MALT, SPIRIT an GRAPES lovers post here

[philie]

philies reviews of special gins #4:

Mombasa Club Colonel's Reserve

...but first some words to the standard mombasa club gin



this is one of my favorites to drink with tonic water. imo it tastes exactly like gin should taste. nothing fancy or exceptional, just gin.
the name refers to a private social club in mombasa during englands colonial time in kenya. the gin was made there and given to workers. the quinine in tonic water is supposed to have a prophylactic effect on malaria. nice excuse btw to drink all day.
with that original receipt from 1888 mombasa club gin is nowadays produced in england in small batches of 500 liters. you can see that also on the bottle, each has an individual bottle-number printed on it.
about 27 € is not really cheap for a gin, but it's worth it.

now to the colonels reserve



this one is a limited edition of the standard mombasa club.
both are london dry gins. which does not mean they are from london, "london dry gin" is a set of rules for the gin production, for example no artificial colours and no sugar.
the bottle says "a special limited edition that honours and pays homage to those distinguished british officials who led the victorian empire at the end of the 19th century to its most glorious period".
well, whatever.
anyway, this gin is f@#!ing awesome!
it has everything a good gin should have, the taste is very balanced and smooth but also very complex.
drink it neat. not chilled, no ice, no tonic water, would be a waste.
42 € is pretty expensive for a gin, but it's (again) worth it. 5 stars out of 5.

cheers!

[philie]

philies reviews of special gins #5:

Bavarka



my gin for today is a gin made not far from me (2 and a half hours by car). it comes from a distillery from hausham, a bavarian alp-village. the nearly 100 year old distellery lantenhammer produces several different spirits and liquors all using local herbs. as ground-distillate for their gin they use their own vodka.
you can still taste it afterwards, the gin tastes a bit vodka-ish. you also have a clean taste of all the herbs used. if i got to imagine, what a bavarian mountain spirit would taste, it would be exactly like this gin.
with 46% it is pretty strong. and with 38 € it is also pretty expensive, but worth a try.
a bonus is the awesome looking green bottle, definitely an eyecatcher on your bar.
btw, on the front you can see a picture of hausham.



the gin is best neat at room-temperature or slightly chilled.
mixing it with tonic water is not recommended but has a nice side-effect: cause of anise in the gin, the tonic water turns a bit "milky".

cheers!

[philie]

philies reviews of special gins #6:

welcome back to the topic for the real alCos 
today:

Colombian Aged Gin Treasure



my wife brought me this one from prague. it's a gin made "with pride" (the bottle says so) by the colombian (wow) rum distillery dictador. the special twist with this gin is, they let the gin age half a year in used rum barrels and throw some lemons to it. normally you don't let gin age at all.
the result is a yellow liquid tasting a bit like mixing gin, rum and lemon liquor.
well, it's.. let's say different. the taste is a bit too strong imo (though it has "only" 43%).
when you mix it with tonic water it gets really interesting, cause the lemon touch gives the whole thing a refreshing taste.
the german price of around 34 € is ok. if you like gin, this is definitely worth a try.
a plus is the awesome and evil looking big black bottle.
ok, now i got no gin at home, which i have not already written about in here.
gonna buy some new stuff tomorrow 

cheers!

[philie]

philies reviews of special gins #7:

Ginself



i tried this gin from valencia today at a friend of mine. the special thing here is, that they use local grown oranges and mandarines.
its taste is pretty smooth with lots of orange and some nutty aftertaste (there are also tigernuts in there). it kinda tastes a bit like if you would mix gin with cointreau.
tbh, i don't like orange stuff very much :/ but if you do, this gin is for sure pretty nice.
when you mix it with tonic water, throw an orange slice to it