Tag Archive for gin and tonic

Vodka Emporium’s ten of the best

Here at the Emporium we thought we should give you a little a reminder of the best new spirits released over the last couple of months. We wouldn’t want you to miss out on some of these wonderful drinks, so here are our ten of the best.

Absolut Elyx Vodka

ABSOLUT ELYX is the first market launch of a new high-end vodka from ABSOLUT.

Inspired by 500 years of vodka-making expertise, ABSOLUT has spent the last decade inventing a new vodka. Crafted from hand-selected estate wheat, and blended with soft and naturally filtered water, ABSOLUT ELYX is a true expression of quality. It is a small-scale vodka, produced according to craft techniques, in an authentic 1929 copper rectification still. The result: a handcrafted super premium vodka with an elegant, silky texture.
“Aroma and flavour are the obvious and most immediately striking characteristics of vodka. ABSOLUT ELYX goes beyond that. It has a clean and fresh taste with subtle floral and fruity tones, but its most defining quality lies in the texture. Not detectable by the nose or taste buds, texture determines how the vodka feels in your mouth. ABSOLUT ELYX is elegant and incredibly soft, and leaves you with a silky feeling in your mouth. Try it on its own, and your mouth will know the difference”, says Krister Asplund, master distiller at The Absolut Company.

To create ABSOLUT ELYX, Krister Asplund returned to the roots of vodka making, while still addressing contemporary demands of traceability and innovation. He sourced the finest wheat and water, put a 1929 rectification still back into use, and refined copper catalyzation. These four factors are equally important in the production of this exceptional vodka, and they are outlined in the ABSOLUT ELYX manifesto, which guarantees long-term quality and an everlasting commitment to perfection.

Buy Absolut Elyx Vodka

Chase Late Harvest Raspberry Vodka

Chase Distillery Late Harvest Raspberry Vodka 70cl is the latest Limited Edition release from The Chase Distillery. This run is limited to 3000 bottles and will be a sure-fire hit.

Late Harvest Raspberry Vodka is made using Herefordshire’s Pixley raspberries. They are left on the vine for as long as possible, to extract the greatest amount of natural sweetness. They are then harvested and left to steep in Chase Distillery’s award winning vodka before being macerated and re-distilled through a copper pot still and column.

Then blended with fresh raspberry juice, this unique process ensures the natural taste of raspberries along with the smoothness of Chase Distillery’s 40% Vodka.

Buy Chase Vodka

Black Cow Vodka

Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka, the world’s first vodka made from pure cows milk and nothing else.

Black Cow Vodka is the invention of West Dorset dairy farmer Jason Barber. His inspiration came from a desire to diversify the produce from his 250 strong dairy herd and his deep personal interest in vodka.

The milk is separated into curds and whey. The curds are used to make cheese, the whey is fermented into a beer using a special yeast that converts the milk sugar into alcohol. This milk beer is then distilled and treated using a secret blending process. The vodka is then triple filtered and finished, before being hand bottled.

Buy Black Cow Vodka

 

Chase Seville Orange Gin

The Seville Orange Gin is a unique and delicious drink, made with Chase Distillery’s very own cider apples Chase create the base spirit, then slowly infuse with a delicate range of carefully selected botanicals including; Herefordshire elderflower, lemon and, of course, juniper berries.

Finally, it’s carefully distilled with sweet Seville Orange peel to gently infuse the Gin to create this distinctly divine Seville Orange Gin.

Buy Chase Gin Vodka

Stolichnaya Hot

Stoli Hot is the only pepper vodka on the market with significant mouth-heat, Stoli® Hot opens with a subtle hint of smoke, rounded out with spicy jalapeño. Mixers like pineapple and lime quell the heat somewhat with their tartness, yet still allow the complex flavours to shine.

Buy Stolchnaya Vodka

 

Stolichnaya Sticki

Stoli® Sticki™ offers a honey and herb-inspired palate, with lightly sweet and floral undertones. Given its versatile yet distinctive flavour profile, the base pairs well with everything from citrus and ginger to vanilla and berries.

Buy Stolichnaya Vodka

 

Williams Best of Britain Gin

Williams Chase Great British Gin is a new super-premium gin from the Chase Distillery.

Williams GB Gin is heavily juniper-led in taste, producing an extra dry style to this gin. Other botanicals include cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, almond, coriander, cardamom, cloves, liquorish and lemon.

At 40% ABV, Williams Chase GB gin is more everyday than it’s 48% ABV sister – the original Williams Chase gin.

Buy Williams Chase Gin

 

 

Oval Vodka
OVAL have developed a patented ‘structured’ production process which strips out all impurities after distillation, meaning that water and alcohol are treated separately during the process.

The end result is a stunning Vodka, extremely smooth with a warm spicy finish. It is recommended to be consumed neat, at room temperature. The unique, award-winning bottle reflects the molecular shape of the spirit inside.

There is an unusual background to the shape of the OVAL bottle: The form of the bottle, which was designed by the internationally renowned LUCY.D Design Studio, corresponds with the structure of the vodka and its molecules. Both have a tetrahedral form. It can be said that the bottle and OVAL Vodka form a mutual physical construction.

Buy Oval Vodka Vodka

 

Deaths Door Gin

Death’s Door Gin has a surprisingly simple botanical mix of organic juniper berries, coriander and fennel.

Using juniper berries that grow wild on Washington Island with coriander and fennel sourced from within the state, Death’s Door Spirits are able to showcase how complimentary and complex simple expressions can be. Death’s Door Gin employs a base of organic Washington Island wheat and organic malted barley from Chilton, Wisconsin.

Death’s Door Gin has a full London Dry flavour without all of the bitterness because of the extraction process and the base spirit used (i.e. Death’s Door Vodka). In fact, you can taste all three botanicals: loaded juniper berries up front; spicy, citrusy notes from the coriander seeds in the mid-palate; and a soft, cooling finish provided by the fennel seeds. Death’s Door Gin is big enough to stand up to classic or vintage cocktail treatment, but soft enough to be enjoyed on the rocks or as a dry martini. It truly is the “utility” gin of our time.

Buy Deaths Door Gin

 

Beluga Vodka

Beluga Vodka is one of the most luxurious vodkas in the world.

It has a limited edition due to more complicated and prolonged production process. Each bottle has an individual number.

This malt spirit is produced in Russia, and fermented with natural enzymes, not with the synthetic additives used in other vodkas. All ingredients are 100% natural, which makes it ‘the best tasting vodka on the market’.

The cork is sealed with wax and a hammer is supplied to remove the wax.

The bottle was designed by French Cognac Masters, and includes a beluga fish metallic label

Buy Beluga Vodka

English Vodka Company

Recently we added a new British range of Vodkas and a Gin from The English Vodka Company.

There has been a growing trend of British small batch distilleries that have popped up. Some might see this as just another looking to jump on the Sipsmith/Chase bandwagon. The less cynical would see it as a positive sign of the future of English Distilling. I’m truly hoping for the latter as anyone that has been watching activities over the pond on small batch distilleries will see we may have only just started in the UK.

We’ve been blessed by having some great small batch vodka and gin come out of the stables of Sipsmith, Adnams and Chase so I guess its only a matter of time before we see a line that isn’t that all that its cracked up to be.

When I tried the Vodka I dived straight in on the premium 54% offering. This English Spirit Vodka was surprisingly smooth so much so that I am sure if it was a blind test you would be oblivious to how strong it is. It has an unusual zest to its finish – think of a hint of pepper. You don’t get the heavy burn aftertaste that can occur with this sort of strength vodka which again is great sign.

Moving on to the standard English Spirit vodka and again it is a good smooth drink and is clearly a superior product to your everyday vodka. With a price tag of £25 it is not a bad price either. Similar notes to the higher strength, but this is what you would expect from the same base product which in this case is sugar beet.

A great point of this vodka is the depth of flavour, clearly the distiller has spent a lot of time perfecting the product. The English Spirit Vodka can sit quite comfortably in a range either side of the other British spirits and hold its own.

Buy English Spirit Vodka


Next I will move onto the fascinating flavoured offerings.

Currently you can buy Coffee, Seasonal Fruits and a Vanilla vodka.

I’d been very keen to try the coffee vodka as back in the day Van Gogh Coffee vodka was a personal favourite as well as being an early best seller, so I had two reasons to hope this one was a positive experience.

Well I wasn’t disappointed, it tastes exactly like good coffee smells! Nice and smooth with a refreshing, almost dark chocolate sense of a taste. Columbian coffee beans are used in this vodka and you can see in the bottle that there were no half measures in ensuring you get a real coffee kick with this marvellous drink. The drink itself has a wonderful colour that is very dark at the bottom due to the numerous Columbian beans and gradually gets lighter towards the top of the bottle.

Buy English Spirit Coffee Vodka


Vanilla is one of the most popular flavour offerings that can be found in the Vodka market today. Manufacturers seem to think that it is the easy route to go down. Well that was my impression anyway. Vanilla can be such a potent flavour that it can be a little too sickly. The English Spirit offering uses the 37.5 abv English Spirit Vodka as a starting point. The distiller then adds a carefully spliced vanilla pod into the bottle and then lets the mix get to work on its own. The finished article sits quite nicely, not too heavy in vanilla and you do also sense a hint of cinnamon. You wouldn’t turn a second down if offered put it that way!

Buy English Spirit Vanilla Vodka


The first thing you notice about the seasonal fruits vodka is the plentiful amount of strawberries that sit in the bottom of the bottle. The drink is a really smooth and somewhat creamy taste which as you would expect is rich with a berry flavour. As by now you have come to expect the vodka is from the standard abv English spirit vodka. The berries are then added so that the vodka infuses all of the flavours into the liquid, this creates a somewhat perfect drink for a hot summer’s day.

Buy English Spirit Seasonal Vodka

I’m sure by now you realise that these vodkas are not what you would expect on the supermarket shelf. They all have their own character and uniqueness that going forward, I believe will stand it in good stead in the growing English spirits market. This range does seem to have something for everyone’s taste so I am confident you will not be disappointed.

Sipsmith Distillery Visit

Sipsmith, distilling the British way

I’ve been trying to find time for some months to pay a visit to the guys at Sipsmith in Hammersmith, London. Well after a few delays I finally managed to get down to meet the team on friday.

What would surprise most people including myself is the building itself where Sipsmith’s are based. Thinking that i’d gone in the completely wrong direction and would be eternally lost in Hammersmith I checked my directions, turned around and there it was, a garage front that was the front of this small batch distillery. It really did seem like something from Harry Potter!

After ringing the bell and realising I was in the right place I was met by Sam who welcomed me into their wonderful distillery that is a world away from the street outside. We had a quick round of introductions including Fairfax who with Sam came up with the idea of Sipsmith a few years ago in the USA.

The inspiration behind Sipsmith comes from the booming number of small batch distilleries in the states which has occured due to the relaxing of distillation laws. The quality of some of these products coming out of Micro-Distilleries such as Hangar One and Cold River was and is so much higher than the mass produced brands such as Smirnoff and Absolut. The result of this was Sam and Fairfax making the deciaion to apply for a distillers licence and create there very own artisan spirits in the UK. As you would expect there were many hurdles to overcome including the government themselves having to decide how to issue the licence as nothing had been issued for over two hundred years! After having to consult with the authorities in Scotland, where as you would imagine where there are numourous distilleries in operation Sipsmith were finally granted a licence to distill on the 9th December 2008.

With the green light given it meant that the production could begin in earnest.

Prudence is a German Copper Pot still that was made by Christian Carl and has a capacity of 300l

Sipsmith first started distilling in 2009 with the first batch delivered by “prudence” on the 11th May.

 

Now we get on to the important matter of the drinks themselves. First of all we tried the Sipsmith Gin. After having tried a bit of a mix of Gins this year I was intrigued as to which way this was going to go. Well I certainly wasn’t disappointed as this was very much to my liking. Sipsmith Gin isn’t too floral and over powering but has subtle hints that really makes you savour and enjoy the drink. The first thing for me was unmistakeable Juniper aroma with a hint of pine, always a good start when its a gin!  This is a really smooth gin that has no aggressive aftertaste and has a citrus and slightly spicey flavour to it as well. Sipsmith Gin can be sipped over ice and if your looking for a tonic to go with your gin then it has to be Fever Tree, if you want to mix a top quality gin then this really is the only way to go.

Buy Sipsmith Gin Now

Sipsmith Vodka is certainly the reason for making the trip on a personal level as vodka is the reason we started the Emporium.  This vodka has a spicey nose to it with a swirl of barley.  A smooth finish on the palate that brings out quite a mellow after taste that has a distant peppery feel.  Sipsmith vodka has a nice balance that isnt too sweet and has a nice undercurrent of dryness.

Buy Sipsmith Vodka Now

After the disapointments of some of the vodka I’ve tried in 2010 this is certainly a nice way to finish the year.  Not only do Sipsmith have a wonderful Vodka and Gin to showcase the fact that its British makes it even better.  I can really see Sipsmith growing nicely as more and more people try something different.