Copperhead Scarfes Bar Edition

Pine nuts are seeds, not needles, and they taste of neither resin nor forest. What they give is a soft, oily richness closer to almond than to conifer, and setting them beside actual pine blossom means this recipe uses the same tree twice for two entirely different effects. Copperhead built the Scarfes Bar Edition that way, with a London bar, at 41%.

Limited Edition · Spicy · Floral · Fruity

The blossom supplies the forest half. Balsamic and resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary, it pushes the aroma toward conifer in a way that juniper alone would not, since the two resins sit at different heights. An apple distillate then arrives from the opposite direction with a crisp orchard fruit impression, and between the pine and the apple the gin acquires a depth that the house recipe on its own does not have. That house recipe is intact underneath: juniper with coriander seed, cardamom, angelicaAngelicaThe root of a tall umbellifer, earthy and musky. After juniper and coriander it is the most common botanical: it binds the aromas and holds the finish.Glossary and orange peel, which is a properly classical frame and the reason the additions read as additions rather than as a different drink.

The nose is juniper and citrus peel over warm spice, with the conifer and the fresh fruit lifting above both.

The palate opens on dry ginDry ginGin with no perceptible sweetness: in the European Union, the word "dry" allows at most 0.1 g of sugar per litre.GlossarySee Dry gin gins botanicals before the earthy pine and the crisp apple develop, cardamom and coriander shaping the spine throughout. The finish stays dry and aromatic, pine resin lingering with a gentle citrus bitterness and a fruit echo behind.

A clean tonic, not a sweet one, keeps the pine and apple legible. Classic citrus-and-spice serves work too, with the two additions supplying a layer rather than taking over. Collaboration bottles usually amount to a relabelling; this one changed the botanical list in two directions at once, which is more than most bars ask for and more than most distilleries agree to.