BANGKOK GIN

Bangkok Gin is born – a collaboration between Long Chim’s renowned concoctor of cocktails James Connolly, and one of Australia’s finest distillers Lex Poulsen of Hippocampus.

James has established himself as one of the country’s leading bartenders with a fondness for the bold flavours of South East Asia and in particular the Kaffir Lime Leaf. The long held desire for a spirit with such tastes along with the rich Thai aromatics, and an opportunity to work with the Hippocampus team has given life to this highly original Bangkok Gin.

THE PROCESS:
To go alongside our rigid backbone of classic gin botanicals, we selected a trio of botanicals widely recognised as being very Thai; Kaffir lime leaf, lemongrass and ginger. The juniper berries are macerated in spirit overnight to extract plenty of goodness. In the morning, all of the remaining botanicals are added to the pit and heat is introduced to begin distillation. Lex is always pretty aggressive with the heads cut to avoid any harsh character in the final product. The distillation resulted a good hearts yield and once the spirit started becoming bitter it was cut to tails and the run was stopped.

THE RESULT:
A super aromatic, punchy, vibrant and unique gin. The kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass are really pronounced, as is the juniper. The coriander seed gives great citrus notes that play off the other botanicals. There is warmth from the ginger, earthiness from the orris root and everything comes together. Adding the gin to tonic water really accentuates the lemongrass.