Liviko is a big alcohol producer in the Baltic countries and the largest distillery in Estonia, but still wants to maintain the status of a craft distillery, at least with its series of Crafter’s gins. Gin’s are made in batches of 5,000 bottles and each bottle is finished by hand. In addition to the traditional London Dry Gin, Crafter’s range includes more generously flavored and colored Flower Gin. It uses 12 different herbs, ten of which are quite traditional, e.g. juniper berry, fennel, lavender, elderflower, lemon and orange peel, coriander and chamomile. These herbs are soaked in a rectified spirit distilled from grain in Latvia. Later the mixture is distilled in a copper pan. After distillation, an extract of the flowers of rosehip and meadowsweet is added, which gives a copper color and a floral aroma. According to the manufacturer, a chemical in rosehip flowers helps change the color of the drink when tonic water is added to the drink. In Estonia, a 70 cl bottle of Flower gin costs about € 20.
The aroma is fairly floral and lightly herbal, with juniper berries in the background. The taste is very floral, even perfumed, sweet and citrusy. The taste has mint, meadowsweet, a little juniper berry and a wide variety of floral nuances. The perfume-like taste is very original and I have never come across such a bunch of floral tastes before. The taste of meadowsweet is strong, but still just in balance with other aromas. Flower Gin is probably best enjoyed neat, allowing all the different floral aromas to stand out. Diluted with soda or tonic water, strong perfume aroma dominates, and other flavors can’t hardly get through.
Crafter’s Flower Gin is a sweet, very floral, but otherwise it doesn’t have so many herbal nuances. Juicy citrus aromas, perhaps precisely the Yuzu fruit or orange peels and the aromas of various flowers are in the lead instead of the usual gin herbs. There is very little traditional gin taste in it. The perfume-like taste stays in the mouth for a long time. Gin is so sweet that it’s easy to sip over dinner, instead of brandy. There is so much sweetness that sugar certainly has been added and the color also gives a hint that it has been supplemented with the caramel color. An original and exotic gin that is worth trying if you come across it somewhere. For lovers of traditional juniper-forward gin, there may be even too much floral aroma on it.
85/100
