Bladderwrack is a specific alga, not a generic seaweed. It grows on tidal rock along the Atlantic, carries the air bladders that give it its name, and tastes of iodine and minerals in a way that no other marine plant quite reproduces. Retha harvests it by hand on the Île de Ré and builds an Atlantic gin around it, at 40%.

Three citrus zests are set against that one marine element, and the arithmetic is deliberate. Lime is the sharpest and most aromatic, mandarin the sweetest and most perfumed, lemon the clean middle term between them, and together they give the top of the aroma a brightness that a single peel could not manage. That brightness is what the seaweed needs: iodine on its own is austere, and three fruits are enough to keep the whole thing lively rather than severe. The nose opens on the citrus, then the resinous juniper appears behind it, and only afterwards does the coastal quality register. On the palate the sequence holds: light fruit sweetness first, then the herbal juniper structure, then a gentle saline impression like sea air rather than salt itself. The finish is dry, mineral and slow to leave.

Salinity and citrus both survive a long drink well. Neutral tonic, ice to just below the rim, and a normal pour; the mineral edge will still be there under the bubbles. Lime is the garnish that matches the recipe most closely. It is the obvious bottle to pour alongside oysters or anything else out of the same water. An island gin made from what grows on the rocks below it does not need a story. Hand-harvesting is the part that limits how much of it can exist, and it is also the reason the alga reaches the still with the tide still on it. It closes citric, saline and mineral.