Sea buckthorn is a coastal berry with more acidity than most citrus, and putting it in a gin is the clearest signal of where this one is made. Stokerij Texel distils on the Dutch island of Texel, using potatoes grown there and rainwater filtered through the dunes, and the distillery itself exists because enough people paid for it in advance.

The berry is the character that carries the bottle. Sea buckthorn is bright orange, intensely tart, and its flavour sits somewhere between passion fruit and an unripe orange, which gives the palate a sharpness no lemon peel would deliver. Elderflower answers it from the opposite direction, sweetly floral and slightly honeyed, and the pairing is the recipe's central idea: one plant supplies the acid, the other the perfume. Orange peel bridges them with a rounder zest. Cardamom lifts the top with its cool camphor note, coriander adds warm seed spice behind, and juniper holds the London Dry centre firmly enough that the fruit never runs away with the glass. The potato base is what makes all of it possible, softer and rounder than grain, and that softness is the reason sea buckthorn comes across as bright instead of aggressive.

Local ingredients this specific deserve a build that shows them. Unflavoured tonic, a glass loaded to the rim with ice, and nothing sweetened, since the elderflower already supplies whatever roundness is needed. Orange peel is the safe garnish and follows the recipe; a sprig of elderflower, if you can get one, doubles the floral side instead. A small measure taken undiluted rewards the effort, since the berry's acidity is most obvious there. An island gin made from island ingredients is a claim that can be tasted. The rainwater is the least visible ingredient of the lot and the one the island supplies most freely. It ends tart, floral and fresh.