Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin

Rating: 13/23 I've heard good things about this one. With the tea presence, I expect it to be an alternative to Roku. I haven't been much of a fan of gunpowder tea in the past because of how funky it is, but I can imagine it working in a gin. N: Wow, this hits with a fine point. I smell the alcohol, but I also smell mustiness, some vegetal savoriness, a bit of black pepper, a fairly dry earthiness, and a faint meatiness that doesn't strike me too much of shoddy distillate. More baking spices gradually come out and P: Whoa, this is weird. There's a lot of vegetal funk that borders on rotting, but is saved by the tea herbaceousness. It's like somewhat rough vodka got mixed with gunpowder green tea. I definitely get the green tea character here with all of the vegetal flavors and dry herbaceousness mixed with tamed spiciness. Aside from that slightly rotting vegetal character, this has a clean, dry palate. It's a bit funky, but it largely holds together. F: The super distinct flavors meld together more here. It's vegetal and herbal and spicy with crispness. This is still a bit rotting unfortunately, but it's more coherent in a way that makes me think that this is the better gin profile. - Continued - No part of this on net made me dislike it, but this was a challenging one. I'd expected a slightly more subdued version of Roku (16/23), but boy was that not what I got. This has much more distinct flavors and more vegetal challenge. I'll need to see if I can find a good cocktail to make with this. Roku is more balanced while maintaining some very nice flavors and a more typical gin profile. As usual, Ireland can't compete well in the spirits arena. It's a shame, but I have to concede it. Fortunately, that rotting vegetal funkiness isn't as bad as that fish flavor in Sipsmith (8/23), so this is definitely the better gin. So this is in the 7 to 15 range. That's certainly wider than I'd like. I'm going to need to narrow this down. Uncle Val's Botanical (10/23) is funkier, but it has a nice, approachable sweetness to it with increased richness. Still, this has a much more natural character and it tastes much better as a result. I really thought that I'd be spending this tasting placing this side by side with Roku. It turns out though that I need to also spend a lot of time with Uncle Val's Botanical. What a disappointment. This is interesting, but it's too interesting. I expected a bit of novelty added to a fairly traditional gin profile - the type of thing that Roku does well. That's not what I get here. This is a challenging dram with some unpleasant flavors. There's some nice novelty, but it's a bit too challenging. This is very interesting, but that savory, rotting funkiness is too much for me and I also don't know what to do with it. Still, I do get that there's all this gunpowder tea flavor. That really does come through. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of gunpowder tea. Still, this isn't bad. It strikes me as a little bit closer to the Roku than to the Uncle Val's, so it could be a 14, but I'm also very seriously considering a 13.

There is some unusual aroma at the end - no my fav

There's an almost smokey element to the nose. If you smell this it's undeniably gin. There's enough juniper there to convey that. But there's so much else going on that you're going to keep going back trying to figure out exactly what this is. Some citrus to be sure. But also cinnamon and star anise are pretty forward for a gin. A very subtly sweet, smooth in the mouth gin. This is one I want to keep on the shelves