Panda Gin Limited Edition 2021

Pour it cold and pour it short before deciding what to do with it, because seven botanicals of this weight will redraw whatever they land in. This Belgian limited edition from 2021 was assembled around sweet spice and perfumed fruit, and it does not arrive quietly.

Limited Edition · Spicy · Floral · Fruity · Herbal

Lychee is the fruit that sets the direction. It is perfumed rather than juicy, closer to rose and muscat grape than to anything in the citrus family, and it gives the top of the drink a sweetness that owes nothing to sugar. Tonka bean answers it from underneath with vanilla, almond and cut hay, warm and slightly powdery, the botanical that makes the whole thing feel rounder than its alcohol should allow. Those two are what people remember from the glass.

The spice half stops all of that from turning into confectionery. Ginger brings bright, hot lift; pepper adds dry heat without aroma; clove supplies the medicinal, almost dental warmth that clings to the back of the palate. Thyme is the odd one in the list and the most useful: dry, savoury and slightly bitter, it cuts a clean line through the fruit and keeps juniper company. Juniper itself holds the resinousResinousAn aroma reminiscent of pine or fir resin. It is juniper's signature, due to compounds such as pinene.Glossary centre, unhurried, letting the flavoured half do the talking. Limited editions of this sort usually work by adding one loud ingredient; this one added four and then went looking for the counterweights, which is a harder brief and a better outcome.

Floral, fruity, spicy and herbal all at once, which is a lot to ask of one glass and the reason it rewards a plain mixer. A neutral tonic, as much ice as will fit, and either a slice of ginger or a wide orange peel. Ginger ale works too, if the spice is the half you came for. A small pour, neat and very cold, is worth taking first, because the tonka and the lychee are easiest to identify before any mixer arrives.