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Describing what you can taste

It is often difficult to describe the taste of wine and spirits, and this includes gin.


A good way to start to use to describe the gin in four parts.

  1. Its initial aroma.

  2. The taste and first impression.

  3. The finish, or after taste

  4. Finally the overall impression.

People are often fairly precise with the first three of the above, and a little more whimsical with the last (for example what did it taste like, not what did it taste of). Try and use as many descriptive words as possible. You don’t need to confine the description to actual tastes. Some people may choose to use colours. For example green may describe piney, woody tastes, and bright fresh yellow can be used for citrus. Floral notes may be described in a variety of shades of rosy pink and red and yellow, just like the real thing. Ask yourself if what you taste is vivid or dull, or perhaps light or dark?

Parallels may also be drawn between a flavour journey and describing shapes. For example a gin may have a rounded flavour, which is circular in nature, starting and ending with a spicy taste. Or perhaps you get an initial rise in flavours, but they then plateau after a certain point or taper off dramatically. But at the end of the day remember, it is just gin. Whilst it is really helpful to be as descriptive as possible, at the end of the day just think whether you like the gin or not. Don’t feel pressurised into having to give a complicated review. Taste the gin to discover what you like and dislike, even if you are not sure why you did or didn’t like it. Relax, pour a double, get the ice and tonic and just enjoy it.


Finally remember that the entirety of the flavours in the gins are chosen and made by myself. There is no alchemy of time or the mystery of years spent in a cellar as with wine or whiskey. The flavour journey comes from how I choose to make the gin. That is why it took me many attempts to develop the final recipe. I’ve said many times, we are on a journey, and thank you again for being part of it.



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