Mezzanotte Gin con Arancia e Cacao is a contemporary London Dry Gin distilled in Pesaro on Italy’s Adriatic coast. Master distiller Alex Bartolucci created it in 2021, while art director Giacomo Bracci developed the bottle’s elaborate visual identity. Production remains at Distilleria Mezzanotte and uses both a Müller Aroma electric still and vacuum-distillation equipment. Bottled at 45% ABV, the gin is built around juniper, cacao beans, sweet orange peel and kaffir lime.

The recipe places familiar and unexpected ingredients in a clear sequence. Juniper provides the dry resinous framework. Sweet orange brings ripe, generous citrus, while kaffir lime adds a sharper and more exotic green-citrus note. Cacao beans do not make the spirit taste like a sweet chocolate liqueur. They deepen the later stages with roasted bitterness and the darker aromatic quality of cocoa, giving the finish contrast and persistence.

The nose begins with orange and kaffir lime over a firm juniper base. On the palate, sweet orange creates breadth at the front, then the kaffir lime tightens the centre with fresh, slightly leafy citrus. Juniper keeps the progression dry. Cacao arrives later, initially as a faint roasted note and then as a more lasting dark-chocolate impression in the finish. At 45%, the gin has enough concentration to keep citrus vivid and cacao precise.

The bottle itself recommends Mediterranean tonic for the citrus side of the recipe. Fill a balloon glass with clear ice, pour 5 cl of Mezzanotte and add 12 cl of Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic Water. Finish with a broad orange peel, expressed once above the glass. The peel reinforces both citrus botanicals, while the tonic leaves room for cacao to appear naturally in the final sip.