Five peppers, blended deliberately rather than thrown together, are the centre of this recipe. House of Madlord assembled it with a team that includes a Meilleur Ouvrier de France Barman, and the result is a French gin at 47% ABV where the spice is the subject rather than a supporting detail. Iris and mace fill in around the pepper blend and the juniper, and the strength is chosen to carry all of it.

The pepper is apparent immediately and it is not one-dimensional heat. Different peppers occupy different parts of the palate, some sharp and immediate at the front, others warmer and slower through the middle, one or two leaving a dry numbing tingle at the back. That layering is the whole argument of the gin. Mace supplies a warm, faintly sweet spice that softens the joins between them, and iris root binds the mixture with its powdery texture and keeps the finish from ending abruptly. Juniper stays green and dry beneath the spice, holding the shape. The palate is bold, dry and long, with real aromatic intensity.

At 47% and this spicy, it is better short than long. Poured straight onto one big piece of ice is the honest way to meet it, and the spice keeps opening as that ice slowly does its work. For a long drink, choose a plain tonic and pour generously so the pepper has room to move, finishing with a lemon twist or leaving it bare - a heavy garnish is simply lost here. It makes a forceful Martini and an interesting Negroni, and it is one of the very few gins where a pepper garnish would be redundant rather than clever. The bartending background behind the recipe shows in how well it behaves in a mixed drink despite its intensity. It closes dry, peppery and warm, the tingle outlasting everything else.