Beefeater - Crown Jewel Gin, 100 cl

Beefeater Gin

The quintessential London Dry Gin, Beefeater's birth can be traced back to 1862, when James Burrough, born 1835 bought the Cale Street-based Chelsea distillery for the then grand some of £400 and started to produce his own distinctive style of gin. At first, the distillery continued with the production of liqueurs as previously started by its previous owners, further establishing its reputation and extending its customer base.

The 1876 company stock lists show an increasing portfolio of gins with brand names such as Ye Old Chelsea and James Burrough London Dry, as well as Old Tom styles and a few others. By spending time experimenting, inventing and using new processes he discovered that blending a particular recipe of botanicals produced a bold, full-flavored gin, which he named Beefeater Gin.

After the almost instant success of the gin, it was soon made the James Burrough Company's flagship product. The original Beefeaterrecipe book dated 1895, specifies that nine botanicals are essential (juniper, angelica root, angelica seeds, coriander seeds, liquorice, almonds, orris root, Seville oranges and lemon peel) to create the full-bodied and robust flavour so distinct in this gin. The flavor he produced still defines the London Dry style to this day and although the production moved home in 1958 (to Kennington, London), the method of steeping and distilling devised by James Burrough in the 1860′s along with the secret recipe he created remains virtually unchanged.

Unique to Beefeater's production is the steeping of the peel of lemons and Seville oranges, whole juniper berriesand other natural botanicals for a full 24 hours prior to distillation. This long process allows for a full extraction of flavor from the botanicals, capturing a wide range of volatile oils, all of which are essential to produce the characteristically bold and balanced flavor. The distillation itself takes around eight hours to complete, overseen by master distiller Desmond Payne– with the spirit then taken to Scotland where it is blended and bottled at 40% ABV.

Beefeater Crown Jewel Gin

Beefeater Crown Jewel Gin blev oprindeligt lanceret I 1993 til det toldfrie marked sammen med Bombay Sapphire, og det var velsagtens en af de første internationale "premium" gins i den nye gin æra. Denne relancering bruger den samme originale opskrift og smager af det samme som den oprindelige aftapning. Opskriften i sig selv er baseret på Beefeater standard gin mix, bestående af 9 planteelementer med tilsætning af grapefrugt. Andre forskelle mellem de to udtryk er i den høje alkoholprocent (Crown Jewel er aftappet med 50%, sammenlignet med Beefeaters normale 40%) og tydeligvis den blå glasflaske.

Ideen bag udtrykket var at fejre legenden omkring af ravne skulle blive i "Tower of London" for at forhindre tårnet (og monarkiet) i at falde. I en hyldest er navnene på de 8 hjemmehørende ravne trykt på hver side af alle flasker, som en del af det nye design. For dem som kigger godt efter, er navnene på ravnene på den originale '93 lancering anderledes end dem der sælges i dag, da ja, en gin kan genopstå, men når en ravn er død er der ingen vej tilbage… Andre nutidige ændringer på den originale Beefeater Crown Jewel flaske omfatter en mere fremtrædende plads til Beefeater logoet, et limited edition flaksenummer og et partinummer.