Junimperium Cherry Edition Gin

Junimperium Cherry Edition has a distinct cherry taste with light citrus and floral character. Bottled at 40% ABV, this Estonian gin combines botanical distillates with an infusionInfusionFruit or plants are steeped in the spirit to release their flavour. Done after distillation, infusion often adds colour too, and the gin can no longer be called London Dry.Glossary of fresh cherries and vanilla. Fresh sour cherries are maceratedMacerationBotanicals soak in alcohol, from a few hours to several days, before distillation to release their aromas.Glossary, joining juniper and meadowsweet in the recipe.

Citrus · Floral · Fruity · Vanilla

MeadowsweetMeadowsweetA wet-meadow flower smelling of honey and almond, with a faint medicinal note.Glossary brings a sweet note reminiscent of honey and vanilla, while pink peppercorn adds gentle warmth. Almond, lemon peel, coriander seed and orange blossom are also part of the recipe; the orange blossoms are picked by hand.

Lemon peel and coriander seed account for the light citrus that runs alongside the sour cherry, with coriander adding a faint spice of its own. Orange blossom carries the floral side together with meadowsweet. Almond and vanilla soften the fruit, so the tartness of the cherries comes across rounded rather than sharp, while juniper keeps the fruit anchored in gin.

Cherry Edition is made by Junimperium in Tallinn's Telliskivi district. The distillery opened in early 2019 after more than a year of experimentation. The gin is available in 700 ml and 200 ml bottles. Junimperium also recommends it neat or in fresh gin cocktails.

For its signature gin and tonic, fill a large glass with ice, pour in 4 cl of gin, add a fresh wild thyme sprig and then 16 cl Fever-Tree Indian Tonic WaterIndian tonicThe classic tonic: sparkling water, bitter quinine and sugar. The name recalls colonial India, where quinine warded off malaria.Glossary. The thyme introduces a herbal accent against the fruit, while the tonic keeps the drink long and refreshing. Its quinineQuinineAn alkaloid from cinchona bark that gives tonic its bitterness. The British in India drank it against malaria and added gin: the gin and tonic was born.Glossary bitterness also tempers the sweetness of the cherry and meadowsweet.