June’s Gin Box

Whether you are new to TheGinBox.ie or a seasoned regular by this point, you’ll see that we have been celebrating Irish produce these last couple of months. An international gin features here usually every couple of months, but we felt it important to focus and showcase all that is great about our island, doing our bit so that you and us can support local, Irish made produce. It is important and it feels good too.

What better way to continue our ‘Irish made’ support, than with Irelands first offshore Gaeltacht distillery. Inis Cleire, 3 Sq Miles Irish Coastal Gin is made by Cape Clear Distillery on Cape Clear Island off the west coast of Cork.

The islanders came together on this one and there aren’t too many of them. The island is just 3 miles long and just 1 mile wide. With planning permission granted in 2016, they built a distillery and display cottage, and produced their first bottle of gin in November 2019. We think the gin is wonderful and fresh, and we have created this month’s box with Ireland and the Sea in mind.

Green Angel is an Irish company with a love for organic, natural, skincare products. It was founded in 2006 by Chris and Mary Mitchell. They employ 12 people in their business and they only use natural oils, organic hand harvested seaweed and fresh seawater in their products.  Given the calming nature of the sea, it seemed natural for us to include something soothing this month too. We discovered this luxurious seaweed hand lotion from Green Angel and felt it would be perfect to soothe those hands we are all so diligently washing!

When we asked Seamus from Cape Clear about his favourite tonic water, he instantly told us Classic Poachers was the only tonic for his gin. We tried it and instantly agreed. Having tried lemon, Grapefruit, Lime and apple, we can tell you our preference for lime. There is a wonderful spice here, and it is brought forward to the subtle sweet citrus from the lime. All of it is kept linear and clean, by the Poachers tonic, likely because of the really low sugar level in it. The result is a pure, clean and fresh gin and tonic. We love this one.

Keoghs are another Irish family business who use locally sourced Llewellys cider vinegar and Irish Atlantic sea salt to flavour their awesome crisps. We could only fit a small bag of these into the box, but have a moment with some of these along with your gin, and everything may just stop for a few moments.

Botanicals

• Juniper
• Citrus
• Fuschia
• Cinnamon
• Cardamom
• Laminara digitata
• Honeysuckle

Tasting Notes

Nose: Juniper Based, Fresh & clean with a hint of pepper and Lime.

Palate: Aromatic with a creamy mouth feel, hints of sweet honeysuckle and a spicy peppered finish.