Are you a bit bored of that standard gins? Like the idea of something more original, say a gin with some wonderfully unusual botanicals? Good, you’re in there right place.
By packing a peculiar botanical, the following gins have carved a singular path. Whether these additions are a reflection of the producer’s local area, or the result of radical experimentation, each and every one has found that distinctive can be delicious.
From squid ink and seaweed to Kampot pepper and bamboo leaves. Baobab fruit to Jaffa cakes, mugwort leaves, blue pea, and horse parsley… even gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These are unqiue botanicals that help shape unusual gins. And they’re all the better for it.
Top 10 Gins with Wonderfully Unusual Botanicals
Tarsier Gin 70cl
Usually, when somebody goes backpacking around Southeast Asia you’re laboured with tedious tales about how they ‘found themselves’ and ‘saw a different side to the world’ (without remembering you have them on Instagram and can see they spent the entire time either drinking or hungover, on a beach). Not the brilliant bunch who made Tarsier Gin. They put their travels to good use and created a citrus-forward gin! Alongside seven traditional gin botanicals, Tarsier Gin features the addition of calamansi, Kampot pepper, Thai sweet basil and galangal. Now there are some unusual botanicals!
Dà Mhìle Seaweed Gin 70cl
An unexpected botanicals comes decidedly more local in this Welsh gin – seaweed! The delightful Dà Mhìle Distillery infused the marine algae, sourced from the Celtic coast, with its small-batch gin for three weeks. The result is a seaside sensation that pairs brilliantly with seafood and makes a mean Martini. Coastal cocktails anyone?
Ki No Bi Gin 70cl
Not many gins can boast a botanical list that includes the likes of yuzu, hinoki wood chips, bamboo leaves, green sansho and gyokuro tea – but Ki No Bi Gin can! The first release from the Kyoto Distillery was been made using a rice spirit base and a selection of locally-sourced ingredients, which were split into six distinct flavour groups: Base, Citrus, Tea, Spice, Fruity & Floral and Herbal. Each group was then distilled individually before being blended together. Unconventional? Yes. Delicious? Definitely.
Elephant Aged Gin 50cl
The fab folks at Elephant Gin have been boosting conservation efforts for the large and loveable African elephant since 2013. While there are some classic ingredients among the 14 botanicals used in both gins, there’s also a whole bunch of atypical additions, such as baobab fruit, buchu plant (similar to blackcurrant), African wormwood, lion’s tail (a broadleaf evergreen large shrub) and devil’s claw (a plant that bears distinctive, hooked fruit). A gin that’s as good as the cause it supports.
Sharish Blue Magic Gin 50cl
Sharish Blue Magic Gin is named for its magnificent colour, the secret of which comes an unusual botanical. Extracts of a flower known as blue pea are what makes this Portuguese gin from the Sharish range stand out. Things get even funkier when you mix the gin with tonic: it turns pink! All thanks to that one special botanical…
Yuletide Gin (That Boutique-y Gin Company) 50cl
The folks at That Boutique-y Gin Company got seriously seasonal when they crafted this gin and somehow found room for gold, frankincense, myrrh, an entire gingerbread house and Christmas tree needles alongside more traditional winter botanicals like nutmeg and clove. The gold is in flake-form, so if you shake the bottle this delight doubles as a boozy snow globe! Think of it as your reward for being good this year (well, the first half anyway…).
Jaffa Cake Gin 70cl
While some people would waste time asking if Jaffa cakes are biscuit or cake, wisdom prevailed at least with the creators of this beauty, who put the bickering aside and instead turned the irresistible chocolatey-orange treats into gin. Along with oranges, fresh orange peel and cocoa powder, actual Jaffa cakes were popped into a vacuum still to make an expression that will make one of the best Negronis you’ll ever taste.
The Botanist Islay Dry Gin 70cl
An Islay gin created at the Bruichladdich distillery, The Botanist features a huge 31 botanicals, some of which are native to Islay and a fair few of which you’ll struggle to find in other gins. The full list of botanicals is as follows: angelica root, apple mint, birch leaves, bog myrtle leaves, cassia bark, chamomile, cinnamon bark, coriander seed, creeping thistle flowers, elderflowers, gorse flowers, heather flowers, hawthorn flowers, juniper berries, lady’s bedstraw flowers, lemon balm, lemon peel, liquorice root, meadowsweet, orange peel, orris root, peppermint leaves, mugwort leaves, red clover flowers, tansy, thyme leaves, water mint leaves, white clover, wood sage leaves. Did you get all that? Please don’t make me repeat it.
Dr. Squid Gin 70cl
The Pocketful of Stones Distillery in Penzance has crafted using this gin using genuine squid ink! It’s an ingredient that’s become very popular in cuisine, so it’s no surprise to see it enter the world of gin. You won’t be surprised to learn that this is a rather savoury expression, with a coastal feeling to it along with a few touches of citrus and spice. It also comes in a charming copper flask, engraved with all sorts of flora and fauna and what looks like the eponymous Dr. Squid on the label. Oh, and your drink will also turn bright pink if you mix in some tonic water. How cool is that!
Comte de Grasse 44°N 50cl Gin
French distiller Comte de Grasse’s inaugural gin, 44°N is a truly unique bottling, made using ultrasonic maceration, vacuum distillation and CO2 supercritical extraction. The spirit was inspired by perfume production methods and features an extensive list of botanicals that pay tribute to this, including mimosa, patchouli, everlasting (a golden flower), horse parsley, cade (a species of juniper), samphire, verbena, lavender, grapefruit and Sichuan pepper.
Have another unusual favourite that we’ve missed off the list? Let us know in the comments below!
