Cin'Kin Liqueur Tagetes

Tagetes patula is the marigold that gardeners plant between vegetables, and it smells nothing like a flower ought to. Its aroma runs to passion fruit and tropical fruit rather than to anything floral in the usual sense, which is why infusing it produces a liqueur that tastes of fruit without any fruit having been added. Cin'Kin macerates the flowers in its own gin, at 20%.

Floral · Fruity

Beginning with a completed gin instead of a neutral base is what gives the result its spine. The botanicals of the original are still underneath, so the floral and fruity infusionInfusionFruit or plants are steeped in the spirit to release their flavour. Done after distillation, infusion often adds colour too, and the gin can no longer be called London Dry.Glossary has a structure to sit on instead of an empty spirit, and that is the difference between a liqueur and a sweetened flavouring. The lower strength follows from the macerationMacerationBotanicals soak in alcohol, from a few hours to several days, before distillation to release their aromas.Glossary rather than from dilutionDilutionThe water added by melting ice. In the right amount it opens the aromas and softens the alcohol; too much flattens the drink.Glossary for its own sake.

The nose is pronounced floral with the fruit arriving immediately behind it, and the passion fruit impression is the thing most people notice first and cannot explain.

The palate is soft and rounded, opening on a floral sweetness that develops toward the exotic fruit, with the gin structure holding underneath throughout. The texture stays smooth and the finish fresh and aromatic without turning bitter.

Serve it well chilled, neat or lengthened with tonic. A neutral or lightly herbal tonic is the right choice, since anything with its own fruit will collide with the tagetes rather than support it. A flower that smells of passion fruit is a strange thing to build a bottle around, and it works because nobody expects it. Marigold is planted between vegetable rows to keep pests away rather than for anything anyone intended to drink, which makes this one of the few bottles whose central ingredient started as a gardening tool.