Forest Gin Earl Grey Edition, £70
let’s begin
Forest Gin is a family owned distillery hand crafted in Macclesfield Forest.
It is run by husband and wife team Lindsay and Karl, alongside their 8-year-old daughter Hattie of course.
The remarkable thing about Forest Gin is that it is a labour of love. Everything is hand ground with mortar and pestle and then distilled at the family’s distillery in Macclesfield.
You can see real dedication to the product here, even in the very bottle they use, which is made from Staffordshire porcelain. Forest Gin is a wonderful example of craft distillers and the interesting and unique ways that they do things. All the hard work has paid off as well, since Forest Gin has won several awards, including two double golds at the San Francisco World Spirit Awards, which are pretty much the highest award that a spirit can win.
The brand is now expanding their range as well, and have created a new Earl Grey edition.
This is an exciting direction to develop their brand and builds on the idyllically English feel of it all.
As well as the botanicals they include in their original Gin, such as locally sourced bilberry, raspberries, pine and gorse flower, this edition is infused with a special Earl Grey blend from Cheshire based tea blenders Quinteassential.
Bottle cost: £63
The nose opens with lots of earthy notes, recalling the forest that the ingredients are foraged from.
It is rich and homely, with lovely fresh pine hints and dew covered grass.
There is also a lovely citrus fruit flavour coming through. This is filled with lemons and limes, to give a nice bite to it.
The palate is where the tea really starts to show itself. More citrus fruits appear, with hints of orange and clementine.
The tea qualities go together perfectly with the earthiness of the Gin. It is no surprise this is an award winning spirit.
The bergamot of the Earl Grey can only be described as ideal with the rich forest flavours of the Gin.
The finish is strong, with lots more frit coming through. It is all wrapped up in one final tea filled kick at the end.
Greg
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3 thoughts on “Forest Gin Earl Grey Edition, £70”
Be still my beating heart! Handcrafted Earl Grey gin sounds out of this world amazing. I can already see the gears in our bartenders mind running on overdrive. I hope it’s available to Canadians! I’m sure we would have a ravenous market for it here in our cocktail bar in Calgary!
Sometimes I love homemade or small family owned liquor producing companies, there’s just this rare quality not found in some big makers.