Loft House Clementine & Cardamom Gin

Clementine and cardamom is a pairing that works because the two ingredients meet in the middle: the fruit is sweeter and gentler than most citrus used in gin, and the spice is aromatic rather than hot. Loft House builds this distilled ginDistilled ginGin made by redistilling neutral spirit with juniper and other botanicals. Unlike London Dry, flavourings may be added after distillation.GlossarySee Distilled gin gins around exactly that meeting, made in the Netherlands by the Spirited Union Distillery, bottled at 40%, with juniper holding the base steady underneath both.

Citrus · Spicy

Clementine arrives first and is recognisably itself, rounder and less acidic than lemon or lime, with a soft peel perfume rather than a sharp zest. Cardamom follows almost immediately and does the more interesting work of the two: its cool, faintly camphorous aroma cuts across the sweetness of the fruit and keeps the drink from settling into something merely pleasant. JuniperJuniperThe one compulsory botanical: gin must taste predominantly of juniper. Its "berry" is really a small conifer cone, resinous and peppery.Glossary runs green and dry beneath both, present enough to keep the shape of a gin intact rather than letting the bottle drift toward a flavoured liqueur.

On the palate the fruit leads, the spice builds through the centre, and the drink ends warmer and drier than it began, the cardamom outlasting the citrus by some margin.

The producer's own suggestion - a classic gin and tonic finished with a twist of clementine peel - is the right starting point and hard to improve on, because that garnish restates the fruit already in the bottle instead of introducing a competitor to it. Choose a tonic with no botanical character of its own; a floral or herbal one will crowd the cardamom, which is the ingredient with the most to lose. Serve it cold, in a well-iced glass, and the spice stays defined right to the bottom; let it warm and the clementine flattens into something generically sweet. It closes warm, aromatic and lightly citric.