Empirical Spirits is back at it, making marvellous tipples with its own in-house koji spirit. The Plum, I Suppose features plum kernel and marigold as its botanicals - it's a lot more nutty than you might expect, with the kernels imparting fragrant sweet almond notes alongside hints of fresh plum fruitiness. The name comes from a Robert Frost poem 'The Rose Family', which brings to mind ideas of beauty, and also makes us think that more drinks need commas in their names. In fact, just more punctuation overall, really.
Dry flaked almond with a hint of cherry Bakewell, soft cardamom spiciness, a whiff of fresh spring blossom.
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The headline says most of what you need to know, but if you're really curious... The description by "The Chaps" does a good job of characterising this except for one major (imho) omission: a very prominent sour note. (I regret not starting, as recommended, with the Helena, because I have no idea whether the sourness is inherent to the koji or the botanicals, fwiw.) This sour note makes it a non-starter as the star of the show; I can't imagine any version of a martini made with this that doesn't end in a spit-take. But! Having committed to £40's worth, I experimented until I found something that worked, and paired with properly sweet partners, it can work well. Great with cherry juice, weird but nice with pineapple. In the end, I drank most of it in a Negroni-style cocktail with a v. fruity sweet vermouth, where it shined and made a familiar favourite newly interesting. If you have a liqueur that you love for the flavour but find overly sweet, this could be just the thing. I don't know if I'll ever buy this again, but I'm happy to recommend it to novelty-seekers and aspiring mixologists who are looking to flex. Everyone else: caveat emptor.
