Vanilla in a dry gin is a decision that goes wrong far more often than it goes right, and Danica is a case of it going right. Braunstein Distillery sets it against cardamom, cinnamon, bergamot and sweet liquorice on a juniper base at 42% ABV, and the reason the combination holds is that every one of those partners is aromatic rather than sugary. The result is spicy, herbal and velvety at once, and it has been awarded for it.

Bergamot opens the aroma, and it is the right citrus for this recipe: more floral and more bitter than lemon, it lifts the top without any sweetness at all. Cardamom follows with its cool aromatic prickle, cinnamon broadens it into warmer bark spice, and the two together build the middle of the palate. Vanilla arrives last and behaves as texture more than as flavour, rounding the edges and leaving a velvety impression rather than a dessert note. Sweet liquorice extends that softness without contributing any sugar itself, which is a distinction worth making with a botanical whose name suggests otherwise. Juniper holds a firm dry line under all of it, which is what keeps the gin from tipping into something confected. The finish is warm, spiced and long.

That combination of spice and softness makes it a better cocktail gin than a straightforward tonic gin, though it does both. If mixing long, keep the tonic neutral and garnish with orange peel, which follows the warm spices more closely than lemon would. Short, it is very good in a Martinez, where the vanilla and the cinnamon meet sweet vermouth on equal terms. Neat over one large cube is worth trying first. Vanilla is usually the sign of a gin trying to be liked; here it is doing structural work instead. It closes spiced and velvety, the vanilla lasting after the cardamom.