These gin mixes were new to you
No night out without a G&T. A goblet filled with artisanal tonic and a generous splash of gin, to which the mixologist then adds half a kitchen garden’s worth of fresh herbs and fruit. But you probably hadn’t come across these extras yet.
Gin is the English brother of our jenever, which already contains quite a few so-called botanicals (herbs, flowers, leaves, peels, roots and bark). From juniper to coriander seed and angelica root.
Fruit & Herbs
But inspired by mixologists, the past or both, producers have recently been bringing gins to market to which extra fruit and herbs have already been added during the production process.
For example, the Dordrecht-based jenever distillery Rutte dug up a nineteenth-century recipe containing celery. The distillery now produces it in the traditional way, still developed by Simon Rutte himself in 1872, under the name Celery Gin. The celery gives the gin a citrus-like flavour with fresh hints of… celery, according to the people of Dordrecht.
Celery
They recommend mixing it over crushed ice with tonic in a ratio of 1:3, and finishing the whole thing with a stalk of celery.
The gin is distilled according to the method developed by Simon Rutte himself in 1872.
The brand-new Skully Gin, distilled in the unspecified south of our country, claims to use ‘rare’ botanicals in its three varieties, all distilled separately for the best flavour.
Buddha’s Hand
The Oriental Citrus, for example, contains yuzu, lemongrass and Buddha’s hand (finger citron). Juniper, coriander, orris root, angelica root, vanilla and liquorice go into the Dry Gin. Tangerine Twist contains, among other things, sweet orange and Fairchild mandarin. The latter is a cross between a clementine and an Orlando tangelo, if that helps. And the Smooth Wasabi contains wasabi root.
Gin with wasabi root. The mixologist probably hadn’t thought of that combination yet. Especially not because that root happens to be genuinely rare, and therefore expensive.
Rutte Celery Gin is available at, among others, Gall & Gall.
Skully Gins are available at specialist retailers.
Read also:
- Hay fever? Drink gin and tonic
- The world’s first non-alcoholic gin and tonic is coming to the Netherlands
- Bluff your way into: wine terms
