Review: The Forager Botanical Whisky

Posted by Arctic Wolf on March 15, 2020

Recently Forty Creek Distillery (owned by the Campari Group) released The Forager Botanical Whisky. It is sort of a Gin meets whisky spirit made with a light, yet complex Canadian whisky which has been infused with wild sourced Canadian Botanicals.

According to the back of the bottle the spirit is made from Canadian Whisky and these natural botanicals: Juniper Berries, spruce tips, mugwort, Labrador Tea, Sweet Fern.

Looking at the botanical list, you can see why I made the reference to gin as Juniper is the foundation of the piny spirit. The other botanicals should be leaving their mark as well. Spruce tips have a resin-like flavour with hints of menthol and citrus. Mugwort has been used in as a bitter flavouring for meats and beverages since ancient times. Labrador tea is an herbal tea which (according to wikipedia has been a favorite beverage among Athabaskan First Nations, and Inuit people for generations. Sweet Fern is another herbal tea ingredient with a slightly bitter resin-like flavour which apparently was consumed by early North American settlers and may well have been used by indigenous First Nations peoples much earlier.

Here is a link to my full review with complete tasting notes: