Bombay Sapphire Gin Clone

[esxman]

To NZChris , you like the lemon citrus taste in your gin , my no.1 choice is the bergmot, Cirtus Bergamia , its like an ugly lemon , grows fruit quickly , and the essential oils are used for perfumes , Earl Gray tea, Turkish Delight , and some of the upmarket Gins have this in their recipe .I also find the leaves of the citrus trees have as much , if not more essential oil than the peel .My friend here has a kaffir lime tree , the leaves are used in thai cooking , so will try that too . Happy Ginning esxman Greece

[NZChris]

Thanks for the tip, esxman. It might not be easy to find here, but I'll ask around.

A friend of mine has a kaffir lime tree, but I've never used it. I might try it in my next version of Old Tom Gin.

I hadn't thought of using citrus leaves. I should do a small run of essence to check that idea out.

[Danespirit]

I've just reviewed my East recipe and it wasn't orange I was waiting for, it was lemon. My lemons have started coming ripe in the last week so I can do a run any time I like.

Something I have never done is use dried lemon peel and I don't know if there is any difference between dried and fresh. I didn't see fresh peel in the Carter Head in the video.

My experience is that dried peel lacks a lot of essential oils, compared to the fresh peel.
For my liking, it takes a larger amount of dried peel, then it is the case for fresh.
Maybe it's related to the way the alcohol penetrates the peel...it would take longer for dried peel..?

[NZChris]

Is this peel you have dried yourself, Danespirit?

I've used both, but never done side by side comparisons. Dried is very handy to have in the apothacary, especially for fruit with a short season. I've just dried navel orange, mandarine and lemon, all from home gardens.

[Danespirit]

Yes, it is Chris.
I use the sap from the fruit too.
The peel is sliced off using a razor sharp knife, in order to leave as much of the white stuff behind.
Up here in the north, we only have access to imported citrus fruits.
I always go for the ecological ones, as they are free from pesticides and surface treatment compounds.

[NZChris]

I've just dried some mandarin and young fennel too. I don't know that I'll be using the fennel in gin.

Did a side by side with Sapphire East yesterday. Mine is much more intense and needs to be blended with NGS.