11 of the best floral gins to welcome in the New Year

http://metro.co.uk/2016/12/23/11-of-the-best-floral-gins-to-welcome-in-the-new-year-6340359/

Using flowers in gin is tipped as the next big trend for 2017 in gin making, with master distillers at some of the biggest gin brands in the industry putting everything into developing new floral flavours.

We know what Margot Robbie was drinking in that hot pink gin Instagram

Master Distiller Joanne Moore, the name behind BLOOM gin, said a couple of years back there was a bit of a gap in the market for a floral gin.

That’s why she developed BLOOM and its been a huge success for G&J with tens of thousands of bottles selling in the UK and overseas.

Since then dozens of small batch floral gins have come onto the market using locally foraged flora from British bogs, meadows and hillsides.

Here are 11 of the best floral gins that Metro.co.uk has found.

1) BLOOM Gin

Bloom Gin has Chinese honeysuckle and chamomile from France to give a delicate floral taste to this London Dry spirit. It’s around £20-£24 a bottle.

2) Anno Gin

This Kent gin contains cassia, lavendar and samphire to give both a citrus and floral flavour. Drink with a spring of samphire in the glass. Around £37.50 a bottle.

3) Geranium Gin

This gin, by Dutch gin maker Henrik Hammer, was created in 2010 using the geranium flower to give it a floral sweetness. Some say it tastes of palma violet sweets and rose. Around £28.50 a bottle.

4) Pollination Gin

The gin is made on a ‘micro scale’ with 29 botanicals going into each bottle. All grow wild in the Dyfi valley and are foraged specifically for each batch. There are actually two types of the gin depending on the time of year – pollination for the plants picked in the months leading up to summer and hibernation for over winter. Around £35 a bottle.

5) Minus (-33)

(Minus) -33 is a light and freshing gin with nine botanicals including lavendar and elderflower. Crisp citrus finish from the orange and lemon peels too. Around £30 a bottle

6) Hendrick’s Gin

Most are familiar with this premium gin that has a hint of rose in the flavour as well as cucumber, chamomile and elderflower. Around £30 a bottle.

7) Barentsz gin

Willem Barentsz gin with jasmine notes

This gin has jasmine as one of its key botanicals with almond and cassia bark. the base is both wheat and rye grain giving it a deep roundness as well as being sweet too. Around £35-£37 a bottle.

8) Rock Rose

Rock Rose is all about the Rhodiola Rosea from the cliffs on the Pentland Firth on the Highlands of Scotland. The taste if fres, zesty ad berryful with a smooth finish and botanicals include Rhodiola Rosea and sea buckthorne. Around £33.65 a bottle.

9) Silent Pool

Silent Pool, a gin from Surrey, has 24 botanicals including rose petals, chamomile, lavender and elderflower. It also has cassia bark, cubeb and local honey to give it an earthy spice with a sweet, smooth finish. £35 a bottle.

10) The Botanist

Flora from shores, bogs and the hills of the Isle of Islay have gone into this classic, made in the world’s only Lomond pot still (dubbed ‘ugly Betty’). Ingredients include Apple mint, chamomile, creeping thistle, downy birth, elder, gorse, hawthorn, heather, lady’s bedstraw (whatever that is) lemonbalm, meadowsweet, mugwort, redclover, spearmint, sweet cicely, bog myrtle, tansy. watermint,. white clover, wild thyme and wood sage. Around £33.50 a bottle.

11) Harrington Elderflower Gin

The elderflower for this gin is picked fresh from the hedgerows apparently and then infused with Harrington Dry Gin with a little sugar. £32.95 a bottle.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/12/23/11-of-the-best-floral-gins-to-welcome-in-the-new-year-6340359/

Gin and tea: Scotland's first premium gin distilled with hand-picked tea

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/742586/The-Teasmith-gin-tea-Scotland-premium-drinks

The vhas been created by Nick and Emma Smalley from Udny Green, who have spent over a year learning the art of distilling to perfect their blend. 

The artisan gin is now being distilled in Perthshire’s Strathearn distillery and a limited first batch of 560 bottles goes on sale this week, in time for Christmas. 

More bottles will be produced early next year as Nick and Emma aim to expand across the UK as well as internationally. 

Having witnessed, like many, a renaissance of their favourite spirit, the couple wanted to create a premium gin that uses botanicals intrinsically associated with Aberdeenshire, and through research discovered the nearby Newburgh estuary was once a thriving trading port, with tea being one of its biggest imports. 

Mr Smalley first began experimenting with spirits by creating sloe gin as favours for guests at the couple’s wedding.

He said further investigation into tea trading in the North-east inspired the concept and recipe used to create The Teasmith Gin.

He said: “Some of the world’s most notable tea-clippers were built in Aberdeen harbour, some of which played a major role in opening up the important tea trade routes with the Far East.

“But it was the story of a young man from Auchenblae, Aberdeenshire, who founded the first tea plantation in Sri Lanka in 1867 that intrigued us the most.

"James Taylor, known as the ‘Father of Ceylon Tea’, transformed the island into one of the finest tea growing regions in the world.

"This little known tale really affirmed our decision to use tea as one of our key botanicals." 

fter identifying their trademark ingredient, the couple worked with tea consultant Beverly-Claire Wainwright to source a highly unique tea from Sri Lanka. 

The hand-rolled tea from Amba Estate offers something truly different.

It is a rare tea that has been developed with meticulous care, using only the finest leaf and bud, to create rich aromatic flavours.  

Production is tiny and is made entirely by hand without machinery in the same way that Taylor produced his very first batches of tea.   

The black loose leaf Ceylon tea is distilled by itself to capture its unique flavour and is blended with a classic gin recipe featuring juniper, coriander, citrus peels and other carefully selected botanicals which have been double-distilled in traditional copper alembic stills. 

The Smalleys believe this carefully curated blend produces a truly unique gin, characterised by its clarity, simplicity and confidence.

Mrs Smalley explained: “It was the first time the distillery had used tea as a botanical so it was a real step into the unknown.

“The result is in the taste – a sweetness, like that of a high quality tea, with a subtle essence of mint. 

“However, the gin doesn’t actually taste like tea - the tea leaves give a unique taste that is light on the palate with a distinct, crisp freshness, one of a kind really. So anyone who doesn’t like tea shouldn’t be put off! 

“We’re planning to expand the Teasmith product range to further explore the unique flavours these specialty teas can truly offer." 

Mr and Mrs Smalley have also worked with a local, internationally acclaimed design studio, FortyTwo Studio, to create a exclusive brand with a distinctively different concept and bottle design – to stand out from the crowd, on shelf and at home.  

Um brinde ao frescor - receita com GiN / GIM tonic

http://sites.correioweb.com.br/app/noticia/encontro/encontroindica/2016/12/15/interna_encontro_indica,3688/um-brinde-ao-frescor.shtml

Conhecido pelo aroma e pela presença de componentes botânicos com especiarias, o gim ganhou espaço nas cartas de drinques e promete ser tempo firme no verão brasiliense

Lá fora, ele já integra há anos o ranking dos coquetéis mais balados, a exemplo de países como Espanha, Estados Unidos e Reino Unido. Por aqui, o gim ganhou o paladar dos brasileiros especialmente no último ano, e em Brasília não foi diferente. Feito obrigatoriamente à base de zimbro (tipo de pinheiro de médio porte), a bebida com alto teor alcoólico – entre 40% e 50% – desvencilhou-se do preconceito que carregava e provou ser bem saborosa na combinação certa. Agora, além dos clássicos gim tônica, dry martini e negroni, são diversas as criações que convidam para um brinde bem elaborado e refrescante, como bem pede a temporada de fim de ano.

Na rede de restaurantes Coco Bambu, a tendência foi atendida prontamente. Na nova carta de coquetéis lançada em outubro, com 13 novidades, o gim defende seu espaço. “A ideia foi fazer drinques mais atuais para atender um público cada vez mais exigente”, afirma o sócio-proprietário Marcelo Queiroz.

No Lake’s as novidades também recaem sobre a refrescância, de olho no verão. No bar do restaurante, três dos quatro novos coquetéis da carta são à base da bebida classificada como destilada e retificada. A ideia é agradar desde o aroma até o visual.

Segundo o mixologista e barman há 12 anos Victor Quaranta, a má fama do gim pode ter vindo de sua complexidade, e assim atrasado sua popularidade por aqui. “Antigamente, usava-se muito a vodca por ser uma bebida neutra e, por isso, muito fácil de trabalhar, com a qual tudo harmoniza”, explica. “O gim, não. É muito perfumado, condimentado. Não é uma bebida em que vamos colocar 300 ingredientes.”, diz o sócio-proprietário do Tabuada – Tábuas & Drinks.

O barman do Oliver, Jhonatan Figueredo, diz que o gim é mesmo tendência e destaca a boa safra de novidades, indo além das conhecidas caipiroscas. “Fica uma delícia”, garante, apostando todas as fichas no gim como o casamento perfeito para as altas temperaturas de dezembro e janeiro.

Já para a especialista em destilados e executiva no mercado de bebidas Jessia Lobo, o burburinho nos estabelecimentos da cidade tem a ver também com o comportamento da capital federal. “Brasília tem esse consumidor cosmopolita, trend, que sempre busca estar a par do melhor que está acontecendo por aí”, observa, lembrando que isso faz com que muitas marcas invistam aqui. “O que está acontecendo é a tropicalização do gim tônica”, declara ela, citando casas como o Taypá, onde surge uma releitura do próprio, feito com o superpremium The Botanist Islay Dry Gin. “É um coquetel pedido no mundo todo”, lembra o barman Antônio Reis sobre o clássico que o inspirou, mas ainda surpreso com a boa aceitação.

Beyond Beer: Germany Goes All In for Gin 5

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/dining/germany-gin.html

BERLIN — Bar Convent Berlin, a sprawling trade show held in October in a former train station here, heralded every sort of spirit. There was a booth pouring a new German gin. There was a stand mixing daiquiris with rum from Cuba. Nearby was a new German gin. Around the corner, a Campari bar was handing out Negronis. Further down the aisle was a new German gin.

Notice a pattern? Germany, the land of beer, riesling and schnapps, has gone gin mad. In the last decade, the number of small gin distillers has exploded.

An exact figure is hard to pin down, but many here say there are now hundreds of gin makers. And the nation is giving England and Spain a run for their money in its love of the gin and tonic.*

“It is a common joke to say that not a week passes without a new gin on the market,” said Dariusz Kulakowski, a bartender at Limonadier, a cocktail bar in Berlin where he said gin “flows like a river.”

“The only liquid that can compete with it in Limonadier, amount-wise, is fresh lime and lemon juice,” he said. “In the past, bars said that vodka pays the bills. Scrap that. It’s truly gin that is the big moneymaker.”

There’s no specific demographic for this fad: Everybody, it seems, is drinking gin. “It’s unbelievable,” said Jörg Meyer, a prominent German bartender and the owner of Le Lion, a cocktail bar in Hamburg. “Corner pubs are now serving gin and tonics. It’s all over.”

The flood has even seeped into the home liquor cabinet. “What is big at home is gin and tonic, for every party,” Mr. Meyer said. “They don’t buy one tonic, they buy three, and six gins, so you can mix. They may have one good bourbon, one good vodka, but they have five, six gins.”

Danilo Don Ranasinghe, a regular at Le Lion, said he has four gins at home, including Berliner Brandstifter, made in Berlin, and Triple Peak, from Bremen. “Gin is a win-win proposition for all involved,” he said. “Low investment barrier to produce, decent margin for bars, great variety of tastes and mixability for consumers.”

Mr. Meyer said the new crush on juniper is all part of the rising fortunes of gin worldwide, a boom helped along by the classic cocktail movement, which has prompted drinkers to rediscover the spirit. The makers of the Duke Gin, in Munich, credited Germans’ new interest in the provenance of what they are eating and drinking.

Mr. Kulakowski said the local nature of the products, each with its distinctive blend of botanicals like lemon verbena and linden bloom, has an attraction. “Suddenly a gin and tonic is not just a gin and tonic,” he said. “It’s a story in a glass, and people will get moved by it.”

The Duke, first produced in 2008, is among the more prominent of the new gins. Many bartenders and distillers agree that the rush to gin began with Adler Berlin Dry Gin in 2005.

But the best-known brand so far is the fancifully named Monkey 47, made in the Black Forest. It quickly attracted a following after arriving in 2010. This year, after years of climbing sales, the brand was bought by Pernod Ricard, the liquor conglomerate, making it the German gin most widely available in the United States.

Other notable labels include Siegfried Rheinland Dry Gin, Gin Sul from Hamburg and Windspiel Gin from the Volcanic Eifel region.

“I have seen gins come and go for more than six years, and there comes a time you stop counting,” said Alexander Stein, the chief executive of Monkey 47.

And Stephen Garbe, the founder and chief executive of Gin Sul, said the momentum shows no signs of slowing. “There are a lot of bandwagoners, late-movers and followers,” he said.

O gin por uma nova perspetiva

http://www.vogue.pt/lifestyle---cultura/tendencias/detalhe/o-gin-por-uma-nova-perspetiva?utm_medium=Social

A G'Vine é um gin que consegue ser diferente de todos os outros. 
Jean-Sebastian Robicquet, fundador da marca e destilador, 
decidiu olhar para esta bebida de uma nova perspetiva.

Produzido a partir de uma aguardente vínica nascida das uvas do 
vinhedo da Maison Villevert, uma casa com 450 anos de história ligada 
ao vinho e sede da empresa de Robicquet, fundador da marca,
 este gin tem a particularidade de não ser criado a partir de cereais, 
ao contrário do que acontece normalmente. Também o sabor é diferente graças à 
infusão de um ingrediente raro, uma flor de videira que floresce apenas uma vez 
por ano a meio de junho e que, em poucos dias, se transforma em uva.

Com duas variedades: o Floraison, mais fresco e o Nouaison, intenso e picante,
este gin nasceu da paixão por esta bebida e pela botânica e
resultou num sabor e com um aroma floral. Ideal para acompanhar com uvas
 brancas e uma dose de elegância.