Pumori Small Batch Gin

Three years separate the first attempt from the bottle on the shelf. Pumori began on a handmade two-litre still and now runs in 200-litre batches in Goa, which is a hundredfold increase in volume and, more to the point, three years of adjusting a recipe before anyone was allowed to taste the result.

Citrus · Dry · Spicy · Herbal

Twelve botanicals from across the Indian subcontinent make up that recipe, and they fall into four groups. Himalayan juniper leads, as a London DryLondon DryA style, not a place of origin: every flavour comes from distilling natural botanicals. After distillation only water and a trace of sugar may be added, with no flavouring or colouring.GlossarySee London Dry gins requires. Orange and lemon peel carry the top. Cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and aniseed hold the warm middle, each pulling in a slightly different direction: cardamom bright and eucalyptic, cinnamon sweet and woody, nutmeg dense, aniseed clean and licorice-like. Underneath, coriander seed, almond, liquorice root, vanilla and rosemary do the structural work, the almond adding weight, the liquorice sweetness without sugar, the rosemary a resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary line that answers the juniper. Twelve is a crowded list, and it works here because the groups are spaced rather than stacked on top of each other.

There is a geographical joke in all this. The juniper comes from the mountains and the distillery sits on the coast, so a botanical shaped by cold thin air is worked into a gin made in the tropics. At 40% the alcohol is moderate for a spice-heavy recipe, which means the bottle rewards being drunk cold rather than being drowned. Small batchSmall batchProduction in small quantities per distillation run, often in a small still. The term has no legal definition.Glossary is literal here rather than a marketing word: 200 litres is a working day for one still, not a production line.

An Indian tonicIndian tonicThe classic tonic: sparkling water, bitter quinine and sugar. The name recalls colonial India, where quinine warded off malaria.Glossary keeps the spice honest. Ten centilitres of it for four of gin, over ice solid enough not to collapse, with a twist of orangeTwistA strip of peel twisted over the glass to release its oils, then dropped into the drink.Glossary and a few cardamom pods. Chill everything first and stir once, briefly. Both garnishes are drawn straight from the twelve, so they sharpen the recipe instead of arguing with it.