In repayment for a recent act of kindness, Jill formulated and distilled this ‘thank-you gin’ based on her friend’s old favourite—Seagers. With the abundance of winter citrus currently available, we couldn’t help adding our own twist to the recipe though (or should we say ‘twists’?). A quick walk through the neighbourhood turned up clementines, green lemons, tangerines and the classic, perfectly ripened winter lemons. Why choose just one?
We also wanted to showcase our beautiful home-grown angelica root. It was a big complex system of gnarls and curlicues with an alabaster white heart. The fresh, nutty earthy fragrance was so special we wanted as much as possible to come through in the blend, without making it soapy.
Because this blend has a strong juniper note and is heavy on the citrus, it can take a bit more angelica than usual. If you’d like see what this botanical can bring to a blend, then this recipe is a good one to tinker with.
Citrus and Spice ‘Thank You’ Gin (30g/L)
*The amounts in this recipe are per 1 litre of neutral spirit. You can easily scale the amounts up for larger stills.
- 9g Macedonian juniper
- 5g Himalayan juniper
- 6g coriander
- 2g angelica
- 1.5g liquorice root
- 1.5g cassia bark
- 2g green lemon/lime peel (fresh)
- 2g lemon peel (fresh)
- 2g clementine peel (fresh)
- 0.5g tangerine peel (dried)
- 0.5g cardamom
- 0.5g ginger
- 0.5g orris root
Total = 33g
As with all London Dry-style gin, it’s juniper forward, with complex layers of different citrus fruits that are balanced out with our earthy and nutty home-grown angelica and a good dose of spice. We think it’s even better than the original, but we’ll leave that for you to decide.
If you have the space, try growing your own angelica. We’ve found our home-grown crop has a lovely depth to it when dried, and it’s so amazing fresh to experience fresh. We sourced ours from Kings Seeds.
