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.