Altia Eesti is the producer of Saaremaa named alcohols. Saaremaa Vodka is probably the most well known, but Altia has caught strong grap to Estonian gin industry also with Saaremaa Gin products. In addition to the traditional dry gin, there are also different flavored versions, at least cucumber, rhubarb and raspberry. Ore Gin is flavored with orange peel and orange tree flowers. In addition to the traditional juniper berry, coriander seeds and angelica root have also been used. Ore Gin is made by pot distillation and colored a little reddish, apparently with dyes. A 50 cl bottle costs around €10.

The nose has almost only orange peel, just a little traditional juniper berry-driven herbiness in the background. In the taste, the slightly bitter-sour taste of the orange peel also comes out first. There is also a bunch of sweetness and the sweet-bitter combination is nice. Rectified spirit made in Finnish Koskenkorva distillery bites and heats quite properly. Even though there is quite a lot of sweetness, the ethanol still comes out rather strongly. Even so, Ore Gin is smooth enough and very easy to sip neat. Since I didn’t have tonic water at home, the product was mainly consumed neat and with bubbling water. But surely Ore Gin also goes really well with different drinks. It’s not maybe the best choice in more demanding cocktails, such as Dry Martini, due to its sweetness and rather faint herbiness. Anyway, tasty and easy going gin and Ore Gin became my favorite in the series of Saaremaa flavored gins.

81/100