So, what are these rare citruses? First up is Buddha’s hand. If you haven’t seen one, I urge you to look it up right now! It gives flavours of pure sherbet and effervescent lemon, all those bright top notes. It’s pith all the way through, but the pith is what gives it its sweetness – unlike most citrus fruit. Then there’s Seville orange bringing those classic grassy, bright bitter notes we know and love from our marmalade. Not an easy task balancing all those different types of citrus in the final distillation. How have they done it you ask? The distillers have adopted the same bespoke 4-stage production approach used to create Silent Pool Gin to produce remarkable layers of ever-changing flavour.

We may be a nation of gin and tonic devotees, but that doesn’t mean your imagination has to stop at ‘ice and a slice’ when mixing up your chosen tipple. We suggest reading the gin’s label to find out which botanicals feature, and then choosing a few as your garnish. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. To find the right combination of citrus, they went to visit a long time supplier in Portugal. When you ask most people how many citrus they can name, it’s usually around 5. Their suppliers have a collection of over 360 citrus. Passionate citrus collectors, the duo travel the world collecting rare varieties and cultivating them on their land. They gave us the grand tour and immersed us into the world of citrus. They sampled dozens and took a handful home to begin recipe development. Being a citrus-forward gin, we immediately started thinking about Negronis. To avoid losing the delicate citrus complexity of the gin, the Silent Pool folks have made their own version, tinkering with the ratios of gin, Campari and vermouth to 2:1:1, topped off with a pink grapefruit garnish. We took it upon ourselves to taste-test it and it was fabulous. Our trusted panel of experts and consumer boozehounds sipped their way through over 100 different gins from leading distilleries and producers across the globe. Each was fully appraised for its complexity, length and finish, with a lot of thought given to how best to serve it.The idea for Silent Pool Gin came from former ITV director Ian McCulloch and drinks connoisseur James Shelbourne, who wanted to replicate what they saw happening in Scotland, where whiskey brands were combining a story from the region with a drink brand. Silent Pool gin utilises the local botanicals to tell the story of the place, there are 24 botanicals in total including juniper, chamomile, local honey, orange, pear, lavender among others. This results in a beautiful juniper base with the fusion of the other botanicals weaving their way through the palate in a very refined, subtle way, making for a beautifully balanced drink. Silent Pool Gin Tasting Notes If that hasn’t got your mouth watering, we spoke to the team at the surrey-hills based distillery to ask how best to enjoy this rare citrus gin. So here are three different ways to enjoy this lovely new gin. This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. But what’s so rare about the citrus? Well on their journey to locate the finest citrus fruits, the team at Silent Pool Distillers searched the globe and eventually unearthed two renowned citrus collectors who share their relentless passion for creativity and excellence. Leaving their busy lives and careers in Paris in 2001, Ann and Jean Paul Brigand moved to the gorgeous Alentejo coast in Portugal and set about building their home, Lugar do Olhar Feliz. After much recipe development the team settled on four lead varieties. Inside the zesty tipple you’ll find Buddha’s hand, Green Seville Orange, Natsu Dai Dai (a hybrid of orange and pomelo), and lastly, Hirado Buntan (a type of pomelo).

Silent Pool Gin delivers a genuinely unique fusion of gorgeous botanicals, making for a divine and highly enjoyable gin sensation. It also has a brilliant story behind the gin, which makes this gin something truly special. ABV: 43% Each citrus fruit was separately distilled and then blended together. While they wanted to keep the essence of the original gin, the same botanical base just didn’t work with the citrus additions. Lavender is the only remaining floral, and a few different peppers have been added – Timur pepper (which, despite its name, is actually a variety of citrus), wild forest pepper (used in perfume) and the musky voatsiperifery pepper. Silent Pool Gin is produced at their distillery based in the Surrey Hills, located on the Albury Estate. The ‘Silent Pool’ is an actual spring-fed lake at the foot of the North Downs, near Guildford in Surrey, and the gin bases its beautiful bottle colouring from the colour of the lake. Inspiration for this award-winning gin was drawn from the Silent Pool and the surrounding natural beauty. Their unique four-stage process allowed them to precisely control the quality and flavour of their gins. A portion of their botanicals, including Bosnian Juniper berries, liquorice root, cassia bark, orris, and bergamot are bruised and macerated in base spirit before being transferred to the still. These give depth and mouthfeel, the rich and heavier flavours.

Tasting the gin straight, the citrus is complex but not overwhelming. Juniper is still very much there, along with peppery spice. The citrus is evident though – bitter orange and zesty grapefruit appear throughout, lifted by those sherbet notes and grounded by the woody, musky peppers. The duo has a particular passion for citrus and have made it their mission to help young Portuguese farmers and chefs (and bartenders, of course) to discover and fall in love with citrus as they have done. Now boasting a citrus collection of more than 300 varieties imported from the far flung corners of the planet (Yes you read right, 300!) Ann and Jean Paul have one of the largest and finest citrus collections in the world. The more delicate botanicals such as rose petals, kaffir lime leaves, linden and elderflower are separately macerated in a process that they have called the ‘Gin Tea Infusion’, stripping the oils and aromatic compounds from the vegetal matter. This is strained and added to the pot, which lend the gin its ethereal high notes of perfumed lime and floral essence. Having felt that passion and their craft, we always wanted to do a project with them, so this felt like the perfect opportunity,” Hutchings tells me. They have a library of rare fruit, mainly citrus, and these rare varieties make excellent gin botanicals. Silent Pool gin goes lovely with an orange twist, other citrus fruits would also compliment the gin’s profile or lavender.