Tassel Gin #17

We're going to visit Dawn's sister Jilly and her husband Ian this weekend so I thought I'd do another batch of gin so I can take them some.

My first batch of the year. My last one turned our rather good so I just did some slight tweaks to the recipe....

Botanical	Last Time	This Time
Juniper	30g	30g
Coriander	10g	10g
Angelica	1g	1g
Cardamom	1g	1.5g
Lemon Peel	8g	8g
Orange Peel	8g	8g
Fennel	2g	2.5g
Pink Peppercorns	3g	3g
Liquorice	0.5g	0
Cassia (instead of Cinnamon)	0.5g	0.5g
Ginger	1g	1g
Grains of Paradise	1g	1g
Rose Petals	1g	1g
Elderflower	0.5g	1g

Here are a few photos.

Weighing out the botanicals.

They go in a 1l jar.

With the vodka added. The citrus peel inks but (nearly) everything else floats,

Today, after infusing overnight. This is the basis of my distillation, topped up to 1.7l with more vodka.

I run the still, controlling the heat by adjusting the heat of the hot plate under the still so that there is a steady trickle of distillate.

The initial liquor is at about 81% alcohol. Here it is being measured,

The final result.

And the taste? Strongly junipery and citrusy as before. The cassia has a stronger flavour than the cinnamon before and maybe there is too much fennel... I've not quite got to the perfect gin yet! I think I'll drop the cassia, reduce the fennel and add back a bit of liquorice next time to get it more like Tanqueray than Beefeater or Plymouth gin.