Jodhpur Premium Gin

Bitter almond is what gives this recipe its shape. It carries the marzipan note that a sweet almond never produces, dry and slightly medicinal, and it comes to rest low down, where it makes the whole gin taste rounder than its list would suggest. Jodhpur Premium runs thirteen botanicals, several of them Indian, at 43%.

Citrus · Spicy · Herbal · Earthy

Above the almond, three citrus peels do the lifting rather than one. Lemon is the sharpest, orange the roundest, and grapefruit contributes the bitterness that keeps the top of the aroma from turning sweet, and together they account for the citrus resin the palate shows late. Ginger root is the warm element, a clean heat that builds rather than bites, and cassiaCassiaThe bark of a Chinese cinnamon tree, coarser and hotter than Ceylon cinnamon. It brings a warm, slightly sweet spice.Glossary works beside it with a sweeter cinnamon character. Coriander seed adds its familiar warm spice, liquorice lengthens the close, sweet without sugar, and 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 root spreads dry earth beneath everything. Orris root binds the set with a powdery floral quality. The nose leads with wild berry and juniper over a background of citrus and herbs, and the palate is smooth and unctuous rather than sharp.

A gin built for roundness suits mixing that respects it. Neutral tonic, ice most of the way up, and a normal measure; orange peel follows the softer half of the recipe, grapefruit the bitter one, and either works. It also makes a fuller MartiniDry MartiniGin and a little dry vermouth, stirred over ice and served in a well-chilled stemmed glass, with an olive or a twist.Glossary than a purely 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 would. Two golds at San Francisco, in 2011 and again in 2013. Naming a bottle after an Indian city and then earning it with the botanicals is not the usual order for a brand of this kind. Thirteen botanicals is more than 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 strictly needs, and the extra weight all goes into the middle rather than the top. It closes spiced, citric and smooth.