06/02/2026 A few gins (yes, really)

Ahhh! Gin. Whisky's raver brother. Underaged, already high on botanicals. So good most people drown it in tonic.

Jim and Tonic Kraft (42%, OB, b. ca. 2025): hopped grapefruit gin, they call it. Nose: woah! This is extremely citrus-y. Grapefruit zest, grapefruit pulp, grapefruit juice. Maybe it has some hand lotion, coconut-scented shampoo and moisturising cream, but it soon goes back to grapefruit zest, crystallised citrus segments and cosmetic powders. Like Microsoft, it really only plays OneNote. The second nose has bold hand soap. In a way, it feels close to entering a candle-and-soap shop in the Hebrides. Mouth: with a soft attack, it offers a gentle bitterness -- likely grapefruit peels. Chewing brings an onslaught of grapefruit again, where zest and pulp dominate. The second sip has a grapefruit-scented soap bar. Finish: more grapefruit goodness. It is not terribly acidic, which gives an impression of yuzu too, sweet and faintly bitter (rind, then). That citrus hides the raw grain that many gins showcase, and that is a good thing. The second gulp is soapier. This is unchallenging as they come. 6/10

Amazonian (41%, OB, b. ca. 2024): nose: well, this one is infinitely more complex. The mix of botanicals must have contained more ingredients. Here are fruits, fresh and candied, and few herbs. Cape gooseberries, sweet citrus (calamansi, Ugli fruit), rosehip, a berry or another, star anise and a drop of super glue. Next to what is drawn on the label, this also has longan, lychee and candied papaya. The base grain is perceptible, but far from the main act. That is followed by hand soap when tilting the glass. The second nose has citrus-scented laundry detergent. Mouth: more assertive than the Jim and Tonic, in terms of alcohol, this has a mild bite to introduce a leafier bitterness. Chewing confirms Kaffir lime leaves, tangerine foliage and unripe-mandarine peels, all topped with a thin veneer of marmalade. It has some bark too, where the tree goes from a stem to a trunk and said bark is still soft. Finish: hard to believe what a difference 1% ABV makes! This one feels much bigger than the first dram, despite the minor shift (a downward shift too, I later notice). Still fruity (pomelo sweets or lychee), it also has Kaffir lime leaves to add a certain bitterness. Retro-nasal olfaction picks up a soap bar once more. That increases at second gulp and becomes an old soap bar, dry, chalky, a bit more abrasive without becoming entirely ashy. 7/10 (Thanks, ydc)

Barra Carrageen Seaweed (46%, OB, b. ca.2025): Barra has its own distillery, you know. The Castlebay plant has been making gin since 2019 (it sold gin produced elsewhere between 2017 and 2019). The company started building another distillery to produce whisky, but that is a story for another day. Meanwhile... Nose: dry and saline, it has sea air alright, but so much salt that the moisture is hardly noticeable. Rosemary, rock salt, focaccia, bay leaves and dried citrus foliage. There is a hint of warm wood too, as well as incense and sandalwood. Those tend to quickly turn heady, but it is not the case, here. They are subtle notes. That changes to take us to cured plums and oily dark tobacco augmented with a pinch of ground cloves and black-pepper powder. The second nose seems leafier and makes one think of dhansak, for some reason. Mouth: ooft! This is a bit of a shock. We encounter cockles, mussels, whelks and winkles, and chewing confirms that, even if it adds a dash of citrus juice and a generous sprinkle of fine salt. With time, the citrus comes to dominate and the whole becomes like a salty marmalade, albeit one in which cockles are bathing. The second sip presents dried leaves or seaweed, though not of the crunchy type: imagine seaweed, dried, then preserved in jelly. Finish: although it comes across as softer than the Amazon at 41%, this sticks to the gob for much longer. It is now full-on marmalade in which the balance weighs in favour of the added sugar, not the fruits. Sweet, coating, the finish retains none of the molluscs and little of the salt. It may have jellied seaweed, or that could simply be the label suggesting it. The second gulp is in line, but it is increasingly sugary. This is good with too weird a palate to work completely successfully. 7/10