Tried a London Fog with the Ophir gin. The end result was good. However, the absinthe completely drowned the botanicals in the nose. The spicy kick from pepper and cardamom was good though…

Very interesting gin. The brand is built around the Oriental touch. The bottle is decorated with Oriental themed pictures and designs – for example, elephants. Many of the ingredients are sourced from countries along the Spice Route. The spicy cubeb berries come from Indonesia and Malaysia, the black peppers, cardamoms and ginger all come from India, coriander from Morocco, cumin from Turkey and the bitter oranges from Spain. The staple of all gins – juniper is sourced from Italy and angelica comes from Germany. It also has grapefruit peels but I could not find out the source during my research.

These all are put thru the distillation process by master distiller Joanne Moore in G&J Distillery in Birchwood, England. This is renowned to be the second largest distillery in England and they claim to be the oldest. They have been using the same London Dry Gin method since 1761.

I tried this straight up. On the nose the junipers and cardamom were immediately noticeable. The citrus made it presence felt too. On the palette, the juniper was once again felt as was the spiciness of pepper. The finish included traces of orange and what appeared to me as most likely berries.

This should work well with since tonic water (try Fever Tree Indian tonic water) or in classics like a Negroni or a London Fog.

This cocktail is made with Cointreau, Sweet Vermouth and Gin. I, of course, experimented with the German Gin – Monkey 47. So that cocktail was pretty much a concoction of a German alcohol, a French liqueur and an Italian liqueur. Should have had an Alpine name!

While the cocktail itself was great – especially for anybody who likes orange, the Monkey 47 struggled mightily trying to stay above the strong orange nose and finish from the Cointreau. I am more or less convinced that Monkey 47 is so complex, it is best taken straight up (or on the rocks). I would not even bother it with tonic water.