No citrus and no coriander. Those two are the most widely used botanicals in gin after juniper itself, and leaving both out is a decision that removes the easiest route to brightness and the easiest route to warmth in one stroke. Ima Distillery does it anyway, filling the gaps with what grows in the Zielonka forest near Poznan, at 42.7%.

What replaces the missing brightness is fruit, and there is a great deal of it. Chokeberry is the darkest and most astringent, bird cherry sharper and slightly almond-scented, dogwood tart and firm, and those three between them supply the acidity that citrus would normally provide. Quince adds a perfumed, faintly floral note that no other fruit here carries. Mirabelle and cherry sit sweeter and rounder underneath, occupying the centre. Then the forest itself arrives. Pine runs a resinous green line alongside the juniper, doubling it from a different direction, and the earthiness that a New Western style allows sits beneath everything. Geranium and marigold supply the floral half, one green and rose-scented, the other faintly bitter. Roughly a thousand bottles come out of each batch, distilled in a 250-litre copper alembic under one man's supervision.

Fruit and resin together want a mixer that keeps out of the way. Neutral tonic, ice mounded high, and a firm pour. A pine or spruce tip tracks the recipe best of any garnish; one dark berry works if you can find it. Skip citrus garnishes entirely, since the whole point was to leave citrus out. Every bottle is hand-finished with a hemp string and a wooden pinecone. Removing the two easiest botanicals forces every remaining choice to justify itself. Removing the two easiest botanicals forces every remaining choice to justify itself, and every one of them here does. It ends fruity, resinous and earthy.