Berkshire Botanical
Honey & Orange Blossom
- Yattendon Distillery
- West Berkshire
- 40.3% ABV
- 500 ml
FloralSweet-leaning
Juniper first, then honey — thick, floral, almost waxy — with orange blossom lifting behind it. The citrus reads as peel and petal rather than juice, and the sweetness stays dry on the finish. At 40.3% it's soft-edged, so the florals carry further than the alcohol does.
Serve
Fever-Tree Mediterranean Tonic
1:2 — its rosemary and thyme keep the honey from turning cloying
Garnish — A wide strip of orange peel, twisted over the glass
Cocktails
Bee's Knees
Honey rounds off the citrus edges, so the sour never bites, and the orange juice softens the lemon while giving the drink weight. That ease is the problem the gin has to solve: juniper and pepper keep it from collapsing into breakfast, and a floral bottle finds room to speak inside the honey.
The honey already in the gin doubles the honey syrup, so you can cut the syrup back and let the orange blossom sit where the lemon usually shouts.
White Negroni
Bitterness here is bright rather than heavy: gentian's clean, rooty bite against the honeyed weight of blanc vermouth, with grapefruit oil sharpening the top. The gin has to push back, so juniper and a firm spine keep it from turning syrupy, though a floral bottle finds room in the finish.
The gin's thick, waxy honey answers the blanc vermouth's honeyed weight while gentian's rooty bite gives the orange blossom the bright finish this recipe leaves open for a floral bottle.
Gin Sour
Lemon leads and sugar follows close enough to keep it drinkable, while egg white thickens the texture and rounds off the acid. The foam is cool and near-tasteless; the sour underneath is bright and sharp. Juniper has to push through all that citrus, so a dry, assertive gin holds its shape best.
That almost waxy honey body carries under the egg-white foam and softens the lemon from the inside, so the sugar can come down and the dry-finishing sweetness does the rounding a 40.3% gin can't do with sheer strength.
