Birch leaves are the odd item on this list. Every Norwegian gin reaches for conifers, and this one does too, but it also takes leaves from a broadleaf tree, and the difference is real: birch is green and faintly bitter where spruce is resinous, and it gives the recipe an earthy layer that needle material alone cannot. Berentsens Brygghus bottles it at 43.5%.

The forest side and the floral side are kept clearly apart, which is the achievement here. Juniper leads the aroma, and coastal spruce shoots run alongside it with a bright resinous green, the young shoots being softer and more citric than mature needles. Birch leaves sit underneath both, adding the earth. Then the flowers arrive and they occupy an entirely different register: jasmine heady and sweet, lavender cool and aromatic, chamomile gentle with its faint apple note lingering longest. Green cardamom bridges the two halves with a camphorous lift that belongs to neither. Citrus brightens the finish and the mouthfeel is smooth, almost buttery, which is unexpected in a gin this green and is what makes the flowers legible rather than shrill.

Layers this distinct call for a glass that holds them apart. A neutral tonic in a properly filled glass, and a pour on the generous side so the jasmine survives. A short spruce shoot is the garnish for the forest half; lemon peel follows the finish instead, and both are better than a flower, which would double what is already there. It drinks well neat, where the buttery texture is most obvious. Bronze in the 2023 World Gin Awards is a fair reading of a gin this balanced. Jasmine and spruce in the same glass should be a collision, and the birch is what holds them apart. It closes floral, green and earthy.