In February 2020, we travelled to a leading spirit fair in Paris in a bid to find the best gins in Europe and further afield for you. It feels like a long two years since then, but we were and still are committed to finding some of the best gins in the world for our subscribers. Yu Gin was the first of our discoveries and we instantly felt we needed to bring it back to Ireland, so we imported it directly from the distillery.
Yu Gin, is a French spirit inspired by Japanese heritage and traditions. The star botanicals are yuzu and Sichuan pepper, accompanied by coriander and juniper. This is delightfully simple, with a refreshing and subtly spiced flavour profile, all bottled up at 43% ABV in this rather ornate vessel.
The botanical components are distilled separately in the traditional way in the Cognac region. Only after a quality control of each individual distillate, assembly takes place so that all the scents are carried over to the final product. It is therefore a work of higher precision than distilling all the ingredients together after maceration.
The yuzu is a beloved fruit of the Japanese and it is loved by many French chefs for its vivacity, freshness and aromatic subtlety. We couldn’t quite put our fingers on it, but the aroma of this gin is relaxing, and that is the whole point. Perhaps it is the unique Sichuan pepper combined with yuzu that gives it an almost earl grey tea like nose, but we liked these properties a lot! It is a gin that needs little we discovered. Add a slice of lemon and pour a classic cool tonic over it and its freshness reveals itself instantly.
In keeping with the motto of this gin – ‘Relax & Refresh’ – we’ve included a beautiful scented reed diffuser from Purcell and Woodcock so that the scents of Spring will fill your home. The evenings are getting brighter this week too and before we know it the clocks will be going back. We have also included some branded t-shirts from the Yu team. We have a limited amount of these and if you need some inspiration with Mother’s Day coming up – remember you can send a once off gin box as a gift too – a perfect gift with a message like that on it!