David T Smith introduces the official gin of World Gin Day from That Boutique-y Gin Company!
Saturday 10th June 2017 is the second Saturday in June, which can mean only one thing - World Gin Day! This is actually the 9th annual event after it was founded in 2009 by Neil Houston. Since 2013, the Gin M.C. and Commander-in-Chief for World Gin Day has been Gin Monkey Emma Stokes. This year will see events organised in more than 30 countries.
Obviously, a day like this does more than pique the interest of us here at That Boutique-y Gin Company and we were looking for a special way to celebrate. The answer was also obvious - as obvious as the gloss on a new silk hat (one for the H.G. Wells fans) - let's make a gin!
The plan for a World Gin Day gin began to form, but the question quickly arose of how to capture the World of Gin in a bottle? The decision was taken to source botanicals from each of the world's seven continents. Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas were relatively straight-forward, but what about Antarctica?
Not much grows in the ice desert and there are few local plants, most of which are mosses or lichens; the only two flowering plants are Antarctic Hair Grass and Antarctic Pearlwort.
So could we use these? Cogs were audibly whirring in our brains to find out how we could source them: charter a helicopter? Befriend an Antarctic researcher? Unfortunately, we then discovered the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which severely restricts - essentially outlaws - the removal of anything from the continent. At this point, we might as well have been trying to source a botanical from the ice planet of Hoth.
In the interim, we had identified our botanicals from the other continents: Europe - Juniper Africa - Liquorice Root Asia - Cinnamon Oceania - Coriander North America - Angelica Root South America - Lime So that only left Antarctica and we had to get creative. One thing that can freely leave the continent (other than penguins, but I don't fancy putting Pingu or Mumbles in a bottle) are currents of water.
Out came the nautical charts to find a place where we could harvest waters originating from the Antarctic Ocean and provide our seventh botanical - a tiny pinch of sea (or ocean) salt that is added to the gin post-distillation for a polar lift.
Tasting notes
Nose: Classic, with cracked coriander and a zip of lime.
Taste: A luscious texture with a balanced flavour covering all of the gin favourites: juniper, coriander, and angelica.
Finish: Bright, zesty lime, sophisticated spice, and a subtle "how-do" nod from the sea salt.
DTS
Off-trade/on-trade enquiries should be directed to our UK distributor, Maverick Drinks.