GIN-splosion! Gin-mania! Gin-sational!
Christine Sismondo on new gins: the good, the bad ('Oriental' marketing), and the pricey
The gin is in! At the LCBO, that is, where an excellent clutch of new gins has arrived to excite our imaginations and give us something to look forward to—the promise of a summer filled with fresh and zesty G&Ts. And there are at least four we’re genuinely excited about. (And, if you want to skip this digression about Orientalism and Brexit, scroll down to the bottom for the scoop on all the new, exciting gins.)
But first, let’s deal with the elephant in the room, namely, Opihr Oriental London Dry Gin (573949; $39.30), an intensely perfumed gin that’s new to the LCBO. It’s heavy on the cardamom, Malabari tellicherry pepper and other “exotic” botanicals. The profile is not my favourite, but if sandalwood is your cup of tea, Opihr might be the gin for you. You’d also have to be the kind of person who can drive past the words “exotic” and “oriental,” which, we believe, are a little more controversial here in the colonies than they are in London.
This all puts me in mind of that gin from Belgium that caused a lot of controversy over on #drinks Twitter a month or two ago. Think back, way back, to a time before the Aperol Spritz Affair of May 2019, and you’ll recall that many American and Canadian commenters took issue with Apache Gin, since its brand identity appeared to be one big hot mess of tone-deafness, cultural appropriation and insensitivity, and a little clichéed offensive imagery all wrapped up in one neat package.
And the more people looked into it, the worse it got. The copy on the website informed potential consumers that the botanicals were selected to create a “distinctive all-natural spicy flavour, cherished by the Natives of the Northern Great Plains.”
And then, the punchline: “To no one’s surprise, this gin harmonizes to perfection with Indian tonic.”
If somebody could please tell Europe about the Indian/Indian thing, we’d all be super-grateful.
Now, not to invoke cultural relativism or anything, but we should keep in mind that, in a lot of Europe, it’s still considered a fun pastime to dress up and play “Indian.”
And, as Adam pointed out to me at our last meeting, the UK gins’ marketing schtick is too often mired in Anglophilia, British exceptionalism and visions of empire. Labels are adorned with crowns, royal guards, bowler hats, the British Raj and navy ships. One brand is a celebration of the Star of Bombay, a 182-carat sapphire that was mined in Sri Lanka (not Bombay), taken away from there and, after spending some time in Mary Pickford’s jewelry collection, donated to the Smithsonian. (Not the Smithsonian in Sri Lanka, either.) Sometimes it seems as if the sun never set on the British gin empire.
Pictured above: "Snake charmers, 3 men and 1 woman" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1780 - 1858.
That’s kind of funny, though, when you consider the 17,410,742 Brits who, in 2016, voted to express their feeling that they really didn’t want to have anything to do with foreigners anymore after centuries of plundering foreign lands for spices, sugar and tea. Since we’re ambivalent about callout culture, we’re not making a fuss or anything, just pointing it out and gently suggesting, that in the spirit of Brexit, this might be a good time to tone down some of the Rule, Britannia! tropes. After all, British gin is some of the best in the world and stands on its own merits. Almost everybody in the industry will tell you they’d pick Broker’s, Beefeater and/or Sipsmith over a lot of the fancier and unusual craft gins.
But you likely already have those staples. Here are some new, unusual and fancy gins that we’re excited about here at Moose Milk.
Normindia Distilled Gin (635441; $39.85)
You know that gin that’s “not for everyone,” but sorta kinda is? We’ve found a new gin that genuinely isn’t for everyone, but is sure to develop a loyal following among fans of esoteric, fruit-heavy botanical flavour profiles. Hailing from Calvados country, the intriguing-tasting Normindia smells a little like orange-apple crumble with plenty of baking spice and juniper.
Roku Gin (636209; $49.70)
It’s hard to be bold and delicate at the same time, but somehow Roku manages to pull it off. This lively Japanese gin from Beam Suntory is peppery (sansho), citrusy (yuzu) and floral (sakura) — it’s a genuinely new and delicious flavour profile, with plenty of juniper in it to keep it real. And, dare I say it, ditch the vermouth for this one.
St. Laurent (549881; $49.95)
Dozens of informal gin tastings at my kitchen table have produced the same result: this spectacular seaweed gin from Rimouski, Quebec, is a total stand-out. St. Laurent is fresh, spicy and unbelievably umami-ish. Again, straight up and chilled is the way to go.
Monkey 47 (we don’t know how much it’ll cost yet, but you should probably start saving up for it now)
After years of me waiting not-terribly-patiently for Monkey 47 to come to our market, it looks as if fantasy is about to become a reality. A lot of people complain that this German gin is ridiculously expensive (the ones I’ve had muled in for me generally set me back $5 per ounce) and has too many botanicals, but I’m obviously not in that camp. I think it’s the perfect complex blend of Black Forest floor, bracing licorice and citrus. No precise release date yet, but expected to arrive late summer.