On Friday the 5th August, I had the pleasure and privilge of attending the Gin in Camden event hosted by Ian Hart, co-founder of Sacred Spirits. It being near my Mother’s birthday, I dragged her along too, as she is also a great appreciator of gin.

Sacred Gin

On arrival we were greeted with the site of Ian chilling martini glasses with liqud nitrogen. Shortly after, we were presented with a dry martini comprising of Sacred Gin and home-made vermouth (not yet on sale). I tried some of the neat Sacred Gin as well, but my palette was already swimming with martini, so other than it being very obviously smooth and warming, I wasn’t best placed to think about it in any depth.

A short amount of mingling and some rather tasty nibbles later, we were seated at tables and the fun began.

Ian obviously has an incredible passion for creating gin and this comes across in the slightly nervous, yet terribly enthusiastic presentation of each botanical. Individual botanicals in Sacred gin are distilled separately and these distilates are then blended to create Sacred Gin; the theory being that certain elements of the chemical makeup of each flavour can inhibit, or absorb, elements of other flavours. By distilling the botanicals separately, there is no interference between them and the whole flavour of each can shine through unadultered.

Also, Sacred Gin is distilled under partial vaccum and only heated to 35-40^OC; this prevents the botanicals from cooking and preserves the flavours as we would expect from raw ingredients. The is epsecially true of citrus flavours which can develop a “marmalady” flavour though heating.

Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. Below is a list of the individual distilates sampled and my notes on each.

Juniper

The very foundation of gin and the flavour that everyone recognises as gin. Or do they? Apparently, much of what people assume to be juniper is a combination of flavours from other botanicals. It turns out I am no different.

Juniper on its own was pine-fresh and slightly soapy in taste. Very nice, but a far cry from what I assumed it to be. It was very recognisable as the core of gin, but it really bought home how important the other botanicals are.

Mixed Citrus

I expected this to taste, well, like citrus I suppose. Again I was wrong; it was nothing like I expected. There were hints of what you might expect when sniffing and orange or a lemon, but the overall taste was a warm and slightly spicy flavour with quite sweet overtones. I quickly realised that this is one of those components I had assumed was all part of the juniper.

Angelica Root

This was a very subtle distilate with sweet, slightly earthy qualities. There was a vague hint of crystalised angelica but a stronger hint of something akin to sasparilla.

Coriander Seed

According to Ian, this is one othe stand-out flavours of Gordon’s gin. Drinking this was like inhaling from a freshly opened bag of coriander seed; it captures the essesnce of the whole spice perfectly. Spicy and refreshing with strong hints or orange and a vague aftertaste of liquorice or aniseed.

Green Cardmom Pods

With my experimentations into cardamom bitters recently, I was looking forward to this and it didn’t disapoint. Like coriander, the cardamom distilate prefectly captured the essence of the whole spice – a truly divine drink that I would consider drinking neat.

Licorice Root

Apparently used extensively in Old Tom gins, this botanical adds sweetness the the overall gin, and like all roots, provides and earthy fixative quality. Ian mentioned that some people find this licorice sweet and others don’t; well, I fell into the “don’t camp”. Tasting it was like the very first whiff of licorice after biting on a licorice root, before your saliva has got into it and worked out the bulk of the flavour. It has a faint reminicence of Baileys about it – not what I was expecting.

Pink Grapefruit

I love pink grapefruit and this distilate didn’t deliver to my expectations (which isn’t to say my expectations weren’t utterly wrong).

The distillate had a faint scent of grapefruit about it but the taste was very neutral. It left my tongue tingling, just like eating grapefruit, but the flavour was very, very mild and had a harsh quality to it.

Orris Root

Another root, I was expecting “earthy”, but beyond this, had little expectation. Ian said that it reminds him of Parma Violets, but I could detect nothing along those lines. Its aroma reminded me a little of methylated spirit and the flavour was slippery and indistinct – it was a definite and recognisable component of gin, but I can’t really describe it in words.

Star Anise

Star anise is a great flavour, but a very powerful one. We were warned, that if we were going to use this in our final blended gin, that only a drop of two were needed otherwise it runs the risk of completely overpowering the other flavours.

This distilate just sits in the mouth screaming “STAR ANISE” at top volume and the echoes of it still reverberate long after swallowing. I would consider buying this as a stand-alone drink.

Nutmeg

Another spice, I was expecting this to be more like the coriander and cardamom – i.e., a pure rendition of the whole spice. I was surprised by its subtlty and delicacy. It had a slightly vegetative flavour and was surprisingly sweet.

Cassia Bark

Like nutmeg, this was another whole spice that didn’t taste as expected.It was nothing like the cassia bark I use in cookery, but was a very mild, sweet and creamy flavour with a slight peppery quality. Ian was surprised by this as his perception of this distillate is that it is exactly like the whole spice; now, maybe my tastebuds had been deadened to the specifics of this distillate by the barrage of flavours leading to this point, but there was something amiss.

One of the things that became obvious during this whole distillate tasting experience was the wildly differing taste perceptions of everyone around the room. Each distillate bought out a barrage of differing, and often conflicting, opinion from the attendees.

Now that we had tasted the individual distillates, it was time to start mixing them to produce our own concoctions.

The base

I like gins with a hefty load of juniper, so the starting point was a big pile of Juniper distillate. Then citrus; I went with the mixed citrus rather than the pink grapefruit.

This made what was obviously the foundation of gin. It was simple and fresh but lacked the complexity and smoothed roundness that one expects from a gin.

Adding Orris & Angelica grounded the gin with a greater depth of earthy flavours and rounded the gin out a bit.

Adding a little dash of Cardamom freshened the gin, lifting the flavours with bright notes.

Next came Cassia, which added a warm, spicy note and calmed the gin down a little.

A little dash of Licorice sweetened the gin and smoothed it some more. This was a surprise as I didn’t find the licorice to be sweet on its own.

The neat gin was getting quite sweet and earthy at this point; still very nice but it needed a little pick-up, so I dropped a little more citrus into the mix, which lifted the fresher elements, particularly the cardamom.

I was very happy with the end-result of this mixing experiment and drinking this neat was a pleasure. But it was now time to add some Fever-Tree tonic water.

We were supplied with Fever-Tree Naturally Light tonic water, which has a subtler flavour then the normal variety, and has less inherent sweetness. This should allow more of the gin to shine through in the finished G&T, but the result was that the gin was a bit lost in the final drink.

Time to remedy this – I added another slug of juniper; this brought the gin into the fore of the drink and lifted it, making it sweeter (another surprise) and fresher.

We then, on Ian’s recommendation, floated a little Cardamom on the surface of the G&T. This filled the nose with cardamom on approach and gave an initial cardamom-heavy blast, much like adding some Cardamom and Saffron bitters to a G&T, but it only lasted for a few sips. This gave the drink layers (like an onion, or parfait – everybody love parfait) and an interesting depth.

Sacred Gin Open Sauce Kit

All-in-all, this was a fantastic experience. I learned a lot about the various botanical flavours and how they combine in the finished product. To recreate this kind of experience at home would cost a small fortune though, as we tried each of the eleven botanicals that make up Sacred’s Open Sauce ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ gin making kits. At £87.50 per kit though, this would set you back a whopping £175. Many of the individual distillates would last an age, but the juniper would probably need replacing several times before you finish any other bottle.

I wanted to buy a bottle of Sacred Gin on the night, to take home to sample at my leisure, but there weren’t any; a missed opportunity in my opinion, but there may have been licensing issues that prevented this.

If this sort of experience gets repeated, either at Made in Camden or elsewhere, I would heartily recommend it. It was very educational and gave me a very different perspective on gin. A great night.

Made in Camden and Sacred Gin present a brand new gin-tasting experience, Gin in Camden, on Friday 5 August.

Sacred Gin

This is exciting stuff, and given that I am missing the Juniper Society event on Oxley Gin this very evening, I might have to make the long and arduous trip to London for this.

Sacred Gin is one of two (to my knowledge) cold-distilled gins. This is achieved by distilling under reduced pressure, thereby reducing the boiling points of the liquids involved. I can’t find out much about the exact temperatures used, but Oxley is distilled at -5^oc. This does all sorts of wonderful things to the flavours, but the short of it is that the flavours keep their freshness and stay as we expect them from fresh botanicals. This purports to give Sacred Gin a very clear, crisp, fresh flavour that is practically unmatched in the gin world for clarity and smoothness.

The different botanicals are also distilled separately and then blended to make the finished product; this means that each botanical is available as a separate spirit. On Friday 5 August, after sampling Sacred Gin, you will will have the opportunity to taste, identify and discuss individual components. You then get to make up your own gin, finishing the evening off with a G&T or a martini using your very own gin hand-mixed to your own recipe!

If this doesn’t excite you, then why are you reading this blog?

As for the venue, Made in Camden is attached to the Roundhouse Theatre; here is a little blurb…

Made in Camden is a neighbourhood restaurant, created with locals as much as audiences in mind and heavily steeped in local talent. Head Chef Josh Katz and Designer Michael Sodeau grew up in the area, while the bar is the only stockist of all of Camden Town Brewery’s beers. Situated at the front of the Roundhouse but with its own dedicated entrance, Made in Camden’s menu and drinks list has been devised to match the diversity and high quality of the work that appears on the stage next door. Head Chef Josh Katz has created a menu which echoes his prior experience at Ottolenghi, but treads its own distinctive path. Bountiful brunches, gorgeous cakes and tempting snacks supplement a vibrant lunch menu while dinner revolves around delectable and satisfying tasting plates. All profits from this neighbourhood restaurant are put back into The Roundhouse Trust, supporting its artistic activities and work with 11-25s.

I am going to see what I can do about being there. It sounds like a perfect night of education into the science of gin.

You can book here: http://www.roundhouse.org.uk/gin-in-camden