Review: Hendrick’s Flora Adora Gin   70.5/100
A review by Chip Dykstra
Posted June 23, 2023

Hendrick’s Gin is produced in Scotland, in the village of Girvin, Ayrshire by William Grant & Sons (who are perhaps better known for their whisky distillations than their gin).  It is made small batches using two unusual stills, a copper Bennett Still which has been dated to 1860, and a Carter-Head still made in 1948. These stills each serve a different purpose, but together they create a unique gin spirit which is infused with cucumber and rose petals.

The people who make Hendrick’s Gin pride themselves on being just a little quirky, and perhaps a bit eccentric. Their offbeat website revels in the odd and the peculiar and tries to convince all who peruse the site that Hendrick’s Gin is special exactly because of the things which make it odd and peculiar. Hendrick’s Flora Adora is one of the new peculiar Limited Edition spirits in the Hendrick’s Cabinet of Curiosity lineup which has recently arrived in Canada sporting odd names like Lunar, Neptunia, Orbium and in this case Flora Adora.

Flora Adora was created by their Master Distiller Lesley Gracie. According to the promotional materials:

Within the walls of the Hendrich’s Gin Palace Garden, a most magical party is flourishing! Butterflies and bees dance in dizzy reverie, feasting on a banquet of fragrant flowers laid out especially by Ms Lesley Gracie. Now our Master Distiller wishes to invite you to join in these enchanting celebrations and introduce you to this delectable limited release Scottish Gin.

Hendrick’s Flora Adora is bottled at 43.4% alcohol by volume.

In The Bottle 5/5

All Hendrick’s Gins are sold in the squat cylindrical bottle shown to the left. At first, I thought the bottle was designed to look like a kettle still with its kettle pot shape. I think I was wrong, the shape instead is meant to replicate an old style apothecary bottle meant to add a curios charm to the overall presentation. The label adds to that charm with the seeing eye butterfly which is a quirky reminder that the gin is meant to remind us of the flower gardens where butterflies and bees dwell.

In The Glass 7/10

Floral gins always give me problems when the bouquet begins to resemble perfume. And we have a lot of that here. Waves of lavender. lilac and chamomile as well as scents and smells of just about every other garden flower you can think of seem to rise up out of the glass. This is more than just a little similar to a fragrant Potpourri.

In The Glass 41/60

The palate brings more perfumed panacea. It is unrelenting. I am sensitive to perfumes (my wife has learned not to wear any) so maybe this is affecting me much more firmly than it does most persons, but I am finding the spirit cloying and hard to deal with.

It is only when I add ice and a lot of patience that juniper begins to unravel itself from the lavender and lilac.

Hendrick’s Flora Adora minimizes the very essence of the genever spirit and fills the void with a mad garden potpourri. I strongly feel that cocktail explorations at this point in my examinations would be pointless as the florals will surely drown everything they touch.

In the Throat 11/15

The finish is a perfumed ordeal full of lavender and lilac. I recognize that the gin is not harsh, however the overabundance of blossom does make it seem medicinal.

The Afterburn 6.5/10

O Juniper,  Juniper, wherefore art thou Juniper?

Why does Juniper seem so lost in the both the fragrance and the flavour? For myself at least, this is more than a little disconcerting. With so much floral perfume in the starring role, at what point has the category we call gin lost its meaning?

There is probably a subset of gin enthusiasts who will love Hendrick’s Flora Adora for exactly the reasons that I don’t. They are not wrong, just more peculiar than I am. (Then again, maybe I am the odd man out.)

You may read some of my other Gin Reviews (click the link) if you wish to have some comparative reviews.

____________________________________________________________________________________

My Final Score is out of 100 and you may (loosely) interpret that score as follows:

0-25     A spirit with a rating this low would actually kill you.
26-49   Depending upon your fortitude you might actually survive this.
50 -59  You are safe to drink this…but you shouldn’t.
60-69   Substandard swill which you may offer to people you do not want to see again.
70-74    Now we have a fair mixing spirit.  Accept this but make sure it is mixed into a cocktail.
75-79    You may begin to serve this to friends, again probably still cocktail territory.
80-84    We begin to enjoy this spirit neat or on the rocks. (I will still primarily mix cocktails)
85-89    Excellent for sipping or for mixing!
90-94    Definitely a primary sipping spirit, in fact you may want to hoard this for yourself.
95-97.5 The Cream of the Crop
98+       I haven’t met this bottle yet…but I want to.

Very loosely we may put my scores into terms that you may be familiar with on a Gold, Silver, and  Bronze medal  scale as follows:

70 – 79.5    Bronze Medal (Recommended only as a mixer)
80 – 89.5     Silver Medal (Recommended for sipping and or a high quality mixer)
90 – 95         Gold Medal (Highly recommended for sipping and for sublime cocktails.)
95.5+            Platinum Award (Highest Recommendation)