Continuing to experiment with the Dutch Courage gin. Sharmila is not at home today – so tried a cocktail with a few ingredients that she is not a fan of. A Corpse Reviver #2 has gin, fresh lemon juice, Cointreau and Lillet in equal parts. Given that the gin name originates from Dutch soldiers boldly going into the bar after drinking this, a Corpse Reviver may or may not be appropriate to go with it… 🙂

First cocktail I tried with the Dutch Courage gin. This is the traditional Gimlet with gin, lime juice and sugar. The lime of course added overwhelmingly to the flavor but the botanicals came thru pretty well in the finish.

There is a very interesting story behind the name. First of all “Dutch courage” is an English phrase which means “strength or confidence gained from drinking alcohol”. The story goes that the during the Thirty Years War (early half of the seventeenth century) – one of the most devastating wars in Europe – the English soldiers were impressed by the bravery-inducing effects (both by warming the bodies in cold weather and numbing the nerves) of genever (predecessor of gin) on Dutch soldiers and gave the drink the name “Dutch Courage”.

Dutch Courage Gin (which is not genever or Old Tom style but the traditional London dry style) was started by Fred Van Zuidam more than 40 years back near Baarle-Hertog which is on the south side of Netherlands – very close to the border of Belgium. In fact, very close to the Flanders area which is acknowledged to be the birthplace of gin.

One of the coolest facts about Zuidam’s distillery is that his is the only distillery in the world that still uses windmills to mill the grains!! The grain of choice is barley. Unlike most London Dry gins – however, like many other gins from the Netherlands, this gin too is barrel aged. And because of that, to me at least, it was closer to an Old Tom than a modern gin.

The botanicals include the staple components – juniper (interestingly, from Italy), coriander and angelica. On top of that, it has orange, lemon, licorice root, cardamom pods, vanilla and iris root. The nose is anything but simple – due to the barrel aging and the botanicals and the flavor is distinctly citrusy. The juniper comes thru much later. The finish is a little bittersweet.

I tried on the rocks and with Indian Tonic water. The latter was more enjoyable.

This would be the end of my experimentation with the Malfy Gin from Italy. I was wondering how ginger would go with the lemon in the gin. While researching if anybody had tried this before, I came across an interesting blog by a husband (Andrew Purcell) and wife team (Carrie Purcell) from New York City – “Pictures and Pancakes”. (http://picturesandpancakes.blogspot.com/). He is the photographer and she is the food stylist. This gin and ginger cocktail here is adapted from their creation.

2 oz of Malfy, 1 oz of ginger liqueur and topped up with ginger ale.

Both Sharmila and I really liked how it came thru.

Continuing with the theme of trying out Malfy Gin, last Friday evening, I went for a Malfy Martini. To make it “perfect” and “dirty”, I went with equal amounts of the Gin and Dry Vermouth and a splash of olive brine with an olive garnish.

This drink usually has London Dry gin, sugar, lemon juice and champagne. However since Malfy Gin is overwhelming with lemon nose and flavor, I skipped the lemon juice. The make it an all Italian affair, I even went with a champagne from Italy (Martini and Rossi). Here is the irony though – the name of the drink is French 75!!! To do some justice to the “French” part of the name, I served it in a Dom Perignon flute.

The nose id predominantly lemon (the lemon peel garnish accentuates that). The juniper and botanicals come thru very late and the flavor of lemon is quite subdued by the champagne and the syrup. Very enjoyable drink.

Was thinking of what might be a good cocktail to make with the Malfy gin. Went with a variation of gin anise drink. 2 and a half ounce of Malfy with half an ounce of sweet vermouth and half an ounce of anisette liqueur. Shaken with crushed ice and then poured in a cocktail glass.

The aniseed smell dueled mightily with the lemon. For the initial few sips, the aniseed prevailed and after rolling it in the mouth a couple of times, the others – including the lemon and orange peels started to make their presence felt.

The finish was long and predictably with both the aniseed and lemon making a pronounced effect.

Next time, I might try with a tad less aniseed and see how the lemon performs if it is a given a little more chance.

This is an interesting gin in the sense it is very strong in lemon content. I believe these category of gins are called “citrus forward” gins. This is an Italian gin made near the Turin area. The area is famous for its beaches (Amalfi beach is next door) on the Mediterranean Sea, some of the best quality lemons (that goes to make the famous Italian limoncello) and a long history of distilleries (good output of wheat in the vicinity).

About a quarter century back, Veragnano and his family bought out a distillery (from Seagram) that had existed from the turn of the twentieth century and started focusing on small batch gins. They still run the place themselves.

This gin has an interesting design for the bottle. The family claims that the blue color symbolizes the beautiful Mediterranean Sea and the yellow color is for the zesty lemons nearby. The glass is of course, the famous Italian glass and I understand the cork is made from local oak.

While a lot is made of the Amalfi area lemons – and they do use the peels of local lemons, in reality it is only about one in five lemons that are local. The rest are brought from Sicily. Other than the lemons, the botanicals added includes local juniper, coriander, licorice, grapefruit peels and orange peels.

The nose clearly hits you with strong lemon aroma and so does the palate. But soon, you can get the undertones of the grapefruit and orange peels. The finish is strong and towards the end you start to realize the juniper.

While this can be taken on the rocks or neat, I would suggest at least some tonic water or sweet vermouth. Certainly would be great for cocktails.