Thirty days is a long maceration by any standard. Most producers steep for hours, sometimes for a day; leaving sea buckthorn in spirit for a month is a decision that costs time and tank space, and that is why this Polish gin tastes of nectarine and apricot rather than merely of a tart berry. Good Gin Company bottles it at 45%, and the recipe took three years to settle.

Sea buckthorn is intensely acidic in its raw state, and a long steep changes what comes out of it. What reaches the glass is a whole spread of stone fruit: nectarine first, apricot behind it, then orange and something distinctly like pineapple at the edge, none of which the berry offers in a quick extraction. Around that centre, fourteen botanicals fill in with care. Douglas fir tips add a bright resinous green that doubles the juniper from a different direction. Seville orange peel supplies bitterness rather than sweetness, and lemon works above it. Lavender is the floral element, cool and aromatic. Fennel seed brings an anise thread through the middle, cardamom and coriander the warm spice, and angelica, orris and liquorice root hold the base and lengthen the close.

A fruit profile built this patiently should not be rushed in the glass. Neutral tonic, a glass iced right up, and a full measure, since 45% has room to spare. A wedge of orange follows the stone-fruit character better than lemon would; a fir tip is the alternative that follows the green half. Sweetened mixers undo the thirty days entirely. Silver at the 2024 London Spirits Competition and Country Winner at the World Gin Awards the same year is a fair return on three years of work. Waiting a month for one ingredient is the sort of decision that never appears on a label. It ends tart, fruity and dry.