Holy solo botanicals
You’ll no doubt know about Sacred’s gin blending kits, but now London microdistiller Ian Hart is also making a number of his single-botanical distillates available in standalone 70cl bottles. The range of six spirits consists of juniper, angelica, pink grapefruit, liquorice, cardamom and cassia.
Proving that not all things are sacred, the brand also has a new label to replace the one it launched with two-and-a-half years ago. Brand agency Elmwood has provided the striking design, coinciding with some European listings for the brand.
40% abv. £28.95/70cl. Sacred Spirits CompanyNews item from Imbibe.com, 29-11-2011
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3 comments
Im curious as to what is the difference between steam distillation of botanicals and the Sacred product?
Do you know if they add a base spirit to the essential water, after steam distillation or are they distilling a solution of the botanical and neutral spirit (75-90%) after it has set for a time?
Just curious (Don't tell the Tax Man…)
Request comment removal Permanent link to this commentHello Sean – steam distillation is a much hotter process than we use at Sacred Microdistillery and usually at atmospheric pressure. You can capture essential oils this way, but nowhere near as gently and exactly as cool vacuum distillation using ethyl alcohol as we do. The hydrophobic C2H5 part of the ethanol molecule forms important bonds with the mainly hydrophobic terpenes in the botanicals, and hence distil over much more efficiently, and at much lower temperatures. We macerate our botanicals in 50% English Grain Spirit and water for 4-6 weeks typically, – a long time compared with other gin makers, and in the absence of air.
Request comment removal Permanent link to this commentFantastic! Thanks for the response.
So it's a mix of 50:50 of water:spirit? or water/spirit:botanical?
I see so many variations and I have only so much time for experimenting…
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