Drumshanbo
Gunpowder Irish Gin with Brazilian Pineapple
- Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim
- 43% ABV
- 750 ml
Orchard fruitSmoky / toasted
Ripe Brazilian pineapple leads — sweet, slightly caramelised, with the tart edge of the fruit's core rather than tinned syrup. Underneath sits the Drumshanbo house character: slow-steeped gunpowder tea, dry and faintly smoky, with juniper and citrus peel behind. Warm finish at 43%, more tea than sugar.
Serve
1:2 — enough quinine bitterness to keep the pineapple from turning sweet
Garnish — A wedge of fresh pineapple
Cocktails
Pineapple Gimlet
Pineapple rounds off the gimlet's sharp edges, giving it a fuller, softer body while the lime keeps the acid bright. Shaken hard, it comes up cold and lightly frothy. It wants a gin with real juniper and citrus peel behind it; a soft floral bottle vanishes under the fruit.
The Brazilian pineapple and gunpowder tea give lime cordial something to lean on, and 43% carries the drink without dilution flattening it.
Gin & Tonic
Long, dry and bitter-edged, the tonic's quinine pulling against the gin's botanicals while the lime wedge sharpens both. Refreshing rather than contemplative. The gin has to hold its shape against all that dilution: juniper and citrus carry through, where delicate florals tend to vanish.
Quinine has a natural affinity with the gunpowder tea's dry smoke, and the caramelised pineapple gives a long tonic something sweet-tart to hold onto that lime alone wouldn't.
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.
Honey syrup echoes the pineapple's caramelised edge while the slow-steeped gunpowder tea keeps the drink dry enough not to turn into breakfast juice.
