Silent Pool English Garden Expression Gin

An English garden in bloom is the picture behind this Silent Pool bottling, and the recipe follows it literally: peach and summer stone fruit, lavender, rose and chamomile grown locally, honey, and jasmine green tea, all built on the juniper base the Surrey Hills distillery uses across its range. It runs at 43% ABV and first appeared as a travel retail exclusive with World Duty Free at Gatwick.

Citrus · Dry · Floral · Fruity · Herbal

The temptation with a recipe like this is to make a sweet peach gin, and the distillery avoids it. Stone fruit provides the opening, peach with an apricot edge; lavender, rose and chamomile draw the floral frame; honey lends a rounded texture without sugar. Jasmine green tea is the element that saves the whole thing, adding a drier, lightly tannic line that stops the profile from turning soft, while juniper keeps pine and dryness underneath the flowers.

The nose opens on ripe stone fruit, then a broad floral register: rose perfumed, lavender more herbal, chamomile softening the edges. Green tea murmurs in the background with a fine vegetal note. In the mouth it is rounded at first, peach, honey and flowers together, before citrus impressions of lemon and grapefruit lift it and keep the fruit from sitting heavy. Juniper gives the spine and the tea the dry, slightly tannic close. The balance is a deliberate contrast between a soft opening and a clean ending.

Choose a mixer that will not shout over the flowers: a light or elderflower tonic, 4cl of gin lengthened with 10cl of it, ice to the top, and a peach slice or a lemon twistTwistA strip of peel twisted over the glass to release its oils, then dropped into the drink.Glossary as garnish. A very delicate floral garnish works too, but only one. That balance also makes a good spritz base and a natural choice for bright summer cocktails where peach, citrus and flowers all need to stay legible.