Ki No Bi
Kyoto Dry Gin
- 45.7% ABV
- 700 ml
Classic dryHerbal / green
A Kyoto dry gin that leads with juniper but keeps it soft-edged: citrus peel up front, a green tea-like dryness through the middle, then a warm peppery finish. At 45.7% it stays firm in the mouth rather than hot, and holds its shape when water or ice opens it up.
Serve
1:2 — a heavy tonic buries the tea-like dryness
Garnish — A wide strip of lemon peel
Cocktails
Martini
Cold, dry and close to neat spirit — the vermouth adds weight and a faint bitterness rather than much flavour of its own. The gin has nowhere to hide: juniper needs backbone here, and any softness in the botanicals shows up whole. Lemon oil sharpens the first sip and keeps it from going flat.
At 45.7% this Kyoto dry gin carries a stirred Martini without dilution flattening its citrus and tea-dry finish.
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.
The citrus peel up front and that green tea dryness are exactly what quinine sharpens rather than swamps, and 45.7% keeps the Kyoto botanicals reading through a long pour of tonic.
Negroni
Bitter first, then sweet: Campari's rind-and-root edge held up by the vermouth's dark, herbal sugar. The gin has to push through both, so juniper and a firm backbone read clearly where softer florals get buried. Stirred over ice, it drinks cold and slow, the orange peel lifting the bitterness.
Its juniper is soft-edged but the peppery finish gives it the backbone to push through Campari, and the tea-like tannin meets the vermouth's herbal sugar instead of drowning in it.
