Soba45
The Bond Store Kawakawa gin
Modern Gin — Kapiti Coast, New Zealand
Reviewed
December 30, 2020 (edited February 25, 2022)
Last entry before my hiatus. I caught up with a couple of mates for lunch time drinks, asked for a gin & tonic and this one came up. I really enjoyed this one. Healthy dose of kawakawa which gave it a great white pepper kick mixed with East Imperial Original and slice of lemon x 2. Simple but brilliant combo - juniper, pepper & citrus. When i looked up the gin they have sourced some of the botanicals from a local Kapiti farm. Initially it was a mystery as to where it's made though as they go by the name koakoa. Husband, wife, daughter and dog team so really small operation. The price is really low. I can get this for $25USD a 700ml bottle. I never tried straight so who knows what it's really like straight up (i suspect 1 dimensional) but it does a great distinctive mix. My current Botanist g&t mix just doesn't have the same punch..the more I'm drinking g&t the more i'm enjoying punchy pepper, juniper, grapefruit, gorse type flavours i think...clean and hot. Definitely not a fan of any 'floral' flavours e.g. rose, lavender.
I see my Warner's Double juniper 0% and Monday 0% gin have cleared customs today so welcome 0% Jan 2021. Hopefully only 0% abv not 0% flavour, enjoyment or desire to drink the stuff...i will keep people posted on that front shortly! Have a great 2021 everyone :-)
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@CKarmios Really good. I just repeated the same trick I do with junk food.. don't have it in the house :-). Makes it easy to abstain. Other than an occasional craving for a proper g&t haven't felt the interest to drink. I'll have to post the reviews for the 0% stuff this week...spoiler alert...no one is missing out on anything special if you don't drink the stuff!
How’s the hiatus coming along. 0% as challenging?
@PBMichiganWolverine Likewise to you :-). Yes from the research i did the two i got were the most favorably rated ones out there so here's hoping! You'd think given the stills middle eastern origins and the fact a lot of the region is now dry due to religious reasons there would have been a thriving industry for 0% spirits there. There is a lot of potential worldwide demand so i see a lot more coming down the pipeline. i listened to a podcast by the distiller at Warner Edwards who said most of the initial offerings were marketing driven contract distillation efforts not invented by people who had experience distilling hence they weren't that great. They spent 3 years refining theirs. Interesting process. They said once you get under 18% alcohol shelf life becomes a big issue.
@cascode Ah interesting I was going to say no but I see from research it is in fact closely related. There are a couple of pepper tree species native to nz. Horipito and kawakawa. I think i've tasted them both in NZ gin with a similar flavour profile. I drunk kava donkeys ago in my 20s..distant memory now :-)
@Soba45 cheers to a better 2021. And keep the 0% postings here too, most of my 0% weren’t good, so looking out for better ones
@Soba45 Wait - so this contains extract of pepper-tree. Is that the same as Fijian kava?
@Milliardo Hopefully better than 2020 :-)
Cheers to 2021!