100 Mill St. Gin

Flavor Profile

100 Mill St. Gin is a seasonal gin (no, not that kind of seasonal gin). It’s seasonal because its base spirit is made from maple sap and is only available seasonally. That means that when 100 Mill St Distillers release their gin, that’s it— there’s no more maple sap until next year.

3,000 maple trees yield 30,000 gallons of maple sap. When sap comes out of the tree, it’s only about 3% sugar by volume. That sap needs to be concentrated before the fermentation can occur. All of that work and all of that sap make a mere 3,000 bottles.

Once bottled, gin season is over for the year. 

The base spirit is the star here, but 100 Mill St. Gin features fourteen additional botanicals, added via vapor infusion.

Tasting Notes

100 Mill St. Gin has a bright citrus-led nose. Lime predominantly, but there’s also grapefruit, a slight hint of thyme, and a floral-like jasmine quality rounding things out. Complex and inviting, 100 Mill St. Gin reads as quite contemporary out the gate.

Firstly, the mouthfeel is quite lovely. It’s silky and rich. On its own, I bet this maple sap spirit is a winner. But texture aside, the base takes a back seat to the botanicals.

There’s a lot of that lime and citrus character throughout the palate. The citrus has multiple facets, grapefruit and slight hints of unripe mandarin lend depth. Mid-palate there’s a custard-like note that echoes vanilla creme Anglais with a hint of sweet egg.

Towards the finish, 100 Mill St. Gin shows some slight hints of spice. Pepper and juniper round things out. The finish is moderately long with oily citrus notes holding court with a slight lemon verbena, herbal and menthol touch.

Cocktails

It’s a beautiful journey on the palate. Though many gins as of late have begun recommending themselves to be sipped neat— 100 Mill St. Gin is of the rare that truly lives up to that style. As you might guess, if it’s good neat, it’s also good in a Dry Martini, though I caution that citrus is the far superior garnish here.

In a Gibson, there’s an herbal, onion flavor that reminds me a bit of Gin Mare or even more unusually, of the sauce that accompanies gravlax.

That being said, 100 Mill St. Gin is also exceptional in a lot of mixing applications. I enjoy it best with a dry, light quinine tonic.

Given its rarity and the featured base spirit— I recommend it more for gin-forward offerings. Though bartenders will find that 100 Mill St. Gin mixes well as an herbal/citrus forward gin.

Overall, 100 Mill St. Gin

100 Mill St. Gin would have seemed risky had I seen only a product brief. Distilling tree-to-glass from maple sap?

But the execution is spot on. 100 Mill St. Gin is a pleasure to sip, a versatile mixer, and the rare seasonal spirit that I think has earned the right to call itself seasonal.

I look forward to next year’s harvest and batch. I’m sure you will too once you try 100 Mill St. Gin.

Highly Recommended in its category.

 

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