or Licorice for that matter) you will not appreciate this gin. It is a big part of what it does. If you want to even get to the subtle caraway notes or the pleasant pine finish, you’re going to have to come through the valley of anise first.

On Reading Other People’s Reviews [and especially wine-like reviews of spirits]
I understand that there is a certain relativism to taste. That’s the idea behind the pentagon. I want to try and objectively talk about taste in an easy to read fashion, and then in my entry (down here what you are) ramble on about the subjective impressions. But I found the Beverage tasting Institute review to not be helpful for me as a gin drinker at all. I drink an awful lot of gin, and I found some of the descriptors such as: “citrus cheese pastry” (delicious by the way), “buttery peanut praline” (also good), to be rather not helpful. I tasted this gin- liberally. In and out of cocktails. I have to be honest, I got nothing that resembled a breakfast pastry. Sure, its warm, creamy, but its junipery and lacking in cheese-like notes. I’m just not sure what the reviewer was trying to hint at.

I sometimes feel like as a gin-writer that the specter of wine reviews looms large over us. Can we be taken seriously in our craft if we don’t offer preposterous pontifications, comparisons to outlandish things? I’m not sure the answer. But I hope that the more everyman approach to gin reviews has a place.

On what I think- and keep it brief, because you’ve been rambling….
Lots of anise, and a fair amount of juniper. Pleasant and gin like. Not for folks who don’t like anise. Floral hints. Decidedly contemporary, but altogether pleasant and flexible.

Works great in a Negroni and a Gin and Tonic. The Anise notes can make for interesting variations on classics such as the Aviation, but whether or not those variations work might be up to the individual drinker. I remain unconvinced.

Price: $27/750 mL
Origin:  Montana, United States
Best consumed: I think it makes for a unique and top notch gin and tonic.
Availability: Montana, California, Florida, Maryland and Delaware. But many more coming soon. Distribution Map
Rating: A bit heavy on the anise like notes, but overall rather enjoyable and flavorful.
***½~ (3.5/5)

 Karner Blue Gin is the flagship gin of New Hampshire’s only in-state distillery at Flag Hill Winery in Lee, only a relatively short drive from the oft traveled I-95 as it hugs along the coast of the state. Flag Hill Winery was founded in 1990 and has been distilling spirits using local ingredients since 2004. Probably best known for their General John Stark vodka, they launched Karner Blue gin in Fall 2011. I had heard good things, so during my brief sojourn up to Maine last month, I made a point of stopping at the state liquor store just off I-95 to pick up a bottle for myself.

A little background on the Spirit
Karner Blue is the first gin I’ve reviewed which uses apples as the base instead of grain. Locally grown apples add a unique local note to this contemporary styled gin. Among the botanicals there are a couple of unique points of difference from most gins. Joining the classic juniper, citrus and orris root, are savory and cubab berries.

But the question that is still on your mind, what is Karner Blue? You might be ready for Jeopardy if you knew off the top of your head that the butterfly adorning the front of the bottle wasn’t just a novel decoration, but instead the state butterfly of New Hampshire: the Karner Blue Butterfly.The Karner Blue butterfly is threatened in its natural range in New Hampshire, Vermont and Upstate New York, but fortunatly conservation efforts have been successful at maintaining the Karner Blue’s numbers in recent years. Good? On to the gin.

Tasting
The nose is immediately floral: rich and intoxicatingly sweet. Notes of citrus and warm tropical fruit, almost fruit punch like. It smells luxurious and rich.

But noses can be deceiving. The first taste is a pleasant burst of juniper. A bit sharp, but gives way to peppery background notes and robust citrus. The juniper lingers and has a long smooth finish. It sticks around sweet and junipery in the back of your mouth for even a minute after. Straight, very pleasant with a good amount of nuance. Its easy to recommend it for a martini based on this.  The floral notes are going to please fans of modern American contemporary gin, but the juniper is there and forefront for enough of the tasting to make clear that this is a gin.

Karner Blue works well in any number of cocktails. I like the floral/juniper combination and this gin works exceptionally in an Aviation. It was a dark horse candidate for a good Negroni, but I found that it worked, if a few of the things that I liked so much about Karner blue straight did not come out. I think it goes without saying that this gin makes a great gin and tonic as well. Certainly easy to recommend it for folks who are not normally gin fans, but even easier to recommend for people who are. A good amount of depth, and a unique enough flavor profile makes this an enjoyable and unique gin that is worth of a purchase, even among the bevy of solid American microdistillery gins currently on the market.

Price: $30/ 750mL
Origin:  New Hampshire, United States
Best consumed: I like the Aviation or the Martini with this gin, but its hard to go wrong in my opinion.
Availability: New Hampshire, look for it in the state run liquor stores.
Rating: A fine contemporary gin that does a lot of things really nicely. Come for the floral notes, but stay for the juniper burst. 
****~ (4/5)

Do charts and graphs ever lie?

The Gin is In to the Rescue
Its been widely established that it is okay to drink wine and champagne with breakfast (Journal of Brunching 1985), and therefore the Bellini and the Mimosa are a staple at most reputable brunching establishments. Additionally, the Bloody Mary is an acceptable brunch drink because it contains vegetables and according to one scholar “is sort of like a meal in and of itself (1991), therefore it is acceptable to have at brunch with your mom. But all of these drinks have one problem. No gin.

The Alternative to the Mimosa
The French 75 at its core is a simple cocktail. Pretend you’re going to have a Mimosa. Replace the orange juice with lemon juice (still with me?). Then add two shots of gin.

It maintains all of the sophistication of the Mimosa with the inclusion of the Champagne. It’s French. And most importantly? Its brunch Approved.

The Gin is In’s French 75 Cocktail.
4 parts gin (if you want a volume measurement, I’d say go 2 ounces)
1 part lemon juice
1 teaspoon of superfine sugar
Shake well with ice. Make sure all sugar is dissolved.

Strain and Pour into a champagne flute. Fill 1/2 with the  lemon and gin mixture.

Fill the rest of the glass with champagne. The dryer, the better. But your mileage may vary. [recipe taken from an earlier Cocktails By Consensus Post]

But my Mom prefers drinks that eat like a meal.
The good news is that this variations has several different names, but unfortunately they rarely seem to appear on brunch cocktail lists. I’d suggest asking for a “Bloody Mary with Gin instead of Vodka” if you’re out. But if you’re at home, I think we can put together a proper Red Hammer, Red Snapper, Bloody Margaret or Ruddy Mary.

I know a lot of people might have no qualms of buying a gargantuan plastic jug for a party, combining it in equal parts with vodka, and calling it a day. But your mom? Well she raised you. This day is for her. Doesn’t she deserve better than $3.99 worth of plastic jug tomato juice and who knows what? Let’s make it proper.

“Thank you Mom” Mother’s Day Bloody Mary
2 parts Gin [get piney and bold with this, Beefeater is a good choice]
3 parts Tomato Juice [V8 is the best. The less non-tomato-crap in it, the better]
1/2 part Fresh Lemon Juice [again, its your mom. Squeeze those Lemons. But don't be afraid of using limes here. I could go either way, I prefer the more classic Bloody Mary flavor that comes from using Lemon]
1/4 part Worcester Sauce [Soy Sauce can be substituted, but not without losing some flavor. For a saltier Bloody Mary, add an additional 1/4 part Soy Sauce]
A couple of liberal dashes of Tabasco Sauce. [Go to taste, but my mom once ate a raw Habanero. So I might go double]
1 pinch of Celery Salt
A few twists of freshly ground Sea Salt
1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper [Vietnamese Peppercorns add a nice smoky note here, the only kind of Peppercorn I don't think works is white]
1 teaspoon of horseradish [Optional, but I think it adds some nice flavor. I’d have no qualms about taking fresh horseradish from a jar in the fridge.

Stir all the ingredients together with ice, serve in a tall glass with ice. But spare your mom the celery garnish. It just gets in the way. You don’t need to take a sip and have the leafy part of the celery gently tickling under your nose. If you want to eat a piece of celery with your Bloody Mary, by all means cut some and serve it on the side.

So there you have it!
Wishing all of the Mothers out there a happy Mother’s Day! 

We’ve reviewed 54 Bottles of gin (3 bottles awarded our highest honors of 5 stars),made 16 cocktails by asking everyone we know (whether they have cocktail sense or not) and took a hell of a lot of pictures of good bottles of gin.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers and gin drinking compatriots for making the last few years such a huge success.

There’s a lot of great gin coming up in the next few months, a massive tasting of U.S. Gin with my friend and fellow gin writer over at Summer Fruit Cup. So stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Cheers!

Imagine my shock to realize I have not yet covered one of my favorite cocktails in my long running Cocktails by Consensus series. The Clover Club is a sweet, frothy when done properly, crowd pleasing gin cocktail. And yet, despite its easy-drinking profile and pleasant flavors, it never has quite caught on to the same sort of fame as the fruity margarita or the pleasant cosmopolitan. My suspicion is that its definitely the raw egg.

Across the board, everyone agrees that egg white is vital to the cocktail. Most, but not all, bartenders recommend “dry shaking” the egg before hand to create the froth. Though, beware! When eggs are shaken, they release gas and may cause the shaker to explode! Shake for a couple of seconds; vent; repeat. Only Ginuary recommends less than a whole egg. For simplicity sake, unless you’re buying egg whites at the store, a whole egg white will work well*.

One peculiar outlier here is the Washington Post which suggests Grenadine is a substitute for the Raspberry syrup. I suppose it executes the drink in appearance, but not quite in spirit. That cocktail is a different drink all together.

Lemon juice is all over the place. Everywhere from a tablespoon in our “not quite a Clover Club Cocktail” to making up over one half the amount of the gin that is in the drink in Ginuary’s version.

The Ginuary Clover Club is unique among entrants in that it uses fresh raspberries. Simple Syrup is necessary in this version to achieve a similar sweetness as the drink which uses the syrup.

Some Clarity out of this Frothy, all-over-the-place cocktail.
We’re looking at two different drinks here in my estimation: the fresh fruit version, and the syrup version (excluding the Washington Post’s Grenadine Club Cocktail). So I have two versions: But first look at your calendar. If it is July August, you want the second one. If its not berry season in your municipality, stick to the standard.

The Classic Clover Club Cocktail
2 parts gin [something good and junipery]
1 part fresh lemon juice
1 part Raspberry Syrup
1 egg white/1.5 tbsp of egg white
First dry shake the egg white for about 10 seconds.  Then put all the ingredients in your shaker, shake with ice, strain and serve in a cocktail glass.

The Clover Garden Club Cocktail (a.k.a. Raspberries are in Season Clover Club)
8-10 Fresh Raspberries
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 parts gin
1 part lemon juice
1 egg white/1.5 tbsp. of egg white
First you’re going to want to muddle the raspberries thoroughly in a separate bowl with the sugar. Mash them into a fine pulp over the sugar. In the process, you’ll be dissolving some of the granules. For best results, do this ahead of time and let the berries soak for an hour.

Then, same as above:  First dry shake the egg white for about 10 seconds.  Then put all the ingredients in your shaker, shake with ice, strain and serve in a cocktail glass. If you are going right from muddling to drinking, you might want to shake an extra few seconds to ensure everything’s been dissolved.

But why so little sugar?! Because if you use in-season Raspberries they’ll be extra sweet. The best berries for this cocktail come from your side-of-the-road vegetable stand. Look for the mushy Raspberries that are on the shapeless side of ripe. Besides, you might even be able to get a good deal on them, because those are the berries that folks aren’t buying, and at the end of the day are going to go unsold [good for you] or back with the farmer and turned into pie [less good for you because that means the farmer has already been eyeing those berries all day].

Cheers!

* If you are buying egg whites on their own, about 2 tbsp of egg white is necessary to equal the amount of white from one egg.

You’re sitting at home, or maybe at the bar. Alone, or with friends. You’re waiting impatiently for the sporting event that boasts the highest ratio of pre-game coverage to actual sporting of all sports events*. You’re not drinking beer, you’re a gin drinker so you’d prefer gin to Kentucky bourbon. So what do you do?

The Derby Cocktail
Sure this cocktail might be more apropos for a horse race in England, but hear me out hear.

2 oz Gin [preferably dry, and definitely chilled is best]
2 Dashes of Peach Bitters [Fee makes a good one]
2 sprigs of fresh mint
Stir and strain into a cocktail class.
Optional: Garnish with an Olive according to the original source; later versions of the cocktail omit this element.  

So is this peachy, slightly minty, but mostly still just a very dry martini too boozy for you? Let’s try another cocktail that might be a bit easier on the old palette.

Cherry Julep
Ahh, the bastard child of the Kentucky Derby staple, “Mint Julep.“ Gone is the bourbon; in comes the gin. Plenty of sweetening elements that make it a bit more of a hot May afternoon sort of cocktail

2 oz. Gin
1 oz. cherry brandy
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp of juice from a jar of Maraschino cherries [okay, not really part of the cocktail canon, but can you deny how delicious this highly sugared juice is?]
Garnish generously with lemon wedge, fresh mint and a pile of those saccharine fake cherries.
Shake well with ice until sugar dissolves; strain and garnish. 

But wait. Hold on there. Didn’t you just gank that recipe from SheKnows.com? Its not a bad drink, but you’re a cocktail guru. Can’t you improve upon it?

Cherry Julep, 2.0

3 ounces of gin. [lot of sweetness here, so let's kick it up a notch]
1 ounce of lemon juice
1 ounce of simple syrup [shaking until sugar disappears? easiest way to make a gritty cocktail]
1 ounce of Maraschino [the liquor, not the grocery store fruit]
Garnish with two sprigs of mint, and a maraschino cherry if you absolutely have to.
Shake with ice, strain and garnish

So here’s what we did here. We shifted everything into easy to remember (and easier to drink) ratios. We start with a Tom Collins base of Gin, Simple Syrup and Lemon Juice. Instead of going the really artificial route, I opted for the more sophisticated, but equally as cherry-flavored Maraschino. This cocktail tastes more cocktail-like, and is guaranteed to not leave a sugary sludge at the bottom of your drink with all of the mint leaves.

So now you’re ready to enjoy the race in style. You now have a perfect sipping drink for watching as the three horses you bet on for win, place and show to finish in 11th, 16th and 19th respectively [The Derby Cocktail] and the the perfect sipping drink for watching other people who bet 50 dollars on that 100:1 that will finish in 4th [Cherry Julep].

Cheers!

*Snark all you want about the Superbowl coverage, because I’d say you’re justified. 6+ hours of coverage? Its second on the list because the game is actually 3 hours long. This horse race hasn’t come close to being 3 minutes long since Benjamin Harrison was president. – The year being 1891.

This is the first Swedish gin I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. And if all Swedish Gins are this interesting, it is a country whose gin culture I desperately need to spend more time getting acquainted with.

Jag Dricker Gin!
Jag Kommer från New York City!
[and that is the end of the Swedish I know. To all of my Swedish friends, please forgive me for this brief aside]

Experiencing Swedish Gin
The nose has a floral and fruity hint, with just a hint of juniper.

The taste is a bit fruity, but with plenty of juniper. There’s a bit of citrus that hits you at first before making way for a earthy juniper punch. A bit of heat hits you, but quickly parts leaving the palette with a fresh juniper finish. Hints of a sweet fruitiness linger long after the sip. The fruity notes to me had a slight strawberry character.

The overall character was rather nicely balanced. While its profile seems to fit the contemporary style, it has one foot squarely in the classic camp. There’s a characteristic dryness and warmth to the juniper here that at times hints at London Dry, but it has enough unique fruity notes to differentiate itself. Although this is only a small sample, I’m excited to try more. This gin seems to have a good deal of promise.

I would have no qualms recommending it for a gin and tonic. It might even make a good “gateway gin” for those are moving up to London Dry [a stepping stone between perhaps G'vine Floraison and Beefeater?]. I enjoy the way it adds the berry note* without having to go completely contemporary.

I would love to have a bottle of this to put to a through test in my home bar. In the meantime, if you see a bottle, I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out.

Price: 258 kr / 700 mL (~ 39 US Dollars)
Origin: Sweden
Best consumed: I like the Gin and Tonic, but its overall character seems as it if might go well in nearly any gin cocktail you can come up with. 
Availability: Europe
Rating: A gin that walks the line between the contemporary and classic schools. I’d be excited to give it a more complete review because I like what I’ve had so far.
****~ (4/5)

International Gin Exchange 2012 >>>

Thanks to David over at Summer Fruit Cup for helping  make this tasting possible. Because the bottles are small sample bottles, this review is not as thorough as my normal gin reviews. There’s only enough for some tasting neat and no more than one normal-sized cocktail. Although I do my best to give as full of a review as possible, complete with ratings, the tasting is not as complete as I would normally want to do.

*By the way, although the parallel my taste buds immediately seized upon was Strawberry, the actual botanical is Elderberry— a fruit which I don’t have much experience with on its own, so perhaps I lacked the experience to readily identify it.

Colors sometimes carry preconceived notions with them. With something brown, you might expect something to taste complex and harsh. But with Pink? I know that I expected Edgerton Original Pink Dry Gin to taste “easy,” “smooth,” and a bit “fruity.” Boy was I wrong. One out of Three isn’t bad, right? Not every guess can meet the Meat Loaf Standard.

Nose/Palette
The first thing you notice when taking a sniff of Edgerton Pink Gin is that it smells of sweet fruit, largely owing to the Pomegranate added post-distillation. The scent lures you in. Sweet, appetizing. So you go in for a taste.

AND BAM. It Hits You. 

The Taste is harsh. A pop of tart sweetness immediately dissipates in a sharp burst of heat. The tartness is overwhelming. Lots of sourness, and not a lot of complexity. I can pick up some notes of juniper on the middle of my tongue. There’s a slight pause between the initial burst of heat and the lingering sour finish. I’m not sure the window in the middle is big enough to really reveal the depth and range of botanicals in here.

The heat largely owes to the proof.  At 47% its a bit stronger than most gins. But I’d say that it tastes even stronger than that.

Neat, there’s no balance. Edgerton Pink’s real use is revealed in a gin and tonic. The sourness is balanced by the sweetness and bitterness of the tonic. In anything else though, the specific sourness doesn’t really work well. It seems to me that Edgerton Pink is a novelty with a single use. Sure, it does that one job well. The Gin and Tonic is memorable, has a nice color, and might actually carry enough of the fruit flavor to convert non-gin drinkers. But in anything else: Aviation, Martini, Negroni (I tried mini cocktails) it just doesn’t work. Its too overwhelming.

Price: 40 € / 700 mL
Origin: United Kingdom
Best consumed: Gin and Tonic
Availability: Europe
Rating: It makes one rather remarkable cocktail, and is rather disappointing in all other respects. Lacks balance and depth. 
*½~~~ (1.5/5)

International Gin Exchange 2012 >>>

Thanks to David over at Summer Fruit Cup for helping  make this tasting possible. Because the bottles are small sample bottles, this review is not as thorough as my normal gin reviews. There’s only enough for some tasting neat and no more than one normal-sized cocktail. Although I do my best to give as full of a review as possible, complete with ratings, the tasting is not as complete as I would normally want to do.

Simplicity and Novelty both have their virtues.

Simplicity can be a great introduction to spirit tasting for novices. With only a few ingredients thought and care can be put into picking out each one. Simplicity can often time shift the conversation to quality. Some gins have 30+ botanicals, but how can you tell if they’re all good if at most you can pick out 10?

Novelty is what makes the recent gin explosion fun. Looking for a gin with Lavender? Dislike neutral bases and want to taste a gin made on the same thing as your bourbon? Prefer Nutmeg with your Cassia? This is the kind of adventure that brings you back again and again to gin.

But rarely do you find both in the same gin. Oliver Twist has only four botanicals: Coriander, Juniper, Angelica and Savory. Savory? Yep, there’s your novelty. Though a nice match for many of the flavors in gin, its a rather rare ingredient.

Tasting
Its a bit deceptive when you consider that there’s only four botanicals in here. As I detect notes of sweetness on both the nose and palette that call to mind citrus. Hints or orange and a lemony freshness. There’s a nice burst of juniper and coriander but a fresh floral finish that accompanies the closing burst of heat. Its rather drinkable and pleasant. I could recommend without reservation drinking this straight.

The Cautionary Tale of Knowing the Botanical List
Of course this little sample came David. I had read his review before tasting- and in fact, re-read his reviews rather recently when doing my first tasting. Why? Well he had given me the samples all labeled as “mystery #1-4.” So in order to write the reviews, I first had to determine which gin was which sample. So I poured them all into glasses. Tasted them one by one. Compared them to his notes.

You’ll all be elated to know that I did indeed Identify all four of the mysteries successfully. But this one was the hardest one to determine authoritatively simply because I tasted something in here that wasn’t in the botanical list that he posted. In other words, something in those four botanicals created an affect completely different than what you might expect. I didn’t detect any strong notes of savory. In the end, this gin only revealed itself by process of elimination. I was dead-certain on the other three. Sure, it was as drinkable as it David said it was. It was smooth, and rather nice. But if I only had the botanical diagram, I might have never guessed it.

Nearly every gin lists the botanicals that are in it these days, but I still think that its hard to make any decisions based on a list alone, because the character, the quality, the nuance and the whole picture sometimes differs rather radically. That’s why I often don’t list the official botanical list first, and try to go on taste alone.

Origin: United Kingom
Website: http://www.olivertwistgin.com/
Best consumed: Works well in nearly any cocktail
Availability: Europe
Rating: Smooth and pleasant. A rather drinkable gin that does a lot of things well.
***~~ (3/5)

International Gin Exchange 2012 >>>

Thanks to David over at Summer Fruit Cup for helping  make this tasting possible. Because the bottles are small sample bottles, this review is not as thorough as my normal gin reviews. There’s only enough for some tasting neat and no more than one normal-sized cocktail. Although I do my best to give as full of a review as possible, complete with ratings, the tasting is not as complete as I would normally want to do.

Cheap Gin. I don’t have a problem with it. In fact, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by many bottom shelf options I’ve tried. New Amsterdam is a bargain. Rather inexpensive but a good gin on its own. Not just for the Price. So I have an open mind. I’m not biased against a gin which is cheap for cheap sake. “Supermarket gin” is not inherently bad in and of itself.

So of course when David at Summer Fruit Cup told me this gin had a Molasses base, I was pretty excited. Experimentation with bases (things other than neutral grain) are among my favorite trends in modern gin. So how did this molasses-base hold up in tasting?

Tasting
The beginning is rather pleasant. A tingle of citrus and a prickle of juniper. This all gives way to an intense and sudden burst of heat. The sharp heat blurs the mid notes and gives away to a finish which is lingering, slightly burning, and leaves a bitter aftertaste in the mouth. Though the aftertaste has intimations of the juniper and citrus, its not altogether  too pleasant. There’s not enough subtlety to say if there is anything in the molasses base which adds or subtracts from the drink. Unlike the whiskey mash bases and the grape bases, this one is neutral in character and if I hadn’t known ahead of time, I would have never guessed it was there.

But you’re not going to drink this gin neat like I am right now. It mixes nicely. The bitter juniper finish isn’t completely done away with, but a nice element of sweetness like a tonic water or some citrus cuts it. But the only way to really make it go away I guess is to use a super sweet sour mix or something. If you’re buying Tesco, that might be what you plan on using it with. If you’re looking for a gin for a proper Tom Collins, I might recommend you look elsewhere. 

Price: 10 € / 700 mL
Origin: United Kingom
Website: http://www.tesco.com
Best consumed: Mixed with something sweet and strongly flavored.
Availability: Europe
Rating: Its a cheap gin with a certain audience in mind. If you’re having a party and you need a lot of cheap gin, then you probably already know what you’re in for. 
*½~~~ (1.5/5)

International Gin Exchange 2012 >>>

Thanks to David over at Summer Fruit Cup for helping  make this tasting possible. Because the bottles are small sample bottles, this review is not as thorough as my normal gin reviews. There’s only enough for some tasting neat and no more than one normal-sized cocktail. Although I do my best to give as full of a review as possible, complete with ratings, the tasting is not as complete as I would normally want to do.