Add tonic and the drink turns cloudy. That is not a fault but the point: North Uist Distillery leaves enough natural citrus oil in this Hebridean gin that it louches on contact with water, the same way a pastis does, and the cloud is visible proof of how much grapefruit went in. Juniper and a wider set of botanicals sit behind that fruit, and the bottle itself carries an Old Tom designation.

Grapefruit leads without hesitation and it is pink grapefruit rather than white, so the bitterness comes with a rounder, slightly sweeter fruit behind it. The zest character dominates the aroma, oily and aromatic rather than sharp, and it stays that way through the palate where a juice-led gin would thin out. Juniper runs underneath, green and clear, and it is what keeps the recipe recognisable as a gin rather than a citrus liqueur. The other botanicals fill in around the edges without ever pushing themselves forward. The whole thing is richly aromatic and bold, closing long and zesty with the oils still audible at the very end.

The louche is worth putting on display rather than hiding in an opaque glass. Build the drink in a clear glass over plenty of ice and add the tonic slowly, so that the cloud forms visibly rather than arriving all at once. Choose a plain tonic: the oils are already doing all the aromatic work, and a botanical mixer only muddies what they produce. A wedge of pink grapefruit is the obvious garnish and also the correct one here, since it echoes precisely what is already in the bottle. Most gins hide their oil content; this one puts it on show the moment the tonic goes in, which is an unusually direct way to argue for a recipe. It ends zesty, bitter-edged and long.