Greenbar Distillery, makers of UnGin and Tonic, are a real distillery. They make their own gin, their own line of canned cocktails and most unusually, a non-alcoholic line of canned cocktails.
UnGin and Tonic is made with dealcoholized gin and sugar cane spirits. It adds several botanical flavors, including juniper, lime, grapefruit, bergamot, angelica, bitter orange, cubeb, cloves, lovage, tangerine, cardamom, and star anise (isn’t it beautiful when they are all listed?). It adds chili to simulate the heat of spirits and citric acid for a bit of astringency. The bitterness is a combination of gentian and cinchona.
It is lightly sweetened with 7g of cane sugar (only) per 12 oz. serving, and is a relatively scant 55 calories per bottle.
Tasting notes
Color: Only the slightest bit hazy with a straw colored translucence and lots of carbonation on the sides of the glass.
Aroma: Orange, lemon lime soda, cloves and a hint of juniper. It doesn’t smell exactly like a gin but it does have the profile of a botanical soda. It’s quite nice.
Flavor: Pleasant carbonation throughout. Bright and intense early, but some hang around to the mid and back of the palate. Hints of citrus come through but early— heavy bitterness, more gentian than cinchona and then rich spice notes. UnGin and Tonic’s flavor profile reminds me of a cola. I’d say I pick out notes of cloves, coriander, bitter orange rind, and cinnamon.
Finish: Strongly spice led. The bitterness is most pronounced on the mid-palate. Towards the finish, it eases. It’s fairly long lasting with the echos of clove and gentian root sitting the longest.
Overall, UnGin and Tonic
Fans of spice-forward contemporary gins or gin and cola as a drink will find a lot to like about UnGin and Tonic. Juniper is present, but I have a hard time calling it the star. The complex melange of spices are.
Overall, it’s a contemporary no ABV canned cocktail that most closely resembles a Seedlip Spice and Tonic Water. However, there’s no shade in that. Compared to other no-ABV canned cocktails UnGin and Tonic stands head and shoulders above the rest. Further, it exercises restraint by not overusing some of the tools and tricks available to distillers seeking to replicate the burn of astringency in non-alcoholic drinks.
While it won’t satisfy the juniper craving during Dry January, it hits the mark as a solid and worthy canned cocktail for those abstaining.
Recommended in its category.