A Muddled Thought

After years of working in the finance industry, there was a part of Anshuman that felt unfulfilled by his work related accomplishments. Having had the idea of starting his own business in the back of his mind for a while, he started the process that eventually led to Bulldog Gin showing up on back-bars throughout the United States, and more recently other parts of the world. In 2003, having realized the opportunity to launch a new premium gin brand into the spirits market, Anshuman started using those skills he had developed during his years working in the finance market, including working with investors, though this time he had to convince them to believe in an idea, that of a new gin rather than venture capital or equity funds.

After working on this new gin for three years, Anshuman deemed it ready and in 2006 Bulldog Gin was launched. Bulldog is created using a combination of botanicals such as Juniper, lavender,orris root, angelica, lemon, almond, liquorice, and in a unique change of pace, dragon’s eye, a fruit of Chinese origin loosely related to the lycee family.

The result of this combination of botanicals is a gin that leads in with clear and strongly defined notes of juniper, yet still maintains a pleasant softness that’s followed up by hints of floral and citrus including hints of lemon. As you continue to taste through Bulldog Gin, your palate is hit with characters of lavender and spice that lead into a refreshing and soft finish.

Bulldog Gin with all the flavors that hide within each sip affords itself to working well in cocktails and enables the bartender or mixologist the opportunity to play off each of these notes in new cocktail creations.

Days Lost Floating About
1 ½ oz Bulldog Gin
¼ pz Combier
1oz Partida Reposado
½ oz Cinnamon Syrup
½ oz Velvet Falernum
2 Dashes Pernod
1 Dash Regans Orange Bitters

Yellow Buzz
1 ¾ oz Bulldog Gin
½ oz Barenjager Honey Liqueur
½ oz Yellow Chartreuse
½ oz Lemon Juice
2 Dashes Angostura
Eggwhite

Shake Dry with Eggwhite.
Add Ice and Shake again.
Serve up in Coupe.

The one definite thing that can always be said about Beefeater London Dry Gin is that the recipe has stayed the same since it was first distilled circa 1870. The job of the current master distiller, Desmond Payne is to make sure this continues to be as it has been for the past hundred plus years, from individual selecting each botanical to overseeing the distillation of batch.

In 2008, Desmond was given the ability to formulate his own recipe for a new separate Beefeater bottling. Dubbed Beefeater 24, Desmond took the classic Beefeater recipe and added just the right amount of new ingredients to it. Never being one to mess with the classics, Desmond started with the original recipe(see here) and then decided to put his own spin in the form of a few additional botanicals.

According to Desmond, the story starts with tea. After spending time in Japan and experiencing several tea based cocktails, it hit Desmond. The key to this new yet Beefeater offering was tea. At first he tried Assam and Darjeeling Teas, but found them both too strong and overpowering. He then started thinking of something that had more fragrance but still managed to be light enough to not overpower the rest of the components of the gin.

This led Desmond to try Japanese Sencha Tea. After some tweaking to the proportions of the other botanicals, this seemed to be the key to this new product, along with the final tea choice of Sencha Tea, Desmond added some new notes of citrus in the form of Grapefruit. After applying some further adjustments to the original citrus botanicals, Desmond had his final product, and Beefeater 24 was born.

With aromas of juniper and sweetness on the nose, the spirit beckons one to taste. Once put to the palate, characters of black pepper are mellowed by hints of orange that leads the way into delicate notes of green tea, and soft playful characters of dough that finishes with additional hints of citrus.

With softer notes that most dry gins, and those additional botanicals of grapefruit and tea, Beefeater 24 is a gin meant for those people who swear they hate gin. One taste should be enough to open up their eyes to a whole new juniper filled world. This softness also plays well outside some of the more traditional cocktail offerings gin is usually associated with as shown below in these two new cocktails.

Paddington’s Playdate
2 oz Beefeater 24
½ oz Barenjager Honey Liqueur
½ Dolin Dry Vermouth
½ oz Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Garnish with orange peel or zest

A Tini Tipple of Tea
1 oz Lapsang Souchong Infused Pama Pomegranate Liquor
1 ¾ oz of Beefeater 24 Gin
¾ oz Vanilla Syrup
½ oz Lime Juice
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
Shake with Ice
Garnish with Lemon Peel

Bombay Sapphire, is the sibling to the original Bombay gin offering, that of Bombay London Dry Gin, which has been in production since 1761. With a name that hearkens back to the origins and popularity of the original Bombay in British run India, Bombay Sapphire gets its name from the blue sapphire-like bottle that it is sold in. The Sapphire offering of Bombay has been in production since 1987, and is created using a process known as vapor infusion, a process very few gin distillers use. Bombay creates its gin with the use of a Carter-head still, which utilizes a perforated copper basket to keep its botanicals separate and allows the spirit vapor to pass up through the still and remove any impurities before hitting the top of the still.

The process behind Bombay Sapphire results in a gin that starts off with inklings of juniper, that leads into a menagerie of kitchen spices including fennel, dill and coriander. As you take in the spirit you continue to be hit with a continuous barrage of earthy flavors, including hints of dough, fresh cut grass, and orange, oh lovely lovely orange. This spirit leaves with a finale of black licorice and celery.

The Well Traveled Gentleman
1 ¾ oz Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin
½ oz Fernet Branca
½ oz Carpano Antica
2 Dashes Celery Bitters
½ oz Demerara Syrup
Burnt Orange Zest

Central And West

1 3/4 oz Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin
1/2 oz Cynar
1/2 oz OJ
1/2 oz Dolin Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Cinnamon Syrup

Shake with Ice. Serve in Ice Filled Collins Glass.
Top with Club Soda

After taking a look at Plymouth and Beefeater London Dry Gins in the past few days, we now come to Tanqueray London Dry.

In the same context of Beefeater , Tanqueray is one of the other parents of the dry gin movement, with production starting in 1830 in the Bloomsbury area of London, England. Charles continued to oversee production until his passing in 1868, at which time his son Charles Waugh Tanqueray inherited the distillery. Operations continued until circa World War II, when all but one still was destroyed during the German Blitz of England. The remaining still was dubbed “Old Tom” and relocated to Cameron Bridge, Scotland. While being produced in Scotland, Tanqueray is still considered a London Dry due to the single distillation process that is uses. It even shares some of the same botanicals that Beefeater uses such as coriander seed, and angelica root. Past these two botanicals and the use of Juniper all other botanicals used in Tanqueray are secret to the Master Distiller. While Beefeater shares both coriander seed and angelica root, the similarities stop there.

Whatever these secret botanicals are they form a dry gin that begins with soft notes of juniper, spicy characters of citrus zest that play that are caressed by hints of crème, and minute touches of orange throughout each sip with a spicy finish that completes with notes of pepper.

Here are a couple new cocktails that work well using the flavors that are present within each taste of Tanqueray London Dry.

Crossing the Plank
1 ¾ oz Tanqueray
1 oz Pimms No.1
½ oz Batavia Arrack
½ oz Cynar
¾ oz Cinnamon Syrup
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake with Ice. Serve up in Coupe.

The Scottish Two Step
2 oz Tanqueray London Dry Gin
½ oz Benedictine
½ oz Laphroiag 10 Year Islay Whisky
2 Dash Jerry Thomas Bitters
Stir. Serve up and Garnish with burnt orange zest.

Beefeater London Dry, a pure classic gin that has nearly defined the category known as London Dry since its release in 1820.

How’d this come about? Let’s take a quick look through the history of Beefeater and see how it became what it is today.

1863-John Burroughs purchases John Taylor’s distillery in 1863. John Burroughs changes the name of the distillery to “James Burroughs, Distiller and Importer of Foreign Liquors”. During this time period most of what the distillery produced was cordials, and liqueurs, a good portion of these utilized brandy as a base.

Mid-1870s-Phylloxera caused by aphids, had made their way through most of France’s grape vineyards. This left most distillers without a base for a good portion of their products. After seeing the growing popularity of gin throughout most of Victorian England, James Burroughs seized the opportunity to create a new gin that he felt embodied the elegant and always classic style of England.

Starting with Juniper as the primary component, he combined this with coriander for spice, angelica root for dryness, almonds, lemon peel, along with Seville oranges to add a touch of bitterness, and the floral notes of orris root to balance everything out with a final ingredient of licorice for a nice smooth finish, thus a new gin was born.Named for the Guards at the Tower of London, James proclaimed this new gin Beefeater.

Flash forward to 1963, and Beefeater surpasses Plymouth as the world’s largest export gin. Three out of every four bottles of Gin sold during this time were Beefeater London Dry Gin.

This brings us to present day, and current Master Distiller, Desmond Payne continues to use the same recipe and process to give birth to Beefeater.

To this day the recipe and technique behind Beefeater remains unchanged. Starting with grain neutral spirit, and then cut with water, the botanicals are then stepped for a period of 24 hours before distillation. Once this is complete, the actual distillation process takes seven hours, with the removal of the heads and tails so only the heart is left remaining. The heart is then cut with de-mineralized water to reduce its strength before being bottled at 47% abv.

The result of this process is a gin that is soft, yet defined at the same time. While the juniper in Beefeater proudly bangs its chest and says look at me, you also have other flavors sharing the spotlight. Whether its hints of light spice, charismatic touches of orange, or the occasional touch of fresh hay, the flavors all manage to balance each other out. It’s no wonder why Beefeater’s been around for so long. It just works. It’s simple as that.

Here a few recipes both some classic and some new ones that play off the flavor profile of Beefeater London Dry Gin.

Modern Day Beefeater Recipes:

The Hand of Fate

2 oz Beefeater London Dry
½ oz Fernet Branca
Bar spoon Laphroaig 10 Year
½ oz Chai Demerara Syrup
½ oz Lemon Juice
2 Dash Whiskey Barrel Bitters
Spray Coupe with Absinthe

Agent 99
¾ oz Absolut Berri
1 ¼ oz Beefeater London Dry Gin
½ oz Maraska
½ oz Green Chartreuse
1-2 Dash Rhubarb Bitters
Stirred
Serve up with Lemon Zest
Top with club soda

Classic Beefeater Recipes

Burroughs Millionaire
1 part Beefeater London Dry Gin
1 part Sloe gin
1 part Grand Marnier
1 part Apricot brandy
1 part Pomegranate juice
1 part Lime juice

Beefeater Martinez

1 Part Beefeater London Dry Gin
2 Parts Dubonnet
1 Dash Angostura bitters
1 Teaspoon Maraschino liqueur

Stir all ingredients with as much ice as you can fit into your mixing glass and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Hanky Panky

2 Parts Beefeater London Dry Gin
2 Parts Italian vermouth
2 Dashes Fernet Branca

Shake All ingredients over ice

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass

Squeeze A freshly cut orange peel on top

Originating in 1793 in the town of Plymouth, England. To this day, this is the only place that it can be produced. Using one distillery allows Plymouth to guarantee a quality and consistency that shows itself in each bottle.

Plymouth was the first gin that was publicly called a dry gin, however there are some significant differences in recipes between Plymouth and London Dry Gins. Plymouth uses less juniper and sweeter botanicals in its distillation process, whereas London Dry Gins will be heavy notes of juniper and tend to use botanicals that are more bitter than sweet in the distillation process.

Looking at Plymouth throughout history, it’s a gin that has certainly left its mark.

In 1850 Plymouth was selling 1000 cases a week to the English Navy. These cases of Plymouth (Navy Strength) Gin were bottled at a higher than normal, 100 proof or 57% ABV. Today, Plymouth Gin in the United States is bottled for the most part at 80 or 41.2% alcohol. Plymouth Gin bottled at navy strength can still be found available for purchase at some locations in the United Kingdom.

According to Master Distiller Sean Harrison, he’s found 41.2% is the perfect number to bring out each botanical in the flavor profile of Plymouth. Sean takes somewhat of an artisanal approach to sourcing his botanicals. Rather than purchase botanicals, sight unseen, Sean receives samples upon samples of freshly harvested botanicals which he then tests, take notes on the results, and then tests some more before making his final decisions on what batches to use for the coming year.

Spirit historians theorize that gin was given to the ships crew to get them to drink lime juice as a means of fighting scurvy.

Moving on and across the pond to the United States, In the early 1900′s, prior to prohibition taking place in 1920′s Plymouth was selling 1000 cases a week throughout the US.

Today, Plymouth has continued to establish itself as one of the leading gin brands in the world, with placement in most bars as well as being one of the favorite gins of the mixology scene.

The formula for Plymouth Gin is comprised of seven botanicals:

Juniper Berries
Coriander Seeds
Lemon Peel
Orange Peel
Angelica Root
Cardamom Pods
Orris Root

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With one taste of Plymouth, any gin fan can see why it it works wonders in cocktails.

With a nose that leads in with soft notes of juniper, coconut and marshmallow, it’s but a tease of the experience that Plymouth provides when it hits your palate. Brimming with notes of a sweet marmalade-like orange, that are intertwined with teases of spice, and the occasional touch of minor sweetness, Plymouth ends with hints of coriander and mild juniper.

With such an array of nuances and flavors, its not wonder Plymouth is able to work so well in cocktails.
Recipes that work to take advantage of the flavor profile of Plymouth-

Pink Gin:

75 ml Plymouth Gin
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir in Mixing Glass with Ice.
Serve Up.

The Breakfast Martini-

2 tsp Orange Marmalade
50ml Plymouth Gin
12ml Cointreau
25ml Lemon Juice

Combine Ingredients in Shaker
Shake Well and serve up in Martini Glass.

The White Lady

25 ml Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Eggwhite
50ml Plymouth Gin
25ml Cointreau

Dry Shake with Eggwhite
Shake again with Ice.

Serve in Martini Glass.
Garnish with Lemon Zest

The French Pearl-Created by Audrey Saunders of The Pegu Club
2 oz Plymouth Gin
1/4 oz Pernod
3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
8 Mint leaves.
Measure lime juice, simple syrup, and mint leaves into a cocktail
shaker. Muddle well. Add the Plymouth, Pernod, and ice, and shake
well. Fine-strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Glass: Chilled Cocktail Glass
Garnish: None–the opacity of the drink is the “pearl

The Plymouth Hoe-Created by Gary Regan of Ardent Spirits

2 oz Plymouth Gin
½ oz Grand Marnier
¼ Grand Navan Vanilla Liquor
4-5 Dashes of Angostura bitters
1 lemon Twist to Garnish

I’ll leave you with a video of Spirit Historians, Anastasia Miller and Jared Brown discussing the history of Plymouth Gin along with Beefeater and how Gin was introduced into the US.

After taking a look yesterday at Plymouth and London Dry Gins, we’re now going take a look at Old Tom Gin, Genever and New Western Dry Gins.

Old Tom you say? Yep, there’s actually a style of Gin called Old Tom. So what’s the difference between Old Tom and the rest of the styles of Gin? For one thing, Old Tom comes across with a sweeter taste and profile than that of London or New Western Dry Gins. This is due to many manufacturers of Old Tom using sugar to sweeten the spirit. In his book, The Bartenders Gin Compendium, author Gary Regan theorizes that this sugar was originally used to cover up the taste of poorly produced spirits. Today’s version of Old Tom Gin still uses sugar to sweeten the spirit, but rather than using it to mask the flavor of the rest of the spirit, the distillers use this as but one component of their magnificent representations of a style that’s only been back in the market for the past year.

Gary’s book shows Old Tom Gin first appearing in the early 1800’s. Prior to this, no record of a sweetened gin has been found. Currently only two brands of Old Tom Gin are available on the market, Hayman’s Old Tom Gin and Ransom Old Tom Gin. We’ll take a look at one of these modern day Old Tom offerings in the coming weeks. For now need to move on to something known as Genever, and no I’m not speaking Dutch. Genever is also a style of gin, but only in the loosest of ways.
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While Genever, is part of the Gin family, it’s pretty far removed. The only traits that Genever has in common with gin are that is often a malt wine distillate married to neutral grain spirits, the use of juniper berries, and the use of botanicals in the recipe. Genever is in actuality a malt wine that’s based on rye, wheat and corn rather that solely a neutral grain spirit that’s redistilled with botanicals added Genever. So when you taste Genever for the first time, you might be taken back a bit as to decipher what you are tasting. You might be hit with flavors that remind you of a barley wine, a beer or in some cases a whisky of sorts. What you’re tasting is Genever, the original juniper based spirit. The process is basically this, distillers start with a malt wine (aka formerly mash that’s been distilled) and then combine or marry this to a neutral grain spirit (think a dry gin) that’s been distilled with botanicals including everyone’s favorite, juniper. This process gives life to that which is known as Genever.

So why haven’t I heard of Genever before?
Well for a while it wasn’t available in the United States to easily. Very few if any brands were being sold in the US, and unless you came across an older bottle sitting in a bar somewhere, you were probably unaware of its existence. This has slowly begun to change as brands such as Bols (with Bols Genever) and Anchor Steam (with Genevieve) have recently made a splash in both spirits resellers as well as cocktail bars around the country.

The history of Genever can be traced all the way back to 1269 when juniper-based spirits were used quite often in health-related tonics and medicines. Skipping ahead to the 1500’s, a juniper based brandy was quite popular in the 1550’s, this led into the early 1600’s when the Bols family begin distilling spirits, that in the mid 1650’s led to the beginnings of Bols Genever. From this time period until around 1870 or so when someone ordered a gin based cocktail, they expected Genever not London Dry or Old Tom style. It was around this time period that Plymouth and London Dry styled gin started to overtake Genever as the predominantly imbibed gin. From this time period up until the re-launch of of Bols Genever in 2008, Genever was mostly unheard of drinks within the US and a good portion of the modern world. Since that time, several other brands of Genever have come to assist in the category gaining additional popularity within the cocktail world.

Here’s a video of Anastasia Miller and Jared Brown discussing the history of Bols Genever a bit further.

And last but without a doubt not least, we move on to New Western Dry Gins, those spirits that don’t fall into any of the previous categories we’ve mentioned and those that distillers seem to having lots of fun with as they are continuously introducing new recipes and bottlings. So what does this labeling actually mean in terms of flavors? Well this means gins that play with the senses as you taste them, your brain expects something akin to a London Dry but your palate might end up with something that has hints of grapefruit such as DH Krahn, hints of tea as Beefeater 24 has or in a real twist of what gin is, hints of anise and vanilla as Port of Barcelona hides within each sip.

So how did this nomenclature of New Western Dry Gins come about? It seems to have evolved as a result of US and UK brands as well as distillers seeing the need for another style of gin, one that doesn’t adhere to the classic definition as much as traditional styles have. The only defining factor of a New Western Dry Gin is that it must contain juniper as its main botanical. Past that the distiller has free reign. And oh do these guys take advantage of that. You’ve got brands using anise seed, grapefruit, lemon, and even lime.
So what you end up with is variety, lots and lots of variety. Don’t get me wrong this is anything but a bad thing. This just grants your favorite barkeep the ability to continue to come up with new gin cocktails, because well, they always has a new gin to play with.

Other examples of New World Gins include, GVine, Greylock, Junipero,DH Krahn, and Tanqueray Rangpur,to just name but a few.

So after breaking down the different styles of gin floating about we now come to the fun part, starting tomorrow and continuing for the next month we’ll take a look at a different brand of gin each day, breakdown the botanicals, and the history behind each individual brand.

For now I’ll leave you with Anastasia Miller and Jared Brown discussing the birth of the Gin Cocktail.

This article, and the content that follows would not have been possible without the assistance of:
Shawn Kelly, Marissa Frisina, and Simon Ford of Pernod-Ricard, Anastasia Miller, Jared Brown
Gaz (Formerly Gary) Regan of Ardent Spirits and Author of The Bartenders Gin Compendium

Chris Weld of The Berkshire Mountain Distillery, Marc Bernhard of Pacific Distillery, Domaine Select, G’Vine, The People of Bulldog Gin, Brian McKenzie of Finger Lakes Distillery, The Philadelphia Distilling Company, David Hughes of DH Krahn Gin, Diageo, Bryan Alex,and Sonja Kassebaum of The North Shore Distillery.

With so many different gins on the market it’s hard knowing which one to buy and what the differences are between each one. After hearing the question come up so often within the cocktail universe we set out to break down some of the most popular styles and brands of gin available in the market today.

What’s Gin?
Let’s step back a few centuries to the 1300’s. Gin has it’s origins in juniper which was used to repel fleas that came from black rats, which were carriers of the plague or the “black death” during this period. Gin then made the rounds for several hundred years as a medicinal spirit, until it found its ways into the hands of English Soldiers during the late 1600’s . They were often given a dram , which became known as Dutch courage, and helped lend a hand to gin becoming the favored spirit throughout Great Britain. Gin was so favored by Great Britain, that during the beginning of the 1700’s and up until the 1750’s, about 25% of all structures were producing gin. Some attempted to make spirits the correct way, but most used anything they could get their hands on in the distillation process, this included toxic materials such as sawdust, which lead to an increase in the deaths throughout the country.

This period of chaos continued until 1751, when the Gin Act was established which had the initial purpose of banning all gin due to the aforementioned drunkenness and debauchery that was commonplace in London.
What actually happened around this time, is due to the law reducing the amount of unsanctioned distilleries, several legitimate sources of gin began to show up. This includes Plymouth Gin (out of Plymouth, England) in 1795, and Beefeater who began producing their namesake London Dry in 1820. This period from the late 1700’s until the late 1800’s begat the birth of the spirit known today as gin.

Okay so I’ve got a bottle of Gin, I’m set right? Don’t they all taste the same?

Just as in any other spirit category, each gin differs, from flavor profile to ingredients to working better in one cocktail than another. Throughout this article we’ll discuss London dry gins, gins heavy in juniper, gins that don’t exactly fit into the standard gin profile (not necessarily a bad thing) and even cover what Genever is and why it tastes so different from that you’d normally expect out of something that falls in the Gin family.

(Editors Note-This article’s purpose is to compare the flavors and types of Gin, and as such we aren’t rating any of these brands.)

First up, the infamous style known as Dry Gin. Dry gins, along with Genever and Old Tom are three of the oldest styles of gins, with the fourth oldest being Plymouth. Only in recent years has a fifth style known has New Western Style Gin begun to make the rounds.

Anything considered a London Style Dry Gin is made using a neutral grain spirit, which is re-distilled after adding the botanicals. Once it goes through this distillation process, nothing else may be added.
Usually the botanicals that make up dry gins include juniper, anise, licorice root, coriander, cassia bark and more bitter botanicals such as lemon and bitter orange peels.

What defines something as a London Dry Gin? There are a few key rules and characteristics that are used to define something in this day and age as a London Dry Gin. While new style dry or new world gins are able to use multiple distillations to impart the various botanicals they use to make their gin, well their own gin, a London Dry Gin’s botanicals must be distilled in that first pass.

Additionally a London Dry Gin will also tend to have a very juniper-forward profile upon tasting, whereas gins that fall into the category New Western dry gins won’t always have a juniper-forward profile, and will range from profiles that contain notes of mint, to notes of citrus and a few things in between. This isn’t to say you won’t always get the juniper when tasting these newer style gins, the juniper just won’t be in the forefront as much as other flavors will. Regardless any spirit calling itself a gin, must have juniper in it, otherwise it’s not allowed to be called a gin.

We’ll cover Genever, the New Western Dry Gin and Old Tom Gin categories tomorrow in part 2 of the brief history. After tomorrow rounds out the historical part of Gin Madness, we’ll follow that up on Wednesday with the beginning of several weeks highlighting individual gin brands, here at A Muddled Thought.

Here’s a look at Spirits Historians Anastasia Miller and Jared Brown at the 2009 Gin Symposium discussing the history of Juniper and how Gin got its start.

Ice, it’s a big component of any drink. If your ice is of poor quality it will melt to fast and dilute that tasty cocktail or seductive spirit you’re relying on to help enjoy your night out.

So what are your options?

Well, if you happen to be sitting at one of the many magnificent cocktail dens that have been popping up all over, you’re in luck. You’ve got a few options, such as Kold Draft Ice, or ice that’s been chipped and carved fresh to fit your drink by everyone’s favorite person, the bartender.

But what if you want something that adds a bit of sexiness to your spirit and retains that nice slow melt that marks a quality piece of Ice?

Enter Glace Ice, a pre-packaged 2.5 inch sphere of ice made from purified water. Targeted at the high-end consumer and bar or club looking to upgrade their drink presentation, Glace’s spheres of ice definitely comes off impressive in appearance.

So putting appearance aside how does it stand up in a real taste?

We took one piece of Glace ice and one piece of ice that we made in a cupcake tray and compared the time it took for them both to melt. Over a period of about an hour the Glace had a slower melting rate over this time period than the large piece of ice made in a cupcake tray. In fact after a while, the cupcake tray ice melted completely while there was still a minor amount of the Glace ice left.

With pricing of about $8 per sphere, Glace isn’t really targeted at the mixology crowd, but is rather aimed at the club, high-end whisky bar or the home spirits enthusiast who really wants the best ice that you can buy and doesn’t want to have to rely on making it themselves.

Pricing is as follows:

A bag of five Glace Spheres:$40

A bag of ten Glace Spheres:$80

And for 240 Spheres:$1440

We took a look at Don Roberto’s Anejo offering a few weeks ago and were pretty impressed. So impressed in fact that we decided to take a look at their Reposado Offering. Using the same production and distillation methods as as they do with their Anejo offering, Don Roberto’s Reposado rests for a time period between six and nine months in American oak barrels previously used by Jack Daniels and Jim Beam.

This spirit starts off teasing you with aromas of sweet agave, cinnamon and a body filled with beautiful allspice. Once you introduce the spirit to your palate flavors of cocoa and wintermint welcome you before being pushed aside by attention-grabbing notes of blood orange. The spirit bids you a final farewell with nuances of vanilla bean and a bold espresso finish.

Final Score: 9/10

The Madness of El Topo
2oz Don Roberto Reposado
Bar Spoon Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur
1oz Hine VSOP
½ oz Espresso Syrup
2 Dashes Mole Bitters

This drink was loosely inspired by the Stinger, a combination of Brandy and Crème De Cacao. This inspiration led to the following drink.

Cobra La
2oz Don Roberto Reposado
½ oz Green Crème De Menthe*
1oz Del Maguey Crème Mezcal
½ oz Simple Syrup
Eggwhite

*If available you can also experiment with this drink using white crème de menthe, unfortunately I only had green available at the time.