Flavor Profile
Hendrick’s, the esteemed brand veteran of the Gin renaissance has expanded both its product line and shelf footprint in recent years with their Cabinet of Curiosities collection. Flora Adora is inspired by the aromas of a flowering garden, with bees, butterflies and of course— flowers.
Flora Adora’s botanical bill is rich with pungent blossoms, including lavender, rose and hibiscus and has been released as a limited edition in 2023.
Tasting notes
Aroma: Unctuous and thick, Flora Adora Gin indeed embodies the aromas of a garden in bloom. Jasmine-like, it immediately suggests heady flowers like honeysuckles and tuberose with some underlying honeyed vanilla facets and the slightest hint of juniper.
Flora Adora might be one of the most floral gins I’ve ever nosed.
Taste: While some hints of peach and rose come on early, so does the underlying gin. Green juniper dominates the mid-palate hovering in a floral haze of lavender and lilac. Coriander and some spice comes through as the spirit recedes on the palate, revealing a green herbaceous side.
Slightly mentholic and camphorous, its has the flavor of wet green leaves.
If you were to ask me to describe it as a style, I would say it’s unabashedly contemporary, but it reminds me a lot of some of the flavor profiles and trends I’ve tasted in Italian distilled gins during the past couple years.
Finish: Moderately long and cooling, juniper and grassy chamomile remain at a low volume long after sipping.
Cocktails and suggested serves
Right on the bottle, Flora Adora recommends the Wildgarden Cup. Featuring mint, lemon, cucumbers, raspberries and soda water, it’s a bit fussy but it lends itself nicely to being prepared as a summer party punch.
Overall though, Flora Adora is a challenging mixing gin. In some preparations, such as the Tom Collins the floral notes can come across a bit soapy. Intensely perfumed, it has qualities that will endear it to Martini fans; however, the herbaceous pair of vermouth and Flora Adora is unbalanced and almost overwhelming. Though I will say that in both, you will still be able to taste the juniper.
Overall, Hendrick’s Flora Adora Gin
Hendrick’s has had a pretty good track record with their Cabinet of Curiosities collection— most are middling to quite good. However, Flora Adora loses me. Even as an ardent fan of floral flavor profiles in gin, Flora Adora is too much of a good thing.
Firstly, while evocative, the floral notes are so overdone that that readily dial into some of the least positive associations of flowers as flavoring— it can taste like soap in some preparations— or at the best, it’s reminiscent of overwhelming soliflore perfumes of yesteryear (their popularity, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century is why some older folks might associate this scent with “Grandma’s purse satchel).
But digressions aside, Flora Adora is the gin I always wanted, executed less successfully than I would have expected from Hendrick’s.
Hendrick’s Lunar and Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice special editions both play with an even more floral-forward profile, and do so more successfully than Flora Adora.
I’m disappointed, but I can only recommend this to the most serious Hendrick’s collectors. As a gin and as a mixer, it fails to hit the mark.
This review is spot on. I joked that it smells like Grandma’s neck. That smell you experience as a little kid when pulled into an all enveloping hug with an overly perfumed woman. Yup, this gin is unpleasant smelling and tasting. Only lots of lemon and mint made it palatable
Swing and a miss!
A huge disappointment!
It was not palatable! It smelled and tasted like bathroom air freshener.
Luckily, I was able to return two of the three bottles I purchased.
The remaining, “opened” bottle may be used to ruin a good whopatoole…
Any recommendations on what to mix with it, for those of us with open bottles?? I tried a basic lemon/simple syrup but couldn’t even finish it
Suggested cocktail:
Grandma’s G&T –
1 1/2 oz Hendricks
1/2 oz Hendrix Flora Adora
Fever Tree Cucumber Tonic
Garnish with cucumber slices and lemon coin zest.
Might be good with me. I love floral but have a terrible nose so I need to have strong floral
I agree that this is not the best of Hendricks’ Cabinet of Curiosities series. I wondered about its dominant scent and taste and decided it reminds me of the old Violets candies, or as another reviewer said, “grandma’s purse satchel.” I want Midsummer back.
This is definitely my least favorite Hendrick’s release. This one is way too floral and in most cocktails it tastes like soap. I will have a hard time using this one up that’s for sure.
The worst one from Hendricks yet. I thought – hoped! – the Amazonia was a one-off mistake but with this overly floral gin, and with some batches of Midsummer that taste quite chemical, I wonder about the Q&A process and the direction the company is going towards.
I love the intense floral profile of this one. Agree, that it’s not a good candidate for mixing anything more than a simple G&T, but good quality tonic, Flora Adora and a slice of cucumber, and I was very happy. A perfect summer late afternoon cocktail.
I absolutely adore this one although I am also the person who loves violet and rose scented/flavored pastilles.
Cucumbers and mint helped. I guess I am a purist. I like Hendrick’s Gin, the good old stuff. Lucky for me cukes and mint are in season!!
I gave my opened bottle away. Tasted like potpourri. So sad. I tried!
I’m be never liked Hendricks, but was talked into trying the FloraAdora. No, No, No, No! I should have listened to my heart. I’ve had better medicine before a MRI(?) CAT Scan(?). Give me back my Empress and Tanguray.
I could not possibly agree more.
This review is spot on.
My son bought me a bo7ttle for Christmas. It is foul. Tastes ans smells of roses. Dont have the heart to tell him. I will just have to empty some down the sink each week to get rid as i cannot face drinking any more.
Yup totally tastes like soap with some lavender thrown in. I work in a liquor store and a customer convinced me it made the best Gimlets ever…………..NOPE NOPE AND NO FREAKING WAY!! It was OKAY in a G & T with st. germain added and Fever Tree tonic. I don’t want to waste my campari to try a Negroni with it.
Now I have an un-open bottle of Orbium that I’m hesitant to open. I might just return it.
Orbium is far, far better. I would give that one a chance still. The Flora Adora is the unusual misstep, the other limited editions are far more balanced products that are more in line with what you expect from Hendrick’s. The quinine note in Orbium is not for everyone, but overall— it has good balance and is a good gin.
i’d strongly disagree. With a bit of fresh mint and lemon muddled in the bottom of the glass, I find it deceptively refreshing.
Thank you for the information. There were or two flavors within the botanicals I had not picked up on yet.
I kind of like it and certainly keep buying it, but less as an actual standard mixer and more as a “pet project,” like the sort of thing that is still searching for a home. I like other gins better, but this one is SO loud and overstated that I can’t help but want to do right by it. It’s not unpalatable, it’s just… not quite right anywhere.
I like it in a simple 50/50 gimlet with Rose’s.