This is one of those equal parts cocktails like Negroni. I had not heard about this before – so I tried to read up the literature behind it. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a lot written about this. There is a mention of this drink back in 1935 in a cocktail book. So, we know it predates that date. And the best of sources suggest this probably started with some bar in New York City.

The traditional drink uses Tom Gin. I went with the London Dry style (Akori) that I am still experimenting with. The traditional recipe also calls for Brandy which is what I have used. But I note that many of the modern recipes seem to go with Cognac instead of Brandy. Sweet Vermouth and ORange Bitters rounds up the rest of the ingredients.

Not so strong in the palette, it surely hits a little later. Also, the nose is decidedly orange. In the length you can certainly detect the brandy.

The gin, from its name, would sound like it is made in Japan. That it is not. In fact, it is distilled – London Dry style – near Barcelona, Spain.

However, it does have a lot of Japanese influence in it. For starters the base alcohol is made from rice. While I have had gins made from corn base, wheat base and once even sugarcane base (remember the one from Colombia?), this is the first time I had something that was rice based.

The botanicals, other than the usual suspects, have some Japanese influence too in that it has dragon fruit, ginger, citrus and kumquat.

The nose is predictably fruity – as is the palate. Middle of the rung gin, in my opinion. I enjoyed it more with Fever Tree Indian Tonic Water.

This is perfect for my Bengali friends who typically like their drinks a little on the sweeter side. And the lychee-like aroma of elderflower is bound to win the noses of them.

If you do not use Uncle Val’s gin, use Hendricks. You will need the cucumber to interplay with elder flower. If none of them are handy, just gently muddle a couple of cucumbers and stir after you have poured the ingredients. (Do not shake though, it will become too frothy).

The ingredients are the gin and elderflower liqueur and tonic water. The original recipe calls for tonic syrup and sparkling water but tonic water is good enough and less hassle.

Another refreshing cocktail made with Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin. This has the gin, Elderflower Liqueur, Cucumber, mint leaves and fresh lime juice.

This is a nice, refreshing and smooth cocktail made with Uncle Val’s Botanical gin. Muddled cucumber to accentuate the botanicals in the gin, lime juice, ginger liqueur and Pimms No. 1

Everyone is aware of wine from Sonoma, California. Now get this – this gin is made in Sonoma too! If any one of you have ever like Hendrick’s (a favorite of Sharmila’s and mine), you are bound to like this gin.

This gin derives its name from the company’s chairman’s uncle – Uncle Val from back in Italy who had a penchant for great cooking. And the nephew focused on his uncle’s favorite ingredients to create this gin.

The base alcohol is made from gin and is distilled as many as five times. The botanicals used includes juniper, cucumber, lemon, sage and lavender. This gin is difficult to categorize. It is not a traditional London Dry gin in the sense that the juniper is far more understated. In fact, I would say this is closer to the American style gin. But the strength of cucumber leaves a strong hint of Scottish kind of gin (like Hendricks).

The nose is clearly very floral with the citrus making its presence felt a little later. As I said, not much of juniper strength. The palette almost makes it feel like a weak gin. What it is – is that the lack of juniper is made up by the strong floral effects (especially lavender) and the cucumber makes it lot more cool and soothing as it goes down.

Highly recommend to anybody who is looking for a nice and mild gin but can hold its own with some tonic water.

This is a rather stiff cocktail with Gustaf Navy Strength gin, Aperol and muddled cucumber. I would not recommend this on an empty stomach.

Wanted to continue with the Gustaf Navy Strength Gin but soften it to fit the summer temperatures. Went with a variation of Gauguin’s Cure. Used fresh mangoes, gin, simple syrup, fresh lemon and some jalapeño liqueur.

Perfect for the weather…

First, some history behind “Navy Strength”. Back in the days, all English sailors were given their ration of gin everyday in the high seas. I need to go back and do my research, but I think they might have been given twice a day of a serving each time. The challenge the sailors had faced was that gin – which was often stored close to the gun powder in the down floors – would spill (usually accidentally due to the weather in the high seas) and render the gun powder unusable.

Of course, trust the English genius to come up with a solution that had nothing to do with further separation of their storage or anything like that. The solution was to increase the alcohol content of the gin (reducing the water). Sure enough, at 114 proof (57% alcohol by volume), you can mix gin with gun powder and the gun powder would still fire. There is no written record of how serpentine its path was as it weaved thru the sky 🙂

Gustaf, therefore, is much stronger than normal gin and comes with its big kick and a very strong juniper edge. While the name is Swedish, this is actually made in Minnesota. In the northern most distillery in the lower 48 states of the USA – called Far North Distillery. It does have Swedish roots – the distiller’s grandfather was an immigrant from Sweden – called Gustaf – and settled in Minnesota.

The base alcohol is made from Winter Rye. And the eleven botanicals used include juniper, coriander, fennel, meadowsweet, lemons and grains of paradise. One uniqueness of this gin and distillery is that everything is produced in the farms around the distillery – starting from the rye.

The nose was floral along with the distinct rye edge. While many references on this gin suggest juniper is subdued in this gin at least in the nose, I thought I could detect it right from the get go. This might have to do with the fact that, because of its strength, instead of taking it on the rocks, I had splashed some Fever Tree Indian Tonic water on it.

The palette was strong and you would expect from a Navy Strength gin. You can feel the stiffness and heat from from the front gums all the way to the back of the throat.

The finish is not as strong as I was expecting. Almost bitter but very dry…

This gin is interesting in many ways. First, it is from a very uncommon country – Colombia. It is in fact made in the beautiful Cartegena district in the Dictador distillery by the master Hernan Parra Arango. There is a historical story of Severo Arango y Ferro who was sent in the 18th century from Spain to improve tax collection in Colombia. He was somewhat of a dictator. Parra Arango is actually a descendant of him and that is how the distillery got its name!

The second interesting angle to this gin is that it is not made from any neutral grain spirits but sugarcane!! As you can imagine, Colombian weather grows a lot of sugarcane. Of course, rum is the first go-to alcohol from sugarcane. But it is the same base that is used for this gin. In fact it is distilled five times and in the last distillation, macerated herbs and botanicals are introduced.

The botanicals are the typical ones – juniper, Angelica root, lemon peel and pepper and some unusual local herbs including mint, berries and ginger.

The third interesting angle is that this gin is then aged for 35 weeks in rum barrels. Finally, it is carefully filtered to take out the coloration.

The nose of the gin was predominantly citrusy in the beginning. After some time, the juniper started breaking out very well. To the palette, it is very crisp but after a few seconds it mellows down (almost like buttery) in the mouth. The finish was more on the weaker side for some reason.

I will try with some tonic water next and see how it brings out the complexities of this gin.