One part gin to three parts Indian tonic, plenty of ice, a slice of pink grapefruit: the house serve is unusually precise, and following it exactly is the point rather than a suggestion. Loft House bottles this one at 37.5%, made by Spirited Union Distillery in Amsterdam. The name goes back to an old loft near Ferdinand Bolstraat, where Maria Gall opened her first drinks shop in 1884.

Three fruits do the work, and each is there for a different reason. Blood orange goes deeper than an ordinary orange, carrying a sweeter, almost red-fruit edge alongside the citrus. Pink grapefruit brings the bitterness and a sharper peel note, and without it the whole would read as juice. Rhubarb supplies the tension: sour, stalky and vegetal, it holds a line that neither of the citrus fruits would hold alone. Juniper stays underneath as the structure the category requires. What comes out is nearer a bright citrus-fruit gin than a classic dry one built on roots and spice.

The palate opens on blood orange and grapefruit, then the rhubarb turns the middle more acidulated, and the finish keeps the grapefruit bitterness and the rhubarb acidity as its frame. At 37.5% the gin sits exactly at the legal floor for the category, which is a decision with a consequence: it belongs in a long cold glass, not in a short spirit-forward drink where a stronger gin would carry better.

That is also why the grapefruit garnish is not decoration. It repeats the bitterness already in the recipe and keeps the drink dry, where a berry would push it toward sweetness. A neutral Indian tonic is the right mixer for exactly the same reason: it supports three named fruits instead of introducing a fourth flavour of its own into a glass that has no room for one.