H2B Gin

Samphire and dulse seaweed put the coast directly into the bottle. Distillerie du Golfe makes H2B in Brittany, distilling over an open flame in a Stupfler still, and the marine botanicals sit alongside juniper, lemon and peppercorn at 40% ABV. Open-flame distillation is a slower and less forgiving method than steam, and it suits a recipe where the delicate saline notes would be easy to cook away.

Citrus · Herbal · Earthy

The sea arrives quietly rather than dramatically. SamphireMarsh samphireA small, crunchy salt-marsh plant that brings a salty, sea-side note.Glossary gives a green, saline, faintly vegetal freshness, and dulse adds a deeper mineral note underneath it, closer to wet stone than to anything fishy. Lemon lifts both, sharp and clean, and juniperJuniperThe one compulsory botanical: gin must taste predominantly of juniper. Its "berry" is really a small conifer cone, resinous and peppery.Glossary keeps the resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary backbone firmly in place so that the gin reads as a gin with a coastline rather than as a novelty. Peppercorn arrives late with a dry bite that lengthens everything.

The palate is fresh and mineral, with a savoury edge through the middle, and it ends drier and saltier than the first impression would have led you to expect.

That saline quality is what makes it unusually good at the table. The producer suggests oysters and smoked fish, and the pairing is exact: the mineral notes meet the shellfish head-on rather than fighting against it. Neat and well chilled is the way to test that, and it is how the dulse reads most clearly of all, since a mixer tends to thin out the mineral note before anything else. For a long drink, use a neutral tonic and a strip of lemon peel, and skip the cucumber or herb garnishes that would only blur the samphire. Few gins put the sea this far forward and still taste like gin, and the restraint of the recipe is what makes that possible. It finishes clean, saline and peppery, the seaweed lingering longest.