Alma Luz Dry Gin

Fresh ginger is the ingredient here that a classical 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 not normally carry, and it is what keeps this one from being simply another citrus recipe. Three friends built it as a tribute to Praia da Luz on the Portuguese coast, pairing lemon and orange peel with ginger and cinnamon over juniper, coriander seed and angelica root, at 40%.

Citrus · Dry · Spicy

The citrus does the opening work and it does it with two peels rather than one. Lemon supplies the sharper, brighter half, cutting cleanly across the top, while orange fills in beneath with a rounder and sweeter zest, and together they give the aroma a width that a single fruit could not. Then the warmth arrives, and this is where the recipe turns away from the obvious. Ginger brings a fresh, prickling heat that builds gradually rather than striking at once, and cinnamon lays a drier, sweeter warmth beside it, the two of them occupying the middle where most dry gins leave a gap. Juniper holds a resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary backbone through all of it, firm enough that the fruit never takes charge. Angelica rootAngelicaThe 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 works lowest, dry and earthy, and the length of the finish comes from there.

Bright and warm at the same time is an unusual combination and it wants a simple glass. A neutral tonic, a properly iced glass, and a wedge of orange rather than lemon, since the rounder citrus meets the ginger better. A thin coin of raw ginger suits anyone wanting the heat pushed forward. Neat over ice works too, and shows the cinnamon most clearly. Naming a gin after a stretch of coast is easy; putting the sunlight in the bottle is not. Two peels and two warm spices is a short list arranged as two opposing pairs, and the symmetry is deliberate. It ends citric, warm and dry.