Slake’s first recipe to use exclusively British native & naturalised flora in the botanical herb bill. This is a herbal & botanical forward gin, distinctive & finely balanced. It was inspired by a collaboration for Fishbourne Roman Palace’s 50th anniversary (home of the first formal garden in the UK near Chichester in Sussex) to celebrate ‘Gardens in Time’ using only plants known to and used by the Romans, including herbs grown in the palace’s gardens and many foraged & grown locally. After testing many iterations, a most interesting & distinctive flavour was obtained from Alexander (smyrnium olusatrum), which the Romans were very keen on as a pot herb & baking spice. Centurions often carried seeds with them, introducing the plant to the Britain. Alexanders are now naturalised & very common along the South Coast of England, so we have built the entire recipe & herb bill to showcase this star botanical.
Finding native, direct analogues to well-known spices such as cassia & cardamom is a very tricky business as the equatorial sun typically helps spices achieve their reknowned pungency and British sun is rarely as potent and the resulting flavours less familiar! Yet some uniquely tasty spice candidates do exist, including Alexander seeds. Alexanders grow vigourously and early in the year, having found their ecological niche here they have become hyperabundant in Sussex. They are an under utilised and wonderfully green & resinous spice, quite unique in their flavour & aroma.
For this summertime recipe, we forage wild seeds, leaves and flowers from the Sussex countryside as well as growing & gathering some of the herbs before carefully blending them with some more traditional gin botanicals and infusing into a premium grain spirit base. Pot-distilled in a single-shot to impart maximum flavour creates a spirit of distinctive character with a bright resinous herbal flavour and an almost bittersweet finish. A green & resinous juniper forward Sussex dry gin with a unique herbal character and slightly bittersweet Mugwort finish. This herbal gin has a dry, bright and compact taste profile with green resinous juniper, citrus and spice at the fore, giving way to herbaceous and floral notes with a slightly bittersweet finish from the Bay & Mugwort.
Slake’s Alexander Gin is produced in small batches of ca. 170 bottles which are allowed to mature and develop in stainless steel tanks for several weeks prior to bottling. Depending on the year, and the harvest, production of our Alexander Gin is very limited, typically in the region of 800 bottles. As with all our spirits, the bottles are individually numbered with batch and bottle number. Our Alexander Gin is quite simply unique. If you’re a gin pioneer looking for something adventurous and exclusive that will provide you with transportative and emminently enjoyable moments of self-indulgence while really impressing your fellow gin friends, assuming you can bring yourself to share it of course, then you’re in for a treat! Now also available in a 200ml bottle, perfect to gift!
Ingredients
Juniper, Coriander, Alexander, Angelica, Lemon Balm, Mugwort & Bay.
Our Serving Suggestions
Alexander Gin is a bright & refreshing herbal gin that pairs wonderfully with a premium neutral Indian tonic water, such as Franklin & Sons Indian Tonic, garnished with a slice of lemon and a fresh Bay leaf or a large slice of cucumber.
