Red tea from Sikkim is the ingredient that anchors this gin, and it is a genuinely unusual starting point: the Himalayan foothills are known for tea long before anyone thinks of juniper. Qantima Group builds the recipe around it with fresh strawberries, cranberries and floral essences, bottling at 40% ABV, and the tea is what keeps a fruit-led gin from collapsing into sweetness.

Strawberry gives the aroma its soft, sweet opening and the pale pink colour that follows from it. Cranberry works directly against that, tart and sharp, and the tension between the two is the most interesting thing in the glass. Beneath them the red tea spreads a dry, faintly astringent tannin, and that is what gives the palate its length; without it the fruit would arrive and leave with nothing in between. The floral essences sit at the edges, delicate rather than perfumed, while juniper keeps a green line running underneath the whole arrangement. The finish is smooth and gently drying, subtle herbal and citrus hints arriving late and staying only briefly.

Fruit and tannin together mean the mixer should stay neutral. A plain tonic keeps the tea legible, whereas anything sweetened or fruited erases it first and leaves nothing but strawberry. Load it with ice and pour at a steady rate rather than all at once. A halved strawberry restates the headline; a twist of lemon sharpens the whole thing and suits the cranberry better. It makes an elegant summer cocktail and is pleasant enough poured neat and chilled, in a small measure, for anyone who wants the tea unobstructed. Tea in a gin usually reads as an idea; in this bottle it carries structural weight the fruit could not have carried alone. It closes fruity, floral and lightly tannic.